Linguistics Assignment 2 Page Finish In 20Hours

LING111 Problem Set 4 Turn in by start of class on Monday, May 6

Warm up

[1]

Show that our current grammar generates the example in (1) by displaying the phrase structure tree which is assigned to it by the rules as they stand. Be slow and careful with this. (Treat every as belonging to the category of determiners).

(1) The provisional government deprived every foreign resident of some very basic rights during the war.

[2]

The English sentence in (2) is ambiguous:

(2) They flirted with us and deprived us of sleep for weeks.

Show that the current grammar accounts for this ambiguity by providing two structures that the grammar provides for (2), and explaining how each structure gives rise to a different one of the two meanings.

Extension

Introduction

We have constructed an analysis of the type of phrase exemplified by the italicized portion of (3):

(3) I believe that syntax is very glamorous.

We named this category CP, and defined it with the rule in (4):

(4) CP → C S

where that is a member of the category C. As illustrated in (5), certain verbs (but not all) subcategorize for a CP headed by C. We say that those verbs select CP.

(5)

a. The Regents proposed that the students should clean the classrooms. b. The governor says that California should secede from the Union. c. The governor denied that his motives were political.

(6) a. *I eat that syntax is very boring. b. *I criticize that syntax is very boring. c. *I defend that syntax is very boring.

Certain, but not all, adjectives also select CP:

(7) a. They were [AP dismayed [CP that the quarter is hardly over ] ]. b. The governor became [AP furious [CP that the regents voted against his proposal ] ]. c. She is [AP very angry [CP that she failed the course ] ]. d. *I am [AP fond [CP that syntax is so glamorous ] ].

Finally, there is a subset of nouns that also select for a CP:

(8) a. [NP The governor's desire [CP that the policy would never change ] ] was evident. b. [NP The idea [CP that nothing will ever change ] ] is ridiculous. c. She argued [PP against [NP the proposal [CP that nothing should ever change ] ] ]. d. [NP The hope [CP that the war would end ] ] never died. e. *[NP The expression [CP that the war was lost ] ] was forbidden

To allow CP to be selected by adjectives or nouns, we have rules, as in (9):

(9) a. AP → (Deg) A (PP) (CP) b. NP → (Deg) (AP)n N (PP) (CP)

For some reason that is not understood very well, however, CP does not occur freely as the sister of P in English:

(10) a. *I argued against that the rules should be changed. b. *After that the rules were changed, the Governor resigned. c. *The voters were angry at that nothing had changed.

This is an idiosyncrasy of English. Most languages allow this possibility (e.g., French aprés que, German anstatt daß).

Your Task

Given all of this, consider now the phrase-type exemplified by the italicized portions of (11):

(11) a. She arranged for Tom to meet her at the airport. b. He planned for Sheila to be at the meeting.

Construct an analysis of this phrase-type. Use the Data Sets in A - D below to guide your in the construction of your analysis. That is, at the end of the exercise, you should have a system which allows for all the grammatical examples below to be generated; and which disallows all the ungrammatical examples. Important: The crucial examples all involve the words for and to. We know, of course, that there is a preposition for and a preposition to. This does not mean, though, that every instance of for is a preposition, or that every instance of to is a preposition.

Dataset A

(12) I arranged for Fred to meet me at the airport and for Sally to follow with the luggage. (13) I arranged for Fred to meet me at the airport and to take the luggage to the hotel. (14) I arranged for Fred to meet me at the airport and take the luggage to the hotel.

Dataset B

(15) a. I arranged for Sally to always be in the room. b. I arranged for the kids to never ever be alone. c. I arranged for the faculty to always simply leave the campus.

Dataset C

(16) a. I arranged for the band to play at Cowell College Night. b. *I realized for the band to play at Cowell College Night.

(17) a. Western diplomats seem very eager for the war to end. b. She was very anxious for her daughter to get a good education. c. *She was very aware for her daughter to be excluded. d. *It is obvious for nothing to have changed.

(18) a. Her desire for her daughter to get a good education is evident. b. She talked about her plan for her daughter to have marimba lessons. c. *People's awareness for this drug to be dangerous is limited.

(19) a. *After for the war to end, people celebrated. b. *I disapprove of for people to smoke. c. *I argued against for the faculty to go on strike. d. *I am in favor of for the people to participate in government.

(20) a. They longed for peace. b. They longed for the war to end. c. *They longed for for the war to end.

Dataset D (More challenging)

(21) a. They arranged for Grant to be by the door. b. They might have arranged for Grant to have opened the concert. c. I may arrange for Grant to be standing by the door. d. We contrived for Grant to have been waiting outside for several hours.

(22) a. I arranged for Donka to open the door. b. *I arranged for Donka to opening the concert. c. *I arranged for Donka to opened the door. d. *I arranged for Donka to opens the door.

(23) a. *I arranged for Sandy to could be there. b. *I arranged for Sandy might to be there. c. *I arranged for Sandy could to be there. d. *I arranged for Sandy to should be there. e. *I arranged for Sandy should to be there.

Questions

Make sure that your discussion provides answers (careful and complete) to the following three questions:

What category does your analysis assign the word for to in these examples? What leads you to make this decision?

What category does your analysis assign the word to to in these examples? What leads you to make this decision?

How does your proposal account for the various patterns illustrated in A-D above?

N.B. For this assignment, you can assume the words like her, his, and their are DPs.

Grading Guidelines

The overall grade will be blended between the Warm-up (33%) and the Extension (67%). We will use the following guidelines to assign your grades in each part.

Warm-up, part 1 WEAK if everything is correct, except where 'during the war' is situated in the

tree FAIR (passes): no more that 3 errors (illegitimate subtrees) GOOD: no more than 2 errors; VERY GOOD no more than 1 error EXCELLENT if perfect;

Warm-up, part 2 WEAK: fails to correctly paraphrase both meanings FAIR (passes): correctly paraphrases both meanings, and links them to the

structure of the tree

GOOD: correctly describes how the ambiguity interacts with coordination VERY GOOD uses trees to illustrate the point. EXCELLENT if perfect;

Extension WEAK/NO PASS: an assignments which states the solution without any

justification FAIR (passes): an assignment which give a basic/working solution, and

provides at least 1 justification FAIRLY GOOD: a FAIR assignment with a strong standard of writing (see

Guidelines in Syllabus); ora GOOD assignment with worse writing. GOOD: gives at least 2 justifications; links the proposed analysis to technical

concepts developed in class VERY GOOD: gives 3 clear justifications, i.e., analyzes 3 of 4 data sets EXCELLENT: analyzes each data set in light of the new proposal; highest

standard of prose