CALT Syntax and Sentence Structure 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sentence demonstrates a garden-path sentence that causes parsing difficulty?
- The horse raced past the barn fell. (Correct answer)
- The dog bit the man.
- She read the book quickly.
- He ran to the store.
Correct answer: The horse raced past the barn fell.
Garden-path sentences like 'The horse raced past the barn fell' initially lead readers down an incorrect parse before requiring reanalysis.
Question 2: What syntactic operation moves a wh-word to the front of a question in English?
- Passivization
- Wh-movement (Correct answer)
- Topicalization
- Clefting
Correct answer: Wh-movement
Wh-movement is the syntactic operation that fronts interrogative words (who, what, where) to the beginning of questions in English.
Question 3: In the sentence 'It was the teacher who called,' what structure is being used?
- Passive voice
- It-cleft construction (Correct answer)
- Existential there
- Pseudo-cleft
Correct answer: It-cleft construction
An it-cleft construction uses 'it + be + focus element + relative clause' to emphasize a particular constituent.
Question 4: Which term describes a clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence?
- Subordinate clause
- Dependent clause
- Independent clause (Correct answer)
- Embedded clause
Correct answer: Independent clause
An independent clause contains a subject and predicate and expresses a complete thought, allowing it to stand alone as a sentence.
Question 5: A student writes: 'Running to class, my backpack fell.' What error does this sentence contain?
- Comma splice
- Dangling modifier (Correct answer)
- Fused sentence
- Subject-verb disagreement
Correct answer: Dangling modifier
A dangling modifier occurs when a participial phrase lacks a clear, logical subject that matches the main clause subject.
Question 6: What is the function of a resumptive pronoun in a relative clause such as 'The book that I forgot where I put it'?
- It marks the head noun for agreement
- It fills the gap left by relativization within a complex structure (Correct answer)
- It creates a passive construction
- It signals a coordinated clause
Correct answer: It fills the gap left by relativization within a complex structure
A resumptive pronoun ('it') occupies the extraction site within a relative clause, especially when movement would violate island constraints.
Question 7: Which sentence type has the underlying structure NP + be + Adjective Phrase?
- Transitive sentence
- Copular sentence (Correct answer)
- Ditransitive sentence
- Passive sentence
Correct answer: Copular sentence
Copular sentences link a subject noun phrase to a predicate adjective phrase through a linking verb such as 'be.'
CALT Syntax and Sentence Structure 4
Which sentence demonstrates a garden-path sentence that causes parsing difficulty?