GlossaryGeneralisation), so the DP has to move from its base-position to a
Case-position.
passive voice: the subject of the passive sentence is interpreted as the object of the
verb.
patient: one of the thematic or theta-roles where the argument is affected by the
action described by the verb, e.g. in Peter stroked the cat the cat is directly
affected by this activity.
perfect aspect: an action is viewed as being completed, e.g. in I have written my
homework.
periphrastic comparison of adjectives: the comparative and superlative forms of the
adjective are expressed with the degree adverbs more and most. E.g.
more indignant/most indignant
phonologically empty: not having phonological, visible realisation, but still present,
syntactically active in an abstract, unpronounced form, e.g. PRO is a
phonologically empty category, similarly to traces.
phonology: the study of the sound patterns of language.
phrasal category: a category of phrases as opposed to words.
phrasal verb: see verb–particle construction.
phrase: a group of words that can undergo syntactic operations (e.g. movement)
as a unit.
pied-piping: one of the strategies of wh-movement when the wh-element is part
of a PP. The wh-element does not move alone, it takes the preposition
along with it: [With who]i did you go to the cinema ti yesterday? See also
preposition stranding.
pleonastic subject: see expletive subject.
plural noun: a noun denoting more than one entity, e.g. three teddy bears. Count
nouns can be used either in the singular or the plural form.
positive form of adjectives: the base form of the adjective appearing in
structures expressing comparison to the same degree, like in He is as tall as
I am.
post-determiner: traditionally it is a determiner following a central determiner
but within the framework of Government and Binding Theory it can be
claimed that it is actually an AP that acts to quantify over a noun, and
occupies the specifier position of NPs, e.g. many, few.
PP: see Preposition Phrase.
pragmatics: a branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning of sentences as they
are uttered in a given context. E.g. the sentence It's very hot in here can be
understood as a request to open a window.
pre-determiner: traditionally pre-determiners are those determiners that appear in
front of central determiners within a nominal expression. These are three
in number: all, both and half. In the present approach, however, they are
analysed similarly to central determiners, they also occupy the head position
of DP to account for why they can also be followed by a PP beginning
with of as in all the girls/all of the girls.