General Linguistics 2024
Homework 3 – Syntax I
Due: Sunday, 10th March
A) Sentence structure (3 points)
Study the following sentences.
a. Chewbacca sang to Han.
b. Darth’s invasion of Naboo terrified the Amidalans.
c. Yoda resided in Dagobah.
d. The Jedi Master gave Anakin a warning.
e. Luke was distrustful of his mentor.
1. Determine whether the verbs mentioned above are transitive, intransitive, or ditransitive.
Note that some verbs can be used either as transitive or as intransitive; you should state how
each verb is being used in the sentence you are discussing. (0.5)
2. Make a list of predicates occurring in the sentences above. (0.5)
3. Indicate for each predicate how many arguments it has, identify the arguments, and indicate
the θ-roles assigned to each argument. (1)
4. Select three constituents from the provided sentences. Demonstrate that they are
constituents by applying any of the constituency tests. You may use the same test for all
three constituents or opt for different tests for each, as long as they successfully pass the
assessments. (1)
B) Reflexive Constructions (0.5 p)
In which of the following sentences do we have co-reference? Shortly, explain your
choice(s).
a. Tatsuki excused herself.
b. He is going to hug it just like you.
c. She warned him subtly.
d. The only one she has to thank for this luck is herself.
e. In itself, it won’t do any harm if you tell him the truth.
General Linguistics 2024
C) Context-Free Grammar (0.5 p)
Write a Context Free Grammar that is able to generate all the sentences in the table above.
Then, write a more specific rule that can generate only b and c but not a.
a. Totoro hugged Mei.
b. Ponyo likes ham.
c. Kiki delivered packages.
D) Fieldwork language (6 points)
For all the examples do not forget to use gloss. If you are not sure how to gloss refer to the lecture
slides and the readings.
1. Write three sentences in your target language: one with a transitive, one with an intransitive,
and one with a ditransitive verb. When you have direct and/or indirect objects specify them in your
gloss. In one of your examples include an adjunct constituent. Indicate the structures that are
arguments (compulsory structures) and adjuncts (if you have any). (1)
2. Does your fieldwork language have any kind of case marking to indicate which DP is the
subject, the object, the indirect object, etc.? Explain with examples to show each argument DP. Is is
possible that the language you are working on does not mark the DP with any suffixation, or maybe
it marks DPs with specific grammatical roles, or maybe it uses free morphemes to indicate the
different DP arguments. Overall, use examples to explain the argument DP marking rules in the
language you are working on. (1.5)
3. Prepositions and objects:
Get translations of these sentences:
The students are crazy about linguistics.
The girl is running without shoes.
The client turned down the proposal.
There are several ways in which the data you get in this problem might be hard to interpret. The
language may just not use prepositions in the same places, or the same way English does; for
example, for the last sentence, you may get a translation in which turn down is translated as a single
verb. If this happens, don’t be alarmed; just report on the data you have. Discovering that the
language you are studying doesn’t use prepositions in the same way that English does qualifies as a
discovery.
In some languages, it may be unclear whether there truly is a preposition, as opposed to some kind
of case ending on the noun in question. Again, this would be an interesting result, which you should
just report; we’re not expecting you to be able to figure out whether the whole preposition system is
General Linguistics 2024
realized as a separate word or an affix on the noun (though it would be interesting to hear what your
language consultant thinks about this question). Report on it based on the data (these sentences) you
have.
In English, prepositions precede their objects. Is this true in the language you are studying?
(1.5)
4. Explain how the reflexive structure works in your target language. Think about the following
points to formulate your explanation: What is/are the reflexive words? Is there just one or multiple
reflexives, if multiple what is the difference between them? How do you decide which one to
choose? What’s the position of the co-reference?
Give an example with a referent and a co-referent structure (using a gloss of course) and indicate the
positioning of the reference and the co-reference.
(2)
