Exercise 1: Exercise 1:
Draw by hand using a straight edge (ruler) for the tree diagrams, the phrase structure for the following phrases including spell-out:
- one cup
- three oxen
- two boxes of oranges
Find all the logical syntactic complements in the above phrases.
- Example. "eight giraffes". Ans: 'giraffe' is the complement of 'eight'.
- cup; oxen; boxes, oranges (of oranges, oranges)
- Why are the following ungrammatical:
- *a foxes
- 'a' is [-Pl], and 'foxes' is [+pl]
- *three pencil
- 'three' is [+Pl], and pencil is [-Pl].
- In both cases there is a lack of agreement
- Name the four conditions of government.
A governs B iff
a) A c-commands B,
b) A is a head,
c) there is no closer governor C such that A governs C, and C governs B.
e) B is an complement of A.
- Open up Grammar 2 Macintosh or DOS and generate the following phrases:
- four foxes
- two cups
- eight books
- eleven chairs
- Why can you not generate "*eight book" given the principles that have been introduced so far?
Eight is [+Pl_Inh, +Pl]; 'book' is [-Pl]. The agreement rule will always convert BOOK into 'books;'
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