Chapter 7
Phrasal Structure and Verb Complementation
Exercise 7.3Noun Phrases
Identify the subject and the predicate in each of the following sentences:
Every evening this week, there will be a different movie.
Running the race exhausted him.
The boxes in the back room are to remain.
That I am not pleased with the findings must be obvious.
Last winter in Vancouver, it didn’t snow.
Ketchup on French fries I find disgusting.
Provide tree diagrams (phrase markers) for the following NPs.
a white dress with a dropped waistline
the east gate of the park
those large paintings by Renoir
the rather frightening bats up under the eaves
a tall, bald man with a bushy moustache
a long vacation on the Caribbean island of Trinidad or Jamaica
his most recent, very provocative novel
your very much deserved success in your career
a very long and boring modern novel
the weather in Vancouver on any given day in winter
the high wooden fence around our yard
a serious conversation with Sharon about her problems
Explain the ambiguity of more detailed plans. Draw tree diagrams for the two different readings.
Do the same for rebellious boys and girls.
The phrase old Chinese history teacher has four possible interpretations:
‘history teacher who is old and Chinese’
‘old teacher of Chinese history’
‘teacher of old Chinese history’
‘history teacher of old Chinese’
Draw generalized trees for the four readings. (Where relevant, treat “history teacher” as a conjoined noun.)
The subject is within square brackets, the predicate is underlined:
Every evening this week, [there] will be a different movie.
Question test: Will [there] be a different movie every evening this week?
Tag test: [There] will be a different movie every evening this week, won’t [there]?
[Running the race] exhausted him.
Question test: Did [running the race] exhaust him?
Tag test: [Running the race] exhausted him, didn’t [it]? (It replaces running the race.)
[The boxes in the back room] are to remain.
Question test: Are [the boxes in the back room] to remain?
Tag test: [The boxes in the back room] are to remain, aren’t [they]? (They replaces the boxes in the back room.)
[That I am not pleased with the findings] must be obvious.
Question test: *Must [that I am not pleased with the findings] be obvious?
(The difficulty arises from the fact that the subject is an entire clause. Note that when it is moved to the end and replaced by it the question form is fine: Must it be obvious that I am not pleased with the findings?)
Tag test: ?[That I am not pleased with the findings] must be obvious, mustn’t [it]? (It replaces That Y. The awkwardness results from the use of must in the tag.)
Last winter in Vancouver, [it] didn’t snow.
Question test: Didn’t [it] snow last winter in Vancouver?
Tag test: [It] didn’t snow last winter in Vancouver, did it?
Ketchup on french fries [ I ] find disgusting.
Question test: Do [ I ] find ketchup on French fries disgusting?
(Semantically this is odd since one doesn’t usually question one's own likes, but syntactically fine.)
Tag test: [ I ] find ketchup on French fries disgusting, don’t [ I ]?
Note that “modern novel” forms a semantic and syntactic unit with internal coherence: you can’t have *modern boring novel.
One possible answer is the following:
However, in the tree above, the PN (Vancouver) is shown as being modified by a PP (on any given day Y), in violation of our rules. More importantly, this analysis gives the reading ‘the weather which is in Vancouver which is on any given day in winter’, whereas the intended reading is ‘the weather which is in Vancouver and which is on any given day in winter’. That is, “on any given day” modifies “weather”, not “Vancouver”. We could account for this structure in the same way that we accounted for a cat on the mat with long whiskers (in the text), as follows:
There are several different ways to analyze this phrase. Generalized trees of the various interpretations are given:
‘the wooden fence which is high and which is around our yard’
‘the wooden fence around our yard which is high’
‘the fence around our yard which is wooden and high’
There does not seem any compelling reason to choose one interpretation over another in this case, though the first tree seems the most plausible.
There are also several ways to interpret this phrase. Again, the structures are shown in generalized form:
‘a conversation with Sharon which is about her problems and which is serious’
‘a serious conversation which is with Sharon and which is about her problems’
‘a conversation with Sharon which is serious and which is about her problems’
Although the first tree would seem to be the most likely interpretation, the others are not impossible.
One reading of more detailed plans is ‘more plans which are detailed’ (i), while the other reading is ‘plans which are more detailed’ (ii). The phrase structure trees corresponding to these reading are as follows:
In the first case, more is a quantifier, while in the second case, it is a degree word.
Either both the boys and the girls are rebellious (i) or just the boys are rebellious (ii):