SampleFinalExamAnswers

Final Exam Answers

(120 points)

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: Possible answers:

-er (on teachers) makes verb into an agentive noun

-able makes a verb into an adjective meaning 'able to be Ved'

Inflectional: Possible answers:

-s marks plural nouns

-er marks comparative adjectives

-ed marks past tense on verbs

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? complementary

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

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.

(a) is synthetic; (c) is analytic and (b) is literally contradictory and figuratively synthetic. The truth of (a) can be judged only by looking at the real world: this class (English 256) is in fact conducted in English, so (a) is false. (b) is literally false: German is not a pain, but a language. Figuratively, the truth of (b) can be judged only by each individual. (c) is true regardless of individual circumstance--it is part of the definition of German that it is a language.

6. (2) The utterance The organist extracted himself from the wreckage presupposes that

(1) There is an organist.

(2) There was some kind of accident or other event that created destruction.

(3) The organist was caught in the destruction.

7. (2) Give a sentence with an instrument as its subject and a location as the object of a preposition.

Sample answers: In the other room, a hammer struck a nail.

A ball hit a player behind home base.

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.

Possible evidence:

"The stairs" can be replaced by a single word "they", "They petered out on the damp flagstones, in almost total darkness"

"The stairs" can stand alone in answer to a question: "What petered out on the damp flagstones, in almost total darkness? The stairs."

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

"on the damp flagstones" can be replaced by a single word "there", "The stairs petered out there, in almost total darkness".

"on the damp flagstones" can stand alone in answer to a question, "Where did the stairs peter out, in almost total darkness? On the damp flagstones."

"on the damp flagstones" can be coordinated with a single word,"The stairs petered out here and on the damp flagstones, in almost total darkness" and "The stairs petered out on the damp flagstones and here, in almost total darkness".

"on the damp flagstones" can be moved as a unit without changing the meaning of the sentence, "On the damp flagstones, the stairs petered out, in almost total darkness", "The stairs petered out, in almost total darkness, on the damp flagstones."

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

"almost total" can be coordinated to a single word, "The stairs petered out on the damp flagstones, in inky and almost total darkness" and "The stairs petered out on the damp flagstones, in almost total and inky darkness".

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

Since, as demonstrated above "almost total" is a constituent, "in almost" cannot be since it includes part of a constituent + something that is not part of that constituent.

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). "undrinkable" is an adjective--which excludes (iii) and (iv). "undrink" is not possible which excludes (i) and (iv). So only (ii) is possible.

(iv). "reformulated" is a verb in this sentence, which excludes (iii). re- is a prefix on verbs, not nouns, which excludes (ii). "-ed" is an inflectional suffix, while re- is a derivational prefix, derivation should precede inflection, so (i) is excluded.

(iii). "insincerity" is a noun, not an adjective, which excludes (i) and (ii). "in-" is a prefix on adjectives, not nouns, excluding (iv).

II. Syntax 1 (18 pts)

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

A&B a. The children were aware that the adults were outside the door.

A b. We are pleased with your work and happy that you came.

A c. We are happy that you came and pleased with your work.

B d. *The students were afraid of bears that they were ferocious.

A&B e. The students were afraid that bears were ferocious.

A&B f. I am afraid to work with bears.

B g. *I am afraid of bears to work with them.

12. (4) Which grammar is preferable? Why?

A generates all and only the grammatical sentences. B generates the ungrammatical strings (d) and (g) and fails to generate the grammatical sentences (b) and (c). An adequate grammar should generate all and only the grammatical sentences of a language. So A is preferable.

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

"buy" and "purchase" are synonyms--though not perfect, since "buy" has been extended to mean "mentally accept" as in "I don't buy that" or "I'll buy that" meaning "I accept that argument".

"vend" and "market" are synonyms and hyponyms of "sell" since they mean "sell professionally"

"acquire" has "buy" and "purchase" as hyponyms since "buy" and "purchase" mean "acquire through the use of money"

"buy/purchase" vs. "sell" are converses

"trade" is the superset to which all the others belong.

V. Morphology/Syntax Problem: (16pts)

(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.

15. (8) Give set of plausible PS (phrase structure) rules which with the lexicon you gave in (14) willgenerate all the sentences above.

S->NP VP

N Definite Article

NP->{ Indefinite Article N }

VP->V NP

OR

S->NP V NP

N Definite Article

NP->{ Indefinite Article N }

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 ìthe noun or nominal that is the author of the action of the verbî (169) and the direct object as ìa nominal that names the ìreceiverî 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.

Defining syntactic roles in terms of semantic roles implies that there is a one-to-one relationship between syntactic roles and semantic roles and that implication is not true. Also this specifically claims the subject will be an agent. In none of the sentences below (1ab, 2ab) is the subject an agent--in (1a) it is an experiencer, in (1b) a stimulus, in (2a) an instrument and in (2b) a theme and an instrument. In (1a) and (1b) "everybody" has the same semantic role--but different syntactic roles; in (1a) and (1b) "the design of that building" has the same semantic role, but different syntactic roles. Thus we can see that subjects are often not "authors" (and perhaps that "authors" can fill other syntactic roles).

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.)

meaning: "Mary fixed the tires on that truck and the tires on the new car"

meaning: "Mary fixed the tires on that truck and fixed the new car"

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?

We need a new NP rule, one that introduces an indefinite pronoun with an optional adjective phrase.

19. (4) State your new or modified rule(s). NP->IndefPro (AP)

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