Homework 4: Tree-Drawing

In this assignment you will practice diagramming sentence structures.

Assignment

1. Lexical Categories

What is the lexical category of each of the words in these sentences? Write the sentence with the category of each word marked below.

a. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
b. Jack scrambled up the hill.
c. The king of the goblins thought that Sarah was a match for him.
d. Wily captains often plot continuously.
e. Lily faithfully believed that fairies existed in the woods outside her castle.

2. Ambiguity

Draw phrase structure trees to represent the two meanings of the sentence below. Indicate clearly which of the two structures is associated with which meaning.

Jack tricked the giant with the kitten.

Your goal in this assignment is to show how to distinguish the two meanings of a single sentence by showing that each meaning corresponds to a different structure. You should give structures for the sentence in the exercise, and not for your paraphrases of the different meanings of the sentence. Also, take care that your paraphrases are not themselves ambiguous.

Hint:You should make use of the following rules:

VP-modifier rule: VP --> VP PP
NP-modifier rule: NP --> NP PP

3. Trees

Draw phrase structure trees for the following sentences:

The kitten found the string.
A frightened gnome saved the faltering kingdom.
The sword in the stone gleamed in the sunlight.
The bog drained.
The clever sprite tricked the captain.
A cunning king with a cool smile strolled by the statue during the night.
The ancient music danced through the air.
The witch gave the poisoned apple to the princess.
The goblin stole the baby.
The girl believed that the elves put her brother under the hill.
A mirror glittered in the night.
Brilliantly executed plots amuse the king.
Jack realized that the beanstalk led to the giant.
The agile wood sprite darted around the steel traps.
The queen fiercely believed that she did good things for the realm.
The princess knew that the witch lied about the apple.
Broken hearts mend in time.
The dragon softly cried.
That the knight thought that the princess needed rescuing disturbed her.
That the knight thought that the princess needed rescuing tells her that she already knows that she dislikes him.

Phrase Structure Rules

S --> NP VP
S --> S' VP
S' --> Comp S
NP --> N
NP --> Det N
N --> AdjP N (n-modifier rule)
AdjP --> Adj
AdjP --> Adv AdjP (adj-modifier rule)
NP --> NP PP (np-modifier rule)
PP --> P NP
VP --> V (intransitive verbs, e.g. 'appear')
VP --> V NP (transitive verbs, e.g. 'see')
VP --> V PP (verbs like 'lead' in 'this path leads to certain destruction')
VP --> V NP PP (ditransitive verbs, e.g. 'put')
VP --> V S' (sentence complement verbs, e.g. 'realized')
VP --> VP PP (vp-modifier rule)
VP --> Adv VP (vp-modifier rule 2)
VP --> V NP S' (ditransitive with "sentence-plus" as one of the objects)

For questions 2 and 3, use these and only these rules.