LEC MINOR I (BRITISH STUDIES)/2013

Course coordinator: Dana Ionescu

SEMINAR 1
Introduction to Morphology
I. a. Define UG. Give examples of a principle and a parameter in terms of the Principles and
Parameters Model. Use English as a natural language of reference.
b. What are the levels of grammatical analysis? How are they ordered into the grammar?
c. Define Morhology and delimit its scope of analysis (derivational/inflectional morphologicy).
II. What is a Lexical Category? What is a Syntactic Category? How can the X-Bar Convention
come into place?
Elaborate on the following terms: head, specifier, complement.
III.Identify the basic constituents and their corresponding heads in the following expressions:
a. those unforgettable long walk under the leafy trees;
b. promote a long-lasting peace in the area;
c. run wildly along the grassy meadow and cry for some immediate help
d. Tom coughed and stood up briskly, without uttering a word to the audience.
IV. What are the syntactic criteria that may be used for distinguishing the Noun and the Verb as
lexical categories? What are the distinctive syntactic features of the Adjective and the
Preposition? Is htere any syntactic distinction between them too?
V. What is inflectional variation? Give examples.
VI. What are the inherent categorial features of the noun? What are the contextual features of the
verb? Discuss the following examples in terms of inherent and contextual features:
a. The lady is a famous poetess. She was congratulated on her recent award.
b. The children are all at home.
c. I owe much to them for what they did for me.
VII. Identify the elxical cateogries (parts of speech) that the bolded words belong to. State the
criteria you adopt in identifying them:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
(Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll)
VIII. Identify what category (part of speech) the word round belongs to in the sentences
below:
a.
The doctor is on his round.
b.
Shanti had a round face.
c.
The child rounded his lips to say Oh!.
d.
Drake sailed round the world.
e.
Dont turn round yet.