Sentence structure, phrase structure rules, and basic syntax tree concepts from an intro linguistics course.
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- What does the field of syntax study?
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The structure of sentences and how words combine to form meaningful expressions.- Define: constituent
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A group of words that function as a single unit within a sentence.- What is a phrase?
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A group of related words that does not contain a subject-verb pair and functions as a single unit.- What is a phrase structure rule?
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A rule written as X -> Y Z that shows how a syntactic category X can be expanded into one or more other categories.- In the phrase structure rule S -> NP VP, what does the arrow represent?
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Rewrite: the symbol on the left can be broken down into the symbols on the right.- What is a head (in phrase structure)?
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The central, obligatory word of a phrase that determines the phrase type.- What type of phrase has a noun as its head?
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Noun phrase (NP).- What type of phrase has a verb as its head?
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Verb phrase (VP).- What type of phrase has an adjective as its head?
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Adjective phrase (AP).- What type of phrase has a preposition as its head?
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Prepositional phrase (PP).- What is a modifier?
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A word or phrase that provides additional information about another word or phrase but is not obligatory.- What is a complement?
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A word or phrase that is required by the head to complete its meaning.- Define: syntax tree
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A diagram that displays the hierarchical structure of a sentence by showing how words are grouped into phrases.- In a syntax tree, what is a node?
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A labeled point representing a word or syntactic category.- In a syntax tree, what is a branch?
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A line connecting a parent node to a child node.
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