Modern Grammar - Assignment 12 James Madison University

INSTRUCTIONS: Do each of the questions below. Note that (except with very high resolution monitors) this assignment page looks best in a fully-expanded browser window. Your browser must handle JAVA to use this page, and there may be some differences in appearance and performance depending on which browser you use. [The assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.]

One of the purposes of this first online assignment is to familiarize you with LLAMA-Syntax, part of the Linguistics Labs and Multimedia Activities project at James Madison University. The second purpose is to let you use LLAMA-Syntax to gain firsthand experience with the basic relationships between categories, rules, lexical items and trees.

First, let's think about syntactic categories. Categories include the lexical categories (word classes) we've already discussed and the phrasal categories that can be built from lexical categories. Categories are the building blocks of sentence structure. The first step in writing the syntactic rules for a language is to determine what categories are needed. On the right is the LLAMA Category Editor. You enter categories by typing them in the small entry field near the bottom of the editor, and then clicking on the Add button.

Let's try adding some categories. Click on the entry field, type S, and then click on Add. The category S should appear at the top of the list. (If you make a mistake, click on the "tips lightbulb" below to see how to fix it.) Now click to the right of the S, hit the backspace key, type NP, and click on Add again. Next, add each of the following in the same way: N, VP, V, det.
Tips on using the Category Editor

Once you've determined what categories you need, it's time to start thinking about how they should combine into phrase structure rules. On the far right is the LLAMA Rule Editor. You enter rules by typing a single category, the lefthand side of the rule, into the first entry field (to the left of the arrow), then typing a set of one or more categories, the righthand side of the rule, into the second entry field (to the right of the arrow), and finally, clicking on the Add button. LLAMA Rule Editor takes care of adding the arrow. Try adding the rule S -> NP VP. Begin by clicking on the entry field to the left of the arrow and typing S. Now click on the entry field to the right of the arrow and type NP VP. (Note the space in between NP and VP.) Finally, click on Add. The rule should appear at the top of the rule list. (If you make a mistake, click on the "tips lightbulb" below to see how to fix it.) Next add each of the following rules in the same way:
NP -> det N, VP -> V.

If you want to see a "treelet"(piece of a tree structure built by a single rule), you can do so by using the LLAMA Rule Drawer on the near right. Clicking on the Draw Selected Rule button will draw the treelet for whichever rule is highlighted in the Rule Editor. Try clicking on S -> NP VP and then clicking on Draw Selected Rule. A small tree with S at its top should appear in that window.
Tips on using the Rule Editor

Of course, the actual full tree that you want to draw depends on the sentence or other grammatical form that you want to represent. Since sentences are made out of words (lexical items), you next need to give your little grammar a lexicon. You can do this with the LLAMA Lexicon Editor. You enter lexical items by typing a single word into the first entry field (on the left), then typing a category for this word into the second entry field (on the right), and finally, clicking on the Add button. Try adding the lexical entry for "rules". Begin by clicking on the left entry field and typing rules. Now click on the right entry field and type N. Finally, click on Add. The lexical entry for the word "rules" should appear at the top of the lexicon list. (If you make a mistake, click on the "tips lightbulb" below to see how to fix it.) Next add each of the following lexical entries in the same way: the determiner (det) "the", the verb (V) "work".
Tips on using the Lexicon Editor

Finally, it's time to test your grammar. You can do this with the LLAMA Parser on the right. Parsing is the process of seeing if a string of words is a grammatical form (such as a sentence) in a grammar and determining the tree structure of grammatical forms. Right now, the parser is set to try to parse a sentence because, as you can see in the top right entry field, it is going to try to build a tree that has "S" as its "top node". If you have entered everything correctly so far, you should now be able to parse the sentence "The rules work!". Click on the entry field near the bottom of the Parser and type The rules work! Now click on Parse. The tree for the sentence you typed should appear in the parser window. If not, you'll get a message letting you know that your grammar can't handle what you're trying to parse, and you can go back and look for mistakes. If you have any questions about the Parser, click on the "tips lightbulb" below.
Tips on using the Parser

CONGRATULATIONS, you've built your first grammar. Now, let's see if you can figure out how to add to it...

Turn in your answers for the following:

1. Below is the tree for the sentence "The bear went over the mountain." What categories, rules, and lexical items need to be added to your grammar to parse this sentence and produce this tree?
   

   You'll know you have the right answer when you can reproduce this tree in the Parser.

2. Next, look at the list of sentences below carefully and determine which two can be handled by the exact same combination of the exact same rules of the grammar (if the appropriate lexical items are added to the lexicon) you just used for "The bear went over the mountain."
   1. The fish are wearing large goggles.
   2. That ducks waddled into the pond.
   3. The dish ran away with the spoon.
   4. The walrus submitted his resume to the turkeys.
   5. A penguin is in my bathtub.
   6. The geese worked out a plan.
3. What one rule would you have to add to the grammar, beyond those you've already entered, to get the sentence "Rules work." to parse?
4. NOW, MORE PRACTICE WITH AUXILIARY STRUCTURES (focusing on combining passive voice with tense, aspect, and modals): Create another sentence in the present tense that uses a transitive, dynamic verb (you can use the same one from the last assignment if it actually was a transitive, dynamic verb :) ), and then create a list of the possible variants of that sentence in PASSIVE voice by varying grammatical tenses, the presence or absence of a modal auxiliary, and the two aspectual auxiliary structures. Your sentences should look similar to the passive voice examples based on "Frank fries fritters" in your handout. Note that, for variants with a modal auxiliary in them, you can just choose one modal; you don't need to use each different modal as a different example! Label the form of each of your sentences (for example, "past perfect"). You can also feel free to leave out the optional "by-phrase" in these passive constructions after the first one.

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