German Nominal Phrases

I.   Consider the following very limited set of data:
(Within a word, A and U stand for umlauted versions of those vowels.)

(1)   Der Mann liebt die Frau.		"The man loves the woman"
(2)   Die Frau liebt das Kind.		"The woman loves the child"
(3)   Das Kind liebt den Mann.		"The child loves the man"
(4)   Der Hund lAuft.			"The dog runs"
(5)   Die Frau lAuft.			"The woman runs"
(6)   Das Kind lAuft.			"The child runs"
(7)   Der Mann liebt den Hund.		"The man loves the dog"
(8)   Der Hund liebt den Mann.		"The dog loves the man"
(9)   Die Katze liebte den Hund.	"The cat loved the dog"
(10)  Der Hund liebte die Katze.	"The dog loved the cat"
(11)  Der Mann suchte eine Frau.	"The man sought a woman"
(12)  Eine Frau suchte einen Mann.	"A woman sought a man"
(13)  Ein Kind sucht ein Boot. 		"A child seeks a boat"

From this data, try to give your best answers to the following questions:

1.  What can you say about the word order of German?

2.  Does German have gender?  If so, how many genders?  How can you tell?

3.  Do you need to include any case distinctions in your mini-grammar of German?
    How and where is case expressed?

In this assignment, don't try to figure out the verb forms; that's for a different assignment.

II.  Now look at the following data set:

(14)  Die MAnner lieben die Frauen.	"The men love the women"
(15)  Die Frauen lieben die Kinder.	"The women love the children"
(16)  Die Kinder lieben die MAnner.	"The children love the men"
(17)  Die Hunde laufen.			"The dogs run"
(18)  Die Frauen laufen.		"The women run"
(19)  Die Kinder laufen.		"The children run"

What has happened here?  How would you describe this?
(Don't try to figure out the forms of the Nouns; that's not very regular.)

III. Now let's expand the data a bit further:

(20)  Die Frau gab dem Kind ein Buch.		"The woman gave the child a book"
(21)  Das Kind gab der Frau einen Hund.		"The child gave the woman a dog"
(22)  Die Kinder gaben einem Mann ein Boot.	"The children gave a man a boat"
(23)  Ein Mann gibt einer Frau eine Katze.	"A man gives a woman a cat"
(24)  Ich zeigte einem Kind den Weg.		"I showed a child the way"

There's a new case here.  Let's call it the "Dative".  From this limited data, where
does it show up, and how is it expressed?  By now you'll probably have to be very explicit
about the forms of the determiners.

IV.  Here's a bit more about the Dative:

(25)  Wir zeigten den Kindern Boote.		"We showed the children boats"
(26)  Wir schickten den Frauen Blumen.		"We sent the women flowers"
(27)  Wir verliehen den MAnnern einen Hund.	"We lent the men a dog"

Is this enough to tell you how the Dative plural is expressed?

V.   Armed with the understanding of the expression of Gender, Number, and Case that
you have developed in the preceding parts, you should now be in position to analyze what
happens with adjectives.  The following data set shows how the forms of adjectives are
sensitive to their contexts.

(28)  Der gute Mann liebt die gute Frau.	"The good man loves the good woman"
(29)  Die gute Frau liebt das gute Kind.	"The good woman loves the good child"
(30)  Das gute Kind liebt den guten Mann.	"The good child loves the good man"
(31)  Der gute Mann liebt den guten Hund.	"The good man loves the good dog"
(32)  Der gute Hund liebt den guten Mann.	"The good dog loves the good man"
(33)  Die gute Katze liebte den guten Hund.	"The good cat loved the good dog"
(34)  Der gute Hund liebte die gute Katze.	"The good dog loved the good cat"
(35)  Der gute Mann suchte eine gute Frau.	"The good man sought a good woman"
(36)  Eine gute Frau suchte einen guten Mann.	"A good woman sought a good man"
(37)  Ein gutes Kind sucht ein gutes Boot. 	"A good child seeks a good boat"
(38)  Ein guter Mann gab der guten Frau einen guten Hund.	(You figure it out)
(39)  Die guten MAnner lieben die guten Frauen.	"The good men love the good women"
(40)  Die guten Frauen lieben die guten Kinder.	"The good women love the good children"
(41)  Die guten Kinder lieben die guten MAnner.	"The good children love the good men"

(42)  Die gute Frau gab dem guten Kind ein gutes Buch.		I think you can figure out
(43)  Das gute Kind gab der guten Frau einen guten Hund.		the translations from here on.
(44)  Die guten Kinder gaben einem guten Mann ein gutes Boot.
(45)  Ein guter Mann gibt einer guten Frau eine gute Katze.
(46)  Ich zeigte einem guten Kind den guten Weg.

(47)  Wir zeigten den guten Kindern gute Boote.
(48)  Wir schickten den guten Frauen gute Blumen.
(49)  Wir verliehen den guten MAnnern einen guten Hund.

(50)  Der Hund trinkt das gute Wasser.		"The dog drinks the good water"
(51)  Der Hund trinkt gutes Wasser.		"The dog drinks good water"
(52)  Die Luft ist rein.			"The air is pure"
(53)  Reine Luft ist Menschenrecht.		"Pure air is a human right"
(54)  Ich trinke roten Wein.			"I drink red wine"
(55)  Roter Wein ist gut.			"Red wine is good"
(56)  Der rote Wein war nicht gut.		"The red wine was not good"

I hope this is enough for you to develop an analysis of the expression of gender, number,
and case in German DPs.  Since this is a newly made problem, it may have some flaws.
Please let me know if you detect any, before it is too late.

Your task now is to devise and present an analysis of the forms of Determiners and Adjectives.
Present it in the form of a generative grammar that generates well-formed DPs and no ill-formed ones.
You can assume that magic takes care of the forms of the nouns, assuming that all the proper
features are in place, which your grammar will carefully specify.