Chapter 5
Constituents and word classes

Assignment 2

Why are the following NGT sentences, as presented, ambiguous in structure? Provide a paraphrase of each meaning.

  1. now professor english teach.

  2. girl beautiful paint.

  1. There are actually three possible meanings: The professor of English is teaching now OR The English professor (= professor from England) is teaching now OR The professor is now teaching English (given that the word order in NGT is SOV; see Chapter 6).

  2. The girl paints beautifully (i.e. beautiful is an adverb) or The beautiful girl paints (i.e. beautiful is an adjective).