Coordination and embedded question
- 2. OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, students should be able to: identify what Coordination and Embedded questions are; enumerate the processes involved in the Deep Structure of coordination and embedded question(s); and, apply the rules in the Deep Structure of Coordination as well as Embedded question(s).
- 3. Coordination Coordination involves the linking of structures of equal grammatical rank.
- 4. The words: but,yet,so,for,or and nor. but and yet indicate contrast, opposition or negation; so and for show several relationships, among them, purpose, cause, result, or inference; or and nor indicate what might be described as alteration, choice or opposition
- 5. It is overtly simple to describe the conjunctions as coordinators without certain qualifications. Even ‘and’ is not purely a coordinator. Whatever the units it combines, and usually indicates an additive relationship, and sometimes it intensifies, or indicates continuous and repeated action, as in: She waited and waited. She talked and talked and talked. They went around and around.
- 6. Conjoined sentence John and Mary are here. (a) John is here. (b) Mary is here.
- 7. # ## #S and S S NP NPVP VP beJohn Mary PRED. be PRED. herehere John and Mary are here.
- 8. Rule is recursive in that it can be reapplied to any of the S's resulting from it. Structural ambiguities should be possible as a result of this recursiveness. (8). John and Mary and Charlie are here (9). (a) (John, Mary, and Charlie) are here. (b) Both (John and Mary) and Charlie are here. (c) Both John and (Mary and Charlie) are here
- 9. S SS # # # ### VP VP VPNP NP NP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S (a) (John, Mary, and Charlie) are here.
- 10. (b) Both (John and Mary) and Charlie are here. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (b) S # S # and # S # # S # and # S # NP VP NP VP NP VP
- 11. (c) Both John and (Mary and Charlie) are here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (c) S # S # and # S # NP VP # S # and # S #NP VP NP VP
- 12. Coordinate Structure Constraint (Ross 1967) This constraint states that coordination does not allow for asymmetrical constructions. This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates Pat. This is the man whom Kim likes and Sandy hates unacceptable, because only the first conjunct is relativized acceptable, because both conjuncts are relativized Example:
- 13. John and Mary are a happy couple. The possibility of a 'both...and' paraphrase can be used as a criterion for determining the set of sentences with coordinate constructions which are derivable from two(or more) conjoined sentences some sentences are ambiguous (a) *John is a happy couple. (b) *Mary is a happy couple.
- 14. Ambiguous coordinating sentence John and Helen are married. (a) John and Helen are each married. (b) John and Helen are married to each other.
- 15. TYPES OF CONJOINED CONSTRUCTIONS (a) The plane landed at 1200 hours and will leave at 1500 hours. (predicate coordination) (b) John caught and ate fish. (verb coordination) (c) John saw Mary and Helen. (object coordination) (d) The cat moved swiftly and quietly. (manner adverbial coordination) (e) The plane leaves for Detroit at 8:00 am and at 9:30 pm. (time adverbial coordination) (f) I shall be going to London and Paris. (place adverbial coordination) (g) Most receptionists are young and beautiful. (adjective coordination) (h) All her friends are doctors or lawyers. (noun predicate coordination)
- 17. Embedded Questions (Wh- and yes/no question clauses) We can use embedded questions as part of other questions. This is sometimes called an indirect question and is often used to be polite. Normal question: Where is the station? Indirect question (that includes an embedded question): Could you tell me where the station is?
- 18. We can also use embedded questions as part of statements. The embedded question is a noun clause and can be used in a similar way to a noun. For example, we can use it as the subject or the object of the main clause. Normal question: Where does she work? Embedded question in a statement: I don't know where she works. (Here 'where she works' is the object.) Normal question: Where does she work? Embedded question in a statement: Where she works is very far. (Here 'where she works' is the subject.)
- 19. Subject-Q: What is your favorite restaurant? Object-Q: What do you like to have for dinner? Yes/no-Q: Is this a blue whale? Here are three more regular questions. Also, notice I’ve named them as Yes/no question, Subject question and Object question.
- 20. Yes/no-Q: Does he go to college regularly? Embedded-Q: Do you know if he goes to college regularly? Embedded: I am not sure if he goes to college regularly. Now we are going to turn each of them into an embedded question and keep an eye on the structures of them. For example: STRUCTURE Yes/no-Q: Aux + sub + main verb Embedded-Q: question + if + sub+ main verb Embedded: Statement + if + sub+ main verb
- 21. Next one is the subject-Q. What’s a subject-Q? When the answer to a question is the subject of the answer, then it is a Subject-Q. Subject-Q: What is your favorite restaurant? Embedded-Q: Does he know what your favorite restaurant is? Embedded: I know what your favorite restaurant is. STRUCTURE Subject Q: W/h + verb + subject Embedded-Q: question + w/h + subject + verb Embedded: statement + w/h + subject + verb
- 22. Notice in this one, the verb doesn’t sit at the end instead it remained at the same place. The last type is Object-Q. The Object-Q asks information about the subject. Here is an example: Object-Q: what do you love to eat? Embedded-Q: would you tell me what you love to eat? STRUCTURE Object-Q: w/h + auxiliary + verb (do/did) + sub + verb Embedded-Q: question + w/h + sub + verb
- 23. We use the same rules with embedded questions in statements as we do with embedded questions in indirect questions. If there is a question word, we keep it. If there is no question word, we use 'if' or 'whether’. We use normal sentence grammar (so we don't need 'do / does / did’). We use normal sentence word order (subject + verb, not the opposite). We use a full stop and not a question mark at the end of the sentence.