MODEL ANSWER FOR DECLARATIVE SENTENCE WITH AN UNACCUSATIVE VERB

[(The sun remained behind the clouds.)]

Steps to follow:
1. Look for coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, so) linking main clauses. In this particular case,
there are none. So you can expect only one main clause.
2. Underline the verbs. This will allow you to decide if there are any other subordinate clauses. In this
particular case, the finite verb is remain.
3. Decide which the main predicator is and do the semantic analysis.

Semantic Analysis of the main predicator:

Predicator: remain (two-place verb)
Arguments: the sun, behind the clouds
Argument structure: <1, 2 >
Theta-grid: <theme, locative >
Type of proposition: stative
Aspect: Situation type: State [- dynamic], [+ durative]1 + Viewpoint: perfective
Tense: Past

Syntactic representation of the main clause as a CP:

The main clause is a CP (complementizer phrase) introduced by a null complementizer, which is the head of
the phrase. The null complementizer marks the clause as declarative and it tells us that the clause will be
finite.

Ø The sun remained behind the clouds.

H (Comp) C (TP)

Syntactic Analysis of the Tense Phrase:

Subject (DP) Predicate (T´)

The sun remained behind the clouds.

Syntactic Analysis of the Determiner Phrase functioning as Subject:

The sun
H (D) C (N)

Syntactic analysis of the Predicate:

[Past] remained behind the clouds.

H (Tense) C(VP)

Syntactic Analysis of the VP:

remained behind the clouds.

H (V/ IVIP) C/Loc Adv C (PP)

Syntactic Analysis of the PP

behind the clouds

1
The feature [+/-telic] does not apply to states.
 H (P) C (DP)

Syntactic Analysis of the DP

the clouds
H (D) C (N)

Morphological Analysis of the elements in the main clause:

the: determiner, definite article.
sun: common, countable, concrete noun (?). Variable Noun: regular plural.
remain: lexical verb, regular verb. It becomes finite when the tense element gets attached to it.
the: determiner, definite article.
clouds: common noun, concrete, countable. Variable Noun: regular plural.

Note: remain is an unaccusative verb. Notice that its subject the sun has the theta role of theme (the entity
located somewhere). The sentence has a light verb, but a light verb that projects only once because there is
no agentive or experiencer subject.