Syntax Tutorial Exercises – Week 7
Complements and adjuncts, intermediate phrases
Trees in more detail
Draw complete trees for the following sentences, using X-bar theory. Watch for
complement/adjuncts – provide evidence for your analyses. Also: think about lexical vs
auxiliary verbs.
1. He did.
2. He enjoyed chess.
3. The accused man watched the soft snow outside the windows.
4. The jurors sat with studiously impassive faces.
5. Every seat had been taken in the public gallery.
6. There was a boy’s cry from the back of the house just then.
Use these rules:
INFL Rules
(1) IP→NP I ‘ Top level division into subject and the rest
(2) I ‘→IVP To account for tense being marked on an auxiliary verb, as head
of the sentence
VP Rules
(5) VP→(AdvP)V ‘
(6) V ‘→VVP (optional) To account for additional auxiliary verbs
VP Adjuncts/Modifiers (optional)
(7)
V ‘→V'{
PP
NP
AdjP
AdvP
}
To account for the head verb and its complements:
(8) V ‘→V(NP)(NP)(AdjP)(PP)
To account for verb-particle constructions
(9) V→V P (optional)
Noun Phrase Rules
(10)
NP→{
(dtv ) N ‘
PRO
PN
NPPOSSN ‘
}
(11) N ‘→AdjP N ‘ (optional) To account for nominal adjuncts / modifiers
(12)
N ‘→N ‘{CPPP }
(optional) To account for nominal adjuncts / modifiers
(13) N ‘→N (PP) to account for the head noun and its optional
complement(s)
Adjective Phrase Rules
(14) AdjP→(AdvP)Adj’
(15) Adj’→Adj ‘ PP (optional)
(16) Adj’→Adj (PP )
Prepositional Phrase Rules
(17) PP→(AdvP)P ‘
(18)
P ‘→P{NPPP }
Adverb Phrase Rules
(19) AdvP→(AdvP)Adv ‘
(20) Adv ‘→Adv
Coordination Rule
(21) Z→ZConjZ (where Z can stand for a category of any level – zero,
bar or double bar)
Note: CP = ‘Complementizer Phrase’. We will get to these later in the
course.