Hi,
Can I get help on drawing syntax trees for the following sentences?
Draw the trees for the following sentences (surface structure) and assign thematic roles. Be careful of movement!
a) What did John eat?
b) Mary said that John kicked the ball.
c) I met the woman who invented the blicket.
d) Who read the book that Mary wrote?
e) The colossal red dragon burned the lush green forest.
f) The lion chased the man into the cave.
g) I read the book in the attic.
h) The glorpish dax mepped the florpy blicket.
Sure! I can help you with drawing syntax trees for these sentences. Let's go through each sentence one by one:
a) What did John eat?
To draw the syntax tree for this sentence, we need to identify the main verb and its arguments. In this case, the main verb is "eat" and the subject is "John". The question word "What" will become the direct object of the verb "eat". Here's a possible syntax tree:
eat
/ \
John what
b) Mary said that John kicked the ball.
In this sentence, we have a main clause with the verb "said" and a subordinate clause starting with "that". The main verb "said" takes two arguments: the subject "Mary" and the complement clause "that John kicked the ball". The verb "kicked" takes two arguments: the subject "John" and the object "the ball". Here's a possible syntax tree:
said
/ | \
Mary that kicked
/ \
John the ball
c) I met the woman who invented the blicket.
In this sentence, we have the main verb "met" which takes two arguments: the subject "I" and the object "the woman who invented the blicket". The verb "invented" takes two arguments: the subject "the woman" and the object "the blicket". Here's a possible syntax tree:
met
/ \
I woman
|
invented
/ \
the blicket
d) Who read the book that Mary wrote?
Similar to the previous sentences, we have a main verb "read" which takes two arguments: the subject "who" and the object "the book that Mary wrote". The verb "wrote" takes two arguments: the subject "Mary" and the object "the book". Here's a possible syntax tree:
read
/ \
who book
|
wrote
/ \
Mary the
e) The colossal red dragon burned the lush green forest.
In this sentence, we have the main verb "burned" which takes two arguments: the subject "the colossal red dragon" and the object "the lush green forest". Here's a possible syntax tree:
burned
/ \
the colossal red dragon the lush green forest
f) The lion chased the man into the cave.
In this sentence, we have the main verb "chased" which takes two arguments: the subject "the lion" and the object "the man". The prepositional phrase "into the cave" modifies the verb and tells us where the chase happened. Here's a possible syntax tree:
chased
/ \
the lion the man
|
into the cave
g) I read the book in the attic.
In this sentence, we have the main verb "read" which takes two arguments: the subject "I" and the object "the book". The prepositional phrase "in the attic" modifies the verb and tells us where the reading happened. Here's a possible syntax tree:
read
/ \
I the book
|
in the attic
h) The glorpish dax mepped the florpy blicket.
I'm sorry, but the sentence "The glorpish dax mepped the florpy blicket" doesn't seem to follow any known syntactic structure or rules of English language syntax. It appears to be a string of nonsensical or made-up words, so it's not possible to draw a meaningful syntax tree or assign thematic roles.
I hope this helps you understand how to draw syntax trees for these sentences! Let me know if you have any more questions.