Revision Final 2015 June

GENERAL REVISION

June 2015

I. (a) Draw a detailed tree diagram to represent the structure of the two NPs below, assuming the interpretations in brackets. 1. spectacular valleys and mountains on a mysterious island (both valleys and mountains are located on an island but only the valleys are spectacular) 2. precious clay beer jugs and legible hieroglyphs from Egypt (both jugs and hieroglyphs are precious but only the hieroglyphs come from Egypt) (b) Draw detailed tree diagrams to represent the structure of the phrases below. 1. 2.

these black cab drivers and lion hunters the frustrated dealer in cheap goods and overpriced rocket launchers

II. Briefly account for the ungrammaticality of the sentences below: (a) identify the syntactic process involved, (b) quote the relevant rule and (c) show how it has been violated. 1.

*Sarah confessed at ten o’clock to the crime.

2. *A group of students stared at the syntactic tree and with horror. 3. *John opened a bottle of juice and Jack did so a can of diet coke. 4. Which discussion are you talking about? – *The one of the riots. 5. *Last year they visited gold ancient mines in Brazil. 6. *It was at the actor through her binoculars that Sally glanced. 7. *Rudolph will blow, and Santa Claus will fly, up the chimney. 8. – Did the soldiers defend the bridge? – *No, they blew up it. 9. *Down the new offer a disappointed client turned. 10. *Jack used up all the toothpaste and up all the shampoo.

III. (a) Draw a sketchy tree diagram to represent the structure of the following sentence (You may use triangles for the subject and the object NPs, but make sure that the structure of the VP is presented in detail).

Mary found out the truth. (b) Decide whether the verb in this sentence functions as a phrasal verb or as a prepositional verb. Use: (1) the sentence-fragments test and (2) the distribution-of-pronominal-objects (pronominalisation) test in support of your analysis. When applying the tests, make sure to comment on what is involved, how the tests work and how to interpret the results.