ENG 294 Final, Spring 1998

English 294 Second Semester 1997 - 98 Transformational Grammar Prof. Kassim Shaaban Final Examination ( Two Hours) Give derivations for four of the following sentences, in each instance starting with the deep structure and then indicating the effects of the relevant transformations. For ambiguous sentences, draw two different trees. a. Did you know that Jeremy started the car rolling down the valley? b. There appears to be a problem in the Marketing Department.. c. Inspector Fallon believes the thief that ran away from the police last night to be armed and dangerous. . Sally threatened the man with a stick. . Was it made clear to every soldier that flying planes might be dangerous. . It surprised Nora that it was clear that Natalie persuaded May to be interviewed by MTV. Consider the following pairs of sentences: a. i. Ihaven’t met your mother, and James hasn’t either. ii. I haven’t met your mother, and neither has James. b. i. John lost his wallet at the park, and Sami did too. il. John lost his wallet at the park, and so did Sami. A. Draw deep structure trees for the sentences above. B. Formulate rules that will generate these sentences from the deep structures. 3. Consider the following sentences: . Aman anxious to please his employers should wear new ties more often. . The apples on the kitchen table were eaten by the boys. . The two girls dancing to the music are my friends. . The thief arrested by the police last night has been identified as the downtown sleepwalker. Write down the deep structure of each Subject NP in the sentences above and formulate a rule to generate the surface structures from the corresponding deep structures. 4, Explain how transformational grammar has contributed to our understanding of linguistic competence, language universals, and language acquisition. Bonus question (6 points) Indicate which of the syntactic constraints would explain the ungrammaticality of the following sentences. *a_ The professor whose we liked lecture is from Cambridge. *b. Which one of those new cars did Martha date the guy who owns? *c. That it is clear surprised me that Robert cheated on his taxes. GOOD LUCK