VPs structure and syntagma

VPs structure and syntagma

Multiple Choice

A phrase (in English sintax) is...

• words that make sense

• a set of meaninful units

• words together

"1st things 1st"

Syntagma is a set of elements. The notion of syntagma is derived from the mathematical notion as a whole. A set is typically a collection of units that form a whole a complex unit. Similarly, a phrase is typically a set of units.

 

How do we identify phrases in a given sentence?

 

The most basic tests are interrogation, pronominalization and topicalization.

Interrogation

• Only a constituent can answer a question, while retaining the meaning of the original sentence.

• Interrogation test is useful for identifying phrases because when we use interrogative pronouns like: ‘who”, ‘what’ ‘how, where , and so on, such pronoun will replace a complete phrase. It had never replaced only part of the phrase, nor had it overflowed with other phrases.

  
  

Interrogation - Examples

• That is my brother. → Q: Who’s that? A: My brother.

• He is making a mess. → Q: What’s he doing? A: Making a mess.

• The keys are on the table. → Q: Where are the keys? A: On the table

• a noun phrase:

  What did Jacques eat for dinner? A large, juicy hamburger. *A large, juicy.

  Who ate a hamburger for dinner? Jacques. *The fat.

• a prepositional phrase or adverb phrase:

  When did Jacques eat a hamburger? At noon/yesterday.

  Why did Jacques eat a hamburger? Because he was hungry.

Multiple Choice

Select the best option.

"I want two of those apples"

• What do you want?

• How many apples do you want?

Pronominalization

• The pronominalization test is identical to the interrogation test. It consists of using a personal or demonstrative pronoun in place of a complete phrase.

• a complete constituent is replaceable by a single word (a pro-form or word of the same category)

• Only constituents can be substituted with pro-forms like it, that, them, then, there, do that, that way, … 

Pronominalization - Examples

• a personal pronoun replaces a noun phrase:

  The fat man ate a hamburger, didn't he?

• the verb do replaces a verb phrase:

  Jacques likes hamburgers, and Monique does too.

  * Jacques likes hamburgers, and Monique does fries too.

• the adverbs there and then replace prepositional phrases:

  Dylan went to the store after school and Dudley went there then too

• A man with dark glasses is following us. → He is following us.

• We watched a movie about cheese-making last week. → We did that last week.

Multiple Choice

Choose the best option for Pronominalization.

"Annete gave away her last CD"

• Annete gave it away.

• Annete gave there the CD.

Topicalization

• Topicalization consists in moving a constituent to the periphery to the left of the sentence. ‘Topicalize’ is to transform a topic ( put in the beginning ), and ‘topic ‘is always the thing about which one speaks with prominence in the phrase.

• Only a constituent can be relocated to the beginning of the sentence. (Note: topicalization sometimes requires a special type of supporting context.)

•  a complete constituent can be moved or can occur in different positions in a sentence, but it retains its integrity or configuration; its unity cannot be disrupted.

Topicalization - Examples

• If we begin with the sentence Jacques ate a hamburger for dinner, the following types of permutations can occur

• fronting (preposing) of a noun phrase or an adverbial prepositional phrase:

  A hamburger, Jacques ate for dinner (not a steak).

  For dinner, Jacques ate a hamburger.

• movement of noun phrases in a passive sentence:

  A hamburger was eaten by Jacques.

• inversion of the subject noun phrase and the auxiliary verb in a question:

  Did Jacques eat a hamburger for dinner?

Multiple Choice

Select the best option for Topicalization.

"We’re going snowboarding over the break"

• Over the break, we’re going snowboarding

• The snowboarding that we are going on break.

Poll

What do you say about the subject that we studied today?

• I need more classes about it.

• It's very hard to understand.

• I got it.

• I'm ready for an exercise about it.