Linguistics 550 Assignment 7

As always, please submit this assignment as an email attachment with a file name including your name and the assignment number, as in "smith-550-07.doc" or .pdf.

1. Download the grammar tool binding-03 and use it to answer this question. The tool generates a fragment of an artificial language with English words but with its own syntax. Explore the fragment by constructing trees and performing the grammatical transformations that the tool allows or requires. Note that the language fragment generated by the tool includes sentences with reflexive pronouns. Make sure that your exploration of the tool is extensive enough to cover the whole range of alternatives allowed.

Follow the instructions in the ``Instructions'' menu as a guide to constructing and testing the trees. Check the derivations with the ``Test Derivation'' menu item under the ``Grammar Check'' menu. For trees containing reflexives use the ``Test Reflexive Binding'' menu item to find the grammatically permissible binders of these pronouns.

In playing with the tool, do not use the scissors to cut and paste subtrees, as this will produce unintended results. Instead use ``Undo'' in the File menu. Also, save partial trees in document files for repeated use. The Trees program may crash due to memory issues when you repeatedly build large trees. If this happens, exit the program and reenter it after building a large tree. If you experience such crashes, please report them to me.

Based on your exploration of the tool, describe the binding behavior of tool's language fragment and compare it to the English and Norwegian cases discussed in the text. Is this artificial language compatible with the binding principles developed in the text?