Assessed exercises
Assessed exercises 3:
A: Identify all (a) verbs (b) adjectives and (c) prepositions in the following text.
Some theatres have incredible scenery right outside the door. Perthshire’s Pitlochry Festival theatre makes the most of its beautiful serene location on the Tummel river bank, with views over the “speckled mountain”. They regularly stage a yuletide performance about elves who save Christmas, which you watch from the comfort of your home.
(a) verbs
(b) adjectives
(c) prepositions
B: Identify the subject in the following examples, giving a justification for your answer (i.e. showing how you know this by applying the relevant diagnostic):
1) Her second cousin is my boyfriend.
2) The very thought of it makes me sick.
3) The fact that nobody apologised annoyed her.
In the following examples, identify what is co-ordinated and draw a tree just for the co-ordination adding as many labels as you can (while ignoring the rest of the sentence).
Example: They upset me and John.
4) Hilda is either at the bus stop or on the bus.
5) Sasha writes quickly and very expressively.
6) Sam cut up and ate an apple for breakfast.
The following example is ambiguous: give both possible co-ordination structures and explain how they differ in meaning.
7) I like reading books and magazines about gardening.
- C) Write two brief passages responding to two of the following claims about language. You do not need to provide references but please use examples to illustrate what you mean.
- It is not always easy to classify English verbs as belonging to a specific sub-category (transitive, intensive etc.)
- Adverbs and adverbials are not the same thing.
- Structural ambiguity arises because a single string of words can correspond to more than one syntactic structure.
- Phrasal verbs are difficult for learners of English because of both their syntax and semantics.
- D) Draw tree diagrams for the following sentences using triangles for all NPs and indicating which type of verb is involved (e.g. [trans],[intens],[intrans] etc.).
- Tourists take too many pictures.
- The whole class baked mince pies for the teacher this year.
- The last customer in the queue became agitated.
- Honestly, these kinds of events get me excited but nervous.
Draw tree diagrams for the following sentences using as few triangles as you can and adding as many labels as you can.
- It always snows at Christmas or around that time.
- I played the violin at the Proms last year, luckily for me.
- Frankly, she already benefits from a large collection of scarves.
