Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 3

In (6a) only the verb stay is moved and the sentence is ill-formed. This means that

stay alone cannot form a whole VP. The PP in the bed is now not an adjunct but a

complement of the verb. If we move the verb and the PP together, the sentence is well-

formed, as we can see in (6b).

Now let us consider the sentences is (1e–f). The test we are going to use is pseudo-

clefting.

(7) a. *What Jill did at the station was [arrive].

b. What Jill did was [arrive at the station].

(8) a. What Jill did at the station was [wait].

b. What Jill did was [wait at the station].

In the above pseudo-cleft sentences, if the sentence is well-formed, the string

following the auxiliary was is a phrase, in these cases a VP. In (7a) the sentence is ill-

formed, so the verb arrive alone is not a full VP. The PP at the station is a complement

of the VP, thus it cannot be separated from the verb. (7b) is well-formed because the

verb is not separated from its complement. In (8a), similarly to (7a), only the verb

follows the auxiliary was. The difference is that now the sentence is well formed. This

means that the verb wait and the PP at the station can be separated. The PP at the

station is an adjunct. Since a VP and an adjunct form another VP node, the sentence in

(8b) will be grammatical as well.

Exercise 12

(1) a. Julie met the student of Physics from France and I met the one from Spain

b. *John knows the student of Physics from France and I know the one of

English from Spain.

(2) a. Julie met a student of Physics of considerable intelligence.

b. *Julie met a student of considerable intelligence of Physics.

(3) a. Julie met a student of Physics and of Mathematics.

b. *Julie met a student of Physics and of considerable intelligence.

The noun student has a PP complement. The PP complement contains a preposition

and a DP that is understood as the object of student. The prepositional phrase of

considerable intelligence is interpreted as an adjunct.

(i) In sentences (1) the indefinite pronoun one is introduced in the second clause.

Pronouns in general have the same distribution as Determiner Phrases (DPs) have. In

fact pronouns are analysed as heads of DPs that do not take NP argument. One seems

to have different distribution as it excludes the definite article as sentence (1a)

illustrates and it covers the head and the complement as is shown in (1b). (1b) is

ungrammatical as the pronoun is substituted in the position of the noun head and

excludes the complement PP between the adjunct PP and the article.

(ii) In sentences (2) the contrast is due to the strict order of the adjunct PP and the

complement PP. Complements are always closer to the head than adjuncts in English.

In sentence (2a) the complement immediately follows the head, while in (2b) the

adjunct follows the head hence the sentence is ungrammatical.