Syntax Terms

auxiliary raising is the movement wherein the finite be is raised from head VP position to head T position. It usually happens in negative sentences.
defective clause is a type of clause which is incomplete because it has no complementiser but is still grammatical, it occurs in verbs believe and intend which have infinitival complements.
polarity items are words that are restricted to occur in certain types of sentences, specifically with affective markers (interrogative, negative, or conditional
Topicalization is a movement wherein the complement becomes the topic sentence.
Focalization is a movement wherein a constituent is moved to a focus position with a purpose of emphasizing it.
cleft sentence is a structure that makes a constituent become the focus of a statement. It aims to highlight a certain element in the sentence.
long-distance wh-movement is a movement where a wh- word is located in a secondary CP and must move in front of the CP where it belongs before it can move to the highest CP position.
control predicate is a predicate which allows infinitive complement with a PRO subject in order to not break the theta criterion
locative inversion is A movement wherein a locative prepositional phrase is positioned before the verb.
subject-auxiliary inversion is the movement wherein the subject and auxiliary exchange their position.
expletive subjects is A ‘dummy’ subject that carries meaningless or no interpretable content feature such as pronouns there and it.
long-distance passivisation is A series of steps where a relevant expression or argument moves one TP at a time.
DO-support is use of the ‘dummy’ auxiliary ‘do’ in making questions, negatives or tags in sentences
subject raising is The movement of an argument that serves as subject of a lower clause (TP) to become the subject of a higher clause (TP)
unaccusative predicate are Verbs that can appear in expletive and non –expletive structures since they don’t assign accusative complements.
subextraction is The movement of a constituent from a certain location to another. (e. g. movement from lower clause to higher clause)
null subjects are Subjects that are covertly present in sentences (e. g. imperatives)
embedded clauses are An internal clause within another clause
HAVE- cliticisation is Also known as contraction wherein pronominal subjects that end in a vowel or diphthong (such as I, we, you, and they) can lose the /hæ/ sound of the word have and be contracted.
bare relativiser is A null relative clause in a sentence.
phrasal verb (separable & nonseparable) is A verb which is composed of a verb and a preposition or adverb or both. The meaning of it should be taken as a whole and not by its parts.
Separable – can be separated by other words
Nonseparable – cannot be separated by other words.