Glossaryadjunction: a type of movement where a new position is formed as a result of the
movement creating an adjunction structure, like the (simplified) movement
of the PP in the following tree structure representation where the S
node is doubled:
S
PP S
on the shelf 1 DP VP
Petra V'
V PP
put t 1
adverb: a constituent with the feature composition [+N, +V, –F] used to modify a
verb (as in everything went smoothly) or a sentence (as in Unfortunately, I
did not pass the first exam). In this approach adverbs and adjectives
belong to the same category, the difference between them being what they
modify.
affix: a bound morpheme added to the beginning or end of a word, a prefix or
a suffix.
Affix Lowering: the downward movement of the bound inflectional morpheme
-s, -ed or the zero inflectional morpheme onto the verbal head. This is the
only movement type where we move a constituent down. Assuming
downward movement to take place is necessary in the traditional framework
because it is assumed that lexical verbs in English cannot leave the VP
and this way we can also account for the order of sentence medial
adverbs relative to the verb: She often invites her friends.
agent: one of the thematic or theta-roles, where the argument deliberately
performs an action, as Jamie in Jamie sang a song or Robert in Robert
kicked the cat. In terms of the UTAH the agentive theta-role is assigned
to the specifier position of vP, similarly to experiencer arguments.
agglutination: stems are allowed to support more than one bound morpheme and
hence there are complex words being formed from a series of inflectional
morphemes.
agreement: a syntactic process whereby certain constituents must share certain
features, e.g. subjects must agree with the inflection on the verb in
person and number.
aktionsart: see lexical aspect.
ambiguity: a structure is ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way. We
differentiate lexical ambiguity from structural ambiguity.
anaphor: a reflexive (e.g. himself) or a reciprocal (e.g. each other). A DP without
independent reference needing an antecedent.