Assignment 10: 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 movement 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 movement rule that accomplishes this task.  State it clearly.
Draw the phrase structure(s) that Proposal B assigns to sentence (1).

3.  The following sentences illustrate several properties of yes-no questions
that must be captured by an adequate grammar of English:

(5) Should the farmers have been feeding the pigs?
(6) *Should have the farmers been feeding the pigs?
(7) *Should have been the farmers feeding the pigs?
(8) *Should have been feeding the farmers the pigs?
(9) Have the farmers been feeding the pigs?
(10) *Have been the farmers feeding the pigs?
(11) *Feeding the farmers should have been the pigs?

For each sentence, determine if Proposal A accounts for the sentence, and
explain how it does (or why it doesn't). If there are sentences that Proposal A
does not account for, modify the proposal so that it accounts for them.  Then
go through the same steps for Proposal B.  When you are done, your revised
proposals should each account for all of the yes-no questions that you have seen
so far.













4.  Now, consider the following sentences:

(12) Have the farmers been feeding the pigs?
(13) *Have the farmers have been feeding the pigs?
(14) *Have the farmers should feed the pigs?
(15) Are the farmers feeding the pigs?
(15) *Are the farmers have fed the pigs?
(16) *Are the farmers are feeding the pigs?

Make up more examples like these.  State in plain English what the
generalization is that distinguishes the grammatical questions from the
ungrammatical ones.

Again, for each sentence determine if Proposal A accounts for the sentence, and
explain how it does (or why it doesn't). Pay particular attention to the the VPs
in these sentences.  Then modify the proposal so that it accounts for all of the
sentences.  Then go through the same steps for Proposal B.

5.  State clearly and briefly one argument in favor of one of these two
proposals as opposed to the other.

6.  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.