Syntax

Contents x 6.4.4 Split systems II 6.5 Grammatical relations 6.5.1 Investigating core grammatical relations 6.5.2 Subjects: Typical crossâ•‚linguistic properties 6.5.3 An examination of subjects in specific languages 6.5.4 Objects 6.6 Free word order: A case study 6.7 Summary Further reading Exercises 7 Processes that change grammatical relations 7.1 Passives and impersonals 7.1.1 The passive construction and transitive verbs 7.1.2 The impersonal construction 7.2 The antipassive 7.2.1 Basic facts 7.2.2 Primary grammatical relations and grammatical pivots 7.3 The applicative construction 7.4 The causative construction 7.5 Summary Further reading Exercises 8 Wh-constructions: Questions and relative clauses 8.1 Whâ•‚questions 8.1.1 Languages with wh-movement 8.1.2 Languages with wh-in-situ wh-questions 8.1.3 Multiple wh-questions 8.2 Relative clauses 8.2.1 Relative clauses in English 8.2.2 Crossâ•‚linguistic variation in relative clauses 8.3 Focus movements and scrambling 8.4 Some conclusions Further reading Exercises 9 Asking questions about syntax 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Syntactic description: What questions to investigate A case study: Grammatical sketch of colloquial Welsh Some questions concerning syntax Last words: More syntax ahead Sources of data used in examples Glossary References Language index Subject index 189 190 190 190 192 199 201 204 204 205 211 211 211 216 217 217 220 225 229 233 233 234 243 243 243 247 249 251 251 254 259 261 262 262 271 271 274 281 284 287 291 296 304 307 ? Acknowledgements Over the 13 years or so since the first edition of this book was published, I have been overwhelmed by the interest shown in the material it presents, and by the kindness of very many people from around the world. I have received dozens of emails, often from complete strangers, volunteering corrections to data, offering new data, suggesting ways in which the book could be improved, discussing fine linguistic points at great length, offering to read drafts of new material, and generally providing constructive criticism. Doubtless, I have overlooked some of you in the list that follows; for this, I heartily apologise, and I stress my genuine gratitude to all who helped make this third edition a better text. Many thanks, then, to the following colleagues, friends and students whose real and virtual presence has helped so much in the writing of the first, second and third editions of this textbook: Muteb Alqarni, Clayton Ashton, Seiki Ayano, Ute Bohnacker, Bob Borsley, Siobhan Casson, Zedric Dimalanta, Joe Emonds, Tom Ernst, Stuart Forbes, Don Frantz, Anders Holmberg, Chris Johns, Andreas Kathol, Jagdish Kaur, Daniela Kolbe, Lan Yin Kong, Nedzad Leko, Joan Maling, Anna Margetts, Jenny Marjoribanks, Roger Maylor, Sadat Peyambar, Tenzin Rigzin, Caroline Gray Robinson, Stuart Payton Robinson, Anna Siewierska, Carlota S. Smith, Rex Sprouse, Maite Taboada, Höski Thráinsson, Graham Thurgood, Antoine Trux, Ian Turner, Robert D. Van Valin, Nigel Vincent, Emiel Visser, Stephen M. Wechsler, Ian Woo and Monaliza Sarbini Zin. None of the above should be held responsible for any remaining errors. I also owe a great debt of thanks to the series editors, Bernard Comrie and Grev Corbett, who improved this work in immeasurable ways. I hope that this new edition will be of credit to both these linguists, because their own work has inspired me throughout. Of course, full credit for any shortcomings remains with the author. Finally, especial thanks to my husband, S. J. Hannahs, for massive support, both practical and moral, for reading and commenting on drafts, and for generally putting up with me during the preparation of this edition. Since the first edition was published, our family has gained another linguist. This third edition is thus dedicated to the linguists in the family, S. J. and Maggie the younger. ? Note to the instructor Changes to the third edition If you have used this textbook before, you will find that this new edition contains essentially the same material as the second edition, but that every chapter has been substantially revised, and there is also some significant new material. I hope to have improved the clarity of discussion and level of explanation for all the most complex concepts that are introduced, and I have attempted to anticipate more precisely the needs of the beginning student with no background whatever in language studies. Please let me know if you find this helpful. The organization of material has changed quite a lot, in Chapters 2 and 3 especially. Also, I have introduced more subsection headings, so that material is easier to find, and so that each section does not become too long. Chapters 6 and 7 remain highly demanding, but I am hopeful that the attentive reader can follow the discussion, and I have given more pointers and reminders of earlier discussions than in the previous edition. Many new exercises have been added, and some of the old ones removed, in cases where I felt that they didn’t work too well. Importantly, the exercises have now been tailored to fit more closely the contents of the chapter that they belong to. This means that exercises have been moved around a great deal since the 2005 edition, so please do look in the language index if you can’t find an exercise which you previously found useful. Chapter 9 has undergone substantial revision and expansion. It now contains a section suggesting a set of questions that a student might investigate in order to produce a basic sketch of the syntax and morphosyntax of a language. Following this is a case study of colloquial Welsh, which illustrates what such a sketch might look like. There is also a discussion in this chapter of some broader questions concerning the human language faculty, especially in light of some recent debates within linguistics. As always, I’d be glad to hear from any instructors about the success or otherwise of any of the changes I’ve made, and I’m also happy to receive data corrections and suggestions for further improvements. Maggie Tallerman Newcastle University March 2011 ? Note to the student This book is an introduction to the major concepts and categories associated with the branch of linguistics known as syntax. No prior knowledge is assumed, although it is assumed that you will learn from each chapter, and assimilate much of the information in a chapter, before reading further. However, I generally don’t expect you to learn what something means from a single discussion – instead, you will meet the same terms and concepts on several different occasions throughout the book. The first mention of some concept might be quite informal, with examples just from English, and then later I will give the discussion a broader perspective with illustrations from other languages. I use small capitals to introduce technical terms and concepts: these can be found in the subject index at the back. I also use small capitals to indicate any particularly important discussion or illustration of a term or concept that you’ve already met earlier. It will probably help to look up in the index all the previous mentions of this item, especially if you’re finding it hard to grasp. Many of the example sentences used in the text are given as a phonetic transcription, for instance when the language under discussion does not have a written form. Although you don’t need to know how to pronounce the examples in order to understand the point being made, you may well be interested in their pronunciation. If you’d like further information about the various symbols used, I recommend that you consult the Phonetic Symbol Guide (Pullum and Ladusaw 1996), for comprehensive details of phonetic symbols and their pronunciation, or Davenport and Hannahs (2010) for general information on phonetics and phonology. You are invited to tackle exercises within the body of the text in each chapter, and these are separated from the running text by rows of arrows that mark out the start: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and finish: Before reading further, please try the tests for subjecthood on the examples in (39), filling in the gaps with words or phrases as you see fit, noting any problems you find and trying to think why these occur. > Before reading further, please look at the examples in (61). Most adjectives can occur in either the attributive or the predicative positions, but not all can. Using the appropriate terminology, describe the distribution of awake and of utter: (61) The man was awake / *the awake man *The failure seems utter / an utter failure > How do we know that the verb like in (1b) is finite? Does it express tense? It has exactly the same word-form as like in Kim wanted to like spinach, where the verb definitely isn’t finite. What evidence is there that like in (1b) is finite? > The finite auxiliaries in the simple sentences in (6) are shown in bold. These are the only finite elements here; in other words, any other verbs and verbal auxiliaries in these examples are non-finite. Your task is to work out the generalization (= a rule, a statement of the facts) about where a finite element occurs in the sequence of verbs and verbal auxiliaries in English. The finite auxiliaries include ’s, the phonetically reduced form of has. Can you offer any evidence that the auxiliaries in bold really are finite? (6) a. b. c. d. You can leave early again today. The people in the library may have been working late. Kim’s experienced a lot of problems lately. We really do feel sad about that. > Look at the examples in (13). Are the verb forms in bold type finite or are they infinitives? Can you provide evidence? (13) a. b. c. Mel made the kids leave home early. I saw him blink! Let Kim sing in the choir? Never. >>>>>>>>> Before reading on, examine the sentences in (36). The examples all contain subordinate clauses; sometimes just one, sometimes more than one. (i) Each clause in (36) has a verbal predicate. Pick out all the main verbs – some are finite and others are non-finite. Finding the main verbs should help you recognize where the clauses are: one main verb = one clause. Then (ii) try to decide which of the subordinate clauses are adjuncts and which are complements. In the case of the complement clauses, what verbs are they a complement to? I will leave this last task with you as an assignment for discussion. (36) a. When Kim got on the train, someone said she’d left her rucksack in the middle of the platform on a trolley. b. Unless we want to arrive late, we really need to be leaving now. c. To get to class on time, set your alarm for about 6.15 every Wednesday. d. To arrive on time feels brilliant. e. I promise to cook the meal while you sort the groceries. > Before reading further, it is vital to study the glosses carefully in (54) and (55) and try to understand how these examples are constructed. What is the work done by each piece of grammatical morphology (glossed in small capitals) which is attached to the verb stems? Describe these markers: which are prefixes and which are suffixes? > Before moving on, look carefully at (2a) and work out how the Kambera example differs from English in the way it expresses the concept ‘hot’. > An intransitive verb such as disappear doesn’t have any complement. We don’t get sentences like *The magician disappeared the white rabbit, since the verb can’t have an object NP. So why is (7) perfectly grammatical, even though disappear is followed by a Noun Phrase? (7) The magician disappeared the following day. > This exercise requires you to figure out why the adverbs can be omitted in (8) but not in (9). By convention, we indicate that a word or phrase is optional by putting it in parentheses. 114 Understanding syntax (8) I wrote the report (carefully). Kim practises (carefully). They walked (carefully) on the ice. (9) You should treat sensitive people *(carefully). You have to tread *(carefully). You need to handle Ming vases *(carefully). > The examples in (29) through (32) comprise some head-initial and some headfinal constructions. Using the glosses, first figure out what type of construction each example illustrates, then decide which word is the head in each phrase, and finally determine whether each example illustrates a head-initial or a head-final construction. (29) ʔawlaˉd ʔaxuˉ-k children brother-2.m.sg ‘your brother’s children’ (Chadian Arabic) (30) nu-yaka-u abi 1sg-parent-f with ‘with my mother’ (Bare) And in the sentences in (31) and (32), concentrate just on the phrases in brackets: (31) Girki-v [mindu omakta-va purta-va friend-my [me new-acc knife-acc ‘My friend gave me a new knife.’ buu-re-n]. give-past-3sg (32) Da so wan sani á [bun fu sama nyan]. and thus a thing neg [good for person eat ‘Such a thing isn’t good for people to eat.’ (Evenki) (Ndyuka) > From an English-speaking perspective, the examples in (38) and (39) might seem quite striking. In what way? What is the major difference here between English and German, apart from the fact that full NPs in German receive case-marking? > In each example in (47) through (50), you need to (i) decide which word is the head, and then (ii) examine the glosses to determine whether it’s the head or its dependent(s) that bears the markers showing the syntactic relationship between the two. Hint Note that a head-marking language often has constructions consisting of just the€ head with appropriate person and number markers occurring as pronominal affixes (or bound pronouns). In such constructions, there may be no separate noun€ phrase dependents. Look back at the discussion of the Kambera example in€(40). (47) anu˜-tSı¯ Anu-possessive.3pl ‘Anu’s books’ pustaka book.3pl (Marathi) Heads and their dependents (48) sagasaga e-na mouth.of.the.river at-3sg ‘at the mouth of the river’ (49) a. b. Wisi seuan-in bi-mu-ban. two man-pl 1sg.Su-see-past ‘I saw two men.’ Bey-mu-ban. 2sg.Su/1sg.Obj-see-past ‘You saw me.’ 131 (Saliba) (Southern Tiwa) (The notation 2sg.Su/1sg.Obj in (49b) indicates a marker which is a fusion of two separate pieces of grammatical information; here, a second person singular subject and a first person singular object.) (50) a. b. raul tawı¯l man tall.masc ‘a tall man’ mara tawı¯la woman tall.fem ‘a tall woman’ (Chadian Arabic)