1.a. The woman claimed that he had libelled the politician.
b. The editor will dispute the woman's version of the facts
c. The police have disputed the claim that the suspect had told the truth.
2..a. The dog may have eaten the bone.
b. The nurse has been waiting for you.
c. The builders may have been drinking tea.
Provide as many arguments as you can, whether empirical or conceptual, against including modals in VP as in (1).
| (1) | |
A. Using the grammar tool in generalized X' theory, [When downloading, remember to right-click and to use the "save target as" option.], build structures for the following sentences.
| (2) | a. | He claims that the owner will hire him. | |
| b. | I have investigated the claim that they are following him. | ||
| c. | She must be happy that they hired her. |
B. "Translate" the sentences in (2) into Engshil. Engshil is just like English, except that all of its lexical categories are head-final.
C. "Translate" the sentences in (2) into another imaginary variant of English in which lexical categories are head-initial, just as in ordinary English, but functional categories are head-final.
There is no need to provide trees for either (B) or (C).
A. Provide all the necessary elementary trees (the "treelets" that are provided by the lexicon) for the italicized prepositions to account for the judgments in the following examples. The judgments are mine; if you disagree with them, feel free to replace them with your own, but say so explicitly. You should also feel free to draw on additional data of your own devising.
| (3) | a. | He returned home after the war ended. | |
| b. | He returned home after the war. | ||
| c. | * | He returned home after. | |
| (4) | a. | Nobody broke in although they were gone for a week. | |
| b. | * | Nobody broke in although their week-long absence. | |
| (5) | a. | I came because I like you. | |
| b. | I came because of you. | ||
| c. | * | I came because you. | |
| d. | * | I came because. | |
| (6) | a. | He had never been abroad before the war started. | |
| b. | He had never been abroad before the war. | ||
| c. | He had never been abroad before. | ||
| (7) | a. | * | Nobody broke in despite they were gone for a week. |
| b. | Nobody broke in despite their week-long absence. | ||
| (8) | a. | * | The burglars broke in during they were gone. |
| b. | The burglars broke in during their absence | ||
| c. | * | The burglars broke in during. | |
| (9) | a. | They differ in that they don't share the same interests. | |
| b. | * | They differ in they don't share the same interests. | |
| c. | They differ in their interests. | ||
| (10) | a. | Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. | |
| b. | Actually, this cigarette tastes like crap. | ||
| (11) | a. | They haven't gotten a lot of sleep since their baby was born. | |
| b. | They haven't gotten a lot of sleep since their baby's birth. | ||
| c. | They haven't gotten a lot of sleep since. | ||
| (12) | a. | The burglars broke in while they were gone. | |
| b. | * | The burglars broke in while their absence. | |
| c. | * | The burglars broke in while. |
B. On the basis of the German data in (13) - (15), provide all the necessary elementary trees for the italicized prepositions.
| (13) | a. | Bevor / nachdem du kommst, räumen wir auf. before / after you come clean we up 'Before/after you come, we'll clean up.' | |
| b. | * | Bevor / nachdem deiner Ankunft räumen wir auf. before / after your arrival clean we up Intended meaning: 'Before/after your arrival, we'll clean up.' | |
| c. | * | Bevor / nachdem räumen wir auf. before / after clean we up Intended meaning: 'Beforehand/afterwards, we'll clean up.' | |
| (14) | a. | * | Vor / nach du kommst, räumen wir auf. before / after you come clean we up Intended meaning: 'Before/after you come, we'll clean up' |
| b. | Vor / nach deiner Ankunft räumen wir auf. before / after your arrival clean we up 'Before/after your arrival, we'll clean up.' | ||
| c. | * | Vor / nach räumen wir auf. before / after clean we up Intended meaning: 'Beforehand/afterwards, we'll clean up.' | |
| (15) | a. | Während wir Studenten sind, verreisen wir. while/during we students are travel we 'While we are students, we travel.' | |
| b. | Während des Sommers verreisen wir. while/during the summer travel we 'During the summer, we travel.' | ||
| c. | * | Während verreisen wir. while/during travel we Intended meaning: 'During some unspecified time period, we travel.' |
C. Compare and contrast the syntactic behavior of after, before, during, and while with that of their German translation equivalents.
In a sentence or two, state how them differs in nonstandard and standard English. (16) illustrates nonstandard usage.
| (16) | This is definitely one of them jobs, man, if you're one of them worriers
(Overheard at Bessie's lunch truck, 34th and Walnut, Philadelphia, PA, 31 August 1999) |