1 / 20

Syntactic Processes

Syntactic Processes. Introduction to syntax. Overview. The passive construction The causative construction WH-question. Syntactic processes that might change the grammatical relations between a verb and its arguments Promotion of NPs Demotion of NPs. The passive construction in English.

munin
Download Presentation

Syntactic Processes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Syntactic Processes Introduction to syntax

  2. Overview • The passive construction • The causative construction • WH-question

  3. Syntactic processes that might change the grammatical relations between a verb and its arguments • Promotion of NPs • Demotion of NPs

  4. The passive construction in English • Active • John took the old lady to the shop. • Passive • The old lady was taken to the shop by John.

  5. The typical process of the passive construction • Subject of the active sentence • DEMOTED to a PP (by-phrase) or deleted. • Object of the active sentence • PROMOTED to subject of the passive • Auxiliary BE + past participle in passive

  6. How do we know the NP is the subject of the passive sentence? • Subject-verb agreement • Pronominal case • Subject-nominative • Object-accusative

  7. The cross-linguistic properties of the typical passive construction • The core arguments of the transitive verb change the grammatical relations. • The promotion of object NP to S. • The demotion of subject NP to oblique NP or be deleted. • The transitive verb changes its form. • V-> past participle

  8. Where do we find passive constructions? • Typically in syntactically and morphologically accusative languages.

  9. The passive construction and intransitive verbs • The use of a ‘dummy’ subject • An impersonal passive • No NPs are promoted. • German • Die Kinder schliefen • The children sleep:PAST • ‘the children slept.’ • Es wurde (von den Kindern) geschlafen. • It became by the children sleep: PP • ‘it was slept by the children’

  10. The applicative construction • John sold his iPod to Mary. • John sold Mary his iPod. • John bought a cup of coffee for me. • John bought me a cup of coffee.

  11. The cross-linguistic properties of the typical applicative construction • Oblique NP/indirect object • Promoted to object • Former object • Demoted to oblique NP • The form of the verb may change to indicate the applicative construction

  12. Oblique arguments • Non-core arguments • Can be omitted without any grammatical adjustment

  13. Not all languages have an applicative construction • Marie a donnéun cadeau à Pierre. Marie has give:PP a gift to Pierre “Mary has given a gift to Pierre.” • *Marie a donne Pierreun cadeau.

  14. The causative construction • The students read the book. • The professor made the students read the book. • The students leave. • The professor let the students leave.

  15. The cross-linguistic properties of the typical causative construction • A new subject is introduced. • Former subject is demoted to be • the object • The oblique NP • deleted • Causation is introduced by • A causative verb • The causative morphology on the main verb

  16. The fronting construction • Move the constituent to the leftward position to focus on a particular phrase. • WH-questions

  17. WH-questions • Move the wh-word to the left of the subject (in English) • WH-words: what, where, who • The gap leaves a trace of the wh-word.

  18. Example • John bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks. • What did John buy ______ at Starbucks? • Where did John bought a cup of coffee ____?

  19. in other languages • French • Qu’est-ce que + S… ‘what…’ • Qu’est-ce que vous faites? ‘What do you do?’ • Pied-piping • Which book does he like ______? • *Which does he like _____ book?

  20. The role of constituents • The promoted, demoted, and fronted phrases have to be a constituent. • Structure dependency

More Related