Linguistics 322

Exercises

Week 7

Exercise 7:

• Open up Grammar 7a (6a covers relevance, 7a tense).

Generate the following verb (voice, aspect, relevance, and tense) phrases:

 

1. bes eating a banana
2. has seeen the sky
3. bes reading these eight books
4. has been visiten some friends
5. has been being shaveen that one student

• Will ulitmately occur as

1. Someone is eating banana.
2. Someone has seen the sky.
3. They are reading these eight books.
4. Some friends have been visited.
5. That one student has been being shaved.

 

Note that the grammar will only generate the above phrases which are intermediate. It will not generate a complete sentence until we cover some more rules. The auxiliary verbs won't get the right endings until the lexicon is installed. The lexicon covers irregular allomorphs. Once established, it will be able to generate "visited".

 

• Draw a tree diagram showing the derivation of "have been being shaved one cat" indicating agreement, filling NIL features. Be sure to include any links that may occur. Draw or indicate each step indicating which rule has been applied.

Open up two files and read them:

• Verbal operator: tense, aspect, and voice.
  • This cover the dummy verbs in Tense, Relevance, and Aspect, and Voice.

This page updated 22 OC 99.