Syntactic category

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A syntactic category is a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume.[1] Word classes,
largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic
categories. In phrase structure grammars, the phrasal categories (e.g. noun phrase, verb
phrase, prepositional phrase, etc.) are also syntactic categories. Dependency grammars, however,
do not acknowledge phrasal categories (at least not in the traditional sense).
Word classes considered as syntactic categories may be called lexical categories, as distinct from
phrasal categories. The terminology here is by no means consistent, however. Many grammars also
draw a distinction between lexical categories (which tend to consist of content words, or
phrases headed by them) and functional categories (which tend to consist of function words or
abstract functional elements, or phrases headed by them). The term lexical category therefore has
two distinct meanings. Moreover, syntactic categories should not be confused with grammatical
categories (also known as grammatical features), which are properties such as tense, gender, etc.

Definition

A syntactic category is a set of words and/or phrases in a language which share a

significant number of common characteristics. The classification is based on similar
structure and sameness of distribution (the structural relationships between these
elements and other items in a larger grammatical structure), and not on meaning. In
generative grammar, a syntactic category is symbolized by a node label in a constituent
structure tree.

Also known as:

Syntactic class

Kinds

There are major and minor syntactic categories:

Major categories

All phrasal syntactic categories

 Examples:
NP (noun phrase), VP (verb phrase), PP (prepositional phrase)

Word-level syntactic categories that serve as heads of phrasal syntactic categories

Examples:
noun, verb

See:
lexical category

Minor categories

Categories that do not project to a phrasal level

Example:
Yes-No question markers

Contrast

Contrast syntactic category with the following:

Grammatical category (person, number, tense, aspect, mood, gender, case,

voice...)

Grammatical class (transitive and intransitive verbs; count and mass nouns)

Grammatical relations (subject, direct object, indirect object)

Functional categories (agent, patient, instrument; topic, comment; definite

NP)

Note: The terms grammatical category and grammatical class have also been used as
synonyms for part of speech.

Source
 Bickford and Daly 1996 F4, page 2

syntactic
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to syntactic: syntactic error, Syntactic foam

syntactic
(sn-tktk) or syntactical (-t-kl)
adj.
Of, relating to, or conforming to the rules of syntax.

[Greek suntaktikos, putting together, from suntaktos, constructed, from suntassein, to construct;
see syntax.]

syntactically adv.
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright 2016 by Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All
rights reserved.

syntactic
(sntktk)
adj
1. (Logic) Also: syntactical relating to or determined by syntax
2. (Logic) logic linguistics describable wholly with respect to the grammatical structure of an expression or
the rules ofwell-formedness of a formal system
3. (Linguistics) logic linguistics describable wholly with respect to the grammatical structure of an expressi
on or therules of well-formedness of a formal system
syntactically adv
Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 HarperCollins Publishers
1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

What is a Noun?
Of all the parts of speech, nouns are perhaps the most important. A noun is a word that identifies a
person, animal, place, thing, or idea. Here, well take a closer look at what makes a noun a noun,
and well provide some noun examples, along with some advice for using nouns in your sentences.

Identifying a Noun
 A noun is a part of speech that denotes a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. The English word
noun has its roots in the Latin word nomen, which means name. Every language has words that
are nouns. As you read the following explanations, think about some words that might fit into each
category.

Person A term for a person, whether proper name, gender, title, or class, is a noun.

Animal A term for an animal, whether proper name, species, gender, or class is a noun.

Place A term for a place, whether proper name, physical location, or general locale is a noun.

Thing A term for a thing, whether it exists now, will exist, or existed in the past is a noun.

Idea A term for an idea, be it a real, workable idea or a fantasy that might never come to fruition is a
noun.

Noun Examples
When we first start to learn the parts of speech, trying to identify different words can seem like a
challenge. This process gets easier with practice. Here are some noun examples to help you get
started. The nouns in each sentence have been italicized.

Person He is the person to see.

Person John started to run.

Person Plato was an influential Greek philosopher.

Person Sharon admires her grandfather.

Person My mother looks a lot like my grandmother, and I look very much like them.

Animal The dog barked at the cat.

Animal Elephants never forget.

Animal Sophie is my favorite horse.

 Place The restaurant is open.

Place Lets go to the beach.

Place Look over there.

Place Come here.

Place Harvard and Yale are two famous universities.

Place Look! Theres the Eiffel Tower.

Thing Throw the ball.

Thing Please close the door and lock it.

Thing Use words properly to be understood.

Thing The lamp sits on a table next to the sofa.

Thing Money doesnt grow on trees.

Idea Follow the rules.

Idea The theory of relativity is an important concept.

Idea Love is a wonderful emotion.

How Nouns Function

Nouns have several important functions. While its impossible to list them all here, well go over the
most important jobs nouns are tasked with.

Nouns are subjects. Every sentence has a subject, which is a noun that tells us what that sentence is
all about. John swung the baseball bat.

Nouns are direct objects. These nouns receive action from verbs. John swung the baseball bat.

Nouns are indirect objects. These nouns receive the direct object. Brad threw John the ball.
 Nouns are objects of prepositions. These nouns follow the prepositions in prepositional phrases.
John swung the baseball bat at Greg.

Nouns are predicate nominatives. These nouns follow linking verbs and rename the subject. John is
a baseball player.

Nouns are object complements. These nouns complete the direct object. They named their dog Max.
This is just the beginning. Be sure to dig deeper and explore more for additional information about
nouns and even more noun examples.

Noun: Definition and Examples

2
Words can be considered as the smallest independent elements in language and
communication. In the English language, words can be classified under 8 major word types
or parts of speech namely, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs,
adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. In this article, you will learn more
about the most common and simplest word type, which is the noun.
What is a Noun?
In the simplest sense, a noun is any word that names people, things, animals, places,
events, or ideas. Take a look at the sentences below:

Jack Gleeson, the actor who plays as Joffrey in Game of Thrones, was
the boy saved by Batman in Batman Begins.
Beatrice and Carla will meet at the coffee shop on Tuesday.
For me, birthdays are just ordinary days.
All of the underlined words in the sample sentences above are nouns. Now that you already
know the answer to the question, What is a noun? its time to discuss the different
functions, genders, and plural forms of nouns.

What are the Functions of a Noun?

A noun can function as a subject, an object (object of the preposition, direct object, indirect
object), and a subject complement in a sentence.
Examples:

Arya Stark is really cool.

In this example, the underlined noun serves as the subject in the sentence.
They were supposed to meet at noon.
The noun in this sentence functions as an object of the preposition. (at is the
preposition)
Jeremy is a swimmer.
This sample sentence has two nouns, Jeremy and swimmer. Jeremy is a noun
that serves as the subject, while the underlined noun acts as the subject complement.
The beavers built a dam.
In this sentence, beavers is the subject, the word built is the verb, and the
underlined word is the noun that serves as the direct object (the thing that is acted
upon).
He gave Maria a love letter.
This example has two nouns, Maria and love letter. The thing that is acted upon
(direct object) is the love letter, while the indirect object is Maria. Simply put, an
indirect object refers to the recipient or the one who gets the direct object.
3. Adjective
This part of a speech is used to describe a noun or a pronoun. Adjectives can specify the
quality, the size, and the number of nouns or pronouns.

Use this link to get a list of adjectives.

Sample Sentences:

The carvings are intricate.

The italicized word describes the appearance of the noun carvings.
I have two hamsters.
The italicized word two, is an adjective which describes the number of the noun
hamsters.
Wow! That doughnut is huge!
The italicized word is an adjective which describes the size of the noun doughnut

4. Verb
This is the most important part of a speech, for without a verb, a sentence would not exist.
Simply put, this is a word that shows an action (physical or mental) or state of being of the
subject in a sentence.

Examples of State of Being Verbs : am, is, was, are, and were
Sample Sentences:

As usual, the Stormtroopers missed their shot.

The italicized word expresses the action of the subject Stormtroopers.
They are always prepared in emergencies.
The verb are refers to the state of being of the pronoun they, which is the subject
in the sentence.
5. Adverb
Just like adjectives, adverbs are also used to describe words, but the difference is that
adverbs describe adjectives, verbs, or another adverb.

The different types of adverbs are:

Adverb of Manner this refers to how something happens or how an action is done.
 Example: Annie danced gracefully.
The word gracefully tells how Annie danced.
Adverb of Time- this states when something happens or when it is done.
Example: She came yesterday.
The italicized word tells when she came.
Adverb of Place this tells something about where something happens or where
something is done.
Example: Of course, I looked everywhere!
The adverb everywhere tells where I looked.
Adverb of Degree this states the intensity or the degree to which a specific thing
happens or is done.
Example: The child is very talented.
The italicized adverb answers the question, To what degree is the child talented?

Phrases and Clauses

There are many different types of phrases and clauses. The first step to
identifying the different types, though, is to understand the difference between
a phrase and a clause.
A phrase is a related group of words. The words work together as a "unit," but
they do not have a subject and a verb.
Examples of Phrases and Clauses:
Examples of Phrases
1. the boy on the bus (noun phrase)
2. will be running (verb phrase)
3. in the kitchen (prepositional phrase)
4. very quickly (adverb phrase)
5. Martha and Jan (noun phrase)
A clause is a group of words that does have both a subject and a verb. Some
clauses are independent, meaning that they express a complete thought.
An independent clause is the same as a complete sentence. Some clauses
are dependent, meaning that they cannot stand alone. They do have a subject
 and a verb, but they do not express a complete thought. Another word
for dependent is subordinate.
Examples of Clauses
1. When I get home (dependent or subordinate clause)
2. The lights are not on. (independent clause)
3. When you wake up (dependent or subordinate clause)
4. Put it on the shelf. (independent clause-understood subject "you)
5. Since it fell on the floor (dependent or subordinate clause)
Practice:
1. The table has four chairs _____
2. Because we were late for the party _____
3. The cat on the front porch _____
Answer:
1. The table has four chairs __I___
2. Because we were late for the party _D____
3. The cat on the front porch __P___

Definitions

A clause is a group of words containing a subject and verb.

An independent clause is a simple sentence. It can stand on its own.

Examples:
She is hungry.
I am feeling well today.

A dependent clause cannot stand on its own. It needs an independent

clause to complete a sentence. Dependent clauses often begin with such
words as although, since, if, when, and because.
 Examples:
Although she is hungry
Whoever is hungry
Because I am feeling well

Dependent Independent

Although she is hungry, she will give him some of her

food.

Whatever they decide, I will agree to.

A phrase is a group of words without a subject-verb component, used

as a single part of speech.

Examples:
Best friend (this phrase acts as a noun)
Needing help (this phrase acts as an adjective; see Adjectives and
Adverbs)
With the blue shirt (this prepositional phrase acts as an adjective;
see Prepositions)
For twenty days (this prepositional phrase acts as an adverb)

What is mood and modality?

Definition

Mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality.
 Modality is a facet of illocutionary force, signaled by grammatical devices (that is,
moods), that expresses

the illocutionary point or general intent of a speaker, or

a speakers degree of commitment to the expressed proposition's believability,

obligatoriness, desirability, or reality.

Discussion

The term mood is used by some authors in the same sense modality is.

Others distinguish the two, as we do here, by using mood to refer to the contrastive
grammatical expressions of different modalities and reserving modality to refer to the
meanings so expressed.

If, in addition, modality is used to refer to meanings expressed by lexical means as well
as grammatical, it is effectively a synonym of illocutionary force.

Example (English)

Here are some examples of mood and modality; items that signal certain modalities:

Verbal inflections

Auxiliary verbs

Kinds

What is irrealis modality?

Definition

Irrealis modality is a modality that connotes that the proposition with which it is
associated is nonactual or nonfactual.

Kind
Here is a kind of irrealis modality:

What is subjunctive mood?

Generic
Irrealis modality is a kind of

What is mood and modality?

What is possibility?

Definition

Possibility is a degree of contingency in modality that in

alethic modality connotes logical possibility

deontic modality connotes permission, and

epistemic modality connotes uncertainty or speculation.

Generic
Possibility is a kind of

What is mood and modality?

 What is realis modality?

Definition

Realis modality is a modality that connotes the factuality of a proposition.

Discussion

In its broad usage, the term realis is approximately equivalent in meaning to the
term indicative, which in turn is used, narrowly, as a synonym to declarative.

Generic
Realis modality is a kind of

What is mood and modality?

What is alethic modality?

Definition

Alethic modality is modality that connotes the speakers estimation of the logical
necessity or possibility of the proposition expressed by his utterance.

Discussion

The adjective alethic is also used in expressions of specific degrees of alethic modality,
such as
 alethic possibility, or

alethic necessity.

Example (English)

Alfred is a bachelor; thus he must be unmarried.

Adapted from:
Lyons 1977b 788

Generic
Alethic modality is a kind of

What is mood and modality?

Sources

Crystal 1985 12

Palmer 1986 1011

Lyons 1977b 788791

What is deontic modality?

Definition

Deontic modality is modality that connotes the speaker's

degree of requirement of
 desire for, or

commitment to the realization of

the proposition expressed by the utterance.

Examples (English)

You may go at four oclock.

All elections shall take place on schedule.

Kinds
Here are some kinds of deontic modality:

What is commissive modality?

What is directive modality?

What is volitive modality?

Generic
Deontic modality is a kind of

What is mood and modality

What is epistemic modality?

Definition

Epistemic modality is a modality that connotes how much certainty or evidence a

 speaker has for the proposition expressed by his or her utterance.

Example (English)
Theres no answer; he must have already left.
Kinds
Here are some kinds of epistemic modality:

What is evidentiality?

What is judgment modality?

Generic
Epistemic modality is a kind of

What is mood and modality?

Sources

Crystal 1985 110

Chung and Timberlake 1985 242

Bybee 1985 165166

Palmer 1986 1011, 51

heme (in some sources, also topic, background, or presupposition) is the semantic point of
departure of a clause (or more broadly, discourse) about which some information is provided:
1) Tom likes travelling.
2) Our friends have invited us.

In these examples, theme (Tom/our friends) is in the initial position. This is the most common
position for theme in English. Due to SVO (subject-verb-object) structure of a typical English
sentence, theme is often the subject of the sentence; however, passive voice violates this rule. It is
worth mentioning that in some other languages (e.g. Japanese), the common place for theme is the
end of a sentence. In languages with free word order (e.g. Ukrainian), theme can be found in the
middle of a sentence.

Rheme (in some sources, also comment, focus, or pre dictation) is the destination where the
presentation moves after the departure point:
3) Tom likes travelling.
4) Smoking is harmful for our health.

In examples 3 and 4, rheme is represented by like travelling and is harmful for our health.
Structurally, rheme usually follows theme in English. Theme rheme relationship produce cohesion
(Bussmann, 1998) making parts of a sentence a communicative whole.

An interesting application of the theory was realized by Djonov (2005; 2007; 2008) who used theme
rheme relationships to analyze website navigation. Successful Web navigation, according to her,
should be cohesive, similar to theme and rheme in verbal texts. Links on one page, in this case,
represent the theme of the website while the destination page represents its rheme.

In conclusion, the distinction between theme and rheme is useful in that it allows conducting
semantic analysis of single sentences and bigger texts. This is possible because
these notions are oriented not only to the structural aspect of discourse, but also to its semantics
which enables us to go beyond the level of a sentence and to explore theme rheme relationships
on a larger scale such as websites and, possibly, other multimodal texts.

Read similar posts:

theme

English
Noun
(en-noun)
A subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
A recurring idea; a motif.
(music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that
(computing|figuratively) The collection of color schemes, sounds,
(grammar) The stem of a word
(linguistics) thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb
(linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government an
(linguistics) Topic, what is being talked about, as opposed to rhem
A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.
Related terms
* thema * thematic * theme music * theme park * theme song * theme
Verb
(en-verb)
(computing) To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance