Important Points from Chapter 4 (Syntax)

1. Be able to do trees for sentences such as those in #4 and #7, pp. 166-7.

2. Be able to apply substitution, relocation, and question tests (2 of the 3) to sentences, in order to demonstrate that a phrase is a "constituent."

3. Know what a "head" is and what a "complement" (in the broader sense) is. Be able to identify the "head" in an underlined phrase.

4. Be able to answer true-false questions concerning what "grammaticality" means, what a constituent is, what a transformation is, what a head and complement are, what "competence" and "performance" mean. Be able to identify or give an example of a "phrase-structure" rule and a transformation.

5. Indicate hierarchies, including hierarchy within a single word, by means of "trees."

Some Test Questions might be very similar in form to homework problems #3a,c,e,f,j (with tree explanations), 4, 6 (including function label as adverbial, nominal, adjectival), 7, 11, 18. (I am probably going to save questions matching exercise 6 for the next test, and I will also probably save questions matching homework problems downloaded from the web for Friday, Oct. 25, for the next test.)

Here are more kinds of test questions that will be on the next test:

1. Label the syntactic category of underlined phrases ( as NP, VP, PP, S’).

2. Indicate how an underlined word or phrase is functioning: If it is a determiner, preposition, complementizer, or verb particle, indicate which of those. If it is none of those, then label it as an adjectival or an adverbial.

3. Draw two trees that indicate why a sentence or phrase is ambiguous (as in the "synthetic buffalo hide" example or as in #4 on the homework).

4. Indicate whether sentences are SV_TO, SV, or SV_LNP/AP. Then underline each of the indicated pieces (the S, the V, and the O or NP or AP).

5. Indicate whether underlined words are prepositions or verb particles.

6. Drawing a tree diagram of a single word would involve dividing it into its constituent morphemes, showing the hierarchy of these morphemes. I can’t do a tree on this computer, but here is a wordy equivalent: the word deactivation divides into de- plus activation, which then divides into activate plus -tion. Activate then divides into active plus -ate. Active divides into act plus -ive. All the morphemes but act (the root) are derivational affixes. Draw a tree of the word depersonalize, labeling the morphemes at the bottom as roots, inflectional affixes or derivational affixes.