Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Exercise 11

Degree adverbs

a c

very category: [+F, +N, +V]

subcat: [adjectival]

d

most category: [+F, +N, +V]

subcat: [adjectival]

e -est category: [+F, +N, +V]

subcat: [adjectival]

Exercise 11

a) F; b) N; c) F; d) N; e) F; f) N; g) F; h) N; i) N; j) F; k) F; l) N; m) N; n) N;

Exercise 12

The lexical entry of a predicate contains a theta-grid that specifies the number and the

type of arguments the predicate has and the subcategorisation frame that provides the

categorical status of the complements (all the arguments but the subject) of the

predicate.

a My brother ate a lot of chocolate.

Eat is a two-place predicate that expresses an activity in which an “eater” and an entity

which is eaten are involved. The “eater” performs the “eating” activity on the entity

that is eaten. The thematic roles associated with the two arguments are the agent role

(the “eater” who instigates the activity) and a patient role (the entity that undergoes a

change of state caused by the agent). The subcategorisation frame specifies the

categorical status of the patient, which is a noun phrase therefore it is categorically

nominal.

eat category: [–F, –N, +V]


-grid: <agent, patient>

subcat: nominal

b John is keen on wild animals.

Keen is a two-place predicate, an adjective that expresses a psychological state of the

subject with respect to the object. The subject has experiencer theta role, the object has

theme theta role. The subcategorisation frame specifies the categorical status of the

complement, which is a preposition phrase therefore it is categorically prepositional.

keen category:[–F, +N, +V]


-grid: <experiencer, theme>

subcat: prepositional