Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Exercise 4

possible antecedent in the previous clause because it can refer to a male person as

discussed above. On the other hand, the possibility for referring to another male not

mentioned in this sentence must be also mentioned here.

Exercise 4

The Case Filter states that all DPs must have case. Sentence (1a) is ungrammatical

because the DP John, which is the thematic subject of the embedded sentence, does

not have case. As the inflection of the embedded sentence is non-finite (infinitival), it

cannot assign case to the DP John. In sentence (1b) the embedded sentence is finite,

the finite inflection can assign nominative case, hence the subject DP ‘John’ gets

nominative case from the finite inflection and the sentence is grammatical.

Sentence (2b) is ungrammatical as the non-finite I cannot assign nominative case to

the subject DP of the subordinate sentence. The sentence can be improved when the

subject has accusative case, as the ECM verb believe can assign accusative case to the

DP in the specifier position of its complement.

In (3a) the DP John does not have case, as the non-finite I of the subject

subordinate clause cannot assign case. In (3b) the preposition for saves the sentence as

it can assign accusative case to the specifier of its complement.

Exercise 5

The Theta Criterion states that each argument can have only one thematic role and

each thematic role can be assigned to only one argument.

(1) a I want to leave now.

b John persuaded Bill to leave.

c I want Mary to leave now.

d Mary, I really like her.

e I expected Bill to win the race.

(i) In sentence (1a) the DP John seems to have two thematic roles. Intuitively,

John is the ‘wanter’ and the ‘leaver’. This intuition can be supported by giving the

lexical entry of the two predicates of the sentence. want and leave. The predicate want

is a two-place predicate whose lexical entry is in (2):

(2) want category: [–F, –N, +V]


-grid: <agent proposition>

subcat: clausal

The verb ‘leave’ is a one-place predicate whose lexical entry is in (3):

(3) leave category: [–F, –N, +V]


-grid: <agent>

subcat: 0

The verb want assigns an agent theta role to its subject. The verb leave has an agent

theta role that is assigned to the DP John. As the DP has two theta roles the sentence is

predicted to be ungrammatical. But the sentence is fully grammatical, therefore

problematic for the Theta Criterion.