Q1. Affix lowering

 

 

Q1. Affix lowering

1. “Affix lowering” was proposed to address a tension in the analysis of syntactic structure. Discuss what the problem is. Illustrate your answer with examples.  (13%)

 

 

1. What is the evidence that supports the affix lowering analysis (as opposed to the verb raising analysis)? Illustrate your answer with examples.  (13%)

 

 

 

Q2.      Consider the sentence in (1).

 

(1)        That John will remain silent is unimaginable.

 

 

1. Provide FIVE test sentences to test the constituency of “remain silent” in (1). (10%)

 

(i) Topicalization:
(ii) Clefting:
(iii) Pseudo-cleft:
(iv) Coordination:
(v) Substitution:

 

 

1. You are asked to show that “That” and “John” in (1) do not form a constituent. Discuss the best strategy that will let you support the non-constituency of “That John” in (1). (8%)

 

 

1. Draw the tree structure of (1). [Hint: You may want to distinguish the subject of the entire sentence from the subject of the embedded clause.] (10%)

 

 

 

Q3.      Peter wants to find out if the string “with long hair” in (2) is a constituent. He constructed four test sentences to test for the constituency of the string, i.e. (3)—(6).

 

(2)        John criticized the student with long hair yesterday.

 

 

(3)        John criticized the student with long hair and bright eyes yesterday.

(4)        What John criticized the student is with long hair.

(5)        With long hair, John criticized the student.

(6)       Many believe that John criticized the student with long hair yesterday. Indeed, John criticized the student yesterday.

 

Identify TWO problems in the set of test sentences. Explain why the test sentences are no good. (14%)

 

 

Q4.      Discuss why negative results in general (as opposed to positive results) offer only weak support for non-constituency of the tested string. Please include (7) and (8) as examples in your discussion. (16%)

 

(7)       John believes that Mary knows a student of Linguistics. *Indeed, of Linguistics,  Mary knows a student.

 

(8)       *It is know a student of Linguistics that Mary does.

 

 

 

Q5.      Consider the sentence in (9).

 

(9)        The programme’s success is heavily  dependent  on sponsorship.

 

 

(a)        Give ONE reason why “on sponsorship” has been claimed to be the complement of “dependent”. (8%)

 

(b)       If you want to further confirm the complement status of “on sponsorship” in (9), discuss how you would construct a test to demonstrate it. (8%)

 

 

 

~ END ~

 

 

The post Q1. Affix lowering appeared first on AssignmentHub.