Homework Assignment 2 KEY
LIN232—Moulton
You will complete this homework assignment by uploading a .pdf document on Quercus. You must watch
the Constituency lecture and read chapter 3 in order to prepare for this assignment.
• If you create your homework in a word document, be sure to save it to .pdf (the system will only
accept .pdf submission).
• The homework must be typed and be formatted clearly so that we can tell which question you are
answering. Group your answers as “Part 1”, “Part 2”, etc. and follow my formatting of labeling
questions as A, B, C, etc. (I do this to keep them separate from example numbers (like (1), (2), etc.).
• For the trees:
– you may hand draw your trees on paper, take a photo (like with your phone), and paste the
photo as a picture in the document.
– you may also use the Treeform software https://sourceforge.net/projects/treeform/ or
you may use this online site to draw trees http://mshang.ca/syntree/. I will demonstrate
these in the Webinar on Tuesday July 14.
– In all cases, you must copy the image into your word document before saving to .pdf
– Hand-drawn trees will be graded just as equally as computer-generated ones, so under no
circumstances should you feel that hand-drawn trees will disadvantage your grade.
See over
1
Part 1: Constituents (5 points)
Look at the VP of the sentence in (1). Only one of the trees below correctly represents the VP.
(1) I [VP put the letter in the envelope ]
(2a)
TP
VP
NP
NP
PP
NP
N
envelope
D
the
P
in
N
letter
D
the
V
put
NP
N
I
(2b)
TP
VP
NP
PP
NP
N
envelope
D
the
P
in
N
letter
D
the
V
put
NP
N
I
2
(2c)
TP
VP
PP
NP
N
envelope
D
the
P
in
NP
N
letter
D
the
V
put
NP
N
I
Questions:
A. Which of these trees is correct for (1) (Just tell us whether it’s (2a), (2b) or (2c).)
B. Perform two constituency tests on (1) that support your choice of one of the above structures over the
other two. Provide one or two brief sentences explaining why the tests support your choice. Your answer
should be no more than one short paragraph of no more than 70 words (use word count to check), plus
the two constituency tests. For the purposes of this question, you can take an ungrammatical result of
just one test to mean that the string is not a constituent.
A short note: The goal of this question is to apply a constituency test properly and reason from the resulting grammaticality judgment. I don’t care what grammaticality judgment you give (perhaps our dialects
will differ or English is an additional language for you; you are free to ask me by email how I might judge
the sentences you create for the constituency tests). The important part is your correct application of the
constituency tests and how you reason from them.
Note: points will be deducted for writing more than a short paragraph; a good answer is a concise
answer.
A sample answer:
i *It was [the letter in the envelope] that I put
ii It was [the letter] that I put in the envelope.
Trees (2a,b) parse the letter in the envelope as a constituent which the test in i. shows it is not. Tree (2c) correctly parses [the letter] as a constituent to the exclusion of in the envelope, which ii. shows it is, whereas
both tree (2a,b) fail to represent the letter as a constituent.
Some people gave constituency tests showing that the PP in the envelope is a constituent. That is true, but
all three trees correctly represent it as such, so that cannot be what determines the correct tree.
3
Part 2: Structural Ambiguity (10 points)
The following sentence is structurally ambiguous: it has two meanings, each associated with a different
structure. Paraphrase each meaning (in words, or a picture) and then draw the associated tree below it.
Remember, you draw the trees for the sentence in (2), not the paraphrase.
(2) Farty dogs and cats slept.
Meaning #1: Both dogs and cats are farty (1 point)
Tree for meaning #1:
NP
N
N
cats
Conj
and
N
dogs
AP
A
farty
Meaning #2:
Only the dogs are farty
Tree for meaning #2:
NP
NP
N
cats
Conj
and
NP
N
dogs
AP
A
farty
4
Part 3: Problems from Text (10 points)
Do the following problems from the textbook (exercise and page numbers are from the 3rd edition).
• GPS13 p112 (“Hixkaryana”), all parts except question 7 (bracketed strings). Please review section
5.3 in Chapter 3 to prepare for this problem. see below
• GPS6 p109 (“English”) do the following: a), c), d), e) (treat catnip toy as one N), j), o), p) (treat Middle
East as one N), q). see below
Part 4: Thinking question (5 points)
Look at the sentence in (3). I have performed some constituency tests on this sentence, which I give in
(3a-d). For replacement tests, I have shown on the side what the proform replaces with an ‘=’ sign.
(3) The dog played the game in the den.
a. She played the game in the den. she = the dog
b. The dog did so. did so = played the game in the den
c. *It was played the game in the den that the dog.
d. The dog did so in the den. did so = play the game
Assume the judgments given are correct. The question is whether our current phrase structure rules
(the PSRs, see page 106–107 in the textbook) account for the structure of this sentence, as revealed by
these constituency tests. In your answer, you should try to draw a tree that respects the results of the
constituency tests in (3a-d), and then provide a short discussion (no more than 40 words) as to whether
the tree is consistent with our current PSRs.
Note: points will be deducted for writing more than a short discussion; a good answer is a concise
answer.
The two ’do so’ replacements suggest there are two VPs, one embedded in the other:
VP
in the den
VP PP
the game
V NP
play
The above tree is not generated by any PSR we have so far. There is no rule that expands VP into another
VP (e.g. no rule of the sort VP → …VP…)
Hixkaryana
- Yes. komo ‘all’ might be a determiner.
5
• you could also say it is not, since it might just be an adjective. We would ideally need evidence like
competitive distribution to distinguish it from adj. - NP → N (AdjP) (D)
- VP → (NP) V
- TP → VP NP
(We don’t see a separate T morpheme so we don’t know for sure if there is one or where we would put
it, but as in English, we might postulate an abstract tense morpheme in T.) - V; because it sits in the same position as VPs
6.
TP
NP
N
kuraha
VP
V
yonyhoryeno
NP
N
kuraha
TP
NP
N
kamara
VP
V
yonye
NP
D
komo
AdjP
Adj
heno
N
kuraha
6
GPS 6
I’ve added the abstract features [past] and [present] in T for these when T isn’t otherwise filled with an
auxiliary.
(a) The kangaroo hopped over the truck
TP
VP
PP
NP
N
truck
D
the
P
over
V
hopped
T
[past]
NP
N
kangaroo
D
the
(c) Susan will never sing at weddings.
TP
VP
PP
NP
N
weddings
P
at
V
sing
AvdP
Adv
never
T
will
NP
N
Susan
(d) The officer carefully inspected the license.
TP
VP
NP
N
licence
D
the
V
inspected
AvdP
Adv
carefully
T
[past]
NP
N
officer
D
the
(e) Every cat always knows the location of her favourite catnip toy.
• I treat catnip toy as a compound noun—all just one N (our PSRs don’t allow N modying-Ns).
7
TP
VP
NP
PP
NP
NP
N
catnip toy
AdjP
Adj
favourite
D
her
P
of
N
location
D
the
V
knows
AvdP
Adv
always
T
[pres]
NP
N
cat
D
every
(j) A clever magician with the right equipment can fool the audience easily.
TP
VP
AdvP
Adv
easily
NP
N
audience
D
the
V
fool
T
can
NP
PP
NP
N
equipment
AdjP
Adj
right
D
the
P
with
N
magician
AdjP
Adj
clever
D
a
(o) Marian wonders if the package from Boston will ever arrive.
8
TP
VP
CP
TP
VP
V
arrive
AdvP
Adv
ever
T
will
NP
PP
NP
N
Boston
P
from
N
package
D
the
C
if
V
wonders
T
[pres]
NP
N
Marian
(p) I said that Bonny should do some dances form the Middle East.
• Treating Middle East as a compound—one N
TP
VP
CP
TP
VP
NP
PP
NP
N
Middle East
D
the
P
from
N
dances
D
some
V
do
T
should
NP
N
Bonny
C
that
V
said
T
[past]
NP
N
I
(q) That Dan smokes in the office really bothers Alina.
9
TP
VP
NP
N
Alina
V
bothers
AdvP
Adv
really
T
[pres]
CP
TP
VP
V
smokes
T
[pres]
NP
N
Dan
C
that
10