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Eng 310: Structure Of English Sentence I Question Paper
Eng 310: Structure Of English Sentence I
Course:Bachelor Of Education Arts
Institution: Masinde Muliro University Of Science And Technology question papers
Exam Year:2008
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MASINDE MULIRO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY(MMUST)
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
2008/2009 ACADEMIC YEAR
THIRD YEAR FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS
FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF EDUCATION (ARTS)
COURSE CODE: ENG 310
COURSE TITLE: STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH SENTENCE I
DATE: 1st December 2008 TIME: 3.00 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Answer question ONE and any other THREE questions
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1. a) Using examples in English , explain the distinction between the interrogative and exclamative sentence. (4 marks)
b) With reference to the relevant dichotomy of structuralism according to Ferdinand de Sassure, explain how the following elements cannot form a grammatical sentence in English: Frank, the man with a scar on his hand, he and computers. (5 marks)
c) i) Explain the ambiguity inherent in the following sentence:
Liz attacked the man with a knife . (2 marks)
ii) Using ICA, disambiguate the sentence in (i) above. (4 marks)
d) i) Provide the syntactic functional labels to the constituents of the following sentence:
Tired Rex told the children a story at night. (2 marks)
ii) Draw the phrase marker representation for the above sentence. (3 marks)
e) Provide an English sentence that is appropriately captured by the
following set of rules. (2 marks)
S : NP VP
VP: Avdp V NP PP
NP: (Det) (Adj) N
Pro
Adv P: Adv Adv
PP: P NP
f) Briefly explain the concept of Rank shifting in sentence structure. (3 marks)
2. Using sentences in English, discuss the three properties of sentence structure.
(15 marks)
3. State whether each of the following syntactic assertions is true or false. Give an
explanation for your choice in each case:
a) The sentence is the highest constituent of syntactic analysis.
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b) The imperative sentence has an overt NP subject.
c) Non-polar interrogatives are structurally realized by fronting the first auxiliary element to precede the subject.
d) The indirect object is an optional constituent of a diatransitive predicate.
e) The main verb in the complex-transitive predicate may be followed by two NPs which are co-referential.
4. Give the sentence pattern of each of the following sentences. Underline and label
the constituents accordingly:
a) Mary looked dejected.
b) The news of the party’s loss in the election shocked the family.
c) All of us considered Bill a great friend.
d) I know that John will get a job soon.
e) The disgustingly fat dog chased the thin girl around the house playfully.
f) Sue gave red flowers to Nick quite hesitantly. (15 marks)
5. “In some circumstances, the marked theme disturbs the ordinary realization of the declarative mood.”
With adequate exemplification in English, discuss the validity of this assertion.(15 marks)
6. i) Draw a tree diagram to capture the structure of each of the following sentence
strings: (12 marks)
a) The boy rubbed the magic lamp.
b) The dog chased the cat with scary colours.
c) We found our parents generous.
d) Peter gently placed the baby on the mat.
ii) Present a labeled and bracketed analysis of the following sentence:
The students followed the prefects to the market (3 marks)
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