Please (re)-read the guidelines for doing written assignments before you begin this task.
Assignment Seven
M
Important Reminder
Please (re)-read the guidelines for doing written assignments before you begin this task.
ˆePhrase Structure of Japanese
Your task in this assignment is to construct a mini-grammar of Japanese that will
account for the sentences below. Your grammar should consist of:
(a) a lexicon that lists the Japanese words given below, their category type, their
meaning, and any other relevant information;
(b) a set of phrase structure rules; and
(c) rules that describe the distribution of ga and o.
ˆree HelpfulWarnings
: Japanese exhibits some word order freedom. But in analyzing the
sentences below, you should assume that the words can occur in the order in
which they are shown.ˆis is false, but we will have something to say at a later point
about how to deal with this word order freedom.
: Write morphological rules to insert -ga and -o. Do not write any
other morphological rules.
: Japanese has no definite or indefinite articles.
: Experience suggests that this is one of the harder assignments in
the course. Please plan accordingly and leave yourself lots of time—to get the most
out of it and to show what you are capable of. Nothing in the assignment depends
on material that we will cover in the course of the coming week.
A
First formulate a mini-grammar to account for the sentences below. Draw trees for
(c), (a), and (b). What is your best guess about the subcategorization of yatta
‘gave’?
() a. John ga kita. John came
b. Tegami ga kita. A letter came
c. Tuma ga sinda. ˆe wife died
d. John ga oyoida. John swam
() a. John ga Mary o butta. John hit Mary
b. John ga tegami o yonda. John read the letter
c. John ga hon o yonda. John read the book
d. Sensei ga kodomo o sikatta. ˆe teacher scolded the child
() a. John ga Tokyo ni itta. John went to Tokyo
b. John ga Tokyo kara kita. John came from Tokyo
c. John ga Mary to atta. John met with Mary
() a. John ga Cambridge de Mary o mita. John saw Mary in Cambridge
b. John ga kawa de oyoida. John swam in a river
() a. John ga Mary ni hon o yatta. John gave a book to Mary
b. John ga Mary to kurumu de Kobe ni itta. John went to Kobe in a car
with Mary.
B
Next revise and expand your grammar to account for the following. Give trees for
() and ().
() John ga omosiroi hon o kaita. ‘John wrote an interesting book’
() Mary kara tegami ga kita. A letter from Mary arrived
() John no otoosan ga sinda. John’s father died
() Sensei ga John no kodomo o sikatta. ˆe teacher scolded John’s child
() John no atama gaMary no atama to butukatta. John’s head collided with
Mary’s head
C
Now revise the lexicon and phrase structure rules to account for the following. Give
trees for () and (). What is your best guess about the subcategorization of suki
‘fond’?
: Treat desu and da as forms of the same verb (desu is polite; da is
informal).
: Do revise any of your morphological rules! Treat the second
ga in sentences ()–() as a selected .
() John ga gakusei desu. John is a student
() John ga kanemoti desu. John is rich
() Yamanoki ga kirei desu. ˆemountains’ trees are pretty (yama= ‘moun-
tain’)
() Saru ga ningen no senzo desu. ˆe monkey is man’s ancestor (ningen =
‘man’)
() John ga Mary ga suki desu. John is fond of Mary
() John ga nihongo ga nigate da. John is bad at Japanese
() John ga nihongo ga zyoozu da. John is good at Japanese
D
Finally, extend your system one more time, so that it will account for the data seen
in ()–(). Do try to account for the difference between -ga in the earlier
examples and -wa in these examples. Assume for present purposes that these are
the same thing.
() Kore-wa
this
hon
book
desu
is ‘ˆis is a book.’
() Kore-wa
this
hon
book
desu
is
ka
INTERR
‘Is this a book?’
() John-wa nihongo-ga
Japanese
muzukasii
difficult-is
to itta
said ‘John said that Japanese is difficult.’
() Mary-wa John-ga baka
stupid
da
is
to omotta
thought ‘Mary thought that John was stupid.’
