Catena (linguistics)In linguistics, a catena (English pronunciation: kəˈtiːnə, plural catenas or catenae; from Latin for "chain") is a unit of syntax and morphology, closely associated with dependency grammars. It is a more flexible and inclusive unit than the constituent and its proponents therefore consider it to be better suited than the constituent to serve as the fundamental unit of syntactic and morphosyntactic analysis. The catena has served as the basis for the analysis of a number of phenomena of syntax, such as idiosyncratic meaning, ellipsis mechanisms (e.
Ellipse (rhétorique)L’ellipse (substantif féminin) (du grec ancien , « manque, défaut, insuffisance ») est un procédé grammatical qui consiste à omettre un ou plusieurs éléments en principe nécessaires à la compréhension du texte, pour produire un effet de raccourci. Elle oblige le récepteur à rétablir mentalement ce que l’auteur passe sous silence. La brachylogie est une variante brève de l'ellipse. En narratologie, une « ellipse temporelle », également appelée « ellipse narrative » consiste à passer sous silence une période, c'est-à-dire à ne pas en raconter les événements.
Coordination (grammaire)En syntaxe, la coordination est un rapport logique, l’un de ceux qui peuvent exister dans une phrase simple et dans une phrase complexe. Les entités coordonnées ont le même rang syntaxique. Dans une phrase simple, ce sont des mots ou des syntagmes qui forment ensemble un constituant multiple. Dans une phrase complexe, ce sont des sous-phrases, des propositions subordonnées à un même régissant ou, plus rarement, un mot ou un syntagme et une proposition, les deux subordonnés à un même régissant.
Verb phrase ellipsisIn linguistics, verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis or VPE) is a type of elliptical construction and a type of anaphora in which a verb phrase has been left out (elided) provided that its antecedent can be found within the same linguistic context. For example, "She will sell sea shells, and he will too" is understood as "She will sell sea shells, and he will sell sea shells too". VP-ellipsis is well-studied, particularly with regard to its occurrence in English, although certain types can be found in other languages as well.
Stripping (linguistics)Stripping or bare argument ellipsis is an ellipsis mechanism that elides everything from a clause except one constituent. It occurs exclusively in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures. One prominent analysis of stripping sees it as a particular manifestation of the gapping mechanism, the difference between stripping and gapping lies merely with the number of remnants left behind by ellipsis: gapping leaves two (and sometimes more) constituents behind, whereas stripping leaves just one.
Constituent (linguistics)In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that function as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The constituent structure of sentences is identified using tests for constituents. These tests apply to a portion of a sentence, and the results provide evidence about the constituent structure of the sentence. Many constituents are phrases. A phrase is a sequence of one or more words (in some theories two or more) built around a head lexical item and working as a unit within a sentence.
Answer ellipsisAnswer ellipsis (= answer fragments) is a type of ellipsis that occurs in answers to questions. Answer ellipsis appears very frequently in any dialogue, and it is present in probably all languages. Of the types of ellipsis mechanisms, answer fragments behave most like sluicing, a point that shall be illustrated below. Standard instances of answer ellipsis occur in answers to questions. A question is posed, and the answer is formulated in such a manner to be maximally efficient.
