Syntax 1 Wiki: Week 4

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Looking under the hood

Exercise

Go to the Online Grammar and do the following:

  • Type "snores" into the Sentence textbox and press the "Parse" button or RETURN on your keyboard.
  • Inspect the result and try to understand as much as possible.
  • Now click on the boxed "0" after AGR.

  • Inspect the result and try to understand as much as possible.
  • Finally, click on the boxed number below the NP in the SPR list.

  • Again, inspect the result and try to understand as much as possible.
  • Click on the new boxed "0" after AGR that appears.

  • Now there are two boxed "0"s on the screen. What seems to be their function?

Exercise

Go to the Online Grammar and do the following:

  • Parse the sentence Lilly dances".
  • Open the S node and the V node. Don't open any numbered boxes for now.
  • Compare the two feature structures.
  • For every feature (= attribute), compare the values of mother and daughter.
  • Now open the N node, leaving its numbered boxes alone again.
  • Compare the three feature structures. What relationships do you detect? So the self-test exercises below.

Self-test exercises

(1) The part of speech features of the mother

Check your answer

are identical to those of the verb.


(2) The verb is looking for ______ complements.

Check your answer

no


(3) The sentence is looking for ______ complement(s).

Check your answer

no


(4) The verb is looking for ______ specifier(s).

Check your answer

one


(5) If the verb requires a specifier, then it selects a specifier of part of speech ________.

Check your answer

NP