Summary: Syntax And Semantics

Read the summary and the most important questions on Syntax and semantics

• 1 Unit 1 introduction

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• What are the 5 levels of units in constituent structure?

  Sentence>clause>phrase>word>morpheme

• What can you tell me about the units in constituent structure?

  Every unit is an immediate constituent of a larger unit. These levels are referred to as ranks, and they have a hierarchical rank scale ( a bit like vainglory or league)

• What can you tell me about the status of the clause in relation to embedding?

  You can have a main clause (independent) and a subclause (dependent or embedded)
  
  i like you (main clause) because you like me (embedded subclause)
  
  i /like/ the cock that you're sporting   
  the cock that you're sporting is a phrase with an embedded prhase in it (that you're sporting)

• What can you say about syntactic categories?

  They are form classes and can be identified at each rank.
  
  for words this is: word classes
  e.g. Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, pronoun, determiner, conjunction interjection and numeral.
  
  for phrases they are named after their core.
  Noun phrase NP, verb phrase VP, adjective phrase AjP, adverb phrase AvP, prepositional phrase PP and determiner phrase  DP
  for clauses they  are categorized in different ways.
  finite vs non finite
  formal features: wh-clause or that-clause
  their construction e.g. Relative clause or comparative clause.

• What can you say about syntactic functions?

  Constituents play specific roles in their consstructions.
  there are semantic and syntactic functions, though semantic functions are only active in clauses.
  
  What is the relation between syntactic functions and syntactic classes?
  e.g. A bird hit the car
  both are NPs but a bird is subject and the car is object.
  his guilt was obvious
  the fact that he was guilty, was obvious
  both are subjects but first one is a NP and the second one is a clause.
  functions are realized by categories

• What can you tell me about head and dependents?

  Head is central and it determines the distribution of the constituent. I.e where it can occur in a larger unit.
  e.g. His guilt and that he was guilty both could be S, however they differ in other aspects of distribution.
  the news that he was guilty was gigabased
  the news his guilt was gigabased    
  
  the head also determines what can of dependents are permitted
  e.g. Sufficiently can be a dependent of an adjective, adverb or verb but not of a noun

• What are some syntactic functions in the clause?

  Predicator (kind of head)
  obligatory elements (complements)
  : subject, object, predicative and obligatory adjuncts
  also optional elements like modifiers and free adjuncts.

• What are some syntactic functions in phrases?

  Head
  modifiers
  determiners (only in NP)

• What are semantic functions?

  Refer to the roles that various constituents in a clause have in the event (participant roles)
  e.g. Agent and patient
  verbs of giving have a donor, a gift and a recipient.
  'John gave his limp penis to the curator'
  each verb type has a distinct set of semantic roles.

• What are two further aspects of hierachical structure?

  Constituency and form classes have to be combined with relational structure and functions to describe syntax as a hierarchical system. We can look at the scale from an upwards and a downwards perspective to account for ambiguity. Sure?