Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 4

Exercise 2

Both tree structures are correct. The sentence can be regarded as an ambiguous

sentence with two different meanings and two different structures. However, it is hard

to capture the difference in meaning. The sentence with the DP in (2) means that ‘I

know those students of Mathematics from London who are new’. The other sentence

with the DP in (3) means that ‘I know those new students of Mathematics who are

from London’. The structure can be tested by a substitution test. The N' node can be

substituted for by one/ones.

(4) I know the new students of Mathematics from London and Peter knows the

old ones.

(5) I know the new students of Mathematics from London and Peter knows the

ones from Paris.

In sentence (4) one stands for students of Mathematics from London. Thus this

string of words has to form one node in the structure. We can find an N' node in

structure (2) which exhaustively dominates this string of words while we find no such

node in structure ii. This means that the structure in (2) has to be correct.

In sentence (5) one stands for new students of Mathematics. Thus this string of

words has to form one node in the structure as well. Now we can find an N' node in

structure (3) which exhaustively dominates this string of words, but we do not find

such a node in structure (2). Consequently both structures are correct.

Exercise 3

In sentence (1) the verb likes takes two DPs, one is the subject DP my colleagues, that

contains the possessive pronoun my, which is analysed as DP. The object DP the idea

that the researchers invented the most dangerous weapon ever been made contains the

noun idea that has a sentential complement, a subordinate clause and is preceded by a

determiner. The subordinate clause is lexically headed by the verb invent whose two

arguments are the subject DP the researchers and the object DP the most dangerous

weapon ever been made.

In sentence (2) the verb hate is a two-place predicate, that has two DP arguments,

the subject some students who study linguistics whose lexical head is the noun student

which is modified by a relative clause and the object DP parasitic gaps. The relative

clause contains two DPs, the relative pronoun who and the object DP Linguistics of the

lexical head study of the clause.

In sentence (3) there is the subject DP one very good reason for giving her a

second chance, whose lexical head reason takes a non-finite sentential complement

that contains two DPs, the indirect object pronoun her and the direct object DP a

second chance. The verb is links the subject DP to the that clause, in which there are

four DPs, the subject pronoun she, the object DP of the verb do, a very good job and

two DPs in two adjunct PPs, two years and Paris.