Exercise 6(1) h Reorganisation of arguments: *The prisoner did his mate in.
Topicalisation: *In his mate the prisoner did.
Modification: *The prisoner did right his mate.
Coordination: *The prisoner did in his mate and over a guard.
phrasal verb(1) i Reorganisation of arguments: Guards broke the fight up.
Topicalisation: *Up the fight guards broke.
Modification: *Guards broke right up the fight.
Coordination: Guards broke up the fight and with the prisoners.
phrasal verb(1) j Reorganisation of arguments: The workers pulled the old building down.
Topicalisation: *Down the old building the workers pulled.
Modification: *The workers pulled right down the old building.
Coordination: *The workers pulled down the old building and apart the walls.
phrasal verbExercise 6
The event structure of the sentence is represented in (1).
(1) e = e 1 Æ e 2 : e 1 = ‘John did something’
e 2 = ‘the window closed’
The sentence is ambiguous because the adjunct again can modify either e 1 or e 2. If
it modifies e 1 then the sentence means that John closed the window then somebody
opened it and John closed it again. If e 2 is modified by the adjunct again then only e 2
happened again while e 1 happened only once. Thus the sentence means that somebody
(but not John) opened the window, then somebody closed it and then John opened it
again. So in the first interpretation John opens the window twice while in the second
interpretation only once.
The structure representing meaning 1 can be seen in (2) while meaning 2 is
represented in (3)showing the verbal projection only.
In meaning 1 again modifies e 1 , so it is adjoined to vP. In meaning 2 only e 2 is
modified by the adjunct, so again is adjoined to VP.