LINGUIST 1AA3 Lecture 5: Module Notes

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Linguistics
• Course: LINGUIST 1AA3
• Professor: Magda Stroinska

Document Summary

Between the word the and a noun. Following any of the forms of the verb be . Can be intensified with the word very . Some adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives are open-class categories (can have new words added) Closed-class categories: also called content words or lexical categories, function words or non-lexical categories. Conjoin two phrases of the same category. Tree diagrams depict organization of words grouped into phrases which are grouped into sentences. Higher part of branch is mother, lower part is the daughter. Two daughters with the same mother are sisters. Every phrase in every sentence in mental grammar of every human language has the same core organization. Every phrase has a head, which is terminal node of the phrase: category of head determines category of the phrase np, The bar level is in the middle. Specifier and complement are optional, not in every single.