Syntax

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Subfield of linguistics that deals with words in the lexicon

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computational system

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A sentence/phrase that speakers judge to be possible in their language

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grammatical

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Speaker's mental dictionary, which contains information about the syntactic properties, meaning, and phonological representation of a language's words

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lexicon

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Repeated application of the same rule to create a more and more complex sentence (ex. embedded clauses)

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recursion

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System of rules and categories that underlies sentence formation in human language

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syntax

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Approach to syntactic analysis in which syntactic phenomena are described in terms of building phrase structures and moving elements

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transformational (generative) grammar

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System of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages

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Universal Grammar (UG)

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Property applicable to the entities named by nouns

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adjective (A)

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Names properties that can be applied to actions designated by verbs; specifier position

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adverb (Adv)

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Must occur with a main verb and can undergo inversion

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auxiliary verb (Aux)

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Joins two or more categories of the same type, forming a coordinate structure

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conjunction (Con)

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Serves as the specifier of a preposition or an adjective

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degree word (Deg)

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Serves as the specifier of a noun

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determiner (Det)

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The set of elements with which an item can co-occur

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distribution

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The word-level syntactic categories noun (N), verb (V), adjective (A), and preposition (P)

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lexical categories

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English auxiliary verbs in the I position that are not inflected for agreement with the subject but may show tense (may, should)

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modal auxiliaries

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A word-level syntactic category whose members specify grammatical relations rather than carry semantic content (Aux, Con, Det, Deg)

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nonlexical (functional) categories

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Auxiliary verbs that show agreement with the subject, originate in VP, and raise to I when there is no modal auxiliary (be, have)

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nonmodal auxiliaries

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Names entities, can usually be inflected for number and possession

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noun (N)

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Designate relations in space or time; come before NP complement

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preposition (P)

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Category into which an element is placed depending on type of meaning, type of affixes it takes, type of structure in which it occurs

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syntactic categories

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Designates actions, sensations, and states; usually inflected for tense

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verb (V)

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Provides information about entities and locations implied by the meaning of the head

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complement

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The NP complement of a verb

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direct object

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Category around which a phrase is built (V=VP, N=NP)

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head

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Does not take a direct object

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intransitive

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Syntactic operation that combines elements to create phrases and sentences

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Merge

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Unit of syntactic structure that is built by combining words together so that it consists of a head, and optional specifier and/or complement

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phrase

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Helps to make more precise the meaning of the head of the phrase and occurs immediately beneath XP

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specifier

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Can take a direct object

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transitive

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Diagram that represents the internal organization of a word, phrase, or sentence

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trees

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Template for phrase structure, indicating that a phrase is hierarchically organized

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X' schema

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One or more words that make up a syntactic unit

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constituents

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Phrases that are formed by joining two (or more) categories of the same type with a conjunction

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coordinate structures

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Joining potential constituents to another group of words with a conjunction

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coordination test

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Moving potential constituents as a single unit to a different position within the sentence

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movement test

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Replacing potential constituents with a single word

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substitution test

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Sentence-like construction that is embedded within a larger structure (ex. "She said that ---")

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complement clause

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Takes an IP complement

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complementizer (C)

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Larger IP in which a complement clause occurs

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matrix clause

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Classification of words in terms of their complement options

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subcategorization

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Structure generated by the phrase structure rules in accordance with the subcategorization properties of the heads

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deep structure (D-structure)

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Set of steps or rule applications that results in the formation of a sentence in syntax

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derivation

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Syntactic rule that places "do" into an empty I position, making inversion possible in English questions

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Do Insertion

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Adds an element to a tree structure

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insertion rule

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Transformation that moves the element in the I position to a position in front of the subject (Move I to C)

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Inversion

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Transports an element to a new position within a particular sentence

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Move

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Set of alternatives for a particular phenomenon made available by UG

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parameters

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Feature in the complementizer position that marks a sentence as a question and that may attract elements such as Aux to that position

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Q feature

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Results from the application of whatever transformations are appropriate

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surface structure (S-structure)

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The empty element, marked by the symbol t, that is left in syntactic structure after an element has been moved

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trace

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Moves an element from one position to another

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transformation

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Moves the verb to the I position in S-structure

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Verb Raising transformation

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Moves a wh phrase to the beginning of the sentence (Move wh to the specifier position under CP)

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Wh Movement

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Sentence that begins with [who what where when]

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wh questions

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Questions that require an answer of either yes or no

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yes-no questions

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NP in the subject position is the agent of the action

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active

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Grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction

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coordination

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Blueprint for conjoining two categories of the same type with a conjunction

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coordination schema

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Optional elements that describe a property of a head

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modifiers

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Transformation that moves a noun phrase into the subject position

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NP Movement

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Grammatical subject is the theme, affected by the action

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passive