Syntax I Checklist

1
Syntax I Checklist

• Grammar Formalisms
• Spring Term 2004

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Background

• Facts about English that are typically covered in
  a first course (or maybe second course) on
  syntactic theory.
• By people who were teaching generative
  linguistics in the 1970s
• More effective if taught as a course on problem
  solving and argumentation
• For each new piece of data, the students update
  the current set of grammar rules.
• Spend class time evaluating alternative solutions.

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Parts of Speech

• Categories of words
• Open class you can make up new words in these
  categories
• Noun, verb, adjective, adverb
• Closed class you cant make up new words in
  these categories
• Quantifier, determiner, preposition

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Parts of speech are defined by

• 1. Distribution
• Determiners can go here
• He wrote ___ other works.
• He wrote the/all/these/no/few/many other works.
• He wrote despair/be/have other works.
• He wrote student other works.
• ?He wrote successful other works.

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Parts of speech are defined by
2. Morphology
Base Participle Past Present Gerund
mow mown mowed mows mowing
prove proven proved proves proving
go gone went goes going
meet met met meets meeting
cut cut cut cuts cutting
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Parts of speech are defined by

• 3. Other criteria that are
• Falsifiable
• Reproducible

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Parts of speech are not defined by squishy
semantic notions

• Definition noun denote entities
• Counter-example assassination is a noun that
  denotes an event
• Reply no, it denotes the idea of the event,
  which is an entity
• How do you tell the difference between an event
  and the idea of an event?
• Without precise definitions, this theory cannot
  be disproved.
• (In language technologies, imprecise definitions
  lead to poor intercoder reliability, which leads
  to poor training, etc.)

8
Non-lexical categories

• Noun Phrase (NP)
• Verb Phrase (VP)
• Prepositional Phrase (PP)
• Adjective Phrase (AP)
• Also defined by distribution, morphology, and
  other falsifiable, reproducible tests.

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Constituent Structure
10
S
Tree 1
NP
N V P Det N
Sam climbed up the ladder.
S
Tree 2
VP
NP
NP
V
N V P Det N
Sam picked up the ladder.
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Tree Terminology

• Mother
• Daughter
• Sister
• Dominate
• Immediately Dominate
• Node (branching or non-branching)
• Branch
• Terminal Node/Leaf Node
• Phrasal Nodes (non-terminal)
• Lexical Nodes (pre-terminal)

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Constituent

• A constituent is a string of words such that
  there is one node that dominates those words and
  no other words.

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The coordination test for constituency

• Sam climbed up the ladder and out the window.
• Sam picked up a ladder and out some new
  boots.

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Movement as a test for constituency

• A constituent might appear in different positions
  in a sentence, but stay in one piece.
• There are different movement rules that affect
  different constituents (NP, PP, AP, VP).

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Transformational Grammar and Movement Rules
S
S
Meaning preserving tree-to-tree mapping
NP VP
NP VP
The chocolate V PP
The kids V NP
was eaten by the kids
ate the chocolate
Surface Structure
Deep Structure
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Movement is a useful metaphor at this stage in
the course

• Sam climbed up a ladder.
• Up a ladder Sam climbed up a ladder.
• Sam likes chocolate.
• It is chocolate that Sam likes chocolate.

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Another movement rule(and an explanation of
methodology)

• Identify a meaning preserving movement rule and
  illustrate it with a non-controversial example
• He ran into the room.
• It was into the room that he ran.
• Apply the movement rule to the controversial
  examples that you want to test.
• He climbed up a ladder.
• It was up a ladder that he climbed. passes the
  test
• He picked up a ladder.
• It was up a ladder that he picked. fails the
  test

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Be sure that you are testing the right thing

• Are these sentences relevant in showing Tree 1
  and Tree 2 have different structures?
• It was a ladder that Sam climbed up.
• It was a ladder that Sam picked up.
• Sam climbed up a ladder and a wall.
• Sam picked up a ladder and a rope.
• ?A ladder was climbed up by Sam.
• A ladder was picked up by Sam.
• A ladder he climbed up.
• A ladder he picked up.

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Non-Constituent Coordination(Syntax II)

• John found the letter and Bill signed the letter.
• John found the letter and Bill signed the letter.

Right Node Raising If you conjoin two strings of
words that have identical final constituents,
delete the first instance of the identical
constituent.
S
VP
NP
NP V Det N
John found the letter
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Non-Constituent Coordination

• I gave a book to Mary and gave a letter to Sue.
• I gave a book to Mary and gave a letter to Sue.

Left Peripheral Ellipsis If you conjoin two
strings of words that have identical initial
constituents, delete the second instance of the
identical constituent.
S
VP
NP V NP PP
I gave a book to Mary
21
Test for constituency These smart students of
linguistics and clever students of chemistry
Tests for constituency lead you to discover
structures that you might not have thought of
otherwise.
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X-bar theory

• Chomsky (1970) Remarks on Nominalizations
• Jackendoff (1977) X-bar Syntax
• Looking at lots of phrase structure rules for
  different languages, make observations about what
  they have in common.
• Rome destroyed the city.
• Romes destruction of the city

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Adjunct
Specifier
This student of linguistics with long hair
This smart student of linguistics
So completely in the wrong
Argument/complement
So fond of Mary in some ways
So very fond of Mary
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Test for constituency These smart students of
linguistics and clever students of chemistry
Tests for constituency lead you to discover
structures that you might not have thought of
otherwise.
Specifiers
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Test for constituency These smart students of
linguistics and clever students of chemistry
Tests for constituency lead you to discover
structures that you might not have thought of
otherwise.
Heads
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Test for constituency These smart students of
linguistics and clever students of chemistry
Tests for constituency lead you to discover
structures that you might not have thought of
otherwise.
Adjuncts
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Test for constituency These smart students of
linguistics and clever students of chemistry
Tests for constituency lead you to discover
structures that you might not have thought of
otherwise.
Complements/Arguments
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Verbs and their arguments

• From Fillmore and Kay, lecture notes, Chapter 4
• The children devoured the spaghetti.
• The children devoured.
• The children devoured the spaghetti the cheese.
• She handed the baby a toy.
• She handed the baby.
• She handed the toy.
• Problems exist.
• Problems exist more problems.

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Valency

• (Linguists took this term from chemistry how
  many electrons are missing from the outer shell.)

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Valency

• Verbs (and sometimes nouns and adjectives)
  describe events, states, and relations that have
  a certain number of participants.
• Devouring generally involves two participants.
• Handing generally involves three particpants.
• Existing generally involves one participant.
• The number of participants is called the verbs
  valence or valency.
• Devour has a valency of two.
• Hand has a valency of three.
• Exist has a valency of one.
• The participants are referred to as arguments of
  the verb. (Like arguments of a function.)

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Subcategorization Remember this word

• Verbs are divided into subcategories that have
  different valencies.
• Here is how the terminology works
• Exist, devour, and hand have different
  subcategorizations.
• Devour subcategorizes for a subject and a direct
  object.
• Devour is subcategorized for a subject and a
  direct object.
• Devour takes two arguments, a subject and a
  direct object (or an agent and a patient).

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Arguments are not always Noun Phrases

• The italicized phrases are also arguments
• He looked pale.
• The solution turned red.
• I want to go.
• He started singing a song.
• We drove to New York.

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Optional and Obligatory Arguments

• The children ate.
• The children ate cake.
• Patient/theme argument is optional
• The children devoured.
• The children devoured the cake.
• Patient/theme argument is not optional
• The dog ran.
• The dog ran from the house.
• The dog ran to the creek.
• The dog ran from the house to the creek through
  the garden along the path.

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ComplementsRemember this word

• Arguments are sometimes called complements of the
  verb.
• However, just to confuse you, the word complement
  also refers to complement clauses embedded
  clauses that are arguments of a verb.
• Examples of complement clauses
• The children think that the book is interesting.
• The children told the teacher that the book is
  interesting.
• The children want to read the book.
• The children expect the teacher to read the book.

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Motivation for the existence of Semantic Roles

• John opened the door with a key.
• The key opened the door.
• The door opened.
• The door was opened by John with a key.
• Semantic roles explain what the meanings of these
  sentences have in common even though their
  grammatical relations and subcategorization
  frames are different.
• The key fills the instrument role, whether it is
  the subject of the sentence or a prepositional
  phrase.
• John fills the agent role, whether he is the
  subject or in a prepositional phrase.
• The door fills the theme or patient role, whether
  it is a subject or direct object.

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Semantic Roles are different from Grammatical
Relations

• Subjects that are not agents
• The clothes were washed by the woman.
• The clock broke.
• The rock shattered the window.
• The window shattered.
• The ship sank.
• The students received awards.

37
Examples of Semantic Roles

• Agent an agent acts volitionally or
  intentionally
• The students worked.
• Sue baked a cake.

38
Examples of Semantic Roles

• Experiencer and Stimulus An experiencer is an
  animate being that perceives something or
  experiences an emotion. The stimulus is the
  thing that the experiencer perceives or the thing
  that caused the emotional response.
• The students like linguistics.
• (emoter and stimulus)
• The students saw a linguist.
• (perceiver and stimulus)
• Linguistics frightens the students.
• (emoter and stimulus)
• The students thought about linguistics.
• (cognizer and stimulus)

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Examples of Semantic Roles

• Patient A patient is affected by an action.
• Sam kicked the ball.
• Sue cut the cake.
• Beneficiary A beneficiary benefits from an event
• Sue baked a cake for Sam.
• Sue baked Sam a cake.
• Malefactive Someone is affected adversely by an
  event.
• My dog died on me.
• Instrument
• The boy opened the door with a key.
• The key opened the door.

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Semantic Roles for Directed Motion Ray Jackendoff

• Theme changes location, is located somewhere, or
  exists
• Source the starting point of the motion.
• Goal the ending point of the motion.
• Path the path of the motion.

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Examples of Location and Directed Motion

• Many problems still exist.
• The clock sits on the shelf.
• The ball rolled from the door to the window along
  the wall.
• Same walked from his house to town along the
  river.
• Sue rolled across the room.
• The car turned into the driveway.

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Being in a state or changing state

• The car is red.
• The ice cream melted.
• The glass broke.
• Sam broke the glass.
• The paper turned from red to green.
• The fairy godmother turned the pumpkin into a
  coach.

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Having or Changing possession

• The teacher gave books to the students.
• The teacher gave the students books.
• The students have books.

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Exchange of Information

• The teacher told a story to the students.
• The teacher told the students a story.

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Extent

• The road extends/runs along the river from the
  school to the mall.
• The string reaches the wall.
• The string reaches across the room to the wall.

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Problems with Semantic Roles

• The definitions are vague
• If themes are things that moved, is his hand a
  theme in John moved his hand?
• Linguists keep making up new role names without
  proper motivation. Proper motivation would be a
  test.
• Linguists keep writing about the same small set
  of verbs that have clearly identified roles.
  Many roles are not clearly covered. (Fillmore and
  Kay, pages 4-22)
• He risked death.
• We resisted the enemy.
• She resembles her mother.

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Predicate-Specific Role Names

• It is ok to use predicate-specific role names
  when you want to avoid the vagueness of semantic
  role names.
• E.g., devourer and devouree

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Adjuncts

• Locations, times, adverbs, and other things that
  can go with almost any sentences are called
  adjuncts.
• The children ate the cake quickly at 200 in the
  kitchen.
• Predicates specify how many arguments they take
  and also specify the grammatical functions,
  semantic roles, and case markings of their
  arguments.
• Predicates do not specify the semantic roles,
  grammatical functions, or case markings of
  adjuncts.

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How to tell arguments from adjuncts

• There are some general guidelines that are not
  always conclusive.
• Adjuncts are always optional.
• (but some arguments are optional too)
• Repeatability
• The children devoured the cake at 200 on Monday.
  (Two temporal adjuncts)
• The children devoured the cake in Pittsburgh in a
  restaurant. (Two locative adjuncts)
• The children devoured the cake the dessert.
  (arguments are not repeatable)

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Embedded Clauses
Matrix Clause
Embedded Clause
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Embedded Clauses

• Main verbs are subcategorized for
• The complementizer (that, for, to, etc.)
  Non-finite for-to
• We hoped for there to be no trouble.
• A word at the beginning of a subordinate clause
  that identifies it as a complement
• The morphology of the embedded verb
• Finite present or past tense
• Non-finite infinitive, present participle, past
  participle

52
Finite embedded clauses

• Finite embedded clause
• I believe (that) it is snowing.
• Say, think, scream
• Finite with dummy subject
• It seems that they have left.
• Finite embedded question
• I wondered/asked whether/if it was snowing.
• Finite plus object
• We told them that it was snowing.
• Finite plus PP
• We said to them that it was snowing.

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Non-finite embedded clauses

• Non-finite for-to
• We hoped for there to be no trouble.
• Non-finite Raising to subject
• They seem (to us) to have left.
• Appear, continue
• Non-finite Subject Equi
• They tried to leave.
• Intend, expect, plan, hope
• Non-finite Raising to object
• We believe them to have left.
• consider
• Non-finite Object Equi
• We persuaded them to leave.
• Convince, order, force, signaled
• Non-finite promise
• We promised them to leave.

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Raising to subject
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Raising to subject

• Seem takes one semantic argument.
• Two syntactic subcategorization frames
• Dummy subject and tensed clause
• Subject and infinitive clause missing a subject
• Subject of embedded clause is coded as subject of
  matrix clause
• Occurs before the matrix verb in English
• Matrix verb agrees with it

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Raising to subject

• Only the subject of the embedded clause can be
  removed from the lower clause and coded as the
  matrix clause subject.
• They seem I to have seen ____.
• The knife seems I to have cut the bread with.

57
Raising-to-Object or Exceptional Case Marking

• Believe takes two semantic arguments.
• Two syntactic subcategorization frames
• Subject and tensed embedded clause.
• Subject, object, and infinitive VP
• I believe that they have left.
• I believe them to have left.

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S
Matrix Clause
NP VP
V S-bar
COMP S
Embedded Clause
NP VP
I believe that they have left
Raising to object
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Raising-to-Object We will use this one in this
class.
S
NP VP
Exceptional Case Marking we will not use this
one.
S
V NP VP-bar
COMP VP
I believe them to have left
60
Evidence that them is direct object of the matrix
clause

• It is in the accusative case.
• It can be the subject of the passive of the
  matrix verb.
• They are believed to have left.
• Tests for constituency
• Left as an exercise for the students.

61
Subjects only

• Only the subject of the lower (embedded) clause
  can be raised up to be the object of the matrix
  clause.
• Leslie believes that the police have arrested
  Chris.
• Leslie believes the police to have arrested
  Chris.
• Leslie believes Chris the police to have
  arrested.

62
Subject Equi

• Pat is the agent of try and the agent of open.
• Pat is also the subject of both verbs.

63
Equi NP Deletion

• Pat tried Pat to open the window.
• Older theories of transformational grammar
  proposed this as the deep structure for Equi
  sentences. It is ungrammatical, but it means the
  right thing.
• Pat tried __ to open the window.

64
Subjects only

• Pat tried ___ to open the window.

controllee
controller
Only the subject of the lower (embedded) clause
can be the controllee. Pat tried Kim to see ___
65
Seem and Try

• The cat seems to be out of the bag.
• There seems to be a problem.
• That seems to be my husband.
• The doctor seemed to examine Sam.
• Sam seemed to be examined by the doctor.

• The cat tried to be out of the bag.
• There tried to be a problem.
• That tried to be my husband.
• The doctor tried to examine Sam.
• Sam tried to be examined by the doctor.

66
Object Equi
67
Object Equi

• Pat is the direct object of persuade and the
  subject of leave.
• The matrix object (controller) and embedded
  subject (controllee) are the same.
• Only the embedded subject can be the controllee.
• Pat persuaded Sam the doctor to examine.

68
Believe and Persuade

• I believe the cat to be out of the bag.
• I believe there to be a problem.
• I believe that to be my husband.
• I believe Pat to have opened the window.
• I believe the window to have been opened by Pat.

• I persuaded the cat to be out of the bag.
• I persuaded there to be a problem.
• I persuaded that to be my husband.
• I persuaded Pat to have opened the window.
• ? I persuaded the window to have been opened by
  Pat.

69
Control of Adjunct Clauses

• Having just arrived in town, Sam called his
  mother.
• Having just hurt herself, Sam called his mother.
• What can be the controller?
• Matrix subject?
• Matrix object?
• What can be the controllee?
• Embedded subject?
• Embedded object?

70
Long Distance Dependencies

• A long distance dependency has a filler and a
  gap.
• Ann, I think he likes ---.
• I think he likes ---.
• Gap with no filler
• Redheads, I think he likes Ann.
• Filler with no gap
• ?Ann, I think he likes her.
• Resumptive pronoun

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Long Distance Dependencies

• The filler can be a long distance from the gap.
• Distance is measured in how many clauses the
  filler is from the gap, not how many words away
  it is.
• Ann, I think he told you he tried to like ---.

72
S
NP S
NP VP
V S
NP VP
V NP S
NP VP
V VP
V GAP
Anne, I think he told you
he tried to like
73
Long Distance Dependencies

• Topicalization
• Ann, I think he likes ---.
• Wh-questions
• Who do you think he likes ---.
• Relative Clauses
• The woman who you think he saw --- is tall.
• Embedded Wh-questions
• I wonder who he thinks he saw ---.
• Clefts
• Its Anne that he thinks he likes ---.
• Tough Movement
• These problems are tough to even try to solve
  ---.
• Correllatives
• The more people I try to pretend I know ---, the
  more confused I get ---.

74
Principles vs Rules

• Chomsky (1977) On Wh-Movement
• All of these constructions have a filler and a
  gap and are obey the same constraints.
• Instead of writing a separate rule for each one,
  look for some principles that underly all long
  distance dependencies.

75
Constraints on Long-Distance Dependencies

• Where can the gap be?
• John Robert (Haj) Ross (1967) Ph.D. Thesis, MIT

76
Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside a coordinate structure.
• I saw the boy and the girl.
• Who did you see the boy and ___.
• Except in across the board extraction
• Who did you talk to___ and hear rumors
  about __

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Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside a sentence that is
  inside a noun phrase
• I like the fact that he reads books every day.
• What do you like the fact that he reads ___
  every day?

78
Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside the subject
• Pictures of Sam were available.
• Who were pictures of ___ available?
• Books about linguistics were on sale.
• What were books about ___ on sale?
• But the gap can be inside the direct object
• You saw pictures of Sam.
• Who did you see pictures of ___ ?
• You read books about linguistics.
• ?What did you read books about?

79
Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside an embedded question
• They wondered who talked to Sam.
• Who did they wonder who talked to __?
• But the gap can be inside of a plain embedded
  clause
• They thought (that) we talked to Sam .
• Who did they think (that) we talked to ___ ?

80
Constraints on Long Distance Dependencies

• The gap cannot be inside a relative clause or any
  another long distance dependency
• I like the boy that Sam plays with ___.
• Who do you like the boy that __ plays with __.
• Except for this
• Which violins are these sonatas easy to play
  ___ on ___?

81
Binding Theory

• Reflexive pronouns
• Must be in the same clause with the thing they
  refer to
• Sam saw himself.
• Sam thought that Sue saw himself.
• Ok in other languages.
• Sam saw the girl who likes himself.
• The antecedent must c-command it.
• C-command A node A c-commands a node B if every
  maximal projection (XP) dominating A also
  dominates B.
• Himself saw Sam.
• usually
• ?Those pictures of himself in the newspaper
  really bothered Sam.

82
S
S
NP VP
NP VP
Det N-bar V NP
Det N-bar V NP
Adj N N-bar
N-bar PP N-bar
N P NP N
The smart boy saw himself.
N
Det N-bar
N
The girl with a boy saw
himself
herself
83
Non-reflexive pronouns

• Either
• Not in the same clause
• Sam thought that Fred liked him.
• Ok for him to be Sam.
• The girl who liked him called Sam.
• Ok for him to be Sam.
• Sam liked him.
• Not ok for him to be Sam.
• Or not c-commanded by the antecedent.
• The pictures of him in the newspaper bothered
  Sam.
• Ok for him to be Sam.

84
Imperatives

• Go to sleep!
• Dress yourself!
• Hypothesis 1 there is an abstract representation
  where the subject of this sentence is you.
• Hypothesis 2 there is an exception to the rule
  for reflexive pronoun binding imperatives can
  contain the pronoun yourself.
• Dress you!
• What do these mean?
• Bless you
• Damn you
• Curse you

85
Passives

• English only for now.
• In Grammars and Lexicons, we formulated a
  universal passive rule.
• The thieves were arrested by the police.
• The cake was being eaten by the children.
• The cake will have been eaten by the children.

86
There-insertion

• There is a problem.
• There is a desk in the room.
• There is a thief being arrested by the police.

87
English Auxiliary Verbs

• Modal verbs (will, would, can, could, shall,
  should, may, might, and a few others)
• Invariant dont have a third person singular
  form.
• Only occur where you can have present or past
  tense. Dont occur in infinitives, gerunds, or
  participles
• I will go.
• I would go.
• I said I would go.
• I want to can go.
• Compare I want to be able to go.
• Canning go would make me happy.
• Compare Being able to go would make me happy.
• The next verb must be an infinitive
• I will have gone.
• I will be going.
• I will going/gone/went/goes.

88
English Auxiliary Verbs

• Have
• Must be followed by a past participle
• I have gone.
• I have going/went/goes/go.
• Progressive be
• Must be followed by a present participle
• I am going.
• I am goes/went/go.
• Passive be
• Must be followed by a passive verb
• The cookies were devoured.
• The cookies were devouring/devours/devour.

89
Order of English Auxiliary Verbs

• All optional, but when they are present, they are
  in a fixed order.
• modal have be-prog be-pass
• They will have been being arrested.
• They will have been arrested.
• They will be arrested.
• We will be arresting the criminals.
• We will have arrested the criminals.
• They were being arrested.
• They have been arrested.
• Etc.
• Each clause is separate. E.g., have in the
  main clause can precede a modal in an embedded
  clause.
• I have said that I would go.

90
Yes-No Questions

• Put the first auxiliary verb before the subject.
• Will he have been swimming?
• Has he been swimming?
• Was he swimming?
• Were they arrested?
• Will have he been swimming?
• If there is no auxiliary verb, use do in the
  right tense.
• Swam/swims he?
• Did/does he swim?
• Main clause or quoted clause only. Use whether
  or if for a yes-no question in an embedded
  clause.
• I thought that does he swim?
• I wondered, Does he swim?
• I wondered whether he swims.

91
Negatives

• Put not after the first auxiliary verb.
• If there is no auxiliary verb, use do.
• We will not have been arresting criminals.
• We have not been eating cake.
• We are not going.
• We go not.
• We do not go.
• Not in other places Ok, but doesnt sound
  neutral.
• We will have not been arresting criminals.
• We will have been not arresting criminals.

92
Tag Questions

• Pronominal form of the subject.
• First auxiliary verb or do.
• nt
• Change the polarity of the verb (positive or
  negative).
• Sam left, didnt he?
• Sam will go, wont he?
• Sam is going, isnt he?
• Sam hasnt left, has he?
• Sam hasnt left, hasnt he?
• Sam left, leftnt he?
• Sam left, didnt Sam?
• Tag questions with the same polarity have a
  different meaning
• Hes going, is he?

93
Combinations of things

• Several of the phenomena discussed in this
  lecture can co-occur in one sentence.
• Ill be really happy if by the end of the
  semester you can derive all of the sentences on
  the next few slides in each of the four
  formalisms.

94
Combinations

• It seems that a bear ate the sandwich.
• The bear seems to have eaten the sandwich.
• It seems that the sandwich was eaten by the bear.
• The sandwich seems to have been eaten by the
  bear.
• It seems that there was a sandwich eaten by the
  bear.
• There seems to have been a sandwich eaten by the
  bear.

95
Combinations

• I believe that the bear at a sandwich.
• I believe that a sandwich was eaten by the bear.
• I believe that there was a sandwich eaten by the
  bear.
• I believe the bear to have eaten the sandwich.
• I believe the sandwich to have been eaten by the
  bear.
• I believe there to be a sandwich eaten by the
  bear.
• The bear is believed to have eaten a sandwich.
• The sandwich is believed to have been eaten by
  the bear.
• There is believed to be a sandwich eaten by the
  bear.

96
Combinations

• What is believed to have been eaten by the bear?
• What do you believe that the bear ate?
• The bear ate a sandwich.
• I saw the bear.
• I saw the bear that ate a sandwich.
• I saw the sandwich that was eaten by the bear.
• The bear that ate a sandwich was caught.
• The sandwich that was eaten by the bear was
  expensive.
• The sandwich that was eaten by the bear was
  purchased at Giant Eagle.

97
Combinations

• The bear seemed to be persuaded to try to eat a
  sandwich.
• What did the bear seem to be persuaded to try to
  eat?
• I saw the sandwich that the bear was persuaded to
  try to eat.
• Sam seemed to appear to have been persuaded to
  try to be examined by the doctor who was chosen
  to receive an award.

98
Warning

• These are toy sentences.
• Real ones are harder in some ways
• More modifiers/adjuncts
• More ambiguity
• Weird stuff
• a 3-to-2 decision
• our June 14 meeting
• Room number 100
• Why not go?
• Him be a doctor?
• Real ones are easier in some ways
• E.g, Long distance dependencies are hardly ever
  long distance in real text.

99
What is not included

• Dates and times
• Proper names and titles
• Money and numbers
• Extensive pre-determiners of NPs
• Every other one of the first hundred smart
  students was given a prize.
• Terry Winograd, Language as a Cognitive Process.
• Compound nouns
• Grammatical relations
• Things from other languages
• Free word order complex causative constructions
  wh-in situ noun incorporation pro-drop etc.