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VPs structure and syntagma

VPs structure and syntagma

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English, World Languages

University

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Medium

Created by

Ana Pereira

Used 2+ times

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8 Slides • 5 Questions

1

VPs structure and syntagma

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Multiple Choice

A phrase (in English sintax) is...

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words that make sense

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a set of meaninful units

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words together

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"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.

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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.


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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.

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Multiple Choice

Select the best option.

"I want two of those apples"

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What do you want?

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How many apples do you want?

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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, … 

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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.

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Multiple Choice

Choose the best option for Pronominalization.

"Annete gave away her last CD"

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Annete gave it away.

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Annete gave there the CD.

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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.

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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?

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Multiple Choice

Select the best option for Topicalization.

"We’re going snowboarding over the break"

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Over the break, we’re going snowboarding

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The snowboarding that we are going on break.

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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.

VPs structure and syntagma

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