Modern Grammar - Assignment 16

James Madison University

Instructions: Draw the correct tree structures for the following noun phrases and sentences and list the phrase structure rules needed to build each tree. Remember to consider the type of verb when building the VP in each sentence, including the couple new ones in the handout given out in class on Tuesday -- and available as "Some VP Rules and Others" on CANVAS. Also watch for two-word verbs (aka phrasal verbs) that will require you to use the rule on that same handout about building a bigger verb from a verb and a particle. This assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.

  • First, here's some more practice with noun phrases:

    1. this moment
    2. a special friend
    3. that irritating little habit
    4. my house by the shore
    5. nobody
    6. angry bees
    7. both small problems
    8. several of the wonderful musicians
    9. all the pretty little horses
    10. the damaged corner on that portrait of their family
  • And now some more sentences:

    1. No man is an island.
    2. The talented instructor offered the awkward dancer free lessons. (Hint: Notice that this is your first sentence that builds a VP out a V followed by TWO separate NPs -- an indirect object and a direct object respetively...)
    3. Gertrude loves her unusual name.
    4. The confused flock of sheep wandered from the pasture to the dangerous mountains on the edge of the ranch.
    5. Those shy young lovers passed small, romantic messages to each other. (here the "recipient" is expressed with a PP instead of with an indirect object NP)
    6. The boobytrapped safe blew up. (Your first use of the phrasal verb rule. Note that this two-word verb is intransitive...)
    7. Few of the items on the agenda were of any importance.
    8. I traded in my old car.
    9. We drove our friends from their old home in Atlanta to their new home in Baltimore. (See if you can figure out what new VP rule to use.)

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