LING 111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Part Of Speech
Document Summary
Syntax (or grammar) is the system of rules and categories that accounts for phrase and sentence formation in human language. It includes the study of phrases, clauses, and s. The term grammar was traditionally a synonym for syntax. The general types of syntactic units are universal. Just like all spoken languages have sounds and words, they all have the same set of syntactic units. Word-level categories: lexical (open) versus nonlexical (closed/ functional) Lexical categories = word classes, lexical classes, or parts of speech. When a word is created, it immediately acquires a lexical category, which is an essential part of the word s meaning and functioning. Depending on the lexical category, a word can be part of a phrase in a sentence. The basic lexical category of a word is usually entered in dictionaries. Lexical categories can be divided into open and closed. Open category words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
