9 Activities
Prof: A. Elhaloui
1- Constituency
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Using as many constituency diagnostics as
possible, determine which of underlined
portions in the following sentences are
constituents.
Martha found a lovely pillow for the coach.
The light in this room is terrible.
I wonder if Bonnie has finished packing her
books.
Melissa hates the students in her class.
Melissa met the students in her house.
Pete and Max are fighting over the bone.
2- Phrase Structure Rules
A. Write the phrase structure rules that each
of the following rules abbreviate.
B. Give an example sentence illustrating
each expansion.
1. VP → V (NP) (PP) (Adv)
2. NP → Det (Adj) N (PP)
VP → V (NP)
NP (PP)
PP (Adv)
Adv
3- Tree Diagrams
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Draw tree diagrams for the following
sentences:
My husband snores.
I hate war.
The frightened passenger landed the crippled
airline.
The house on the hill collapsed in the wind.
You know that I hate war.
He knows that you know that I hate war.
4- Embedded Clauses
•
Underline the embedded clauses in the following
sentences:
1. Becky said that Jake would play the piano.
2. I deplore the fact that bats have wings.
3. Who promised the teacher that Maxine wouldn’t be
absent.
4. The woman like for the waiter to bring water when she
sits down.
5. The idea for Romeo marrying a 13-year-old is upsetting.
6. I gave my hat to the nurse who helped me cut my hair.
7. For your children to spend all your royalty payments on
recreational drugs is a shame.
5- Ambiguities
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
Determine two possible interpretations
for each one of the following sentences:
They said they would go yesterday.
Could this be the invisible man’s hair
tonic?
No smoking section available.
Dick finally decided on the boat.
Good
Bad
News
News
forfor
nonsmokers!
smokers!
No
“No“Smoking
Smoking Section” available
6- Representing Ambiguities
• Draw two tree diagrams each representing
one of the two possible interpretations of
the following sentence:
• The magician touched the child with the
wand.
S
NP
Det
VP
N
V
NP
PP
Det N P
NP
Det
The
magician
N
touched thechild with the wand
S
NP
Det
VP
N
V
NP
PP
Det
N
P
NP
Det
The
magician
N
touched thechild with the wand
7- Selectional
Propertiesc
• A part of our knowledge
of a language is our
knowledge if a verb
needs to be
complemented by a
phrase and what kind of
phrases can
complement verbs if a
complement is required:
1. Suzy walked
2. * Suzy walked the
road.
A. The ice melted.
B. The sun melted ice.
a. They defended the
castle.
b. * They defended.
8- Selectional
Propertiesc
•
Explain the ungrammaticality of the following
sentences in terms of the selectional properties
of the verbs.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
* The man located.
* Jesus wept the apostles.
* Robert is hopeful of his children.
* Robert is fond that his children love animals.
* The children laughed the man.
In addition to Phrase Structure Rules, languages use
another type of rules that generates different forms of
the same deep structure.
Example: How do we derive a yes-no question in English
Jake will eat the chocolate.
Deep structure:
Jake will eat the chocolate.
Transformation (Move Aux to the left of the subject)
Surface structure: will Jake eat the chocolate.
9- Transformations
•
1.
2.
i.
ii.
A.
B.
a.
b.
Describe the relationship between the first and the
second members of the pairs in terms of a
transformational rule.
The boy wrote the Senator a letter.
The boy wrote a letter to the Senator.
A philanthropist gave the Animal Rights Movement
one million dollars.
A philanthropist gave one million dollars to the Animal
Rights Movement.
He ran the Bill up.
He ran up the Bill.
Mike drowned the rat.
The rat was drowned by Mike.