intro to linguistics syntax

• sentences
• clauses
• phrases
• words

• governed by grammatical rules
• consists minimally of verb (and subject)

• spoken language
• functional unit of communication
• doesn´t need to consist of subject and verb but may be any sound a speaker utters

• nouns
• lexical verbs
• adjectives
• adverbs
• prepositions
• auxiliary verbs
• determiners
• pronouns 
• conjunctions

• articles
• quantifiers
• numerals
• demonstration
• possessives
• indefinites

• coordinators ("Fanboys": for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
• subordinators

• refer to entities or abstract concepts
• declination (number, case)

conjugation

denote actions, processes or states

• primary auxiliaries: be, do, have
• modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, must
• semi-modals: have to, be supposed to

• comparison
• denote qualities and characteristics
• attributive position: before a noun
• predicative position: after a linking verb

• personal
• possessive
• demonstrative
• relative

• location
• direction
• relation

level of individual words

level of syntactic functions

• subject
• object
• verb
• adverbial
• complement (subject or object)

• statements: before the verb
• questions: after the first verb
• subject-verb-agreement: controls wether the verb is singular or plural in the third person of the present tense

• indefinite number of adverbials in a single clause
• can be used in several positions in the clause, most common at the end of a sentence
• can express a wide range of meanings, such as manner, place and time

• most obligatory of all clause elements
• choice of verb determineswhich other elements can be used in the clause
• transitive verbs: require object
• intransitive verbs: cannot be followed by an object
• monotransitive: SVO
• ditransitive: SVOO
• avalent: (S)V

• links complements to their subjects in meaning,e.g. be
• example: The bull became angry.

typically refers to person or thing directly affected by the action expressed by the verb (Akkusativobject)

typically refers to an animate being which is the recipient of the action (Dativobjekt)

• seen as completing the construction of another element
• subject or object complement

• usually follows the subject and the linking verb
• e.g. She is a doctor.

• usually follows the direct object and its meaning relates to that element
• e.g. They elected Obama president.

• consist of only one main clause
• clause which is capable of standing alone

• consist of one main clause combined with one or more other clauses
• linked by a coordinate conjunction

• main clause + at least one subordinate clause
• linked by a subordinate conjunction

• clusters of words forming a syntactic category
• each phrase has a head around which it is built
• head determines the grammatical properties of the phrase and is the obligatory element

• may function as subject or object in a sentence
• always contain some form of noun
• NP-> (Det) (Adj.) N (PP)

• consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase
• two obligatory elements
• PP-> P NP

• always contains a verb
• VP -> V (NP) (PP)

• obligatory: S-> NP VP
• optional: auxiliary verb, in questions auxiliary verb is moved to the front

• head is an adjective
• e.g. The movie was not too terrible.

e.g. The tired linguist slept soundly.

putting a phrase into a phrase into a phrase