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 Task 1: English Syntactic Structures

• Draw a tree structure diagram for each of the

following phrases and sentences. Feel free to
modify the phrase structure rules given in the
readings/lecture if you think it is necessary.
• a. under the bridge
• b. fell into the pond
• c. this silly picture of Ai
• d. Pat loves Robin passionately.
• e. Robin talked to the manager over the phone.
• Under the bridge

Under the bridge

(PP)

Under (NP)
(P)
the bridge
(Det) (N)
• Fell into the pond

fell into the pond

(VP)

fell (PP)
(V)

into (NP)
(P)

the pond
(Det) (N)
• This silly picture of Ai

(NP)

This (AdjP) picture (PP)

(Det) (N)
silly
(Adj) of (NP)
(P)

Ai
(N)
• Pat loves Robin passionately
(S)

(NP) (VP)

loves (NP) (AdvP)∆

Pat (V)
(N)
Robin passionately
(N) (Adv)
 • Robin talked to the manager over the phone
(S)

(NP) (VP)

Robin talked (PP) (PP)

(N) (V)

to (NP) over (NP)

(P) (P)

the manager the phone

(Det) (N) (Det) (N)
 (S)

wow
(NP) (VP)

very ambiguity
Robin talked (PP)
(N) (V)
to (NP)
(P)

the manager (PP)

(Det) (N)
(NP)
over
(P)
the phone
(Det) (N)
 Task 2: Phrase Structure Rules for Ewe
• The following simplified set of phrase structure rules describes some
aspects of the syntax of a language called Ewe, spoken in West Africa.
Based on these rules, which of the following sentences (1-10) should be
grammatical? Which one of the sentences should be ungrammatical?

Ewe Phrase Structure Rules

• S → NP VP N → {oge, ika, amu}
• NP → N (Det) Det → ye
• VP → V NP V → {xa, vo}
Ewe Sentences:
• (1) Oge xa ika (6) *Vo oge ika
• (2) *Ye amu vo oge (7) Amu ye vo ika
• (3) *Ika oge xa ye (8) *Ye ika xa ye oge
• (4) Oge ye vo ika ye (9) Xa amu ye
• (5) Amu xa oge (10) Oge ye xa amu
 Task 2: Phrase Structure Rules for Ewe

S → NP VP N → {oge, ika, amu}

NP → N (Det) Det → ye
VP → V NP V → {xa, vo}

(2) *Ye amu vo oge (Det, N, V, N)

(3) *Ika oge xa ye (N, N, V, Det)
(6) *Vo oge ika (V, N, N)
(8) *Ye ika xa ye oge (Det, N, V, Det, N)
Task 3: Evidence for Wh-Movement?

Consider the following sentence: Where has John put the

car? How can the following data be used to argue that
where originated to the right of the car in the underlying
structure (i.e., John put the car where?) and was moved
to sentence-initial position in the surface structure?
Hint: Both where and in the garage indicate location.
a) John has put the car in the garage.
b) * John has put.
c) * John has put the car.
d) * John has put in the garage.
e) * Where has John put the car in the garage?
John has put the car in the garage

A is grammatical with put having 3 arguments:

- a subject that must be an agent (John)
- a direct object which represents the theme
(the car) and
- an indirect object which represents a location
or a goal (in the garage)
*John has put.

B’s ungrammaticality shows that put doesn’t

allow for one argument only.

*John has put the car.

*John has put in the garage

C and D’s ungrammaticality shows that put

doesn’t allow for two arguments only.
*Where has John put the car in the garage?
E’s ungrammaticality shows that put does not
allow for 4 arguments.
 Agent Theme Goal
i j k

[John]i has put [the car]j [in the garage]k

The verb put requires 3 arguments, which bears precisely the clause-external
theta role of agent, and the clause-internal theta roles of theme and goal.

Where has John put the car?

 S

NP Aux NP Aux VP

N has N V NP

Where John put Det N PP

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion the car

Wh-Movement
Task 4: Wanna-Contraction and Wh-Movement

In spoken varieties of English, the sequence want to is often contracted to

wanna, as in I don’t wanna go or What do you wanna do tonight? However, as
illustrated in the following set of sentences, there are some structures where
this contraction cannot occur. English-speaking children know how to use
wanna in the right places (and none of the wrong places) at a very early age.
Now explain what it is that they know about using wanna. Under what
syntactic contexts is wanna-contraction blocked in the data below?

a) Who do you {want to/wanna} visit?

b) Who would you {want to/wanna} go out with?
c) How many of your friends do you {want to/wanna} invite to the wedding?
d) Who do you {want to/*wanna} win the game?
e) Who would you {want to/*wanna} look after your pets?
f) How many of your friends do you {want to/*wanna} stay with us?
 Task 4: Wanna-Contraction and Wh-Movement

‘Want’, and an adjacent infinitival ‘to’, cannot contract if

the question queries the identity of the subject of the
infinitival clause (as in d, e, f) but they can contract if the
question queries information about any other constituent
in the infinitival clause (a, b, c)

Wh-trace account
- ‘Wanna’ contraction is blocked whenever there is a
phonetically empty trace of a wh-word located between
the want and the infinitival to. This circumstance occur
whenever there is a main clause with the verb ‘want’
taking an infinitival clause as its complement, and a
question is formed which queries the identity of the
subject of the infinitival clause
Task 4: Wanna-Contraction and Wh-Movement

- In the derivation of the sentence (d), ‘who’ originates

in a position of between want and to.
- You want Jim to win the game. You want who to win
the game?  [Wh-movement] Who do you want to
win the game? NOT *Who do you wanna win the
game?
- This differs in (a, b, c), where the wh-word originates
someplace else.
- You want to go out with Jim.  You want to go out
with who? [Wh-movement] Who do you want to go
out with? OR Who do you wanna go out with?
many applause
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