Studyguide and sample exam – LIN 514 – Spring 2017

Elly van Gelderen

Below is a list of all keywords from the four chapters:

1:UG, I-language, E-language, parameters (syntactic and lexical), merge, minimalism.

2:Lexical and grammatical categories (N, V, A, P, D, T, C), finiteness, case, agreement, types of auxiliaries, pronouns.

3:Phrases headed by lexical and grammatical categories (NP, VP, AP, PP and DP, TP, CP), X-bar theory, structural hierarchy, c-command, negative polarity, reflexive, functions of phrases (subject, object, predicate, adverbial).

4:Intransitive, transitive, ditransitive; agent, causer, theme; durative and telic; unaccusative and unergative; VPISH, VP-shell; the empty elements pro and PRO, control verbs.

Make sure you review the exercises and their answers at the end of each chapter.

Sample questions

1.How would you translate (1), where OM means `object marker’?

(1)Nu’kapiri-ttuwa

1Sgoat-OMsaw

Explain the headedness of (1).

2.In (2), find Ds and Adverbs. The text is from

(2) It was a toss-up as to whose jogging entry into Thursday’s Mesa State of the City address was better.Was it Mesa Mayor John Giles who zipped in, gave out high fives and received a healthy round of applause? Or was it Sparky, who bounded into the ASU fight song, slapped hands with lots of people, hugged a few folks and also got a big round of applause?Perhaps it was a tie.Sparky, the famed Sun Devil mascot of Arizona State University, joined Giles on the stage to jointly announce that ASU plans to expand into downtown Mesa.

3.Circle the finite verbs in (2) and explain what finiteness is in English.

4.Draw a simple tree for (3) and explain why the sentence is ungrammatical.

(3)*I saw any people.

5.In (4), explain what the meaning of the phrase is. It is an adaptation of the joke mentioned in the book.

(4)

ei

VDP

sawei

DNP

anei

NPP

elephantei

PDP

inei

DNP/N

mypajamas

6.In (5), identify the objects. The text is from the same article as (2). Identify the underlined verbs as transitive, unaccusative, or unergative.

(5)Well, actually Giles made the announcement, since Sparky doesn’t speak. But, his gestures said plenty. Their comments were supplanted by a video appearance by ASU President Michael Crow, who was unable to appear, Giles said, because he was at an Arizona Board of Regents meeting.

7.Describe the two classes of intransitives, in terms of aspect and theta-roles. Then give examples.

8.Draw a tree for (6) and (7), using both the VPISH and VP-shell.

(6)Hermione broke his wand into many pieces.

(7)The elephants were all painting cobras.