E-101 Review, 13.11.00 (nearly identical to that handed out in class – don’t print this if you don’t need it)
This review is designed to lead you through the important points of the syntax component from the first half of the course. A second part will appear shortly to lead you through the second half. It is not a practice exam, per se, but a review. However, you may choose to complete it as a practice exam, in order to test your knowledge. A key has been handed out in class. The web version of the key is not complete.
1. Draw an explicit tree diagram for the sentence in (1), using the principles of X-bar theory.
(1) The tourists ate shark
2. Number each node in your tree. List the specific Phrase Structure Rules (PSRs) you have used to generate this tree; don’t use X or parentheses or other abbreviations, but give the fully specified rule in each case. Don’t give rules you haven’t used. Identify, by number, the nodes expanded by each rule (you don’t need to give the expansions for the terminal nodes, i.e. N, V, and D).
3. Simplify the PSRs you have given using X' notation. Explain any abbreviations, for example explain what X and Spec stand for. You may be as specific as necessary, keeping in mind only 1-2 above.
4. For each of sentences (2-5), explain whether the PSRs you listed in 3 above produce them and whether this is a good or a bad thing.
(2) * The tourists shark ate.
(3) The shark ate tourists.
(4) * The tourists restaurant shark.
(5) The noticeably overweight tourists ate grilled shark in a thick buttery sauce.
5. Diagram sentence (5) (repeated below)
(5) The noticeably overweight tourists ate grilled shark in a thick buttery sauce.
6. Give the additional PSRs necessary to generate it (the PSRs not already appearing in 2 above). First give them explicitly, not using abbreviations such as X and MOD.
7. Then give them in abbreviated form, using the X' conventions. Explain any abbreviations, as above.
8. State for each of the sentences in (6-10) whether the PSRs you have given in 3 and 7 generate it and whether this is a good thing.
(6) The shark ate the thick overweight bathers in a noticeably buttery sauce.
(7) * The surfers ate the in a buttery sauce shark.
(8) Shark grilled beats halibut steamed. (beats used colloquially means ‘is better than’)
(9) * Sauce buttery beats gravy salty.
(10) The shark that the tourists ate tasted dry.
9. Now diagram sentence (10) (repeated below). Indicate the gap in the relative clause, with an underline below and an appropriate categorial node above.
(10) The shark that the tourists ate tasted dry.
10. Give the additional PSRs, beyond those in 2 and 6, necessary for (10). Give them explicitly, using category labels.
11. Explain how the rules in 10 are included or not included in the X' rules in 3 and 7. Restate them if they are not included.
12. Explain whether your PSRs so far (in 3, 7, and 11) can generate the sentences in (11-12). Say whether this is good or bad, in each case.
(11) The shark was oddly buttery.
(12) * The shark was salty buttery.
13. Discuss the category membership (word class) of oddly versus salty.
14. Say whether your PSRs generate the sentence in (13).
(13) The tourists that ate the shark that the cook grilled insulted the fisherman that owned the restaurant that employed that very same cook.
15. If not, give the additional PSRs necessary to generate it and explain which parts of the structure they are needed for.
16. Diagram the subject of (13) (repeated below). Indicate gaps in relative clauses, as before.
(13a) the tourists that ate the shark that the cook grilled
17. Diagram the direct object in sentence (13) (repeated below). Indicate gaps in relative clauses.
(13b) the fisherman that owned the restaurant that employed that very same cook
18. Add specific PSRs for the sentences in (14-18), where necessary.
(14) The fisherman put two fresh cartridges in his shotgun.
(15) The panicked tourists dove under the table.
(16) The cook gave the fisherman a stiff brandy with two valiums.
(17) The other customers told the fisherman that the tourists were gone.
(18) It seemed that the situation calmed down.
19. Say whether your PSRs account for the data in (19-23), and if not, what is needed.
(19) * The fisherman put under the table.
(20) * The panicked tourists dove a stiff brandy with two valiums.
(21) * The other customers told two fresh cartridges in his shotgun.
(22) * It seemed the fisherman that the tourists were gone.
(23) * The cook gave that the situation calmed down.
20. Say whether your PSRs can derive the sentence in (24). If not, which part of the tree cannot be derived?
(24) The customers that remained at the scene told the police that arrived that they thought that the corpulent tourists that they convinced the fisherman were gone escaped through a tiny window in the kitchen that the cook left open.
21. Draw trees for (25-26) (you may abbreviate where internal structure is irrelevant).
(25) The hunter stopped at a traffic light. (26) The fisherman shot at a traffic light.
22. Give arguments for the structures you have proposed. You may refer to the data in (27-32), but feel free to add your own data.
(27) The hunter stopped at a traffic light and the fisherman did so at a stop sign.
(28) ?? The hunter shot at a traffic light and the fisherman did so at a stop sign.
(29) What the hunter did at the traffic light was stop.
(30) * What the fisherman did at the traffic light was shoot.
(31) The hunter stopped on his way to work at a traffic light.
(32) * The fisherman shot on his way to work at a traffic light.