Syntax I

Assignment 4


A.  What is 'his' in "I broke his neck" and why do you think so?

B.  (1)  {[the farmer]'s duck} died.

    (2)  I scared {[the Queen of England]'s cat}.

    (3)  {[[my uncle]'s monkey]'s fleas} are numerous.

    (4)  {[the man from Omaha]'s bid} was low.

1.  What are the curly-bracketed ({}) things in (1)-(4)?
I.e. what is their grammatical category?  Why do you think so?

2.  What are the boxed ([]) things?
I.e. what is their grammatical category?  Why do you think so?

3.  Draw the trees that you think these sentences must have,
based on your answers to 1 and 2.  You'll have to make an assumption
about the morpheme ['s], which we will call POSS.

4.  Modify the NP rule so that sentences like these will be
generated, respecting the decisions you made above about phrase
structure (answers to questions 1 & 2, and your trees).

Then make sure the trees you drew for (1)-(4) are in accord with
your revised grammar.


C. If the following are generated by your grammar, draw their structures:

	(5) The monkey's aged mother's rabidly conservative uncle wrote
	     a short story.

	(6) A very big man with a very bad attitude's dog's escape from
	     its supposedly secure cage made the public nervous.

If they aren't, go back to question 1 and start over.

Don't forget to write your answers out in complete English sentences
and paragraphs, even (even especially) when the answer involves a tree
or a grammatical rule.

D.  If you have done parts (A)-(C) right, you will need to modify the
Determiner Law.  Do it.
But if you have not heard of the determiner Law, you don't have to do part D.

HINT: Test Hypotheses!  Draw trees!