syntax

• what is Syntax?

  it's the study that concerns the sentence structure, to make sure that the word order works according to the set of rules permitted in a language
• language differ in the way they permit word structure
• there are some similarities in all languages in terms of how sentences are formed
• UG means universal grammar
• universal grammar : they are universal operation and principles shared by all languages
• Englsh's parameter: SVO
• what are the two subcomponents that the syntactic components of any grammar have?

  mental dictionary / lexicon

  computational system
• what is a mental dictionary/lexicon?

  the set of words that exist in a given language and their meaning
• computational system?

  the set of rules and operation that combine words and phrases in a way to make meaningful unit
• two syntactic categories?

  1. lexical
  2. non-lexical
• lexical

  • nouns
  • verbs
  • adjective
  • adverbs
  • perposition
• non-lexical

  • Determiner
  • degree words
  • auxiliary
  • conjunctions
• preposition : of , on , at , in , near , by , until
• my , the , our , some , that , those , a : determiners
• conjuctions: for, and , or , yet , but , nor , so
• degree words : very , too , quite , fairly , more
• some words can have more than one syntactic category
• how to determine the lexical category of a word?

  1. meaning
  2. inflection
  3. distribution
• the inflection affix for nouns are?

  plural-s

  geitive 's
• the inflection affix for verbs ?

  past tense -ed

  progressive -ing

  third person singular s
• the inflection affix for adjectives ?

  comparative -er (shorter)

  superlative -est (shortest)
• DAD : Determiner , Auxiliray , Degree word
• nouns co-occur with determiner
• verbs co-accur with adverbs
• adjective co-occur with degree words
• a sentence = subject + predicate
• all phrases have a 3-level structure : xp , x' , x
• all phrases have heads
• • specifiers are attached to the xp level
  • complement are attached to the x' level
• heads: are the nuclear to the phrase and the core meaning of it.
• heads are obligatory in the phrase
• the names of levels in the x' schem:

  XP = maximem

  X' = intermadate

  X = termener
• what is the merge operation?

  combine words in a manner compatible with the X' schema
• a sentense is made of = noun phrace(subject) + inflection + verb phrase(peridicate)
• The Japanese language is a post-positional language , which means the verb comes in the last word of the sentence
• in Japanese the compliment comes at the right side?

  no the left
• what dose the merge operation mean?

  Combining words in a manner compatible to the X' schema
• pp = p + np
• there are two types of modifiers: adverb and adjective
• modifiers can't have specifiers?

  no they can