Suggested answer for Exercise 7
The event structure of the sentence is represented in (1).
| (1) | e = e1 → e2 : | e1 = ‘John did something’ | |
| e2 = ‘the window closed’ |
The sentence is ambiguous because the adjunct again can modify either e1 or e2. If it modifies e1 then the sentence means that John closed the window then somebody opened it and John closed it again. If e2 is modified by the adjunct again then only e2 happened again while e1 happened only once. Thus the sentence means that somebody (but not John) opened the window, then somebody closed it and then John opened it again. So in the first interpretation John opens the window twice while in the second interpretation only once.
The structure representing meaning 1 can be seen in (2) while meaning 2 is represented in (3)showing the verbal projection only.
In meaning 1 again modifies e1, so it is adjoined to vP. In meaning 2 only e2 is modified by the adjunct, so again is adjoined to VP.
| (2) | ||
| (3) |