Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Exercise 2 k The window opened. theme argument *There opened the window. *In the room opened the window. The guests opened the w ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 5 n Dick died. experiencer argument Dick died a terrible death.  intransitive vP DP v' Di ...

Exercise 3
Exercise 3 Verb Tense Aspect Person & number Voice Form see past perfect 3Sg passive (it) had been seen saw pre ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 5 The tests can be applied in the following way. (1) a Reorganisation of arguments: *Lawre ...

Exercise 6 (1) h Reorganisation of arguments: *The prisoner did his mate in. Topicalisation: *In his mate the prisoner did. Modi ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 (2) vP vP AP DP v' again John v VP close 1 v DP V' e the window V t 1 (3) vp DP v' John ...

Check Questions occur in embedded context. In addition, a further property finite clauses they do not share with non-finite clau ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 Q7 Both negation and VP adverbs can precede the tense element but they can never precede ...

Exercise 2 I. Bill gets accusative Case from the verb persuade. Notice that while expect in sentence (1b) assigns accusative Cas ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 nom acc e [John] will never trust [Jane]. nom acc nom f [Which experiment] 2 did 1 [the ...

Exercise 4
Exercise 4 a) In the sentence John’s message arrived the verb arrive is an unaccusative verb, which takes only one ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 b) In the sentence David made the ball roll to the wall there are two verbs. Made is a l ...

Exercise 4 c) The sentence David rolled the ball to the wall is similar in its structure to that in (b), but here we find no ove ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 d) In the sentence John sank Jim’s boat the theme argument is in the specifier of the VP ...

Exercise 4 e) The verb sink is an ergative verb. Ergative verbs are similar to unaccusatives insofar as they take a theme argume ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 f) Jim’s boat was sunk is a passive sentence. The main verb is sink, occupying the V hea ...

Exercise 4 g) In the sentence Bill caught a bird the main verb catch is a transitive verb. The subject is an agent, the object a ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 h) The sentence in The bird was caught is passive. The main verb takes a theme argument. ...

Exercise 4 i) The verb cough in the sentence Sam coughed is an intransitive verb. Intransitive verbs take only one argument whic ...

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6 j) The sentence in the sentence John sent a message to Mary is traditionally called the ...