Week 2

Question 1

How are syntactic rules structurally dependent?

Answer 1

Consider English yes-no question formation.

Declarative: Molly is playing the piano.
Yes-no: is Molly playing the piano?

Question 2

Constituency tests

Answer 2

1. Unit of sense: constituents form a semantic unit.
2. Movement: only constituents can be moved together; fronted/clefted)
3. Substitution: constituents can be replaced by one word.
4. Sentence fragment: constituents can answer a wh-question.
5. Coordination: constituents can be coordinated to others (linked by and, or, but).

Question 3

Movement test

Answer 3

If you can move a chunk to the beginning of a sentence, it is a constituent.

There was a power failure in NY last night.
Last night there was a power failure in NY.

Question 4

Substitution test

Answer 4

If you can substitute a pronoun (he, it, then, there) or a question word (what, who) for a chunk, it is a constituent.

There was a power failure in NY last night.
There was a power failure there last night.

Question 5

Sentence fragment test

Answer 5

A constituent can provide a short answer to a question.

What was there in NY last night? A power failure.

When was there a power failures in NY? Last night.

Question 6

The coordination test

Answer 6

A constituent can be coordinated to a similar constituent by and, or, but.

There was [a power failure *and a traffic jam] in NY last night.

There was a power failure [in NY and in Chicago] last night.

There was a power failure in NY [last night and two weeks ago].

Question 7

Unit of sense test

Answer 7

A constituent has a particular definable meaning.

There was a power failure in NY last night.
• A power failure = black out

There was a power failure in NY last night.
• New York = city

Question 8

Why use more than one constituency test?

Answer 8

To be sure, because some constituency tests might fail for reasons not having to do with constituency?

Question 9

Morpheme

Answer 9

Smallest unit of meaning.

Question 10

Predicate

Answer 10

Part of a sentence that tells us what the subject does or is.

The exam (subject) was difficult (predicate).

The man from the shop (subject) knows my secret (predicate).

Question 11

Head

Answer 11

The head of a phrase is the element that the phrase is centred around. Everything else in the phrase revolves around and depends on the head. The category of the head determines the category of the phrase.

Question 12

One-way function/dependency

Answer 12

In the line, Two rather dubious jokes, “rather” depends on “dubious” but not vice-versa. If “rather” was omitted, the phrase would still be good.

This function is also called modification.

Question 13

What must the predicate contain?

Answer 13

At least one verb! It may also contain other items.

The president choked in his office.

Question 14

Sisters

Answer 14

If two nodes are immediately dominated by the same node.

Question 15

Mother-daughter relationship

Answer 15

An immediate domination relationship.

Question 16

Parse ‘dangerous criminals’

Answer 16

‘Criminals’ is the noun and ‘dangerous’ is the modifier of the head.

Question 17

How do you turn a ‘mass noun’ into a ‘count noun’?

Answer 17

This can often be done by adding a/an or a numeral. This involves a change of meaning, e.g. two butters meaning two kinds of butters.

Question 18

Gradable and non-gradable adjectives

Answer 18

Gradable: adjectives that take -er/est inflection.

Non-gradable: do not accept er/est inflection, for instance; dead, right, medical, final.

Question 19

General adverbs are are formed from…?

Answer 19

Adjectives by the addition of -ly.

Question 20

The head of a prepositional phrase

Answer 20

Beside a stream contains a preposition and is the head of the phrase. In this case, a stream functions as a complement to the head.