SYNTAX & STYLISTICS Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

FES Acatlán SUAyED – LICEL

Mtra. Paula I. Aguilar Angulo
Topics for the Final Exam
UNIT 1
Define the following terms in your own words:

 Syntax
 Structural Ambiguity
 Lexical Ambiguity
 Surface Structure
 Deep Structure
 Generative Grammar
 Universal Grammar
 Tree Diagram

Which of the notions above can you identify in the next newspaper headline? Explain.

“Man eating piranha mistakenly sold as pet fish.”

UNIT 2
 Grammatical or Ungrammatical ? Acceptable or Unacceptable? - Give reasons for those sentences you consider
ungrammatical/unacceptable.

a) People from Tucson think very highly of themselves.

b) I gave yourself the bucket of ice cream.

c) I gave myself the bucket of ice cream.

d) She hit myself with a hammer.

e) Doug blew the building up.

f) Doug blew up the building

g) Who do you wonder what bought?

 SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS [Practical question] - Carry out the syntactic analysis of the sentences below.

a) Label each constituent according to their grammatical function.

b) Draw both one bracket diagram and one tree diagram for each of the sentences.
c) Use a word order that may facilitate their syntactic analysis. (Make any necessary changes)

1. The teacher gave the students a big assignment this morning.

2. Because funding is scarce, research is hampered.
3. Before children can write, they learn to speak.

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SYNTAX & STYLISTICS Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
FES Acatlán SUAyED – LICEL
Mtra. Paula I. Aguilar Angulo
UNIT 3
Exemplify the following concepts:

 Vernacular language
 Prestige
 Style shifting
 Speech accommodation

 Think of a practical application of the terms: Phraseology in ELT