Chapter: Exercise #12_Lopez

Chapter 4- Syntax (part 1)

Team Presentation: Alicia Kalberer, Mirna Lopez, and Michelle D’Arpa

Question 12

Using one or more of the constituency tests discussed in this chapter, determine which of the boldfaced portions in the sentences are constituents.  Provide the grammatical category of the constituents.

a. Martha found a lovely pillow for the couch.

·       It can stand alone. (What did she find?)

·       It can be replaced by a pronoun. (it)

·       If we moved it as a unit to another place it would change the grammatical structure.

·       It is a noun phrase constituent. (NP)

b.The light in this room is terrible.

·       It can not stand alone.  (What is terrible?) (It needs “the”)

·       It cannot be replaced by a pronoun.  (This “it” is terrible?)

·       It cannot be moved. (If we move this chunk to another part of the sentence it becomes ambiguous.)

·       (Ungrammatical)

·       If we are allowed to consider the determiner “the” as part of the phrase, then it could stand alone as the answer to a question.

c. I wonder if Bonnie has finished packing her books.

·       It can stand alone.  (What do you wonder?)

·       It cannot be replaced by a pronoun.  (I wonder (pronoun?).)

·       It can be moved if we add additional words.  (Thus, if Bonnie has finished packing her books, we can leave now.)

·       It can be considered a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP).

  The noun phrase is if Bonnie and the verb phrase is has finished packing her books.

d.      Melissa slept in her class.

·       It can stand alone.  (Where did Melissa sleep?)

·       It can be replaced by a pronoun.  (It can be replaced by “there”.)

·       It can be moved and we can add a prepositional phrase.  (In her class, Melissa slept on her desk.)

·       It is a prepositional phrase. (PP)

e.       Pete and Max are fighting over the bone.

·       It can stand alone.  (Who is fighting over the bone?)

·       It can be replaced by the pronoun “they”.

·       It can be moved and the sentence is transformed into a question. (Are Pete and Max fighting over the bone?)

·       It is a noun phrase. (NP)

f.        I gave a bone to Pete and to Max yesterday.

·       It cannot stand alone.  (It would an awkward answer to a question.)

·       It cannot be replaced with a pronoun.

·       If it is moved it yields an ungrammatical sentence.

·       It is not a constituent.

·       ALTHOUGH, it could be a constituent under the “stand alone” test if words were allowed to be added to the phrase. (Did you give a bone to Pete yesterday?  Yes I did, and to Max also.)

g.       I gave a bone to Pete and to Max yesterday.

·       It cannot stand alone.  (It would an awkward answer to a question.)

·       It cannot be replaced with the pronoun.

·       If it is moved it yields an ungrammatical sentence.

·       It is not a constituent.