Taylor, Peter Grenville

English

Almae Matris Studiorum Campus

1Corso di laurea specialistica in Discipline semioticheTeoria linguistica e struttura delle lingueESAME SCRITTO                                                        13 MARZO 2008                 Time allowed: 2hours & 30 minutes.Complete both sections (A & B).Write in Italian, English, French or German, using terminology in English or thelanguage you have chosen to write in.Section AIn this section you are required to complete all questions (read the instructions for each onecarefully).(1) The following sentences are all ungrammatical (or less than fully acceptable): choose2 of them and write a short paragraph explaining (a) why they are ungrammatical, and(b) why they been  considered significant in the particular theoretical areas where theyhave been discussed. 1. *Richard had never his car stolen.2. *Sembra Gianni non apprezzare il regalo.3. *If were we to leave with the earlier train, we would almost certainly arrive intime.4. *Your friend I didn’t give a copy of the book [but Jane I did].5. *Hans ist nicht sehr mächtig des Französischen.6. *[Everyone expected him to apologise but in the end] he didn’t so.                                     7. *If you want to know why the US invaded Iraq, you should read a Chomsky’sarticle about the question.                                                         8. *The boys play frequently old Rolling Stones records.9. *Auch in diesem Monat es gibt ein ganz besonderes Angebot für Ihre Reise mitder Deutschen Bahn.10. *The police must can have access to these documents tomorrow. (2) Give a structural analysis of 3 the following sentences: put brackets around theconstituents and label each one so as to indicate (i) the formal category that it belongs2to (NP, VP, AP, AdjP, PP etc), and (ii) its grammatical function (subject, object,(predicative) complement, adverbial). Your analysis should identify the immediateconstituents of S and VP (do not analyse the internal structure of other phrasalconstituents). Indicate your brackets and labels as clearly as possible.1. Jean rappele les dates de ses vacances à sa mère.2. This year’s party seemed much better than last year’s.3. Au printemps mon chat dort tout le temps.4. Berlins Musikszene lebt von einer Vielzahl immer neuer pulsierender Clubs.5. The police officers discussed the strange graffiti in the graveyard6. Gianni e i suoi amici attribuiscono il pessimo risultato ad un difetto della stampante.(3) Study the groups of structures that follow: choose 2 groups and explain the difference(s)between the various examples. Write a short paragraph.1a. Socrates did not need to die. [He conceded that a fine might be appropriate punishmentfor the charges against him, but his “supercilious and enraging” manner seems to haveprovoked the jury to vote for capital punishment. Once judgment was passed, he mighthave escaped into exile, but he chose to remain and obey the laws of the state,demonstrating once again the foolishness of the citizenry and his own wisdom in thuscurtailing the debilities of old age.] TLS1b. Socrates need not have died. 2a. The weather is terrible: Tom must have cancelled his trip.2b. The weather is terrible: Tom should have cancelled his trip.                           .3a. Tom was googling all morning.3b. ??Tom googled that information.3c. Tom googled that information up.4a. They read the text. 4a`. They read the text through.4b. The text reads through (despite the errors)4b .` *The text reads. 5a. The regiment was proud.5b. The regiment was proud of its achievements in past campaigns.5c. *The regiment went into attack proudly of its achievements in past campaigns.5d. The regiment went into attack proudly. 6a. Di studenti, ne sono partiti tanti negli ultimi giorni6b. ??Di studenti, ne hanno parlato tanti negli ultimi giorni37a. Anche la prima volta Gianni ha volato per più di due ore.7b. Quando Gianni ha aperto la finistra, tutti gli appunti sono volati via8a. acest frumos baiatthis - nice - boy8b. baiatul acesta frumosboy+the - this+agr - nice9a. [I put my wallet down for a moment and when I went to get it], it was gone.9b. [Tom is not there]. *He is gone to London.9c. [Tom is not there]. He has gone to London.10. Què en fareu, del gavinet?‘What will you do with the knife?’10a. #[F Ficarem el gavinet al CALAIX ]10b. [F El ficarem al CALAIX ]# = syntactically possible but not appropriate in context11a. *Lavorato tutta la giornata, Gianni era comunque entusiasta dell’idea di andare alcinema.11b. Arrivato quella mattina da New York, Gianni era comunque entusiasta dell’idea diandare al cinema.11c. Stancato da una giornata piena di lavoro, Gianni era comunque entusiasta dell’idea diandare al cinema.Section BIn this section choose ONE question only and write a short essay.1) Analyse the main informational functions in the clause and show how they are realised,illustrating your answer with examples from English, Italian or any other language. 2) Describe what is meant by the Middle construction and compare it with the Passive andthe Ergative construction. Discuss some of the following examples:1. Les documents ont été perdus par le patron2. Le batiment s’est écroulé/ La porte s’est ouverte3. Le beurre a fondu.4. Ce vin se boit chambré5. *Ce vin se boit par les gourmets6. These documents shred easily7. ??These documents destroy easily8. *The mountains see easily from this window3) The lexical categories traditionally considered to be ‘open’ (N, V, P, Adj, A) contrast witha small number of ‘closed’ categories (auxiliary verbs, determiners, complementisers).The concept of ‘endocentricity’ has an obvious application to the open categories, but itsapplication to the closed categories, though less obvious, is equally illuminating. Discussthe projections of I, D & C and the theory of functional categories.44) ‘Grammaticalisation’ can be defined as the ‘creation of new functional material’ fromlexical items that previously were not specifically functional in character. Illustrate thisprocess in relation to the English modal verbs. 5) It is sometimes said that English has a ‘non-morphological’ verbal system, and this isperhaps only a slight exaggeration. But what is ‘a non-morphological verbal system’?How does a system of this type differ from the morphosyntax of the verb in languageswith rich morphology such as Italian and French?6) “The main point of the ‘X bar’ theory is not that all phrasal categories have the samestructure but that they all have the same structure because they are all projections oflexical properties”. Discuss, illustrating ‘X bar’ theory.7) Examine ‘argument alternation’ verbs of the load type. Much discussion of argumentrealisation/linking appeals to concepts such as ‘patient’ or ‘affected entity’ and to thenotion of ‘2 roles’. Illustrate how verbs of the load class might lead us to replace theseconcepts with an actionality- based approach. 8) “We can only make sense of the English ‘subjunctive clause’ if we assume that thislanguage has the option of giving I0 a null realisation”. Discuss. 9) The idea of ‘transformation’ has been essential to syntax for several decades. It is intendedto capture an aspect of native speaker syntactic knowledge relating (for example) to thefact that the NPs Tom and which film in the sentence  Which film is Tom believed to haveseen last week are respectively understood as subject and object of the verb see despitethe fact that neither of them is adjacent to this verb or even in the same clause (while theverb in question is actually followed by another NP,  last week, which, despite its positionadjacent to the verb, is not interpreted as object). The idea of transformation hasundoubted value at a descriptive level; the crucial question is whether transformationalrules should figure as primes of syntactic knowledge. Discuss.10) Discuss the criterion of ‘explanatory adequacy’, and illustrate what it might mean for asyntactic analysis to satisfy this criterion.11) The structures printed in boldface in the examples that follow, though surprising at firstsight, are less so if considered in the light of English verb complementation as a whole.Discuss.a. Like Reagan, he [= George Bush] wants his first term, in which he was demonisedas a warmonger by many Europeans, to be followed by a second term in which hewrites himself into the history books as both peacemaker and freedom spreader.(Into some history books, depending whose you read.) GUARb. Blakey called on the cellphone from Chicago to say she had just read about it [=the death of Susan Sontag] online; it would be on the front page of the New YorkTimes the next day. It was, but news of the Asian tsunami crowded it out. LRBc. Angus's mum weeps desperate small-hours tears as she pleads with him to sleep.Elizabeth screams herself sick, literally. GUAR5

Model Exam 1

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Model Exam 1

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