Syntax I, Assignment 3


Consider these sentences:

(1)  The hungry monkey in the cage ate a banana.

(2)  The hungry monkey put a banana in his pocket.

(3)  The monkey sleeps in his cage.

(4)  White flowers turn brown in sunlight.

(5)  The children drive me crazy with their chatter.

(6)  The monkey on the stool in the corner of the cage went to sleep.

(7)  The policeman hit the boy with a bat.

(8)  The policeman hit the boy with a bat with his nightstick.

First, for each sentence judge whether it is grammatical or not.
If the sentence is grammatical, is it generated by our current grammar?
If so, say how (by what rules, what lexical items are involved);
if not, propose suitable revisions to the grammar so that the sentence
will be generated.  Show how the revision works, and discuss any alternatives
that you consider and reject.  You may use your revised grammar in the
discussion of subsequent examples.

For each sentence, draw its tree according to the revised grammar.

In the case of (7) and (8), discuss carefully the ambiguity of (7)
(does your revised grammar account for it?) and the reduced ambiguity
of (8).