Grammars and Lexicons: 11-721 Fall Term 2007 Homework 4 Due October 17, 2006 Van Valin, Chapter 2, Exercise 2, German ----------------------------------------- Usng the data in Van Valin, Chapter 2, Exercise 2, answer the questions below. This exercise is mostly about coding properties of grammatical relations: word order, case marking, and agreement. The last example is about a behavioral property of grammatical relations: the ability to be an antecedent of a reflexive pronoun. Example 1: 1. What is the person and number of the subject? 2. What is the person and number of the object? 3. Looking at this example only, can you tell what the verb agrees with? 4. What is the case marking of the subject? 5. What is the case marking of the object? 6. What is the position of the subject? 7. What is the position of the object? Examples 2a and 2a': (Note that some words in the examples are not glossed if they have appeared in previous examples.) 8. What is the number of the object in 2a? 9. What is the number of the object in 2b? 10. Does the verb agree in number with the object? 11. Why is 2a' ungrammatical? Example 2b: 12. What is the position of the subject? 13. What is the position of the object? Example 2b': Hypothesis 1: The verb agrees in number with the subject. Hypothesis 2: The verb agrees in number with the first noun phrase. 14. Which hypothesis is supported by example 2b'? Examples 3a and 3b: 15. Which noun phrase does the verb agree with in examples 3a and 3b? 16. How do you know? Example 4: 17. What is the position of the noun phrase with the recipient role? 18. What is the case marking of the noun phrase with the recipient role? Example 5: Example 5a illustrates the passive construction for a two-argument verb in German. 19. Examples 5b and 5c are (attempted) passives of a previous sentence in this exercise. Which sentence are they (attempted) passives of? 20. For a verb with patient and recipient arguments, which argument can become the subject of the passive? Example 6a: 21. What does the reflexive pronoun refer to, subject or object? Example 6b: 22. What does the non-reflexive pronoun refer to, subject or object? Example 6c: "Sich" can't refer to "Der Lehrer" because it is a clause-bounded reflexive pronoun: If it is in an embedded clause, it has to refer to the subject of the embedded clause, not the subject of the matrix clause. Hypothesis 1: Der Lehrer [vp sah [np den Schueler] [vp sich verletzen]] Hypothesis 2: Der Lehrer [vp sah [s [np den Schueler] [vp sich verletzen]]] 23. Draw the phrase structure tree corresponding to the labelled bracketing in Hypothesis 1. (Just to make sure you understand the labelled bracketing.) 24. Draw the phrase structure tree corresponding to the labelled bracketing in Hypothesis 2. (Just to make sure you understand the labelled bracketing.) 25. Which Hypothesis is supported by Example 6c? 26. Why? ----------------------------------------- Van Valin, Chapter 2, Tongan Exercise ---------------------------------------- 1. Is sentence 1 transitive or intransitive? 2. Which morpheme is the case marker in sentence 1? Just give the form of the morpheme, not it's meaning or grammatical role. 3. Is sentence 2 transitive or intransitive? 4. Which morpheme is the case marker in sentence 2? 5. Is sentence 3 transitive or intransitive? 6. Which morhpheme is the case marker of the agent in sentence 3? 7. Which morpheme is the case marker of the patient in sentence 3? 8. Which morpheme is the case marker of the location in sentence 5? 9. Which morpheme is the case marker of the experiencer in sentence 6? 10. Which morpheme is the case marker of "girl" in sentence 6? 11. Is sentence 6 transitive or intransitive? Hint: Don't be fooled by the English translation. 12. Which morpheme is the case marker of "island" in sentence 7? 13. Which morpheme is the case marker of "bird" in sentence 8? 14. Is sentence 8 transitive or intransitive? 15. Is the case marking ergative-absolutive or nominative-accusative? 16. (optional) Do you have questions about anything that is still not clear in examples 1-9? For sentences 10-15, we will use the abbreviations: A agent of a transitive verb S subject of an intransitive verb O object of a transitive verb 16. Choose one: The controller of conjunction reduction in sentence 10 is: A S O 17. Choose one: The controller of conjunction reduction in sentence 11 is: A S O 18. Choose one: The controller of conjunction reduction in sentence 12 is: A S O 19. Choose one: The controller of conjunction reduction in sentence 13 is: A S O Sentences 14' and 15' do not have any conjunction reduction. In both cases, the second clause has pronouns for all participants, not null NPs. 20. Which two roles can control conjunction reduction (A, S, or O)? 21. Choose one: The controllee of conjunction reduction in sentence 10 is: A S O 22. Choose one: The controllee of conjunction reduction in sentence 11 is: A S O 23. Choose one: The controllee of conjunction reduction in sentence 12 is: A S O 24. Choose one: The attempted, but ungrammatical, controllee of conjunction reduction in sentence 14 is: A S O 25. Choose one: The attempted, but ungrammatical, controllee of conjunction reduction in sentence 15 is: A S O other 26. Which two roles (A, S, or O) can be controllees of conjunction reduction? 27. (optional) Do you have any questions? ------------------------------------------------- Van Valin, Chapter 2, Malayalam Exercise ------------------------------------------------- Do not follow Van Valin's instructions. Do Tasks 1-5 below. Task 1: Fill in the table below. One row is done as an example. Include one sentence number for each word form. You can reformat the table but you don't have to. ====================================================================== subj. obj. loc. instr. recip. ben. agent exp. pass. hungry desid. child children mother elephant elephants stick wati wati kontuh (4) (13) watiyaal (9) bird bread shirt book rice bed =========================================================================== subj. = subject obj. = object loc. = locative instr. = instrument recip. = recipient ben. = benefactive agent pass. = agent of passive exp. hungry desid. = experiencer of "be hungry" and desideratives ("desiderative" is the word that linguists use for "want") Task 2: a. Which morpheme would you call nominative case? b. Which grammatical relations and semantic roles is nominative case used for? c. Which morpheme would you call accusative case? d. Which grammatical relations and semantic roles is accusative case used for? e. Which morpheme would you call dative case? f. Which grammatical relations and semantic roles is dative case used for? Task 3: a. How do you form a desiderative (want) sentence in Malayalam? b. How do you form a passive sentence in Malayalam? Task 4: Reflexive Pronouns a. In sentences 32 and 35, what is the grammatical relation of the antecedent of "swantam"? b. What grammatical relation cannot be the antecedent of "swantam"? c. In sentences 33 and 36, what is the grammatical relation of the antececent of "awante"? d. What grammatical relation cannot be the antecedent of "awante"? e. Hypothesis 1: The experiencer of a desiderative is a subject. Hypothesis 2: The experiencer of a desiderative is not a subject. Which hypothesis is supported by example 34? f. Why? Taks 5: Controllers and Controllees of Adjunct Clauses a. In sentence 37, what is the grammatical relation of the controller? b. In sentence 37, what is the grammatical relation of the controllee? c. In sentence 38, can a recipient with dative case be the controller? d. In sentence 43, can a recipient with dative case be the controllee? e. In sentences 39 and 40, can a direct object be the controller? f. Hypothesis 1: A dative experiencer is a subject. Hypothesis 2: A dative experiencer is not a subject. It is like other datives, for example, dative recipients. Which hypothesis is supported by sentence 41? g. Why? h. Which hypothesis is supported by sentence 42? i. Why? j. Hypothesis 1: Dative and nominative NPs can be controllers and controllees of adjunct clauses. Hypothesis 2: Subjects can be controllers and controllees of adjunct clauses. Which hypothesis is disproven by example 43? k. Why? l. Hypothesis 1: Agents and experiencers can be controllers and controllees of adjunct clauses, even if they are not subjects. Hypothesis 2: Subjects can be controllers and controllees of adjunct clauses, even if they are not agents or experiencers. Which hypothesis is supported by sentences 44 and 45? m. Why?