JARAMOGI OGINGA ODINGA UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY 

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 
AEN404: ADVANCES IN THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLISH SYNTAX 
REGULAR PROGRAMME, MAY-AUGUST: ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/13 
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer three questions only. Question ONE is mandatory. 

Question One. 
(a) Explain linguistic theory and identify the levels of adequacy required of it? (6 marks) 
(b) Explain three strengths and three weakness of traditional grammar. (6 marks) 
(c) What criteria determine the constituency of a sentence? Explainthem. (6 marks) 
(d) Provide a sentence that could satisfy the following re-write rules. (8 marks) 
(i) S. Pro + past tense + modal V + ADV. 
(ii) S. Det + Adj + N + P + Det + N 
(e) State any four differences between formal and functional grammars. (4 marks) 

Question Two 

(a) With examples, differentiate Phrase Structure Rules and Transformation Rules (4 marks) 
(b) Draw a Structural Description phrase marker for the following sentence: (6 marks) 
(i) I have been eating food. 
(c) Make the above sentence passive and then provide a phrase maker for it (6 marks). 

Question Three Three 

(a) Identify the two types of interrogative sentences (2 marks) 
(b) Derive an interrogative sentence from the following declarative and then draw a phrase 
marker for it (12 marks) 
(i) The poor farmers should have left. 
(c) Justify why the Aux (auxiliary) is not part of the VP (Verb Phrase)? 
(6 marks) 
Question Four 

(a) Using two syntactic tree structures disambiguate the following sentence; (8 marks) 
(i) Otieno beat the boy with a stick 
(b) Explain the following syntactic concepts with specific examples; (8 marks) 
(i) government (ii) specifier (iii) head (iv) C-command 
(c) Differentiate R-expressions and Anaphors with specific examples (4 marks) 
Question Five 

(a) Define principle A, B and principle C of the Binding theory. With examples, show how they 
explain the ungrammaticality of sentences? (9 marks) 
(b) State four differences between the X-bar and Bare Phrase Structure (BPS) theories of phrase 
Structure (8 marks) 
(c) Using specific example, explain the ‘shortest movement’ principle of the Minimalism 
Programme (3 marks) 

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