Syntax: Words in combination

Syntax: Words in combination

1. What it is?

   • Is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form phrases and sentences

2. Constituent structure

   • Hierarchical structure
     • The adpositional phrase
       • Syntatic constituent consisting of a preposition or postposition, is the head of the constituent, and a dependent noun phrase.
     • The noun phrase
       • A gramatically coherent syntatic constituent containing a head noun or a pronoun and optionally one or more modifiers.
     • Other types of syntactic constituents
       • Not so common
         • Verb phrases
           • A syntactic constituent consisting of a verb as the head of the phrase, and optional dependents
             • Including
               • Adverbs
               • Prepositional phrases
               • Object noun phrases
               • Indirect objects in prepositional
     • Recursive structures in syntax
       • The ability for a phrasal constituent to embed another phrasal constituent of the same type within it

3. The clause

   • A syntactic unit typically consisting of a verb, its noun phrase argument, and optional adverbial elements
     • Arguments and transitivity
       • Refers to
         • A noun phrase
           • Emphasizes the grammatical status of the argumnt in relation to the verb
             • There are two types
               • Core arguments
               • Oblique arguments
     • Grammatical relations
       • Objects
         • Direct
         • Indirect
       • Subjects

4. Constructions

   • They are 6 of them that each has a particular function
     • Active
     • Passive
     • Declarative
     • Negative
     • Interrogative

5. The Sentence

   • An integrated syntactic unit consisting of at leas one clause and optionally adverbials
     • Clause-combining: coordination versus subordination
       • Complex sentence
         • is a sentence with more than one clause.
           • Divided in
             • Coordinate
               • Two or more clauses are conjoined at the same level of structure.
             • Subordination
               • A main or matrix clause, has another subordinate clause within it as a dependent element-
                 • There are 3 different subordinate clauses
                   • Adverbial clauses
                   • Relative clauses
                   • Complement clauses