Now that the Hierarchy of Projections for DP contains n, every DP has an nP within it. For homework #7, draw all of those. That means that there will be a lot of nPs. I expect that on homework #8, I will relent and allow triangles for some of these, but for homework #7 draw them all out.
Also, with respect to drawing the trees for the German sentences, the trees should be of the German sentences. So, in particular, the trees should contain German words.
Homework 6 has a strange status—I handed it out, then shortly afterwards said that all the NPs we’d seen before should actually be considered DPs.
Following the principle that a homework generally covers material up to the class during which it was handed out, you can use NPs on HW6.
But, on the other hand, feel free to use DP instead. The difference between them will not be something that the grader will be instructed to look at. And, it’s probably just as well that you start getting used to using DPs. So, I’d recommend using DP, but will also accept NPs, on HW6.
On future homework: DPs, all the time.
It’s just been called to my attention that homework #6 has a typo on it, in the example tree. The example is passive. Little v should not have a [uN*] feature on it. An unfortunate copy & paste error on my part.
You can download homework #6, v1.1, containing the corrected tree to take a look, though the change is small enough you might as well just make the change on your hardcopy. It’s also linked into the schedule page.
(Incidentally, we’ll talk about the passive at the beginning next time, we haven’t really talked about it yet. But, when we do, it should become clear that the original homework handout was in error.)
Hi everyone. Ok, I’ve gotten enough requests for extensions on homework 5 for various reasons that it is now officially due on Tuesday, Nov. 3. You may of course feel free to hand it in today if you’ve got it done and don’t want to fiddle with it anymore.
Along with this, I want to make a couple of changes to the homework schedule as well for the next couple of assignments, in order to accommodate the BUCLD. Ultimately, what’s basically happening here is that one homework is being removed from the total number (there will now be 9), and each future homework will be given out not less than 9 days before it is due. This is all plotted out on the schedule page.
Homework 6 will go out today as planned. It will be due the Tuesday after the BUCLD. The idea is to finish it before the BUCLD weekend, leaving your BUCLD weekend homework-free.
Same idea for homework 8: it’ll be given out the Thursday before US Thanksgiving, and will be due the Tuesday after the break. If you finish it before the break, your break will be homework-free.
Homework 7 and 9 will be given out on a Tuesday and be due in the Thursday of the following week.
If you want a more thorough example of Agree in action, you might take a look at the updated version of the Pat must not have been sending flowers to Chris derivation. You had a version of this (but without Agree) in preparation for the midterm.
It’s possible that this is more detail than you want, but it at least should be sufficient detail to get a handle on what’s supposed to be happening if the examples from the book and the handouts seemed too inexplicit.
Just a quick reminder: Don’t forget that the current state of the schedule is kept here:
http://ling.bu.edu/blogs/lx522f09/schedule/
Things have changed a bit since the copy I printed out for you at the beginning of the semester. Where the very first line of text says: Do not rely on the printed copy; instead consult the schedule page. In particular, don’t assume that the readings and homework assignments are just as they originally were. We are currently a bit behind the original schedule, but I try to keep the schedule page up to date.
You also want to look there because that’s where the keys are posted, too.
Due to a faculty meeting, I have to move my office hours earlier this coming Wednesday (Oct 21). They will be from 3-4pm (rather than the usual 4-5pm).
Come one! Come all! Find out more about the major and minor in linguistics, as well as academic programs in French, Spanish, and Italian language and literature. Meet faculty and students who share these interests. Current and prospective students are welcome; please spread the word!
Monday, October 19, 2009 from 3:45 to 5:00 pm, in CAS room 200
Refreshments will be served.
This is also a Facebook event. You are invited to RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140005344422.
Ok, so about Homework #4. I didn’t want to give it back to you before the exam, but because I gave it back after the exam, I didn’t get much chance to say anything about it.
The scores were overall quite low. You probably got a lower score than you might have hoped for on this, but also know that so did everybody else. I think this was in large part due to lots of little fractional points coming off for things that were asked for in the instructions but not included on the homework, or not consistently included. I did, as I mentioned in the key, try to set it up so actually producing each step individually was not strictly required in order to get all of the points, but the tendency would still be that, if the tree were produced only in its final state, many other things didn’t quite get notated, like what operation joined every pair of nodes in the structure, etc. I think more than usual so far, there was less care than I’d have hoped for in trying to make sure that everything asked for in the instructions was actually addressed in what got turned in.
I’m not sure whether I’ll do anything special about the scores for this homework or not as I integrate it into the overall homework score, I might, but I have to decide how best to handle it. However, to the extent that there were actual misunderstandings about the content of the homework, I also want to address those, and pretty much right away. There will be a fair amount of tree drawing of this sort in the future, and the material winds up being pretty cumulative, so I want to make sure that everyone has a handle on how these trees come to be, and why they look the way they do.
My plan is to take some time in the next class, Tuesday, to go through the problems on that homework, just to walk through it, and to answer any questions that come up. And perhaps I’ll also do another one or two examples just for good measure, though I think I’ll probably save that for about a week later, when we’ve added in a couple more pieces to make the system a bit more complete.
So: bring your homework #4 with you on Tuesday to refer to, and any questions you had on it as well, and I’ll see if we can get ourselves to a point where we’re all “on the same page” about how everything works to this point.
So, I see you’re reading the blog. Great! I’d stress again the value of doing so (read the blog!), except you are already doing it. Good thinking. But if you know somebody else in the class that isn’t reading it, you may politely question their wisdom.
I treat the blog as a place to post corrections, notes, addenda. It’s a more organized and less annoying way to disseminate information than to dump an email into everyone’s inbox every time there’s a typo or a correction. But it’s intended to be essentially that, class-wide announcements.
If you have an RSS feed reader (e.g., the one that is built into Safari, or some other reader like Google Reader, NetNewsWire), you can point it to the RSS feed, if that makes it easier for you to notice when a new post appears.