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Exercise 3.1
Work out the subcategorization frame of each of the lexical items listed in (i-iv). Make sure you
justify your proposals with relevant examples:
i) fond: [A; __ NP]
a fond book
[pp; ___ NP]
He is fond *(of his wife).
ii) declare: [V; __
C’ ]
NP
[V; ___ PP]
declare the result
declare for (or against) the result
iii) transport: [V; __NP ]
[N; ___ (NP)]
transport mail
The railroad gives the transport (of goods).
iv)within: [ADV; VP__ ]
paint within
[ADV;AP__ ]
[ P ; __ NP]
She is pure within.
within the hose
Exercise 3.2
Using examples of your own, explain whether the derivationally related pairs of items in (i-v) have
similar or different subcategorization frames:
i) derive: [ V; __(N) P
NP ]
from
derivation: [N; __ (P-NP) ]
of
Derive the derivation of knowledge from dictionary.
ii) believe: [V;
belief: [N;
__ (P)-NP
in
__ C’
__ (P-NP)
in
__ C’
]
]
She believes her belief in ghost.
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iii) export: [ V; __ NP (PP) ]
export: [ N; __ (PP) ]
The company exports the exports to China.
iv) fond: [A; __ P - NP]
of
fondness: [N; __ P - NP]
for
of
ex. She is fond of her fondness for music.
v) eager: [A;
__
to VP
__
P NP
]
eagerness: [ N; __ (to VP) ]
He is eager to know her eagerness.
Exercise 3.3
The verbs believe and wonder are similar in that they both subcategorize for a clausal complement
(S’), as shown in (ia&b). However, each of the two verbs seems to be particular about the type of
clause it takes as complement, as shown in (iia&b). Suggest a formal way of encoding this
particular property in the subcategorization frame of each verb such that the sentences in (ii1&b)
are excluded:
i)a. Bill believes that John left early.
i)b. Bill wonders if John left early.
i)a. *Bill believes if John left early.
ii)b. *Bill wonders that John left early.
Believe : [V; _____
*[V; _____
s[[-Q][compthat]]
(a declarative sentence)
s[if]]
wonder : *[V; _____ s[[+Q][compthat]]
[V; _____ s[if]]
(an interrogative sentence)
Exercise 3.4
Explain if examples (ia) and (iia), compared to (ib) and (iib), pose a problem for the claim that
violation of the subcategorization requirements of lexical items gives rise to ungrammaticality:
i)a. This problem, I can solve.
i)b. I can solve *(this problem).
ii)a. I wonder which city he comes from.
ii)b. He comes from *(London).
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1. Concerning the subcategorization of “solve” and “from”, we find eachof these two words
requires a NP complement as its object. However, in (ib) and (iib), the complements are
not shown after them. We therefore can claim these two sentences are grammatical.
However, (ia) and (iib) have no objects follow the words solve and from. Contradictorily, the
objects are moved to the initial positions of the two sentences. According to Ouhalla, p.64,
we can postulate that this problem in (ia) and which city in (iia) are originally generated from
the positions after solve and from, and subsequently moved to the initial positions of a
sentence and a clause. And this transformation is termed as topicalisation.
Exercise 3.5
Assign a tree structure to each of the complex categories listed in (i-v). Make sure you justify your
proposals:
A
i) musical
N
‘A
music
-al
ii) establishment
N
V
‘N
-ment
establish
iii) modernization
N
V
‘N
A
‘V
-ation
modern -ize
iv) interpretations
N [plural]
N
V
-s[plural]
‘N
interpret -ation
v) colonised
V [past]
(as a past tense verb)
V
N
colony
-ed[past]
‘V
-ise
Exercise 3.6
Think of possible arguments to decide between the two structures for the complex category
unhappiness shown in (i) and (ii):
N
N
i)
ii)
A
N
N
Aff
Aff
A ness
A
N
un
happy
un
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happy
ness
Unhappiness, according to the dictionary, is a noun. Based in the Righthand Head Rule,
its head, ness, should be in the rightmost position as a morpheme; while the head of (ii) is
happiness. The structure of (ii) revels that –un is the affix and is attached to the word
happiness. –un usually is understood as a morpheme of adjective. Nevertheless, as
mentioned above, unhappiness is a noun. With this concept in mind, we can claim that (i) is
legal. Obviously, (1) is the candidate.
Exercise 3.7
The list in (i-v) includes compounds, which are complex categories formed with independent (i.e.
non-affixal) lexical items. For example, the compound verb dryclean is made up of the adjective
dry and the verb clean and has the structure [V [A dry] [V clean]. Assign a tree structure to each of
the compounds in (i-v). Try to justify your proposals with arguments:
i) crybaby
Means 愛哭的小孩 軟弱的人 Since it is a noun, the head of this
word should be “baby” to preserve the original category of the
morpheme, baby’. However, is cry a noun or a verb? We prefer to
name it as a verb here, because V+ N is more agreeable to the
Righthand Head Rule.
N
V/N
N
baby
cry
ii) bankroll
N/V
N
N/V
bank
Means 資金, It can be a noun or a verb. According to Righthand
Head Rule, the category of bankroll depends on the category of
roll. The morpheme roll here is a noun.
roll
高估. Although estimate and overestimate are words that can be
either a noun or a verb, we would feel the structure: [[V [P over]
[V estimate] ] is preferable.
iii) overestimate
N/V
P
N/V
over
estimate
iv) steamboat
N
V/N
steam
N
boat
蒸 氣 船 We prefer name steam a noun other than a verb.
Because there are a lot of English compound words compounded
with two nouns. No matter the word steam is a verb or a noun,
the head of this compound word is boat, and it is undoubted a
noun.
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v) bluebottle
N
A/N
blue
N
青蠅,矢車菊 Same as in (iv), we may question whether blue
should be A or N. It is proper to say both structures are
acceptable. N-N compounds (ex. doorbell, boathouse) and A-N
compounds (ex. shorthand) are both quite productive.
bottle
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