Final Exam

(120 points)
Click on the yellow balloons below to see the answers
I. Short Answer (32pts)
1. (6) The sentence The kinder teachers made sure that the students comprehended the testable
material contains both derivational and inflectional morphemes of English. Identify one derivational
morpheme and one inflectional morpheme from the sentence. List each morpheme and its meaning or
function below: Morpheme Meaning/Function

Derivational: ______________________________________________________________________

Inflectional: ______________________________________________________________________

2. (6) Circle all the SNPs and ONPs in the following sentence:

In a fit of rage the soldiers attacked them both that week, but lost the fight.

3. (1) kinder/meaner are antonyms: what kind of antonyms? ________________________________

4. (2) What kind of affix is ing in Mary told them amazing stories?

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5. (4) Briefly, what are the relevant semantic differences among the three sentences below?
a. German is the language of instruction in this class.
b. German is a pain in the neck.
c. German is a language.
Use the notion of analytic, contradictory and synthetic sentences to describe the differences in the
meaning and truth values in these sentence. Limit your answer to the space provided.

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6. (2) The utterance The organist extracted himself from the wreckage presupposes that
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7. (2) Give a sentence with an instrument as its subject and a location as the object of a preposition.

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8. (6) For each of the underlined strings below, give one piece of evidence showing that it forms a
constituent in its sentence.

a. The stairs petered out on the damp flagstones, in almost total darkness.
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b. The stairs petered out on the damp flagstones, in almost total darkness.
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c. The stairs petered out on the damp flagstones, in almost total darkness.
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9. (3) Give sufficient evidence to prove that the underlined phrase is NOT a constituent.

The stairs petered out on damp flagstones, in almost total darkness

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II. Morphology I (6pts)

10. (6) Circle the tree which represents the appropriate structure for each word below.

Extra-Credit: Justify your choice of tree for any or all of 10a-c.

II. Syntax 1 (18 pts)
Grammar A Grammar B

SNP VP SNP VP
S→ ADVP S S→ ADVP S
S CONJ S S CONJ S

V (ONP) (ADJP) ADVP *

VP→ V CP VP→ V (ONP) (ADJP) (CP) ADVP *
VP CONJ VP V CP
VP CONJ VP
(QP) (D) AP* N PP*
NP→ (QP) D N CP (QP) (D) AP* N PP*
NP→ (QP) D N CP

SPRO (Q)
SNP→ NP SPRO (Q)
CP SNP→ NP
SNP Conj SNP CP
SNP Conj SNP
OPRO (Q)
ONP→ NP OPRO (Q)
ONP CONJ ONP ONP→ NP
ONP CONJ ONP

POSSPRO
PossNP→ NP ’s POSSPRO
PossNP→ NP ’s

CP→ CS
CS
CP CONJ
CP→ CP CONJ CP
CP
to VP
P ONP
PP→ PP Conj PP P ONP
PP→ PP Conj PP

AP → (INTENS) A
AP CONJ AP AP → (INTENS) A
AP CONJ AP
ADJP → AP PP
CP AP (PP)
ADJP → ADJP CONJ ADJP
ADJP CONJ ADJP

(INTENS) ADV (INTENS) ADV

ADVP→ PP ADVP→ PP
ADVP CONJ ADVP ADVP CONJ ADVP

ART ART
DEM DEM
Every Every
D→ Each D→ Each
Some Some
No No
POSSNP POSSNP

QP→(APPROX) Q QP→(APPROX) Q
11. (14) Identify which grammar(s) above will generate each of a-g below.

__________a. The children were aware that the adults were outside the door.
__________b. We are pleased with your work and happy that you came.
__________c. We are happy that you came and pleased with your work.
__________d. *The students were afraid of bears that they were ferocious.
__________e. The students were afraid that bears were ferocious.
__________f. I am afraid to work with bears.
_________ g. *I am afraid of bears to work with them.
12. (4) Which grammar is preferable? Why?

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IV. Semantics Problem (10pts)
13. (10) Given the following set of English words, please describe their semantic relationships in terms
of synonymy (partial and complete), hyponymy and antonymy (gradable, converse, complementary).

Data: buy purchase sell vend acquire market (v) trade

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V. Morphology/Syntax Problem: (16pts)
omul spală calul. ‘The man washes the horse’
copilul ia hamul. ‘The boy takes the harness’
un cal mănincă furajul. ‘A horse eats the fodder’
omul spală un cal. ‘The man washes a horse’
un servitor deschide un dicţionar. ‘A servant opens a dictionary’
un redactor are dicţionarul. ‘An editor has the dictionary’
redactorul are dicţionarul ‘The editor has the dictionary’
un copil cumparǎ un ham. ‘A boy buys a harness’
(data from Cowan & Rakušan, Sourcebook for Linguistics)
(Note: Do not attempt to analyze the internal structure of the verbs in the data above.)
14. (8) Identify all the roots and morphological processes in the Rumanian data above and report it out
as a complete lexicon. Don't forget to give a meaning or function for each root and morphological
process.
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15. (8) Give set of plausible PS (phrase structure) rules which with the lexicon you gave in (14) will
generate all the sentences above.

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VI. Semantics/Syntax (10pts)
16. (10) Many school grammars try to define grammatical roles in terms of semantic roles. For
example, the rather awful NTC’s Dictionary of Grammar Terminology defines the subject as “the noun
or nominal that is the author of the action of the verb” (169) and the direct object as “a nominal that
names the “receiver” of the action of the verb” (56). Use the sentences below to make an argument
against specifying syntactic roles in terms of one-to-one relationships with semantic roles. (Be
specific in your discussion; use the appropriate syntactic and semantic labels.)
1a. Everybody admires the design of that building.
b. The design of that building is admired by everybody.
2a. A branch blown off that tree in the storm broke my front window.
b. That tree lost a branch in the storm and it broke my front window.
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VII. Syntax 2: PS Trees (14pts)
17. Using the current grammar attached at the end of the test, draw PS trees for the following sentence:
Mary fixed the tires on that truck and the new car. This sentence is ambiguous, so draw a tree for each
reading and give the appropriate reading with the tree.)
VIII. Syntax 3: Modifying the grammar. (14 pts)
Use the current grammar (attached at the end of the test) to answer the questions below. Your task is
to modify that grammar so that it will generate the grammatical sentences and none of the
ungrammatical strings.

a. I saw somebody. f. Someone confused did this work.

b. I saw somebody very strange. g. They refuse to talk to anyone silly.
c. The students talked about something interesting. h. Everybody smart got a good grade.
d. *I saw him silly. i. *They refuse to talk to people silly.
e. *The students talked about it interesting. J. *They refuse to talk to a person silly.

18. (2) What rules need to be changed, deleted or added to?

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19. (4) State your new or modified rule(s).

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20. (8) Draw a PS tree for A smart person’s respect for someone kind is enormous.
Current Grammar

SNP VP V (ONP) (ADJP) (PP) ADVP *

S→ VP→ V CP
ADVP S
S CONJ S VP CONJ VP

(QP) (D) AP* N PP*

NP→ CP→ C S
(QP) D N CP
CP CONJ CP

SPRO (Q)
NP
P ONP
SNP→ CP PP→ PP Conj PP
SNP Conj SNP

OPRO (Q)
ONP→ NP QP→(APPROX) Q
ONP CONJ ONP

PossNP→ POSSPRO
NP ’s

(INTENS) A
AP → AP CONJ AP

AP (PP)
ADJP → ADJP CONJ ADJP

(INTENS) ADV
ADVP→ PP
ADVP CONJ ADVP

ART
DEM
Every
D→
Each
Some
No
POSSNP