Appendix-2: Glossary, Further Definitions
and Abbreviations
- Adjective/Phrase A category or word which
often denotes states or well being (e.g., happy, sad),
which can take an adverb suffix {-ly}(e.g., sad>sadly)
or prefix {un-} (e.g., unhappy). Adjectives can merge
with nouns to form adjective phrases (AdjP) (e.g.,
red shoes, sad boy, little news).
- Adverb/Phrase A category or word which often denotes
manner (e.g., talk softly). In English, most Adverbs
end with the suffix {-ly}.
- Affixes A grammatical morpheme which inflects
onto a stem and cannot stand alone as an individual word. A Bound
morpheme is a morpheme that must attach to a word stem.
A Free morpheme on the other hand may stand alone
as a free word (e.g., the word visit in re-visit is a
free morpheme (and hence a word). The re- portion of
the word is a prefix and thus bound. A prefix
attaches at the beginning of the word, an infix
to the middle, and a suffix attaches at the end.
- Anaphoric An anaphor is an expression (like
himself) which cannot have independent reference, but
which must take its reference from an antecedent
(e.g., He hurt himself)-- where himself refers
back to He.
- Argument The roles played by specific expressions
in the semantbics of the sentence: e.g., in John hit Mary,
the verb hit is said to have two arguments--John
and Mary (see Thematic Roles).
- Aspect The progressive
rule [Be+Verb+ing] denotes an activity that is not yet completed
(i.e., in progress) (e.g., She is studying French). Sometimes
referred to as the imperfective. The imperfective
or progressive participle {-ing} is sometimes called the present
participle.
The perfect rule [Have+Verb+Past Participle]
denotes an activity that has been completed (marks perfection):
(e.g., She has studied French). (See past participle).
- Auxiliary A functional word such as (e.g.,
will/would/can/could/shall should/may/might/must/ought(to)/
(and in some cases) need/dare) which help trigger
Auxiliary inversion for Yes- No questions (e.g., can/will/should
you come?) and aid in forming Negation (e.g. She can/will/should
not come).
- Aux-Inversion The movement of an Auxiliary or Modal
crossing over and positioning in front of the subject (forming
an Aux+S order) e.g., Is he going to the party? > He is
going to the party.)
- Behaviorism An empirical scientific approach which suggests
that all knowledge is build up over time via processes of association
and stimulus and response.
- Case The forms pronouns take depending
on where they sit in the overall sentence structure--e.g., DP-subjects
take the Nominative I/We, You, He/She, They
while DP-objects take the Accusative Me/Us,
You, Him/Her, Them. Genitive case includes
my/our/your/his/her/its/their/whose. Prepositional
Phrases are thought of as being Functional since they require
their complements to have an Accusative [-Nom] case marking (=
Oblique case).
- Chomsky Noam Chomsky is an MIT Professor
of Linguistics and is considered to be the father of modern day
linguistics world wide. His work is based on Cartesian Rationalism
and so attributes much of language acquisition to innate language
specific principles of thought (viz. a Language faculty or
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)). His most recent interpretations
of this LAD have spawn the last two models of his Theory--Principles
& Parameters Framework and the Minimalist Program.
- Clause A Clause is defined as an expression that contains
a Subject and a Predicate. Finiteness enters into the definition--e.g.,
where you have two verbs (with Tense/Agreement), you then have
two clauses: e.g., John thinks Mary is smoking.
A Subordinate Clause functions as a dependent
clause.
- Clitic A clitic denotes an item which resembles a word
but doesn’t contain the full phonological structure. For
this reason, the word participle is consider bound and must attach
to a lexical stem: can’t {n’t} (= can not), I’ve
{ve} (= I have).
- Complement A term that denotes a specific grammatical
function. We say that in a phrase a constituency holds whereas
a head word projects along with its comp(lement)--e.g.,
the VP kissed Mary shows Mary as the DP-object complement
of the transitive Verb (Head) Kiss.
XP
(Head initial)
/ / \
Head Comp
- Complementizer Phrase
(CP) A Functional Phrase that
sits on top of an IP. The CP serves mainly as host to any movement
element that has crossed the subject--e.g., Aux. Inversion, Wh-word
movement, etc.
- Conjunctive
Conjunctive Adverbs typically contrast and form opposition:
Adverbs e.g., however, instead, nevertheless,
on the contrary, anyway, etc. (John spoke; however, no one listened.)
Conjunctive adverbs are usually set off by a semicolon or period.
One may set off conjunctive adverbs with commas if they are inside
a clause: e.g., (Mary, however, would listen).
- Copular Verbs
The Auxiliary/linking Verb “Be” are
termed copular (to link) since they link the DP-subject to the
predicate. For instance, in Mary is a teacher, {is}is
a linking verb that links Mary with teacher.
- Dangling Modifier
A modifier that doesn’t correctly refer
back to what it is modifying--e.g., *My nail broke while changing
the oil. Very often, altering a sentence from Passive to
Active can help clear up such modification errors.
- Definiteness
A grammatical feature belonging to DPs (the/this/that,
etc.) that mark specificity. Definiteness can influence the
agreement spell-out of a verb: e.g., [-Def A number]
of students *is/are vs. [+Def The number]
of students is/*are.
- Demonstratives
DP-subject/objects which show or point to the noun:
e.g., this/that/these/those. Such DPs inherently mark
[+Def].
- Dependent Clause
A clause is said to be Dependent when it cannot logically
stand on its own and must seek further information to establish
the full meaning: e.g., while I was driving home. This
clause provides adverbial ‘time’ info but doesn’t
include a subject which must be housed in an Independent clause.
- Determiner
A functional word that introduces a Noun--e.g., A/The/this/that/my/one
etc. Determiners house all functional features relevant to
the Noun--e.g., Definiteness, Person, Case and Number.
- Determiner Phrase
A functional phrase made up of a Determiner and a Noun
(=DP) which hosts both subjects and objects-- e.g., The boy,
Those girls, Our teacher, my pen, etc...
- Diagramming
Tree diagramming illustrates what we believe is
the real physiological hierarchical / internal structure of the
phrase. Using Chomsky’s innate theory, it is believed that
the brain makes available all inherent rules of phrase structure
which in turn serve as an internal template for the generation
of all possible sentences.
- Di-transitive
Verb Often called Three-place Predicates.
This term refers to the fact that certain verbs require two places
in its predicate (with one place filling in as subject)--hence,
‘three place predicate’. For example, John put
the book on the table.
- Elliptical Clause
This is a process by which an expression is omitted
in order to avoid repetition--e.g., I’ll go to the party
if you will... ...(go to the party).
- Empiricism
The school of thought (best described in the tradition
of John Locke) which claims that all knowledge is borne of the
senses--i.e., is environmentally determined (cf. Skinner Behaviorism
pace Chomsky’s Rationalism).
- Empty Category
A null or covert element void of any phonological
material, but nevertheless is present on syntactic grounds. Empty
categories are referred to as PRO when functioning
in a finite phrase (e.g. John wants PRO to win) or as
pro (little pro) when serving as a pronoun-drop (as in Spanish/Italian--(pro
Yo) hablo, (pro Io) Parlo...
- Feature Crash
A syntactic functional crash occurs when two or more
features do not match-up in an Agreement relationship-- e.g.,
*She work-ø endures a feature crash having to
do with the absence of the required 3PSing verbal morpheme {-s}.
- Feature Theory
A grammatical device used to describe particular linguistic
properties. A theory which attempts to break down individual words
into subcategory features. For instance, Mass
vs. Count [+/-Count] properties consist of finer grained features
having to do with a larger proto-type class of Noun.
- Finite
This grammatical term denotes either a Main Verb or
Clause which carries Tense and Agreement features.
- Form Class Word
A word/grammatical category which holds no substantive
value--e.g., Determiners and Auxiliary/Modals.
- Gerund
The use of an {ing}verb form which changes verbs
into noun--e.g., The writing went smoothly.
- Infinitive Verb
There are three [-Fin] verb forms which don‘t
carry tense: “to”, “ing” and “bare”
verb stems. I like to play, I like playing,
I can play (respectively).
- Independent Clause
A clause that may stand on its own--complete
with subject and predicate material.
- Inflectional Phrase
A functional phrase which consists of Inflection--i.e.,
Tense and Agreement.
- Lexical Category
The Lexical category is made up of substantive Nouns/Verbs/Adjectives/Adverbs.
This category is void of any Functional Inflection.
- Functional Category
The Functional category is made up of abstract/grammatical
Determiners & Auxiliary/Modals--e.g., Main verbs
which take Inflection (=IP) and Nouns that take Inflection (=DP).
- Minimalist Program
A Theory of Grammar (Chomsky 1995) whose underlying
principle is that grammar should be described in a minimal way
without an over bearing of theoretical rules and procedures. (See
Feature Theory).
- Morphology
Inflectional morphology is a
grammatical process by which Inflections of Tense {-s}, {-ed}
as well Case/Agreement is born of a functional node (node = tree
branch) and delivered onto a lexical stem--hence changing the
form of a word. Only form (lexical) words can take inflection.
Derivational morphology is a grammatical process by which a class
of word may change its meaning or part of speech--e.g., from noun
to adjective as child >childish, or from a verb to a noun as
in teach >teacher (where the bound morpheme {-er} means a person
who performs the act of the verb). Inflectional morphology is
more akin to abstract functional grammar (Chomsky’s rule-driven
nature) whereas Derivational morphology may be more akin to lexical
learning (Skinner’s association nature).
- Movement
The syntactic process by which a functional element,
phrase or clause detaches from its based generated position and
moves to a higher position within the tree.
- Noun
A category of a word which typically denotes an entity
(person/place/thing). The classic defining aspect of Nouns is
that they are countable [+Count]--i.e., they take on Number:
N+{s} = Plural. However, there is a class of Nouns called Mass
Nouns which don’t take the plural {s}--e.g., furniture/sand
etc.
- Past Participle
The functional verb inflections {ed} and {en} having
to do with the Perfect and Passive Grammars--e.g., I have/had
studied/walked vs. I have/had spoken/written vs.
I have/had been tested/seen.
- Person
The grammatical feature having to do with DP/pronouns--
first person (I), second (you), and third person
(He/She/it).
- Phonology
The systematic study of the sounds of language.
- Phrase
An expression larger than a word--A structural unit.
A phrase such as a DP was said to hold its Constituency (hold
together) in the face of movement--e.g., Mary likes [DP
which films] = Which films does Mary like? vs. *Which
does Mary like films?
- Pidgin
A form of reduced speech spoken by a second language
speaker. Pidgin languages tend to exhibit pure lexical categories
at the expense of functional categories.
- Predicate
The full range of argument material of a sentence
that follows the subject. The predicate includes the Finite verb
along with any of its arguments.
- Prepositional Phrase
A functional phrase headed by any of the class of
prepositions which also must introduce a DP--e.g., in the
park, between you and me, under the stars, etc...
- Pro
A covert/null case Pronoun.
- Pro-drop
The grammatical act of deleting a subject pronoun
in a sentence.
- Pronominal
Mine is considered as a [+Gen] Pronominal
(and not a Determiner) since it serves as a pronoun/DP--e.g.,
this is mine (= my book vs. *Mine book). The
[+Gen] Determiner My, on the other hand, is Prenominal
since it introduces (comes before) a Noun (my book).
- Pronoun
A functional word that serves in place of a Noun--e.g.,
He (for John), She (for Mary), it (
for book) etc. Pronouns are characterized as DPs since they house
all appropriate functional feature for the Noun. The Relative
pronouns-- (who/that/which)--e.g., He
is someone who likes syntax) where who relates
back to the subject He
- Sally experiment
A ‘thought experiment’ which attempts
to demonstrate the dual model processing between lexical word
learning (cf. Skinner) and Rule-driven grammar (cf. Chomsky).
Another nice example of this dual model at work is my very own
production of a wrongly placed plural inflection +{s} in the following
utterance--e.g.,
“What about taco- tonight-s?” Where the plural
+{s} was supposed to inflect on the noun ‘taco’ but
because of processing difficulties (I was tired), got delayed
and placed onto the end word ‘tonight’ instead. This,
like the ‘wugs- test’ is accounted for by a dual processing
model and not piece-meal lexical/inflectional learning in the
way of rote- memorized chunks (pace Skinner).
- Small Clause
A clause that neither involves (i) Nominative
case nor a Finite verb--e.g., I saw [him swimming in
the lake.] Children at their lexical/stage often speak in
small clauses.
- Structure Class
A functional word such a Determiner or an
Auxiliary that is mainly involved with grammatical structure.
Structure class words cannot take inflection (unlike Form class
words).
- Subject
The topic of a given proposition or the entity performing
the action of the verb--e.g., in John kissed Mary, (John)
is the subject of the sentence.
- SVO
The English word order is SVO--e.g., John kissed
Mary where John =subject, kissed = verb,
and Mary = object. This word order is said to be generated
by the Head Initial parameter in English--where heads
must come first before their complements. (see Complement).
- Syntax
The study of how words are stung together to
form larger units of phrases, clauses and sentences.
- Tense
A grammatical marker of time. Finite verbs show a
binary distinction between present and past
[+/-Past]. The rule in grammar is that the first verb gets the
time (tense)--meaning that any verb that follows the Main Verb
must project as a Non-finite verb. Vowel Change
is an irregular formation of Tense--e.g., sing>sang>sung,
speak>spoke, run>ran.
- Thematic Roles
- Theme (Patient) = entity undergoing effects
of action:
(Mary fell over) (John hit Mary)
- Agent = instigator of some action:
(John killed Mary) (John hit Mary)
- Experiencer = entity experiencing a psychological
state:
(Mary felt sad)
- Recipent = entity receiving some entity:
(Mary gave John a gift)
- Goal = entity towards which something moves:
(Mary went home)
- Topicalization
When an element is moved into a front position
for focus.
- Trace
As a result of some movement, a trace [t] recovers
the place from which an element was moved.
- Transitive Verb
A verb which requires in its complement position some
object material. A verb is said to be transitive if it checks
objective case [-Nom]. Conversely, verbs are Intransitive
(not transitive) if they don’t require an Object for its
complement.
- Verb
A Lexical category/word which has the morphological
properties that it can carry a range of Tense/participle inflections--{s},
{ed}, {ing}, {en}.
- Verb Phrase
A phrase that has as its head a verb--e.g., Mary
can/should [VP speak French].
- Verb Stem
The lexical root of a verb void of any inflection--e.g.,
talk, walk, write, etc. As found listed in a dictionary.
- Voice
- Active: when the subject of the action
is topicalized--e.g., (John kissed Mary)
- Passive: when the object of the action
is topicalized--e.g.,
(Mary was kissed by John)
- Vowel Change
(see Tense)
- Wh-movement
A syntactic operation by which a wh-element or wh-phrase
moves from the (back) object position of a sentence to the (front)
subject position--e.g., John bought his car where? =>
Where did John buy his car?
- Wh-word
What/where/who/when/why/which/how--all of
which generate a wh-question--e.g., What are you doing?
- Yes-No Question
A question operation by which an Auxiliary/modal inverts
which in turn triggers a yes/no response to the question-- e.g.,
Are you going? Have you seen Mary? (=Yes/No!).
- Zero Allomorph
{ø} A Null or empty category that provides
no phonological material though may have syntactic relevance--a
place holder to preserve the features of a functional phrase.
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