Engl 721: Description Of Modern English Question Paper
Engl 721: Description Of Modern English
Course:Masters Of Arts Degree In English
Institution: Chuka University question papers
Exam Year:2013
CHUKA
UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
CHUKA & EMBU CAMPUS
FIRST YEAR EXAMINATION FOR THE AWARD OF MASTERS OF ARTS DEGREE IN ENGLISH
ENGL 721: DESCRIPTION OF MODERN ENGLISH
STREAMS: MA (ENGLISH) Y1S1 TIME: 3 HOURS
DAY/DATE: WEDNESDAY 17/4/2013 8.30AM –10.30AM
INSTRUCTIONS:
Answer Question ONE and any TWO others.
1. (a) The following English sentences are ungrammatical. Explain the source of
ungrammaticality using clear argumentation. Drawing syntactic trees as appropriate.
(a) *The policewoman arrested [5 Marks]
(b) *Himselfj, admires the policemanj [5 Marks]
(c) *Parentsj like themj [5 Marks]
(d) The students j think that the lecturer like themselves/*j [5 Marks]
(e) *Njokij said she admires Susanj [5 Marks]
(f) *Have the man will arrested the criminal? [5Marks]
(b) Draw a syntactic tree of your choice, explain and demonstrate the following
concepts as used in syntax.
(a) Branching node [2 Marks]
(b) Terminal node [2 Marks]
(c) Dominance [2 Marks]
(d) Exhaustive dominance [2 Marks]
(e) C-command [2 Marks]
2. Using sentences of your own, explain in detail any five tests used in syntax to show that a string of words is a constituent. [10 Marks]
3. With examples, discuss any five morpho-syntactic criteria that can be used to identify the lexical category Verb in English. [10 Marks]
4. Give four reasons why traditional definitions of lexical were inaccurate. [10 Marks]
5. X-bar theory has the capacity to overgenerate. Explain how x-bar theory can be constrained. [10 Marks]
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