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A syntactic category is either a phrasal category, such as noun phrase or verb phrase, which can be decomposed into smaller syntactic categories, or a lexical category, such as noun or verb, which cannot be further decomposed.

The three criteria used in defining syntactic categories are:

1. The type of meaning it expresses

2. The type of affixes it takes

3. The structure in which it occurs

In terms of phrase structure rules, phrasal categories can occur to the left side of the arrow while lexical categories cannot.

The lexical categories are traditionally called the parts of speech. They include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on.

[edit] See also

• Syntax
• Phrase
• Clause
• Sentence (linguistics)
• Lexical category
• Phrase structure rules

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