Modern Grammar - Assignment 18 James Madison University

Instructions: This assignment includes more practice with basic phrase structure rules for single clause sentences (with a few new details) and practice on conjunctions... which can sometimes even involve combining multiple clauses. It will be graded only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.

1. Diagram each of the sentences below:
   
   1. A woman's home is her castle.
   2. He sent flowers to his grandmother on Tuesday after class.
   3. I called up NASA before the eclipse.
   4. The invading army's early arrival ruined the leader of the village's defensive plans.
   5. That is the manager's assistant's parking space. (Recursive possessives...)
   6. We have rescheduled the meeting at your request! (First AUX rule)
   7. In my imaginary kingdom, the royal chefs have invented a calorie-free chocolate. (First example with S --> PP S)
   8. Flora was looking at the details of her contract with the company very carefully.
   9. The new magician did not seem too worried about his tricks.(First time using the negator rule)


2. Dealing with gerunds:
   Here's your first example containing a gerund noun phrase. (In this example, "aiming" is a gerund noun. Reminder --as with common nouns, the first thing that happens with a gerund noun in a sentence is that it becomes an "N-bar." Then, in this case, there's actually just the regular "N-bar" formation rule that applies. Finish off the noun phrase as you would with any common noun.):
   
   1. Aiming for the moon wastes ammunition.
   
   Remember, however, that gerunds are not really like other nouns. There are some specialized rules for gerunds that allow them to build rather odd "N-bar" constituents. This is because any VP that could apply in the verb use becomes an N-bar rule in the gerund use. In those corresponding "N-bar" rules, all VPs and Vs become "N-bars". Now try these examples:
   2. Frank enjoys sending his colleagues anonymous gifts.
   3. Undoubtedly, their becoming best friends might be possible in the future.
   
   
3. Now for some sentences containing coordinate conjunctions:
   (Remember, the pattern is always X --> X conj X.)
   1. The door was open, and all the leaves blew into the house.(First sentence with a coordinate conjunction in it)
   2. They sent the petition to their senator and to other national leaders.
   3. The children were writing poems and chatting. (Hint: "were" is an aux here, and the use of coordination allows this aux to be shared by two verb phrases...)
   4. We need more time for fun, but we have piles of homework!


4. Finally, taking a first look at the use of subordinate conjunctions:
   See what you can do with this sentence, in which the subordinate conjunction while combines with the short sentence the president spoke to build a specialized sentence with an adverbial use -- what we call an "adverbial clause". Since this adverbial clause comes before the sentence it modifies (the lawyers doodled), the rule is S --> Advcl S, a rule that exactly parallels the rule we use when an advP or a PP modifies a sentence.
   • While the president spoke, the lawyers doodled