LIN205 (WS25) Assignment 1

•  This assignment is individual work. Please follow the Community Respect policy when you are working on this assignment.  I am trusting you to do honest work, without any form of unauthorized aid. Unauthorized aid includes (but is not limited to) coaching from external “tutors” .  Please also note that sharing the course content (including this document) with those who are not enrolled in the class is a big form of disrespect towards me.

•  As a reminder, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT may not be used in any capacity for submitted graded material in this class. Not respecting this policy goes against our Community Respect rules.

•  This assignment is not a “research” assignment, but rather a “problem set” assignment. That is, you should not consult resources outside of what has been given to you in the course so far. You can consult your notes, readings that have been assigned so far in class, and materials used during lectures/tutorials — but you are not allowed to, for example, search on the internet for additional resources. What you have learned in class and the information you have been given on this assignment are sufficient for answering all questions.

• I will show my respect for your need for clarity by explaining to you how (your TAs and) I grade assignments. I will also show my respect for your need for honesty and fairness by providing sensible justifications for the grade that you receive.

•  There is no “rubric”, but Iwill explain during the 2/4 lecture what each part is assessing you on, and what strong answers are generally like on a linguistics assignment.

•  Please submit your work on Crowdmark.

1 Basic syntactic structure (60%)

For each of the following sentences, draw brackets (i.e., [   ]) around the kind of clause(s) specified in the parentheses after the sentence. There could be one or multiple clauses you have to identify. If there is more than one clause to bracket, please put a subscript on the brackets so that the grader can tell where each clause begins and ends (e.g., [1           [2         ]2        ]1 ).

1. The professor expected for the students to acknowledge that they eventually make mistakes.     (Bracket all finite clauses)

2. Sarah thinks that her sisters want for her parents to spend more time together.         (Bracket the want clause)

3. I heard that my colleagues said Reading Week will provide relaxation.              (Bracket the provide clause)

4. My friend hoped that his girlfriend wanted her parents to go to the concert.          (Bracket all non-finite clauses)

5. Meredith wants for her granddaughter to ask her boss for a raise in her salary.         (Bracket all embedded clauses)

Q6. Using X,-theory, provide a tree diagram for the italicized sentence.  Clearly label each node with the appropriate category (e.g., XP, X, , X). Please rewrite the sentence at the bottom of your paper/screen, and draw the tree on top of the sentence, as we have been doing in class.

The message to  the very large department expected for each professor to cook for their colleagues annually (Meaning:  ‘The message to the very large department expected this: for each professor to cook for their colleagues annually’)

2 Meaning predicts structure and structure predicts meaning (15%)

Consider the following dataset and the following trees:

Dataset 1:

(1)      This one has shocked the community

Intended meaning: ‘This/the arrest of the popular blogger has shocked the community’

(2)    * It of the popular blogger has shocked the community

Intended meaning: ‘The arrest of the popular blogger has shocked the community’

(3)    * The one of the popular blogger has shocked the community

Intended meaning: ‘The arrest of the popular blogger has shocked the community’

(4)      It has shocked the community

Intended meaning: ‘The arrest of the popular blogger has shocked the community’

Tree A:

Tree B:

Q1. Based on Dataset 1, which tree is the correct structure for the sentence The  arrest  of  the  popular blogger has shocked the  community? Please choose one: Tree  A or Tree  B

Q2. For the tree you did NOT choose in Q1, use Modus  Tollens to explain why the tree you did not choose is an impossible tree for the given sentence. Make sure you set up your logical argument clearly like we did in class, and mention the specific substitution datapoint (from Dataset 1) that serves as

the evidence in your argument. Not all datapoints from Dataset 1 will be relevant for this question. Q3. Now consider the following datapoint.

(5)   The arrest this month of the popular blogger has shocked the community

Considering that this  month  is an adjunct that tells you when the arrest took place, it would make sense for it to form a constituent with arrest. We can hypothesize a structure like this (a triangle in a tree is an abbreviation that means ‘there’s more structure under here’):

Tree C:

Uh-oh, this tree is a problem. We are kind of forced into proposing this structure based on our reasoning so far, but it’s probably not the right structure for this sentence based on what we know about X,-theory from class.

Here is your question. What problem does this additional datapoint (and its supposed structure in Tree C) pose for what we have been assuming about X,-theory in class?  Please make reference to the concept of compositionality as it specifically relates to X,-theory in your explanation.

(Hint: Substitution data is not super relevant for this question.  Also, this question is NOT asking what the“correct” structure for the sentence would look like.)

3 Thinking more about compositionality (25%)

Consider the following Dataset.

Dataset 2

(6)   I can finish this project by midnight

Meaning ‘I can finish this project by midnight’

(7)   I can’t finish this project by midnight

Meaning: ‘I cannot finish this project by midnight’

(8)   I will see if I can finish this project by midnight

Meaning: ‘I will see if I can finish this project by midnight’

(9)   I will see if I can’t finish this project by midnight

Meaning: ‘I will see if I can finish this project by midnight’

In some varieties of English, (9) reportedly means ‘I will see if I can finish this project by midnight’, even though there is the negation not  (contracted as n't) present in the sentence.  Please answer the following questions.

Q1. Why might Dataset 2 pose a problem for the principle of compositionality in language? Please provide a brief discussion.

Q2. If we still assume compositionality to apply in all sentences (we have pretty good reasons to think so!), how might we be able to explain why the sentence in (9) does not contain the meaning of negation? Please provide a brief discussion.

Note: If you do not know the answer to either or both of the questions, I hereby give you the option of putting “I’m not sure” as your answer. If you do this, you will receive partial credit for the question, as a token of appreciation for your honesty and respect for the grader’s time. If you actually try to answer but your answer is completely wrong or irrelevant, you will not receive any partial credit.  This assignment is designed so that if you get a zero in this part but get all other questions in the other two parts right, you get a 75% (a B) on the assignment overall.