Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang
Beginning students of syntax may find that tree diagram drawing is a daunting task. Problems in tree diagram drawing are common when they are given exercises in cartography drawing; the three problems facing these students are: (1) unable to differentiate a complement from an adjunct and thus tre...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2012
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| Online Access: | http://pendeta.um.edu.my/client/default/search/results?qu=Problems+in+adjunct+cartography&te= http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/1/Title_page%2C_abstract%2C_table_of_contents.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/2/Full_chapters.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/3/References.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848772540578660352 |
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| author | Ng, Pei Fang |
| author_facet | Ng, Pei Fang |
| author_sort | Ng, Pei Fang |
| building | UM Research Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Beginning students of syntax may find that tree diagram drawing is a daunting task.
Problems in tree diagram drawing are common when they are given exercises in
cartography drawing; the three problems facing these students are: (1) unable to
differentiate a complement from an adjunct and thus treat both as the same syntactic
element; (2) not sensitive that for an ambiguous clause, there are two possible adjunction
operations where an XP can be adjoined to a V′ and N′; thus they are unable to
disambiguate an ambiguous clause by producing two cartographies with different internal
structures; (3) not sensitive to the two possible adjunction operations when a head X is
preceded and followed by an adjunct where either one can be adjoined first depending on
the interpretations given to the clause. This research report attempts to explore if
postgraduate students who have been exposed to the X-bar theory and practices in
producing cartographies manage to overcome the problems (1), (2), (3) after they studied
the syntax of English. An instrument which consists of phrases and clauses was designed
and tested on the participants who studied TXGB 6303 Structure of English. The purpose of
the study is to examine whether the participants have the three problems mentioned above.
The results show that indeed the participants have the three problems. Examining the
corpus of tree diagrams produced, it is found that the participants clearly do not have a
strong understanding of the X-bar theory; they are unable to produce viable cartographies
based on the three phrase structure rules which are the backbones of the theory. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T13:28:08Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | um-3946 |
| institution | University Malaya |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T13:28:08Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | um-39462013-09-06T04:32:37Z Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang Ng, Pei Fang P Philology. Linguistics Beginning students of syntax may find that tree diagram drawing is a daunting task. Problems in tree diagram drawing are common when they are given exercises in cartography drawing; the three problems facing these students are: (1) unable to differentiate a complement from an adjunct and thus treat both as the same syntactic element; (2) not sensitive that for an ambiguous clause, there are two possible adjunction operations where an XP can be adjoined to a V′ and N′; thus they are unable to disambiguate an ambiguous clause by producing two cartographies with different internal structures; (3) not sensitive to the two possible adjunction operations when a head X is preceded and followed by an adjunct where either one can be adjoined first depending on the interpretations given to the clause. This research report attempts to explore if postgraduate students who have been exposed to the X-bar theory and practices in producing cartographies manage to overcome the problems (1), (2), (3) after they studied the syntax of English. An instrument which consists of phrases and clauses was designed and tested on the participants who studied TXGB 6303 Structure of English. The purpose of the study is to examine whether the participants have the three problems mentioned above. The results show that indeed the participants have the three problems. Examining the corpus of tree diagrams produced, it is found that the participants clearly do not have a strong understanding of the X-bar theory; they are unable to produce viable cartographies based on the three phrase structure rules which are the backbones of the theory. 2012 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/1/Title_page%2C_abstract%2C_table_of_contents.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/2/Full_chapters.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/3/References.pdf http://pendeta.um.edu.my/client/default/search/results?qu=Problems+in+adjunct+cartography&te= Ng, Pei Fang (2012) Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang. Masters thesis, University of Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/ |
| spellingShingle | P Philology. Linguistics Ng, Pei Fang Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang |
| title | Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang |
| title_full | Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang |
| title_fullStr | Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang |
| title_full_unstemmed | Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang |
| title_short | Problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / Ng Pei Fang |
| title_sort | problems in adjunct cartography : a case study / ng pei fang |
| topic | P Philology. Linguistics |
| url | http://pendeta.um.edu.my/client/default/search/results?qu=Problems+in+adjunct+cartography&te= http://pendeta.um.edu.my/client/default/search/results?qu=Problems+in+adjunct+cartography&te= http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/1/Title_page%2C_abstract%2C_table_of_contents.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/2/Full_chapters.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/3946/3/References.pdf |