Introduction to English Linguistics - Session 8 (Syntax 2)

Do you remember the concept of headedness? Does it apply to phrases?

phrases have heads,

They (heads) determine grammatical properties of a phrase,

grammatical properties = distributional properties,

i.e. where units can appear relative to one another

More about heads and phrases:

heads are normally obligatory & semantically central. They determine some inflectional properties (e.g. NUMBER)

non-heads are modifiers (for our purposes)

all phrases seem to have heads,

they may have modifiers before or after the head,

a head determines category of the phrase

What is the head of a noun phrase?

a noun

What 2 immediate constituents do noun phrases have? (relevant for tree diagram)

DET (determiners): they include:

- ART (article: the, a)

- DEM (demonstratives: this, that, these, those)

- Q (quantifiers: some, any, no, each, every, either, neither)

- POSS (possessives: my, your, its, her, his, our, their)

NOM (nominals):

- N (nouns: shoes, habits, trampolines, water bottle)

What is the head of an adjective phrase?

an adjective

What constituents may adjective phrases have? (relevant for tree diagram)

AdvP (adverb phrases): e.g.: MODERATELY expensive → adverb describing adjective head

PP (prepositional phrases): e.g.: long IN THE ARMS

What is the head of an prepositional phrase?

a preposition

What constituents may prepositional phrases have? (relevant for tree diagram)

noun phrases, e.g. in a room

prepositional phrases, e.g. up on the plateau

degree adverbs, e.g. just inside the door

Name further constituents of noun phrases.

AP (adjective phrases): e.g. the RED bicycle

PP (prepositional phrases): e.g. the man IN the moon

NB: There must be as many NOMs as there are modifiers.

What is the head of an verb phrase?

a LEXICAL verb

What are clauses?

They consist of at least a NP and a VP,

they have a subject-predicate structure (as obligatory constituents of finite clauses)

What aare sentences?

They consist of one or several clauses.

What is a finite verb?

When it is tensed ('finite') or complements a subject, etc.

They are used to form finite clauses such as:

Sam swims.

John is fantastic.

Someone ate the cake.