Assignment II (26 points = 10 %)

I. Use each of the following sets of phrase structure rules to write acompletesentence, and then draw a tree diagram for the sentence you write (4 points each).

1.a. NP  Det NP PP

b. PP  PP Conj PP

c. VP  V S

2.a. VP  VP Conj VP

b. VP  VP PP

c. AP  AP S

II.Write at least 4 phrase structure rules that are responsible for generating each of the following sentences and then draw a tree diagramfor each of them ( 4 points each).

a. John seemed angry with his wife who strongly opposed his plan.

b. Every UBU student must take four compulsory English courses

III. Consider the following data from Mandarin Chinese:

wo renshi de naxie xueshen

I like that those student

“those students that I know”

  1. What phrase structure rules are involved in generating such an expression in Chinese (1 point)?
  2. Draw a tree diagram that represents its structure (1 point).

IV. The following sentences are structurally ambiguous. Describe the ambiguities and then draw tree diagrams to show that each of the sentences have two distinct structures. Also indicate which structure (tree diagram) is responsible for which meaning (4 points each).

a. John knew that his wife bought a car yesterday.

b. Old men and women visited my parents.

V. Find a sentence in Thai that is structurally ambiguous. Explain the ambiguities and then draw two tree diagrams representing each of the meanings (2 points).

VI. Answer the following questions (1 point each).

a. What property of language can we learn from the existence of structural ambiguity?

b. That words in a sentence are grouped into constituents has been claimed to be universal, that is, this property is part of human language. Find evidence in Thai (or Khmer) to either support or disprove such a claim.

VII. Answer the following questions.

  1. What aspects of English syntax are most difficult for your students to learn (2 points)?
  2. What kind of teaching activities or methods do you think can help your students overcome those difficulties(4 points)?
  3. What have you learned from syntax that you can apply toEnglish teaching (2 points)?

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