Check QuestionsChapter
Check Questions
Q1 Sentences are made up of words but these words are also organised into units
which are smaller than the sentence itself. The best way to identify phrases is by
having a look at their distribution: sometimes a single word can be substituted by
another structure containing several words that cluster together, e.g. in Mary is
dancing the constituent Mary can be substituted by The girl we met yesterday. These
two structures (Mary and the girl we met yesterday) have the same function in the
sentence and wherever Mary is used the girl we met yesterday can be used, too.
Phrases come in different types, they are always identified by an element contained in
the phrase. That central element in the girl we met yesterday is girl, a noun, so the
whole structure is a noun phrase. Phrases can have a rather complex internal strucure,
they can contain other phrases or even clauses as can be seen in the girl (that) we met
yesterday, too.
Q2 Rewrite rules describe what constituents a certain structure can be made up of.
The rewrite rule DP Æ D NP means that what is on the left side of the arrow, DP, can
be rewritten as a D and an NP. Generative grammar is a set of rewrite rules with the
help of which all and only the grammatical expressions of the language can be formed.
Q3 A rewrite rule can be recursive, which means that it can contain the same
symbol on both sides, e.g. sentence Æ word*, sentence*. This rule states that a
sentence can contain another sentence, an embedded sentence. Recursive rules can be
applied again and again. It is the presence of such rules that accouts for how a finite
system (remember, the number of rules is finite, and the lexicon, however big, also
contains a finite number of elements) can be turned into an infinite one, since human
languages are limitless.
Q4 The subject is the argument that precedes the verb. In finite clauses it shows
agreement with the verb and appears in nominative Case. Finite clauses always have
visible subjects, even if there is no semantic motivation for it. In these cases the
subject is an expletive element, e.g. it in It is important to finish with the project today.
Non-finite clauses can have an unpronounced subject, if they have a visible subject it
appears in accusative Case.
Q5 direct object (DO): the object that is usually next to the verb, having a theme or
patient theta role in the most typical case, e.g. Botanics in I study Botanics.
indirect object (IO): the object that has the beneficiary theta role in double-
object constructions, in such structures it is the that IO appears next to the verb
preceding the DO: I sent him a parcel. In this structure the IO is him. prepositional
object: an object that appears after a preposition, e.g. him in I went to the theatre with
him.
Q6 The double-object construction has a dative alternate: I sent him a parcel can
also be expressed as I sent a parcel to him with no particular change in meaning. The
order of the theme and goal/beneficiary arguments are different and there are also