Syntax, for Bloomfield, was the study of free forms that were composed entirely of free forms. Central to his theory of syntax were the notions of form classes and constituent structure. (These notions were also relevant, though less central, in the theory of morphology.) Bloomfield defined form classes, rather imprecisely, in terms of some common “recognizable phonetic or grammatical feature” shared by all the members. He gave as examples the form class consisting of “personal substantive expressions” in English (defined as “the forms that, when spoken with exclamatory final pitch, are calls for a person’s presence or attention”—e.g., “John,” “Boy,” ...(100 of 29428 words)