Set I
1. The trainees got much quicker over those three months.
S V sP aA
[intens]
2. All our planes landed within twenty minutes.
S V aA
[intrans]
3. Millie silently bottled up her feelings.
S aA V dO
[trans]
[phrasal]
4. The speaker made this the main point of his argument.
S V dO oP
[complex]
5. The boss wished all his staff a Merry Christmas.
S V iO dO
[ditrans]
6. The housekeeper never believed in ghosts.
S aA V PC
[prep]
7. Matilda and her friends polished off the toast by eight thirty.
S V dO aA
[trans]
[phrasal]
8. He opened his mail very reluctantly that morning.
S V dO aA aA
[trans]
9. It rained for three hours on the Continent last night.
S V aA aA aA
[intrans]
10.Martha left the bathroom in a mess. (ambiguous)
Interpretation 1: Martha left the bathroom in a mess
S V dO oP
[complex]
Meaning 1: Martha had made a mess in the barthroom before she left.
Interpretation 2: Martha left the bathroom in a mess
S V dO aA
[trans]
Meaning 2: Martha, looking like a mess, left the bathroom.
Set II
1. They often seem really nervous at first.
S aA V sP PP
[intens]
2. They lived in Paris quite happily for a good ten years.
S V PC aA aA
[prep]
3. The old man grew increasingly intolerant, in my opinion.
S V sP sA
[intens]
4. They decided on the train. (ambiguous; elliptical on one interpretation)
Interpretation 1: They decided on the train.
S V[prep] – E PC aA
Meaning 1: They had discussed and concluded on something while being on the train.
Interpretation 2: They decided on the train.
S V[prep] PC
Meaning 2: They chose to go by train.
5. You turned the high-wire into a death-trap, for your information!
S V dO oP sA
[complex]
6. The trapeze artistes asked for a meeting with the circus management.
S V PC
[prep]
7. Floyd’s surprise puddings always blow up in your face.
S aA V aA
[intrans]
[phrasal]
8. He cooked us a delicious meal with pasta and tomato sauce for the price of a Coke.
S V iO dO aA aA
[ditrans]
9. The architects positioned the windows too close to each other in the earlier building.
S V dO oP aA
[complex]
10.Amazingly, they allowed him total freedom without a thought for the consequences.
sA S V iO dO aA
[ditrans]
Set III
1. The drunken recruits repeatedly tripped over the guy ropes until the early hours.
S aA V PC aA
[prep]
2. He never looked back on his years at sea with much nostalgia, however.
S aA V PC aA sA
[prep]
[phrasal]
3. Unfortunately, his new rotting compound quickly leaked into the foundations.
sA S aA V PC
[prep]
4. Several figures gingerly edged towards the precipice in full view of the police.
S aA V PC aA
[prep]
5. She ignored all those people in the studio. (ambiguous).
Interpretation 1: She ignored all those people in the studio.
S V dO
[trans]
Meaning 1: She did not give a care about ‘people in the studio’ and she might be
outside of that studio.
Interpretation 2: She ignored all those people in the studio.
S V dO aA
[trans]
Meaning 2: She was in the studio, and she did not give a care about the people in the
same place with her.
6. She kept all those people in the studio. (ambiguous)
Interpretation 1: She kept all those people in the studio.
S V dO
[trans]
Meaning 1: She controlled everybody of that studio, and she put them in any place,
rather than the studio.
Interpretation 2: She kept all those people in the studio.
S V dO oP
[complex]
Meaning 2: She controlled everybody, and she put them in the studio.
7. Interestingly, Matilda barely gets on with her new colleagues.
sA S aA V PC
[prep]
[phrasal]
8. They soon ran out of energy and for ten hours slept like babies.
S aA V PC aA V aA
[prep] [intrans]
[phrasal]
9. The butler usually mopped up the crumbs after each course in the old days.
S aA V dO aA aA
[trans]
[phrasal]
(This will need careful attention to the meaning in deciding what constituents each of
the (three) adverbials is modifying.)
10.Time flies like an arrow but fruit flies like a banana. (Groucho Marx)
S V aA S V dO
[intrans] [trans]
Set IV
a) They might even have slipped out for a smoke.
S aA V aA
[intrans]
[phrasal]
b) She always has dyed her hair a strange colour.
S aA V dO oP
[complex]
c) The exercises should have been much easier.
S V sP
[intens]
d) I will be happily looking after your charming children.
S aA V dO
[trans]
[phrasal]
e) William must have surreptitiously shown Millie the answers.
S aA V iO dO
[ditrans]
f) We had already run out of sausages by ten pm.
S aA V PC aA
[prep]
[phrasal]
g) They were peeling the bananas and slicing them lengthways.
S V dO V dO aA
[trans] [trans]
h) They will do the work and hand it in tomorrow.
S V dO V dO Prt aA
[trans] [trans]
[phrasal]
i) I can’t watch it for another ten minutes. (Ambiguous!)
S V dO aA
[trans]
Ambiguous in meaning:
1. I really want to watch program, but I’m busy for the next ten minutes of the
program.
2. I really sick of it, and I can’t watch it for another ten minutes.
