Dear students,

I hope you are well. As promised, I am sharing with you the correction of the Syntax exam (1st
session 2023). Also, I am sharing some pertinent but friendly remarks drawn from the syntax exam
answers specifically. However, they may be relevant to other exams in general, hoping that many of
you will consider them in the future in order to enhance your performance and achievements.

1. Most students DO NOT read the instructions of the exam tasks attentively and proceed hastily
to answering. Reading exam instructions and understanding them is the key to successfully
completing various tasks.

2. Most students still have critical issues in differentiating between different parts of speech. It is
intolerable that an S6 student still cannot identify a noun from a verb or a preposition from an
adjective.

3. While we know exams create pressure on any exam taker, it is terrible that many students
submit exam sheets that convey their irresponsibility and unseriousness (e.g., illegible
handwriting, unclean exam sheet with many crossing outs, excessive use of correction pen,
going beyond the assigned answer space.) These issues may indeed impact your grade as they
may hamper the correction of your paper.

4. Syntax and Grammar are technical fields requiring a selective, accurate, and economical choice
of words. Unfortunately, many students roam around the bush instead of pinpointing the correct
answer; they write a lot but nonsense.

Task I- Define the following concepts based on what you have studied. Give one example sentence
for each concept. 6 pts
- In this task, the examinee is required to provide a short and comprehensive definition of the
concepts in addition to ONE SENTENCE that includes the concept. The example is not counted
unless the definition is correct. Hence, both the definitions and the examples should be
accurate.

Concept Definition Example

1. A non-finite Non-finite verb forms are not Any SENTENCE that includes a non-
verb inflected for tense, aspect, person, or finite verb is accepted.
number. e.g.,

2. A ditransitive A ditransitive verb is a lexical
verb transitive verb that takes two objects;
the direct object and the direct object.
3. A prepositional A prepositional verb is an inseparable
verb idiomatic combination of a verb and a
preposition followed essentially by a
noun. It is not a phrasal verb.
They should check their email
regularly.
They are checking their email
regularly.
- David told the children a story.
- David told them a story.
e.g.,
- The kids were laughing at the joker.
- He was accused of stealing the
money

Task II- Bracket what is required for each sentence and analyze the elements constituting the
phrase. 5 pts

In the second task, the examinee is assigned to bracket the major constituent required at the end of
each sentence. Additionally, they should analyze all the elements inside the bracketed constituents.
Any mistake results in subtracting fractions of the points in each sentence.
Task III- The following sentences are ungrammatical. Argue why. 3 pts
In this task, most students were wrongly correcting the sentences. Unfortunately, this was a result of
uncareful reading of the task instruction. The latter does not require the correction of the sentences but
arguing, justifying, explaining, discussing, and analyzing briefly the ungrammaticality of the
sentences.

1. *Who did the boy give his toy?

The present sentence is ungrammatical due to the violation of the indirect object placement. The
indirect object immediately precedes the direct object. Since the interrogative pronoun (WHO) in the
interrogative construction is placed in the initial position of the sentence, it can no longer refer to the
indirect object in the declarative construction. To overcome this situation, the Oi must be converted
into its alternative PP version first (to whom).

2. *What did happen?

The present sentence is ungrammatical because, in subject Wh questions, the wh-word refers to the S
of the sentence. Hence no inversion takes place as no do-support is required. The declarative word
order is kept in the interrogative construction.

3. *A letter was sent Robert by Maxine

This sentence is ungrammatical as it violates the passivization of ditransitive verb constructions. The
Oi cannot be separated from the Od. Hence the passivization of ditransitive verbs can be either as
with Monotransitive verbs but introducing a PP in the place of Active Oi (to Robert) or converting
the Active Oi into a passive S (Robert was sent a letter)

Task IV- Draw a syntactic tree diagram for each of the following sentences. 6pts
Students are required to analyze each sentence using syntactic tree diagrams. These diagrams should
be detailed and include all functions and forms of various constituents and elements constituting the
sentences. Hence all clauses, phrases, and words should be analyzed and labeled. Any mistake is
penalized and affects the overall grade for each sentence. Unfortunately, a considerable number of
students still have difficulty differentiating a clause from a phrase and other word classes. Students
should pay attention to subordination and coordination if existing.
To conclude, I would like to inform you that the same exam format will be maintained for this module.
Wishing you the best of luck with your makeup exam.

Prof. Zakaria Jamaati