Intro to Linguistics
Autumn 2010
Semantics & Syntax Homework 1
Due Wednesday, October 27
1. Semantics (30 points)
1.1 Define the following terms using Putnam (1975/85) and/or your class notes. Use your own
words, do not simply quote Putnam. (10 points)
(i) Extension
(ii) Intension
(iii) Psychological state
1.2 On p. 226-27, Putnam says, “If someone heroically attempts to maintain that the difference
between the extension of ‘elm’ and the extension of ‘beech’ in my idiolect is explained by a
difference in my psychological state, then we can always refute him by constructing a ‘Twin
Earth’ example.”
In this question, I want you to rerun the ‘Twin Earth’ example using ‘elm’ and ‘beech’.
a. Fill out the table below, using your answers from (1) to guide you. Write the values for
‘elm’ on the left of the dash and the values for ‘beech’ on the right. (10 points)
Before you do, it is important to realize that Putnam (1975/85) is a semantic
essentialist. That is, he believes that the objects that natural kind terms refer to, e.g.,
‘water’ and ‘gold’, have an essential property that makes those objects what they are and
not something else. In the ‘Twin Earth’ experiment, to be a water is to be an H2O
molecule. Anything that is not H2O is not water and vice versa.
In this question, I will stipulate that to be an elm is to be ABC and to be a beech is to
be DEF. I have filled in these values’ ‘Essentials’ column for you. It is your job to fill in
the remainder of the cells using this assumption.
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Intro to Linguistics
Autumn 2010
Extension
Intension
Essentials
Elm
ABC
Beech
DEF
Elm
ABC
Beech
DEF
Psychological state
1750
1950
HINT: Make sure the values you fill in for ‘Extension’ relate to the values under ‘Essentials’.
b. In a short paragraph, explain how the values you filled in your table show that if two
people are in the same psychological state, the extension of ‘beech’ and ‘elm’ can be
different. (10 points)
2. Working with phrase structure rules (25 points)
These questions will refer to the following set of rules:
S 
NP 
VP 
PP 
NP VP
(Det) (Adj*) N (PP)
V (NP) (PP*)
P (NP)
2.1 Give four structurally distinct sentences that follow these phrase structure rules. (4 points; 1
each)
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
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Intro to Linguistics
Autumn 2010
2.2 Choose one of the sentences you wrote in (1a). Draw a tree structure for it, and also explain
clearly how it follows the rules given above. (4 points)
2.3 Give two examples of grammatical sentences of English that do not follow these rules. For
each, explain why it cannot be generated using only these rules. (6 points; 3 each)
(i)
(ii)
Why not?
Why not?
The following questions are about sentence length. This is measured by the number of words in
the sentence; the length of each of these words is irrelevant. (I eat pie now is the same length as
Susannah consumed tiramisu Saturday.)
2.4 What is the shortest possible sentence that can be produced according to these rules? Explain
your answer. Give an example, and draw a tree structure for it. (5 points)
2.5 What is the longest possible sentence that can be produced according to these rules? Explain
your answer, using examples to illustrate. (6 points)
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Intro to Linguistics
Autumn 2010
3. Particle verbs (45 points)
(1) Mary stood up her date.
(2) The chef added in the ingredients.
(3) Frank called up his mother.
3.1 Choose one of the sentences in (1-3) and draw a phrase structure tree for it. There’s no one
perfect, correct answer here, but please make sure your structure is plausible given the
concepts we’ve discussed. (6 points)
3.2 Consider the syntactic structure of these sentences – the specific combinations of words into
phrases, and phrases into sentences. Is this a kind of structure we’ve seen before? Why or
why not? (3 points)
3.3 There is an alternate form for each of the sentences (1-3):
(1’)
(2’)
(3’)
Mary stood her date up.
The chef added the ingredients in.
Frank called his mother up.
Verbs that can alternate between forms like (1-3) and forms (1’-3’) are called particle verbs.
Come up with three more particle verbs in English (on the next page); for each, give a pair of
sentences for each verb demonstrating that it can alternate in this way. (6 points; 2 each)
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Intro to Linguistics
Autumn 2010
Verb:
(i’)
Sentences: (i)
Verb:
(ii’)
Sentences: (ii)
Verb:
(iii’)
Sentences: (iii)
3.4 Under some combinations of arguments, a particle verb’s preposition must occur sentencefinally, as in (1’-3’); it cannot occur medially (that is, structures like (1-3) are
ungrammatical). This may be hard. Start early, try different kinds and combinations of
words/phrases, talk to people.
a. Give two examples of particle verb sentences which require final prepositions in (I’) and
(II’); give the ungrammatical preposition-medial versions in (I-II). (10 points; 5 each)
(I) *
(I’)
(II) *
(II’)
b. Write a generalization which accounts for the ungrammaticality of (I) and (II). That is,
when must a particle verb’s preposition be at the end of a sentence? (10 points)
3.5 Which of the following two sentences includes a particle verb, and which does not? How do
you know? (10 points)
(4) Jennifer looked out the window.
(5) Jennifer looked up the reference.
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