Syntax II

Question 1

Constituents

Answer 1

Sentences Are built up in units
Some groups fo words in a sentence are constituents, some aren’t
Native speakers have intuitions about this

Question 2

constituency is hierarchical

Answer 2

Constituents are nested inside other constituents

Question 3

constituency is relative

Answer 3

To a particular sentence
Group fo words can be a constituent in one sentence but not in other

Question 4

syntactic knowledge

Answer 4

Our syntactic knowledge = lexical categories of words in a sentence
Which groups of words in a sentence are constituents
Rules in mental grammar tells us which possible constituents are in our language and how to assemble them

Question 5

trees

Answer 5

Sentence has internal hierarchical structure
Represented as tree
Trees represent fact that words are grouped into phrases with in a sentence
Each node in tree = constituent, some are phrases, some are words

Question 6

phrases

Answer 6

Have categories
Noun phrases, verb phrases

Question 7

phrasal categories

Answer 7

Nps can be replaced by nouns - intersubstitutability

Question 8

Constituent types

Answer 8

Come in diff types
Sentences = constituents - S
NP, PP, VP, AP

Question 9

what do phrases consist of

Answer 9

Obligatory head = gives phrase its identify
Also may contain other elements = dependents

Question 10

evidence for structure

Answer 10

Constituency tests
Replacement of sequence of words with single word

Question 11

pronominalization

Answer 11

Some words are pro forms = given right context, they can replace a constituent of a given category without changing the meaning

Question 12

pro-nps

Answer 12

Pronouns are pro-nps
The dog ate the bone —> he ate the bone
Every word level category = in a sentence level category, noun =part of np

Question 13

pro-vps

Answer 13

Do so - did so - does so = pro-VPs
John ate the bone, the dog did so too
Do so = replaces verb and all of its dependents
Only - specific pronominal form, not everything has pro-forms

Question 14

non constituents

Answer 14

Test failure = can mean sequence of words is a constituent of wrong category or simplify not a constituent at all
Containing N doesn’t mean sequence is NP, contains V doesn’t mean sequence VP
(Categories don’t occupy same position)

Question 15

short answers

Answer 15

Only constituents can stand alone in answer to question
- the police arrested the demonstrators —> q= who did the police arrest a= the demonstrators

Question 16

coordination

Answer 16

With and, or, but
Only constituents of same category can be coordinated
The dog ate the bone —> the dog and John ate the both

Question 17

movement

Answer 17

Can move sequence of words around in sentence = they are constituent
Diff types of movement tests - like topicalization

Question 18

topicalization as a constituency test

Answer 18

Constituent placed at beginning of sentence without changing meaning
I like this dog —> this dog, i like
Have to have right context in mind
Can’t front a verb phrase tho = no, mostly good for noun phrases and adverbial phrases