Modern Grammar - ASSIGNMENT 16 James Madison University

Instructions: This assignment will be marked as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.

1. Diagram each of the following sentences:
   
   1. That nobody is home seems unlikely.
   2. The frog asked whether any of us would kiss him.
   (Hint:Remember that "whether" can be a complementizer.)
   3. The possibility that the lion loved the mouse occured to me.
   4. They seem happy that the lion loved the mouse.
   5. The butterfly was devastated that it could not make butter.
   6. His certainty that we would be late was getting tiresome.
   7. For a lion to love a mouse would be wierd.
   (Hints: There is a sentential subject here, but it sounds odd because it has an infinitive verb form and therefore cannot be an independent clause. Find all the pieces of that little sentence nonetheless. Rule for using the infinitive marker: VP --> INF VP. When the sentence is built, next consider that back when we were talking about the word class 'complementizer,' we said "for" could be a complementizer when used with infinitive sentences...)
   8. I should never have hoped for my horse to win the race.
   [Another infinitive clause here]
2. Looking ahead: (Re-)read the discussions of "preposing" (also called "topicalization") and "inversion" in your textbook on pages 321-323, and then attempt to label each of the sentences below as either an example of preposing (P) or an example of inversion (I). No diagramming needed here!:
   1. After the storm comes the rainbow.
   2. Old horses, the thrifty ranchers usually shoot.
   3. The last three pieces, we saved for the children.
   4. Throughout the night, the storm raged.
   5. Out the window went all his money.
   6. There goes the neighborhood!
3. See if you can use your understanding of English syntax so far to figure this out too: In each of the following sentences, there is an embedded sentence modifying a noun. However, only some of these embedded modifiers are ordinary sentences introduced by a complementizer (ie., S-bars) and are modifying the kind of noun that can take a noun complement. In other examples, the modifier sentences are more unusual and the nouns are not necessarily the kind that can take noun complements. For each sentence just underline the noun modified and try to state whether or not (YES or NO) the modifier is an S-bar. No diagramming needed here either!
   1. The whole conference was devoted to discussing the idea that war is a necessary idea
   2. Her belief that we were watching her was quite annoying.
   3. The burglar who invaded our home was never caught.
   4. This cathedral is similar to the castle that we saw in Italy.
   5. He is ignoring the suggestion that we plan another meeting.
   6. The spy recognized his contact, who was wearing a red corsage.