Homework 2

Posted and handed out Wednesday Feb 16th, due Monday Feb 28th.

Please try to do #1 by Monday, Feb 21st

Please try to do #2 through #4 by Wednesday, Feb 23rd

Ask if you need help!

In this assignment you will practice diagramming sentence structures, using both the Trees program, and freehand drawing.

Although it is in principle possible to do this assignment with just pen-and-paper, we very strongly recommend that you use the Trees program used in class lectures when constructing your phrase structure trees for most of the questions in this assignment. The Trees program is designed to help you to avoid mistakes in drawing phrase structures, so by using it you greatly improve your chances of doing well. It is also designed to help you think about about sentences as structures rather than just strings of words. ...We're not just saying this for fun: using the Trees program really helps. We have done research on this, and found that students who did not use the program made six times as many errors as students who did use it.

• Instructions on finding, opening and running Trees

Assignment

1. Lexical categories

What is the lexical category of each of the words in these sentences? Write the sentence with the category of each word marked below.

a. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

b. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.

c. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

d. They have strongly recommended that you draw trees with a computer program.

2. Ambiguity

Draw phrase structure trees to represent the two meanings of the sentence The magician touched the child with the wand. Indicate clearly which of the two structures is associated with which meaning.

Your goal in this assignment is to show how to distinguish the two meanings of a single sentence by showing that each meaning corresponds to a different structure. You should give structures for the sentence in the exercise, and you should not give structures for your paraphrases of the different meanings of the sentence. Also, take care that your paraphrases are not themselves ambiguous.

The Trees program is recommended for this exercise. Note, you should use the phrase structure rules/tree-fragments provided in english.gr in the Trees program, and you should not other rules for modifiers (e.g., if you have used other systems in another class). Specifically:

• VP-modifier rule: VP --> VP PP
• NP-modifier rule: NP --> NP PP
• N-modifier rule: N --> AdjP N

  Note that if you use the Trees program, you do not need to worry about which kind of rules for modifiers you use, because the program only allows you to use the rules in english.gr. Note also that it is crucial that you state which meaning corresponds to which structure - see the class notes for help on this.

3. Trees

Draw phrase structure trees for the following sentences:

a. The puppy found the child.
b. A frightened passenger landed the crippled airliner.
c. The house on the hill collapsed in the wind.
d. The ice melted.
e. The hot sun melted the ice.
f. A fast car with twin cams sped by the children on the grassy lane.
g. The old tree swayed in the wind.
h. The children put the toy in the box.
i. The reporter realized that the senator lied.
j. Broken ice melts in the sun.
k. The guitar gently weeps.
l. That the president realized that the senator lied disturbed her.
m. That the president realized that the senator lied means that she knows that he read the latest reports from congress.

The Trees program is recommended for this exercise. Note, you must use the phrase structure rules/tree-fragments provided in english.gr in the Trees program, and you must not use any other rules for modifiers. See above.

You may find that the tree for the final sentence of this exercise is too large to fit on the page/window - if this is the case, then you should follow the tips for shrinking your tree found on the saving and printing instructions page.

This list of rules repeats what is included in the fromkin.gr grammar in the Trees program.

S --> NP VP

NP --> Det N

PP --> P NP

VP --> V (intransitive verbs, e.g. 'appear')

VP --> V NP (transitive verbs, e.g. 'see')

VP --> V NP PP (ditransitive verbs, e.g. 'put')

VP --> V S' (sentence complement verbs, e.g. 'realized')

VP --> VP PP (vp-modifier rule)

N --> AdjP N (n-modifier rule)

AdjP --> Adv AdjP (adj-modifier rule)

NP --> NP PP (np-modifier rule)

S' --> Comp S

AdjP --> Adj

For questions 2 and 3, use these and only these rules.

4. Trees (freehand)

Now draw phrase structure trees for the following sentences. In this case you must draw your trees freehand, and you must not create them using the Trees program. You may use the program as an aid to help yourself figure out the structure, but you should write-up the structure on paper. All of the sentences can be constructed using the rules in the grammar at the bottom of this page; examples (d-g) use words which are not contained in english.gr, but they use rules/tree-fragments that you should by now be familiar with.

a. The reporter found the lane.

b. The passenger realized that the children put the puppy in the sun.

c. The airliner sped by the house.

 

d. Colorless green ideas sleep in an hurry.

e. We think that these truths seem self-evident.

f. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

g. They strongly recommend that you draw trees with a computer-program.

5. Arguments vs. Modifiers

This exercise should be done without the Trees program.

The ultimate goal of this exercise is to draw syntactic trees for the sentences in (a-f). However, in order to do this, you will need to know whether the phrases in brackets are arguments or modifiers of the verb. If they are arguments, then they will attach to the tree inside the (smallest) VP. If they are modifiers, then they attach above VP, forming a larger VP ... as in the many examples we have seen in class.

In order to determine whether the bracketed phrases are arguments or modifiers, you will need to use the "do so" test that we used in class. Recall that "do so" can be used to stand in for a VP: therefore "do so" must replace all of the arguments of a verb when it is used, but only optionally stands in for modifiers. For example, in the two sentences below, the fact that the PP "on Thursday" can be used with do so indicates that it is a modifier; the fact that the PP "on the shelf" cannot be used with do so indicates that it is an argument of the verb put.

The cat meowed [on Tuesday] and the dog did so [on Thursday]

*The boy put the book [on the table] and the girl did so [on the shelf]

A guide to using the "do so" test.

For each of the sentences below: (a) use the "do so" test to show whether the bracketed phrase is an argument or a modifier -- you should include in your answer the test sentence(s) that you created -- and (b) draw a syntactic tree for the sentence, reflecting the conclusions drawn from your tests.

a. Wallace likes [mature cheddar]

b. Pete played [against Andre]

c. Agatha knitted a sweater [for Rebecca]

d. The cowboy walked [into the saloon]

e. Some people snored [during the class]

f. Jill ran [up the hill]

You should be able to draw trees for all of these sentences using syntactic rules/tree fragments that you have already seen.