terms of syntax3

that-relative
a relative clause that is introduced by the complementiser that: The cat that I found yesterday.
thematic category
categories with lexical content:
verbs,
nouns,
adjectives,
prepositions.
theme
one of the thematic roles where the argument is not affected by the action described by the verb e.g. in Peter saw John nothing directly happens to John as a result of being seen. In terms of the UTAH the theme theta-role is assigned to the specifier position of the VP.
there-construction: see existential there-construction.
theta role
the semantic role of the participants as required by the predicate. E.g. verbs define what kind of semantic relationship is to be established between the verb itself and the arguments of the verb, and arguments are selected accordingly.
The verb kick calls for an agent subject, so its subject position cannot be occupied by e.g. my CD-player.
three-place predicate
a predcate with three arguments, e.g. give.
topic
an element appearing in front of the subject with a special interpretation (something like ‘as far as topic is concerned’). Topics have either already been mentioned before in a conversation or can be interpreted as easily accessible due to the context.
topicalisation
a process which moves an element interpreted as a topic to
the front of the sentence.
trace
moved constituents leave traces in the position where they have been moved from. Once a trace is present in a structure, no other constituent can land in the position occupied by it.
two-place predicate
a predicate with two arguments, e.g. write.
unaccusative verb
a verb taking one argument to which it assigns a theme theta-role in the specifier position of a VP. They may also optionally take a location or path argument expressed by a PP. Some of the unaccusative verbs in English are
arrive,
appear,
sit,
they are typically verbs of movement or location. Unaccusative verbs can appear in the existential there construction or locative inversion structures. They do not take objects of any kind, see also cognate object.
underspecification
a feature can have values which are not determined. [±F] is supposed to be such a feature in the classification of word categories. The categories with underspecified features are the following: aspectual auxiliaries [–N, +V], measure nouns [+N, –V], post-determiners [+N, +V], the non-thematic, non-functional uses of the prepositions of and by [–N, –V]
ungradable adjective
an adjective that has
no comparative and superlative forms.
The absence of these forms is due to semantic reasons. E.g.
polar, atomic
verb–particle construction
a structure where the particle appearing together with the verb does not function as a preposition, which forms a unit with its DP complement. Rather, the particle seems to form a unit with the verb. Several differences between verb–particle constructions and prepositional verb structures follow from this, e.g. a preposition can be moved together with its DP complement, a particle cannot:
in this hut, he lived for ten years/*off this hat, he took in an instant.
voiced sound
a sound produced with the vibration of the vocal cords, e.g.
d
, z,
g.
voiceless/unvoiced sound
a sound produced without the vibration of the vocal cords, e.g. t, s, k.
vP (pronounced: little vP)
a phrase headed by a light verb taking a VP complement hosting agent or experiencer arguments in its specifier position.
VP adverb
an adverb which modifies the meaning of the verb, e.g.
always,
already,
never.
vP-shell
vP-projection(s) on VP: if the event structure of the verb is complex, the structural representation of the verb will be complex, too. The number of vP-shells surrounding the VP core depends on the theta-role of the arguments. If there is an agent or an experiencer selected by the verb one vP-projection is needed. If both an agent and an experiencer are present there are two vPs, the lower hosting the experiencer.
wh-element
question word. Question words often but not always begin with these letters, e.g. where, what, when, who, whom. The question word how is also considered a wh-element. Whether, although a word beginning with wh is not considered to be a wh-element in this sense.
whether
though in certain cases whether is interchangeable with if, which is a complementiser, whether cannot be regarded as such since it does not impose selectional restrictions on the finiteness of the clause following it. Both I wonder whether to invite him and I wonder whether I should invite him are grammatical. Rather, whether is assumed to occupy the specifier position of CP similarly to wh-elements. An argument in favour of this approach is that whether also introduces only interrogative clauses.
wh-movement
the movement of a wh-element to the beginning of the clause. This movement is obligatory in English.
wh-relative
a relative clause introduced not by a complementiser but a wh-element:
The girl [whom I invited].
word category
a set of expressions that share certain linguistic features, a grouping of words that cluster together, e.g. noun, verb.
X-bar theory
a module of GB containing three very simple rules to describe the structure of the expressions of a language. See also specifier rule, complement rule, adjunct rule.
zero inflectional morpheme
as the morphology of the English language is rather impoverished very often we have no visible markers of person and number agreement on the verb (the exception being the third person singular s morpheme in the present tense). In the other cases the inflection is assumed to be present in an invisible form. The zero inflectional morpheme is one without phonological realisation but it has syntactic functions to fulfil in the structure.
zero level projection
the head of a phrase, X in an XP.
zero relative
a relative clause that could be but is not introduced by an overt complementiser:
The man [- I told you about yesterday].

سناء احمد

thanks a lot
well done

go ahead