Foundations of English Word Grammar - Assignment Example

English Grammar Name Institution Date SECTION A Analysis of The Text Containing 12-15 lines. Mary looked at the man without blinking. Was she afraid? This was unusual because she was a shy and an introverted girl. However, I was able to understand her situation. Little Mary did not know what was in store for her. The man breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid of Mary. He was thinking of meeting just yet another ordinary girl who never cared. They greeted each other with suspicion. They had first contacted each other via Facebook. It was an amazing experience. The world is getting smaller. Mary offered him lunch. S N VP V NP PP DET N P VP P V Mary looked at the Man without blinking S N VP V PP DET NP PRON adverb They greeted each other suspiciously S N VP V PP Adj DET N He was afraid of Mary S NP VP DET N V Adj The world is getting smaller. There are many ways of describing the grammar of language. One approach sees grammar as a set of rules which specify all possible grammatical structures of the language. In this approach, a clear distinction is usually made between grammatical sentences and ungrammatical sentences. The primary concern with structural analysis is with the forms of grammatical structures and their relationship to one another, rather than with their meaning s or their uses in different context. Most scholars often use structural analysis and this poses a problem because these sentences have been made up to illustrate different grammatical rules rather than sentences drawn from real world sources. Even though most theorists and scholars advocate for the use of structural analysis, it has a number of glaring weaknesses. For instance, there is a problem with discontinuous phrases in a sentence. A person analyzing a certain sentence, for instance, The cow lives on fodder. The cow lives green on fodder. Therefore, this means that the stemma is 'projective' because it is possible to project each word up to its node without crossing any dependency lines in the stemma. In contrast, it is impossible to draw for a discontinuous phrase either a phrase-marker or a stemma in which no lines tangle. Discontinuous phrases are a task for any scholar, not because they are ungrammatical but simply because some examples are grammatical. It is almost unthinkable to imagine how others can be so good while the rest are bad. There is no generally accepted general criterion that can deal with discontinuous phrases. Perhaps the greatest benefit of structural analysis using dependency diagrams is its flexibility to accommodate discontinuous phrases in a single structure but in a limited way. This adheres to the rules of the 'surface' facts of the observable words and their order, as well as, the more abstract relationships which lead to discontinuities. On the other hand, phrase structure grammar also has limitations of its own in the process of grammatical analysis. It does not reveal how a sentence can be modifies to form a similar sentence. For instance, it is impossible to change an active statement into a passive sentence, a positive statement into a negative statement or an assertion into a question. Given the sentence, Mary offered him lunch, the first change produces, He was offered lunch by Mary; the second one produces, Mary did not offer him lunch, while the third one produces Did Mary offer him lunch? The modification in each of the instances transforms an entire sentence into closely related sentences. In this case, Transformational rules; therefore, serve a different function than phrase structure rules, which reveals the grammatical structure of a sentence. Sentences can be categorized into around 35 functional sentence categories, each one characterized by a different arrangement of functional sentence elements. The same notation is used as for discourse sentence elements that are each element is represented by a variable of the form (x), meaning all entities which fulfil the function “x”. Since any functional element of a sentence can be a topic, comment, enquiry, or hypothesis, functional sentence structure is independent of discourse structure of identity, and of the rules of grammar by which discourse structure and identity is realized. The order of functional elements is not material, other than to distinguish between an existential sentence and an identification sentence. The discourse elements (not), (query), and (infer) remain necessary to express negation, questions, and inference. Certain functional elements are only characterized by their identity, and are denoted (definite), (select), (circumstance), (indefinite), or (indefinable). Since the relation of movement and state is expressed by the aspect function of discourse structure, each functional sentence type describes both a stative condition or relation and the dynamic process whereby the condition or relation came about. In addition, since the functional elements of a sentence are not affected by the relation of that sentence to other sentences, functional sentence structure is independent of the rules of grammar which connect sentences in discourse, and which employ one sentence to identify another. SECTION B Question One All four of the following clauses are structurally ambiguous. To highlight the ambiguity, you should provide two paraphrases and then for each interpretation provide a corresponding dependency diagram, phrase structure diagram and/or SPOCA analysis. You should use two models for each example and discuss which of the approaches best captures the ambiguity. (thus, for each example at 1-4, there should be two paraphrases and four analyses which can be either dependency diagrams, SPOCA analyses or phrase structure trees.) (1) They found the girl by the tree in his garden. (2) She told me she found someone handsome. [tip: found can mean ‘happen upon’ and found can mean ‘consider’] (3) The Queen’s guard pursued the culprits on horseback. (4) Infuriated deputy managers and administration staff from the department are forwarding a petition. Answer (1) They found the girl by the tree in his garden. The paraphrases are: a) They found the girl under the tree in his garden. b) They found the girl on the tree in his garden. (2) She told me she found someone handsome. [tip: found can mean ‘happen upon’ and found can mean ‘consider’] The two paraphrases are: a) She told me she found a handsome person b) She told me that she stumbled upon a handsome person. (3) The Queen’s guard pursued the culprits on horseback. The two paraphrases are: a) The Queen’s guard pursued culprits fleeing on a horseback. b) The Queen’s guard who was on a horseback pursued culprits. (4) Infuriated deputy managers and administration staff from the department are forwarding a petition. The Two paraphrases are: a) Infuriated deputy managers as well as the administration staff from the department are forwarding a petition. b) Infuriated deputy managers from the department are forwarding a petition against the administration staff. S PRON V NP PP DET N P N DET They found the girl under the tree Question 2 Analyse the following unit using brackets and parsing lines and discuss the unit in terms of clause types and structure. That the fans plan to start negotiations about this issue after Christmas is a positive first step towards a resolution for the different parties who were involved in the incident. Answer There are several types of clauses in the sentence above. There is a noun clause that encompasses the subject and other elements. For instance, the noun clauses in the above sentence are “That the fans, the different parties, in the accident and a resolution. The sentence above is a classic example of a compound complex sentence that contains multiple elements. It is complex because it contains both main clauses and independent clauses. Question 3 3a. Which of the following are unaccusatives? Give one or two pieces of evidence from the diagnostic tests to support your answer. (i)The teacher resigned. This sentence cannot be an example of unaccusative because the teacher, who is the agent, is directly responsible for the action. He is the one who initiated the process of resignation. In fact he or she performed the action of resigning. (ii)The girl disappeared. This is an example of unaccusative because the girl, who is the agent, did not perform the action of disappearing. In other words, she is not directly involved in the action. Therefore, this is an example of unaccussative. (iii)The girl daydreamed constantly. This is not an example of an accusative because the girl is the one who is daydreaming. Actually, she is the one who initiated the process or the state of being absent minded which led to day dreaming. Therefore, it is impossible to categorise this sentence as unaccussative. (iv)The boat sank. This is another good example of unaccussative. The boat, which is the agent, will never and cannot be able to perform an action. The action of sinking may have been prompted by natural forces or human activities. (v)The driver hesitated. This is not an example of unaccusative. The driver, who is the agent in this sentence, initiates the process. He is in full control of his actions. He is much aware of his actions and he perpetuates the actions consciously or unconsciously. 3b.Passives versus Unaccusatives Consider the semantic argument structure (both overt and implied arguments) of the following passives and unaccusatives. Based purely on the examples below, discuss the similarities and differences in the behaviour between each set of examples with regard to argument structure. What is the key difference between passives and unaccusatives. (Remember * marks ungrammaticality) Passives (1)The ship was sunk (by the navy) or (intentionally) (2)The front door was slammed shut (by Grandad) or (on purpose) (3)The vase was smashed (by the dog) or (intentionally) Unaccusatives (1)*The ship sank (by the navy) or (intentionally) (2)* The door slammed shut (by Grandad) or (on purpose) (3)* The vase smashed (by the dog) or (intentionally) The ship was sunk (by the navy) or (intentionally) means that the ship did not sink on its own. It means that there were external forces that made it sink. In this case, the navy might have had a hand in the sinking of the ship because when it written ‘...was sunk,’ means that it was forcefully made to go under the water. In the unaccusative, The ship sank (by the navy) or (intentionally) means that it was inevitable for the ship to go down. There was no intention by anyone, in this case the navy, for the ship to go down. Therefore, the ship just sank due to mechanical failure or natural forces. The front door was slammed shut (by Grandad) or (on purpose) means that the door was closed by someone, in this case by the granddad. This means that there was an intention by somebody to close the door. The door slammed shut (by Grandad) or (on purpose) means that there was no intention of closing the door. Nobody initiated the action of closing the door. The vase was smashed (by the dog) or (intentionally) means that someone or something smashed the vase. In this case, the dog performed the action either consciously or unconsciously. The vase smashed (by the dog) or (intentionally) means that there was no intention whatsoever to smash the vase but due to some actions by the dog, the vase dropped and smashed. Question 4 Choose either 1a/b or 2a/b and answer the following. State which of the two analyses you prefer, and why? In each case, you should think of syntactic motivations for preferring one analysis over another. Answer I prefer 1a because it is detailed and to the point. The action of breaking down the structure of the sentence in order to see its components makes it easier for the reader to discern the various parts it is made up of. For instance, it is much easier for a person to distinguish minor sentential structures such as the auxiliary verb. 1b does not give these details making it nearly impossible to understand the organisation of the sentences. I also prefer 2b because it has a detailed analysis of the components of the sentences. The tree diagram and phrase markers make it explicit for a person analysing the sentence. Additionally, 2b allows easy representation of syntactic or semantic functions. The nodes on the constituent structure trees in these pages consist of syntactic category. Question 5 Consider the approach taken with respect to coordination both on this module and by Hudson in his English Grammar (you may optionally discuss the data within the Phrase Structure approach too) and comment on which analysis you prefer, making reference to the following set of data. (1) She visited Bournemouth, Eastbourne and Brighton. (2) She collects colour postcards and picture books from Morecambe. (3) She had bought a new dress but took it back to the shop later on. (4) She searched for and eventually found her old school books. (5) She gave Mary a cat and Oscar a dog. Answer I prefer Phrase structure grammar because it not only attempts to do away with transformations but also puts emphasis on semantics in comparison with other schools of generative grammar. The semantic theory comes from the tradition of semantics associated with logic. It is also possible to generate a lot of sentences that are grammatically correct using phrase structure grammar. Sentences with vague connotations have different phrase structure trees, therefore, increasing the accuracy when analysing a sentence. References HUDSON, R. 1990. English Word Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell. Read More