Syntax I, Fall 2007
Midterm Exam (This is Assignment 17)
Due Wednesday, November 14

PREAMBLE

Like all assignments in this course, this exam is open book and
cooperative.  Just be sure to write up your conclusions independently.
Do the sections in sequence, because some of them build on each other;
but do not hesitate to go back and revise something if a later section
sheds new light.

I.    Some sentences that should be generated by the grammar
      (And one that should not)

(1)   The policeman hit the boy with the bat.
(2)   With the bat, the policeman hit the boy.
(3)   The boy with the bat was hit by the policeman.
(4)   The boy was hit by the policeman with the bat.
(5)  *The chicken in the oven was put by the farmer.
(6)   The chicken in the oven was killed by the farmer.
(7)   The chicken was killed in the oven by the farmer.
(8)   The chicken was killed by the farmer in the oven.

Discuss these examples.


II.   There

In this problem you are to investigate the word 'there' in sentences like 

    (1)  There is a fly in the Pope's soup.
    (2)  There emerged a gopher from the hole.
    (3)  There must have arisen a great wave of protest against the sin tax.
    (4)  There may exist very large prime numbers.
    (5)  There was a pig eating my garbage.

This word (which we will call 'there1') must be distinguished from
the adverb 'there0', observed in sentences like

    (6)   The fly will land there.
    (7)   I put it there.
    (8)   There she goes!

One easily observable difference is that 'there0' can be stressed,
and often is, while 'there1' cannot:

    (9)   The fly will land THERE.
    (10) *THERE is a fly in the Pope's soup.

I tell you this only to help you distinguish the two words, because
we are not interested in the adverb 'there0' at all right now.

1.  The first question to consider is: What is 'there1'?
We can see immediately, for example, that it is not a Determiner,
because it does not occur where Determiners do:

    (11) *There fly will land on your nose.

Nor is it a Noun:

    (12) *A big there is a fly on your nose.

So what is it?  The following sentences provide relevant evidence:

    (13)  Will there remain many species of fish in the next century?
    (14)  Have there been signs of progress?
    (15)  Is there a gopher in that hole?

If our YNQ transformation is correctly formulated, what must 'there1' be?

2.  Now notice that the distribution of 'there1' is very restricted:  

Examples (1-5), together with (13-15), together with (16-20) below,
illustrate a fundamental fact about where 'there1' may occur.  What is
that fact?

    (16) *We sent there to the cleaners.
    (17) *We left a bucket of there on the doorstep.
    (18) *There's monkey went hungry.
    (19)  There was not a lot of room for the elephants.
    (20)  There did emerge one good idea from the discussion.

A second type of restriction concerns the category of verbs that can
co-occur with 'there1'.  Notice

    (21) *There slept a gopher in the hole.
    (22) *There devised a linguist these questions.
    (23) *There ate a gorilla my sandwich.

Considering the given examples, and any that you make up, try to provide
a complete listing of the verbs that can co-occur with 'there1'.
Come back and revise this list if you discover anything interesting
later.

3. THE QUESTION (amend the grammar)

Now here comes the real question:  How is our grammar to generate 
    
     (1)  There is a fly in the Pope's soup.

and not generate anything ungrammatical?  I want you to consider two
hypotheses:

Hypothesis A: 'there1', like most other words, is inserted into deep
structures, subject to certain lexical insertion restrictions.

Hypothesis B: 'there1' is inserted by a transformation, which derives
sentences like (1) from sentences like

    (24)  A fly is in the Pope's soup.

Under hypothesis B, similar derivations would be proposed for 

    (25)  There emerged a fly from the hole.
    (26)  There arose a disturbance among the students.

and various other things you might think of.


There is a good argument against hypothesis A, and in favor of
hypothesis B, and it is based on the observation that the following
are ungrammatical:

    (27)  *John emerged a fly from the hole.
    (28)  *I arose a disturbance among the students.
    (29)  *There ate my sandwich.
    (30)  *There sleeps.
    (31)  *There arose in the kitchen.
    (32)  *There emerged from the hole in the ground.

Figure out what this argument is, state it clearly, and then state
a formulation of the transformation that is required under hypothesis B.  

This transformation has some peculiar restrictions.  One is that
the basic subject is subject to certain restrictions:

    (33)  *There emerged the fly from his nose.
    (34)  *There arose the disturbance among the students.

Describe these restrictions as accurately as you can, and tell me how
you think they should be built into the grammar.

4.  The new transformation is called "There Insertion".  The following examples
illustrate how it interacts with Form Rules and the Passive transformation.

    (35)   There is a unicorn in the study.
    (36)  *There are a unicorn in the study.
    (37)   There were two girls eating apples.
    (38)  *There was two girls eating apples.
    (39)  *There were two girls eat apples.
    (40)   There was a girl eating an apple.
    (41)  *There were a girl eating an apple.
    (42)   There was a cat lurking in the yard.
    (43)  *There was a cat lurk in the yard.
    (44)  *There were a cat lurking in the yard.
    (45)   There were six windows broken by random bullets.
    (46)  *There were six windows breaking by random bullets.
    (47)  *There were six windows break by random bullets.
    (48)   There were six windows breaking under the pressure.
    (49)   There is a pig being photographed in the next room.


How is the Passive transformation ordered with respect to the Verb Form rules?
How is There Insertion ordered with respect to the Verb Form rules?
How is There Insertion ordered with respect to the Passive transformation?


III.  Something Missing

An interesting thing can happen in conjoined sentences:

     (1)  I can't swim under water, but Sally can swim under water.
     (2)  I can't swim under water, but Sally can.

     (3)  I can't swim under water, but Sally can make delicious pizza.
     (2)  I can't swim under water, but Sally can.

Note what (2) means.

Revise the grammar so as to generate sentences like (2), and to
account for the following facts as well:

     (4)  I haven't broken any frogs' legs, but Sally has.
     (5)  I wasn't breaking the frogs' legs, but Sally was.
     (6)  I didn't break the frogs' legs, but Sally did.
     (7)  The frogs' legs weren't being broken by me, but Sally's were.
     (8)  I'm not very pretty, but Sally is.

Given other assumptions we have already adopted in our grammar,
you will have had to write a transformation to account for these
sentences.  Explain why.

This transformation is called "VP Deletion".  According to your
rule, does it delete a VP?

How is VP Deletion ordered with respect to the Passive transformation?

Now look at the following sentence:

     (9)  They said there would be hard questions on this exam,

          and there are.

If you did parts II and III right, your grammar should now provide
a derivation for this sentence.  Discuss that derivation.

How does that word "are" get its form?


IV. Give and discuss the derivations of the following according
    to your grammar (amend it if necessary):

     (1)  Was there a boy hit with a bat by a policeman?
     (2)  Was there a boy hit by a policeman with a bat?
     (3)  Was there a boy with a bat hitting a policeman with a gun?
     (4)  The newspaper offered jobs to several students.
     (5)  To several students, jobs were offered by the newspaper.
     (6)  Several students were offered jobs by the newspaper.
     (7)  There were jobs offered to several students by the newspaper.
     (8)  Weren't there several students offered jobs by the newspaper?
     (9)  There were several students offered jobs by the newspaper,
          weren't there?