Passive Construction
Question#1-Passive Construction [10 points]
Part 1: Write up the theta grids for the verbs in the following sentences. Assume there are two
verbs give (give1 is seen in (c), give2 in (d)).
a) John bit the apple.
b) Susan forgave Louis.
c) Phillip gave the medal to the soldier.
d) Phillip gave the soldier the medal.
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Part 2: English has a suffix –en that, when attached to verbs, changes the structure of the sentence
associated with them. This is called the passive morpheme. The following sentences are the
passive equivalents of the sentences in part 1. The bracketed PPs starting with by are optional.
e) The apple was bitten (by John).
f) Louis was forgiven (by Susan).
g) The medal was given to the soldier (by Phillip).
h) The soldier was given the medal (by Phillip).
LINB06-Fall2018
Assignment#4
Due: Dec. 2, 11:59pm
LINB06-Fall2018
Assignment#4
Due: Dec. 2, 11:59pm
Some of these exercises are borrowed from Andrew Carnie’s textbook. 3
Question#3-Ungrammaticality [6 points]
Explain why the following sentences are ungrammatical. Some sentences may have more than one
problem with them. In your arguments, make sure to refer to DP movement, Raising Constructions,
Passive Transformation, etc.
Hint: review your notes from lectures on Nov. 20 and 27 before answering this question.
a) *It seems Sonny to love Cher.
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b) *Bill was bitten the dog.
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c) *Donny is likely that left.
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LINB06-Fall2018
Assignment#4
Due: Dec. 2, 11:59pm
Some of these exercises are borrowed from Andrew Carnie’s textbook. 4
Question#4- Drawing Syntactic trees [21 points]
Draw trees for the following English sentences; be sure to indicate all transformations with arrows.
Hint: you will need the materials discussed in the lecture on Nov. 27 to be able to answer this
question
a) She has not bought peanut butter for the party.
b) It seems that the assignments have been graded by Becky.
LINB06-Fall2018
Assignment#4
Due: Dec. 2, 11:59pm
Some of these exercises are borrowed from Andrew Carnie’s textbook. 5
c) Donny is likely to have been kissed by the puppy.
d) The rice has already been eaten.