A Linguistics Workbook, 4th Edition

Name

Section

4.6 English Syntax 6: Verb-Particle versus Verb-PP Structure

Each of the sentences 1-6 involves either a verb + particle followed by a noun

phrase (structure I) or a verb followed by a prepositional phrase (structure 11).

Structure I

VP

V Particle NP

Structure I1

VP

1. John ran into the street.


2. Paul called up Tim.


3. The child slipped into the closet.


4. I calmed down the clerk.


5. The student filled in the blanks.


6. Deer can leap over the fence.

Below you will be asked to determine which of the two structures is relevant for

each sentence. To make this determination, use the following constituent structure

tests:

Cleft construction (see Linguistics, pp. 178-1 79)

It islwas X that Y.

A single constituent substitutes for X in this construction. For example, consider

the sentence Sally threw out the garbage. Assume that out the garbage is a single

constituent (i.e., an instance of structure 11). If this assumption is correct, then out

the garbage should be able to substitute for X in the cleft construction to produce

a grammatical sentence. However, *It was out the garbage that Sally threw is not a g

grammatical sentence, indicating that out the garbage is not a single constituent U^3 2

and consequently that the VP structure for threw out the garbage is I, not 11. a 9

C

C

n^0

E

(^2 7)
(^0 0) CU
0