The Syntax Workbook. Andrew Carnie
(and tense is also indicated on wants).
6 could (note that always is an adverb not T; you can put it at the end of the sentence, unlike normal T elements).
7 is (again note that usually is not of category T; it’s an adverb; you can put it at the end of the sentence, unlike normal T elements).
8 might
9 should
10 There is no independent T category here. Tense is indicated on the verb uses. Often is not a T element, it’s an adverb. You can tell this because it can be shifted to the end of the sentence (Connie uses email often). You can’t do that with normal T elements (*Maria found a new obsession has). We will return to what happens to T in sentences like this in chapter 9.
WBE11. COUNT VS. MASS NOUNS I
Much can appear with ineptitude, air, sugar, and water; these are all mass nouns. Many can appear with pencils and cats; these are count nouns.
WBE12. COUNT VS. MASS NOUNS II
1 Cow is a singular count noun in its usual usage. It might be used in a mass context with enough imagination (i.e., there is a horrible highway accident and the mangled remains of several cows are scattered everywhere, and the police say "We really have to clean all this cow off the road”.)
2 People is a plural count noun. It cannot be a mass noun (*much people).
3 Corn can be both a count noun (Pass me a corn (on the cob)) and a mass noun (Corn is used to make corn syrup. Is there much corn in that soup?).
4 Dogs is a plural count noun.
5 Cattle is a mass noun. In standard usage it cannot be used as a count noun, although for many Americans a count noun usage (synonymous with singular cow or head of cattle) is coming into use.
WBE13. ENGLISH PRONOUNS.
Part 1:
| [participant] | [speaker] | |
| 1st person | + | + |
| 2nd person | + | - |
| 3rd person | - | - |
| I, we | [+participant, +speaker] |
| you | [+participant, -speaker] |
| he, she, it, they | [-participant, -speaker] |
Part 2:
| he | [-feminine, +animate] |
| she | [+feminine, +animate] |
| it | [-animate] (no specification for [±feminine]) |
Part 3: Like it, they isn't specified for gender, so it has no specification for [±feminine]. It also doesn't show an animacy distinction – it can be used for both animates and inanimates, so it doesn't have a specification for [±animate] either.
Part 4: Singular they has the same basic distribution as plural they, so has no specification for [±feminine] or [±animate]
Part 5:
Consider the following complete feature specifications for the pronouns
| he | [-participant, -speaker, -feminine, +animate] |
| She | [-participant, -speaker, +feminine, +animate] |
| it | [-participant, -speaker, -animate] |
| they | [-participant, -speaker] |
Neither they nor it have a specification for the [±feminine] gender feature so either pronoun is a plausible candidates for non-binary people on that ground. But it is [- animate], this makes it wholly inappropriate for a human being. This is a reason why they is preferred and much more polite. Using it implies the referent isn't alive and that's just rude.
WBE14. SUBCATEGORIES OF VERBS
1 V[NP___ ] (intransitive)
2 V[NP___ NP] (transitive type 1)
3 V[NP___ {NP/CP}] (transitive type 2)
Notes
1 1. Several of the problem sets in this section of the workbook are loosely based on ones found in Carnie (2011) and are used with the permission of the author – that would be me, by the way.
2 2. Data from Jelinek and Demers (1994).
3 3. Data from Baker 2003.
4 4. Data from Baker 2003.
5 5. Bacheller (1903).
6 6. Thanks to Bronwyn Bjorkman, Elizabeth Cowper, Daniel Harbour, Norma Mendoza-Denton, and Maggie Tallerman for providing comments on this problem set.
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