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陳佳芸 Jasmine 69112201
ITG CH3 Lexicon Exercises
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; __ P - NP]
of
He is fond *(of sports).
*He is fond in sports.
ii) declare: [V; __
C’ ]
NP
He declared that the king is an enemy to the people.
I want to declare this book.
iii) transport: [V; __NP (PP) ]
[N ]
Mr. Wang transported *(the goods) (to Taipei).
The transport has arrived.
iv)within: [ADV; VP__ ]
[ P ; __ NP]
The children stayed within. *The children within stayed.
John finished the work within three days.
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
ex. The word derives from Latin.
ex. He derives pleasure from reading.
derivation: [N; __ (P-NP) ]
of
ex. The derivation of the word is questionable.
ex. The word’s derivation is questionable.
ii) believe: [V;
belief: [N;
__ (P)-NP
]
in
__ C’
ex. I believe (in) that man.
ex. I believe that she is a good person.
__ (P-NP) ]
in
__ C’
ex. David laughs at May’s belief (in ghost).
ex. I haven’t much belief that Tim is a sage.
iii) export: [ V; __ NP (PP) ]
export: [ N; __ (PP) ]
ex. The country exports quite a lot of ex. The exports (of the country) exceed the
cotton (to Europe).
imports.
iv) fond: [A; __ P - NP]
of
ex. She is fond of piano.
v) eager: [A;
__
to VP
fondness: [N; __ P - NP]
for
ex. She has a great fondness for piano.
]
__ P NP
ex. He is eager for the prize.
ex. He is eager in his tudies.
ex. He is eager to win.
eagerness: [ N; __ (to VP) ]
ex. She could not repress her eagerness.
ex. Her eagerness to finish the work leads to a
sloppy report.
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陳佳芸 Jasmine 69112201
ITG CH3 Lexicon Exercises
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.
We can add the feature [ ＋Q ] to the complementizer of each verb so that believe would
connect with clauses with [ COMP [－Q] ], i.e. that, and wonder with [COMP [＋Q] ], i.e. if.
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).
Solve is subcategorized for a NP complement as its object; from is subcategorized for a NP
complement as well. However, in (ia) and (iia), the complements are not shown after solve
and from respectively, and these two sentences are grammatical. Not only do they bring
about violation of subcategorization but (ia) also represents a counterexample of PS rules,
which says S→NP AUX VP.
To justify these sentences, 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.
We can also use other arguments to support the existence of this kind of movement.
Consider the sentence:
1) Herself/*Ourselves, we all believe she abhors.
Using the reflexive pronoun ourselves leads to ungrammaticality of the sentence because
the reflexive pronoun is originally at the position after abhors as the verb’s object
complement. The reflexive pronoun should be herself, compatible with the subject she.
To give another argument, we can refer to the following sentences:
2a) May is good at English, and David is at physics.
2b)*May is good at English, and David’s at physics.
2c) I promise that I will wash the dish, and wash the dish I will.
2d)*I promise that I will wash the dish, and wash the dish I’ll.
(2b) is ungrammatical because there is a constituent missing (i.e. good) after the
contraction (i.e. David’s). Therefore, we can claim that (2d) is ungrammatical because there
is a constituent missing after I’ll, that is wash the dish.
In conclusion, subcategorization wields its power in the deep structure of sentences, and
afterward a rule called movement can move a constituent from its original position into
another one.
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陳佳芸 Jasmine 69112201
ITG CH3 Lexicon Exercises
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
1. [A [N nation] [A –al] ] 2. [A [N tradition] [A –al] ]
N
‘A
3. [A [N emotion] [A –al] ]
music
-al
ii) establishment
1. [N [V treat] [N –ment] ]
N
V
‘N
-ment
establish
iii) modernization
N
V
‘V
3. [N [V nourish] [N –ment] ]
1. [N [V [A global] [V –ize] ] [N –ation] ]
‘N
A
2. [N [V excite] [N –ment] ]
-ation
2. [N [V [A international] [V –ize] ] [N –ation] ]
modern -ize
iv) interpretations
N [plural]
N
V
-s[plural]
2. [N plural [N [V export] [N –ation] ] [Plural –s] ]
‘N
3. [N plural [N [V import] [N –ation] ] [Plural –s] ]
interpret -ation
v) colonised
V [past]
(as a past tense verb)
V
N
colony
1. [N plural [N [V idetermin] [N –ation] ] [Plural –s] ]
-ed[past]
1. [V past [V [N hospital] [V –ise] ] [Past –ed] ]
‘V
-ise
2. [V past [V [N character] [V –ise] ] [Past –ed] ]
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
happy
ness
To decide the structure of unhappiness, we have to determine whether the logical order is
(i) un- attaching to happy and afterward -ness or (ii) the affix –un attaching to happiness.
If (i) is workable, we should be able to find many examples that un- attaches to adjectives,
and we do find: unkind, uncertain, untrue, unknown, unknowledgeable, unreadable, unsure,
unrelated, etc. If (ii) is workable, we should be able to find quite a few examples that –un
attaches to nouns, and we find: unkindness, uncertainty, untruth, etc.
However, the examples of (ii) are not powerful evidence because we can also find their
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陳佳芸 Jasmine 69112201
ITG CH3 Lexicon Exercises
counterparts in the examples of (i) (ex. unkindness vs. unkind). We cannot decide which
derivation comes first and face the same problem as the case of unhappiness.
In addition, we notice that (ii) is not as productive as (i). For example, there are no
*unknowledge, *unreading, *unreadness, *unsureness, and *unrelation.
The above supports that (i) is the logical structure of unhappiness.
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:
We may feel uncertain about the structure because cry can serve as
either a noun or a verb, but we can find that compounding a verb and
a noun is not very productive. Examples from Contemporary
Linguistics include scrubnurse and jumpsuit, but it is arguable
because scrub and jump can serve as not only verbs but also nouns.
It may be easier to find a “pure” noun (a word belongs to N only)
compounding a noun, such as foodstuff, teacup, teacake, doorbell,
doorframe, etc. One thing to mention is that since English has the
property of righthand head, that whether cry is a verb or a noun
should not bring about a problem.
i) crybaby
N
V/N
N
baby
cry
ii) bankroll
N/V
N
N/V
bank
roll
According to Righthand Head Rule, the category of bankroll
depends on the category of roll. We find that roll can be either a
verb or a noun (The years rolled by. Jane bought a roll of film.), and
this binary property also reflects on bankroll (I need a bankroll for
my investment. The campaign is bankrolled by the Mafia.).
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 based on the following data.
[[V [P with] [V draw] ]
*[N [P with] [N drawal] ]
N/V
[[V [P with] [V stand] ]
*[[N [P with] [N stand] ]
estimate *[[N [P with] [N standing] ]
iii) overestimate
N/V
P
over
iv) steamboat N
V/N
steam
v) bluebottle
N
boat
N
A/N
blue
N
bottle
As in (i), V-N compounds are less productive. Other examples of
N-N compounds:
[N [N boat] [N house] ]
[N [N high] [N chair] ]
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. happy hour, easy
money, shortbread) are both quite productive. In addition, a
compound whose head has the semantic property of certain kind
of color can normally has the syntactic category of both a noun
and an adjective, ex:
[A/N [N bottle] [A/N green]]
[A/N [N dirt] [A/N brown]]
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