Glossaryspecifier rule: one of the three rules of X-bar Theory of the following form:
XP YP X'
where the specifier is the phrase-sized constituent preceding the
intermediate projection. The order of YP and X' is fixed.
structural ambiguity: the source of ambiguity is not lexical. The different
interpretations can be explained by assigning different structural
representations to the ambiguous expression, e.g. in the DP an analysis of
sentences with mistakes the PP with mistakes can be interpreted either as
referring to the analysis or sentences. The structural difference between the
representations will be the placement of the adjunct PP: in the former
meaning the PP is the adjunct of the DP analysis, in the latter case it is
the adjunct of the DP sentences.
Structure Preservation Principle: no movement can alter the basic X-bar nature of
structure, structures are projected from the lexicon at all levels.
subcategorisation frame: that part of the lexical entry that states the categorial
status of the complement.
subcategory: a category under a main category, e.g. the category of intransitive
verbs is a subcategory of the verbal category.
subject: the argument that precedes the VP in the sentence. Also called the
external argument since it occupies the specifier position of IP, the
canonical subject position.
subject control: PRO can be coreferent either with the subject or the object of the
preceding clause depending on the main verb. The verb promise is a
subject-control verb, in the sentence I promise [PRO not to destroy my
brother's castle again] PRO is coreferent with the subject.
subject movement: the movement of the subject from its base position
(Spec,vP or Spec,VP) to a Case position (Spec,IP).
subject position: the position where subjects appear in the tree. The base position
of the subject depends on its theta role. Agents and experiencers are
generated in Spec,vP. Theme subjects appear in Spec,VP. These positions
are not Case positions, so the subjects move to the canonical subject
position, Spec, IP.
subject–auxiliary inversion: a descriptive cover term for the reverse order of the
subject and the auxiliary in questions like Can you dance?, see also I-to-C
movement.
substitution: a) one of the constituency tests to define whether a certain
constituent is the same type as another. If a constituent can be substituted
by another one it is assumed to be of the same type. E.g. lexical nominal
expressions can be substituted by pronoun forms, so they are both
assumed to be DPs: The girl I met yesterday/She will visit her family
tomorrow.
b) a type of movement where a constituent is moved into an empty position
already existing prior to movement, see also adjunction.
suffix: a bound morpheme added to the end of the word, e.g. -ful in mouthful.