Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Exercise 1

Exercise 1

Possible configurations: 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12

1: projection: a Y head cannot project WP, XP has no head, etc.

4: projection (Y as head); X' cannot dominate two maximal projections

7: crossing branches

8: complements must be maximal projections

10: lower XP should be rewritten as X; Y' should be a maximal projection

11: X' cannot dominate two maximal projections; the lower XP should be rewritten as

13: adjuncts must be maximal projections

14: specifiers must be maximal projections

15: ternary branching is not allowed

Exercise 3

The syntactic heads are nouns in each compound. The head is on the left in a) and e).

The meanings of b), c) and f) merit discussion as the meanings of the components do

not directly relate to the meaning of the whole compound. Perhaps it could be argued

that these are exocentric compounds.

Exercise 4

In this exercise the existence of implicit arguments (a, i, j)should be pointed out. One

argument cannot receive more than one theta role (c, d, e, f, g). One theta role can only

be assigned to one argument (b). Clausal arguments may also receive theta roles (k and

l).

Exercise 5

(1) Peter – agent/subject, Mary – beneficiary/indirect object, flowers –

theme/direct object: no change in theta-roles or grammatical functions, only word

order changes

(2) active: the postman – agent/subject, the letter – theme/direct object; passive:

the letter – subject/theme: there is no change in theta-roles but as the subject is

unexpressed, the object moves into its position and assumes its grammatical function

(3) he – agent/subject, us – theme/direct object: no change in theta-roles or

grammatical functions occurs

(4) Peter – experiencer/subject, the scar – theme/direct object: in the second

sentence the scar – theme/subject

(5) Mary – theme/subject: in the second sentence Mary – agent/subject: the

meanings of the two sentences differ considerably with respect to who is pleasing who

(6) who – theme/direct object, you – experiencer/subject, the second sentence is

ambiguous: who – agent/subject of lower clause, you – experiencer/subject of matrix

clause OR who – theme/direct object

(7) he – agent/subject, a shower – theme/(eventive) object: no change in theta

roles or grammatical functions

(8) he – agent/subject, the ball – theme/direct object: no change in theta roles or

grammatical functions