Syntactic Structures Spring 2012
Assignment 7						Due Monday April 23

0.   I assume that the VP rule is now

     VP -> (M) (have) (be) V (DP) (AP) (PP)

     and that we have the necessary Verb Form Rules in the grammar.


I.   Negatives

Let us investigate the syntax of negative sentences:

(1)  The farmer might not kill the pig.
(2)  The farmer should not have killed the pig.
(3)  The farmer was not killing the pig.
(4)  The farmer did not kill the pig.
(5)  The pig was not being killed by the farmer.

Here are some ungrammatical examples:

(6) *The farmer not might kill the pig.
(7) *The farmer not killed the pig.
(8) *The farmer killed not the pig.
(9) *The farmer killed the pig not.

In this investigation, we are only interested in sentence negation.  Things
other than sentences can sometimes be negated, as in:

(10) Not many farmers kill their own pigs.
(11) Not only did she spill the beer, she didn't even apologize.

Ignore examples like that.

Within these constraints, propose and discuss an amendment to the class grammar
allowing for the generation of examples (1)-(5) while disallowing generation of
examples like (6)-(9).

A way to approach this would be to specify a recipe for turning an affirmative
statement into the corresponding negative.  In terms of the grammar, this
would be a transformational rule.

In any case, make your modification to the grammar explicit, state any proposed
new rules or modifications of old rules precisely, give your reasons for
rejecting any obvious alternative solutions, and support everything with
appropriate examples and trees.

Note: we will deal with contractions (won't, can't, didn't ...) in class.












II.  Yes-No Questions

1.   Consider the following sentences:

(1) Will the farmer feed the pigs?
(2) Have the pigs eaten the corn?

Notice that these are questions that can be answered yes or no.  We will call
these sentences yes-no questions.  To get a feel for them, make up a few more.

Our current grammar does not generate yes-no questions.  Briefly explain why.

2.  Below are two possible ways of revising our grammar to account for yes-no
questions.

PROPOSAL A:  We could revise the phrase structure rules so that they generate
yes-no questions as well as simple declarative sentences.  

Propose such a revision to the PS rules so that at least (1) and (2) will be
generated.  Draw the phrase structure that Proposal A assigns to sentence (1).

PROPOSAL B:  We could introduce a transformational rule that derives yes-no
questions from their non-interrogative counterparts.  Such a rule would derive
(1) and (2) from (3) and (4), respectively:

(3) The farmers will feed the pigs.
(4) The pigs have eaten the corn.

Construct a rule that accomplishes this task.  State it clearly.
Draw the phrase structure(s) that Proposal B assigns to sentence (2).

Now compare proposal A and proposal B.  Which is a better approximation to
the grammar of English?

3.  The following sentences illustrate one other property of yes-no questions:

(17) *Fed the farmers the pigs?
(18) *Ate the pigs the corn?

State the restriction on yes-no questions that these sentences illustrate.
Does the proposal that you argued for in the previous section capture this
restriction?  Modify the proposal if necessary.