Linguistics 2B — Summary (Syntax)
CHAPTER 1...................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2...................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 3...................................................................................................3
Nouns........................................................................................................4
Pronouns................................................................................................4
Verbs.........................................................................................................5
Adjectives.................................................................................................5
Adverbs.....................................................................................................6
Prepositions...............................................................................................6
Conjunctions.............................................................................................6
Determiners..............................................................................................6
CHAPTER 4...................................................................................................7
Predicate...................................................................................................7
Subject......................................................................................................7
Object.......................................................................................................8
Predicative complement...........................................................................8
Adverbial...................................................................................................9
Phrasal verbs............................................................................................9
Categories of lexical verbs........................................................................9
Trees.......................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 6.................................................................................................10
Lexical and Auxiliary Verbs.....................................................................10
Auxiliary verbs........................................................................................11
, CHAPTER 1
All speakers of English are dialect speakers. There is no such thing as ‘bad English’, they are
errors of standard English. Standard English is considered a dialect too, the most important
one. Non-standard (or vernacular) should not be equated with substandard.
Prescriptive statements state what people should say. Do’s and don’ts.
Descriptive statements state how language is used, rather than imposing rules.
English belongs to the subgroup of West-Germanic languages (under the larger group of
Germanic languages)
Two famous theories for language acquisition:
1. Nativist theory (Chomsky) → Innate grammar, or LAD (Language Acquisition
Device). The fact that children will learn whatever language is used around them in
roughly the same way, regardless of the language, has led those who believe in innate
grammar to assume that it is the same for any language. Hence, we have an innate
universal grammar. Remember that innate grammar, which is assumed to be universal,
is a mental phenomenon, an abstract structure in the brain.
2. Behaviourist theory (Skinner) → Surroundings, imitation. A child imitates the
language of its surroundings, parents, and teachers. This theory believes that humans
learn language through seeing and hearing, as well as through reward and
punishment. They say that second language students learn from repetition and being
rewarded for the right answers.
CHAPTER 2
Syntax = the structure of sentences.
Morpheme = the smallest unit of meaning in the structure of a language.
Constituent = groups of words that belong together within a sentence and function as a group.
Structural ambiguity = sentences that have multiple meanings based on their syntax.
Constituency Tests
Unit of sense: constituents form a semantic unit.
A constituent has a particular definable meaning.
Substitution: constituents can be replaced by one word.
If you can substitute a pronoun (he, she, it, then, there, etc. or a question word what,
who, when, etc.) for a chunk, it’s a constituent.
Verbal chunks can be substituted by do so (+ variants).
Sentence fragment: constituents can answer a wh-question (what, who, when, how,
etc).
A constituent can provide the short answer to a question.
CHAPTER 1...................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2...................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 3...................................................................................................3
Nouns........................................................................................................4
Pronouns................................................................................................4
Verbs.........................................................................................................5
Adjectives.................................................................................................5
Adverbs.....................................................................................................6
Prepositions...............................................................................................6
Conjunctions.............................................................................................6
Determiners..............................................................................................6
CHAPTER 4...................................................................................................7
Predicate...................................................................................................7
Subject......................................................................................................7
Object.......................................................................................................8
Predicative complement...........................................................................8
Adverbial...................................................................................................9
Phrasal verbs............................................................................................9
Categories of lexical verbs........................................................................9
Trees.......................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 6.................................................................................................10
Lexical and Auxiliary Verbs.....................................................................10
Auxiliary verbs........................................................................................11
, CHAPTER 1
All speakers of English are dialect speakers. There is no such thing as ‘bad English’, they are
errors of standard English. Standard English is considered a dialect too, the most important
one. Non-standard (or vernacular) should not be equated with substandard.
Prescriptive statements state what people should say. Do’s and don’ts.
Descriptive statements state how language is used, rather than imposing rules.
English belongs to the subgroup of West-Germanic languages (under the larger group of
Germanic languages)
Two famous theories for language acquisition:
1. Nativist theory (Chomsky) → Innate grammar, or LAD (Language Acquisition
Device). The fact that children will learn whatever language is used around them in
roughly the same way, regardless of the language, has led those who believe in innate
grammar to assume that it is the same for any language. Hence, we have an innate
universal grammar. Remember that innate grammar, which is assumed to be universal,
is a mental phenomenon, an abstract structure in the brain.
2. Behaviourist theory (Skinner) → Surroundings, imitation. A child imitates the
language of its surroundings, parents, and teachers. This theory believes that humans
learn language through seeing and hearing, as well as through reward and
punishment. They say that second language students learn from repetition and being
rewarded for the right answers.
CHAPTER 2
Syntax = the structure of sentences.
Morpheme = the smallest unit of meaning in the structure of a language.
Constituent = groups of words that belong together within a sentence and function as a group.
Structural ambiguity = sentences that have multiple meanings based on their syntax.
Constituency Tests
Unit of sense: constituents form a semantic unit.
A constituent has a particular definable meaning.
Substitution: constituents can be replaced by one word.
If you can substitute a pronoun (he, she, it, then, there, etc. or a question word what,
who, when, etc.) for a chunk, it’s a constituent.
Verbal chunks can be substituted by do so (+ variants).
Sentence fragment: constituents can answer a wh-question (what, who, when, how,
etc).
A constituent can provide the short answer to a question.
