Handout 2 – Class 3 – Morphology and Syntax

Exercise 1 — Same words, different structure

The two sentences in (1) and (2) below contain words from the same word classes and in
the same order, but they each have different syntactic structures.
(1) Kim glanced at the actor with a wig.
(2) Kim glanced at the actor through her binoculars.

Task (i)
Using standard tests for constituency, identify the structural differences between the two
sentences. Test whether the following sequences form a constituent in the respective
sentences.
(1) [the actor with a wig]
(2) [the actor through her binoculars]
(1) [at the actor with a wig]
(2) [at the actor through her binoculars]
Does [the actor] form a complete constituent in both (1) and (2)?
Apply at least two tests for each putative constituent.
Your answers should include contrasting grammatical and ungrammatical examples which
reveal the syntactic differences between (1) and (2).

Task (ii):
On the bases of your test results, indicate the major difference between the sentence
constituents with brackets

Task (iii):
Draw labelled tree diagrams, visualising the difference between (1) and (2). The tree don’t
have to be technically correct in every detail (and we don’t test trees in the assignments)
but try to capture the major structural difference.

Exercise 2 — Syntactic ambiguity

The sentence in (3) is ambiguous between two readings.

1
(3) Kim glanced at the actor with the binoculars.

Task (i)
Show the two different readings by providing paraphrases for each of the two readings as
(3a) and (3b) and identify which reading aligns structurally with which sentence in the
exercise above
Task (ii)
Discuss why the sentence in (3) is ambiguous, but sentences (1) and (2) in the exercise
above are not.

Exercise 3 — Crash Blossoms (ambiguous headlines)

The week 2 lectures focus on basic sentence structure, i.e. constituency. As a backdrop to
this topic, examine the following headlines (from newspapers). All are ambiguous. Rephrase
each headline with as little change as possible to capture the intended meaning, and give
any other possible interpretations. Say whether the ambiguity is structural, lexical, or both.
[Most are taken from D. Oaks 2012 Structural Ambiguity in English.]

1. $1 million given to better slums

2. The cause of death was determined to be strangulation by the medical examiner

3. Long lost sisters reunited after twenty years in check-out line

4. Gator Attacks Puzzle Experts

5. City ducks vote on transportation fee

6. Giant Waves Down Queen Mary’s Funnel

Exercise 4 — Constituency
Compare the structure of the two sentences below.

(1) Bad weather kills off bamboo shoots

(2) Panda bears live off bamboo shoots

The sentences seem to show the same sequence of words. But do they really show the same
structure? What differences can you detect in the behaviour of off?
Does [off + bamboo shoots] form a constituent in both sentences? And if it is a constituent,
what type of constituent is it?