Phrase structure rules for the verb phrase

Leaving the auxiliary elements aside for the moment, we know that English verb phrases also can be complicated. Consider the following sentences:

a. John is a teacher. e. Judy studies mathematics.

b. Alice is very pretty./Alice is very, very pretty. f. He gave the money to Sally.

c. The students are in the room. g. He gave Sally the money.

d. Steve snores. h. Gaby is allergic to cats.

A phrase structure rule that would allow us to account for all such structural possibilities follows:

Can you determine which instance of the above rule would be used to generate each of the above eight sentences? For example, the first three sentences could be accounted for by the following subrules contained within rule 15:

a. VP → cop NP

b. VP → cop AP

c. VP → cop PrepP

See if you can figure out the phrase structure for the verb phrases in sentences (d) and (e). Sentences (g) and (h) convey propositionally equivalent information but are generated by slightly different phrase structure rules for the verb phrase:

g. VP→ V NP PrepP

h. VP→V NP, NP,

When option (g) is selected, a special rule of interpretation applies so that we know the first noun phrase is the indirect object and the second the direct object. Here is the tree diagram for sentence (h):

Дата добавления: 2014-01-04