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Morphology and Syntax

Morphology and Syntax. Grammatical functions. Subjects and predicates. Aristotle: Sentences consist of something that the sentence is about and a comment on that something. Iris likes to read long novels. Three green-eyed monsters attacked the unlucky space traveller.

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Morphology and Syntax

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  1. Morphology and Syntax Grammatical functions

  2. Subjects and predicates Aristotle: Sentences consist of something that the sentence is about and a comment on that something. Iris likes to read long novels. Three green-eyed monsters attacked the unlucky space traveller. The moon is made of blue cheese. S NP VP

  3. Subjects Subjects agree with the finite verb in English: I often read the paper. *I often reads the paper. They see him regularly. *They sees him regularly. She loves me, yeah yeah. *She love me, yeah yeah. The chair irritates us all. *The chair irritate us all.

  4. Subjects are usually NPs, but not always: [PPUnder the bed] is a good hiding place. [PPVia Liverpool] is a shorter route. [SThat Jodi smokes] worries Nicola. [SThat that firm stopped billing me] pleases me no end.

  5. Subjects are obligatorily present in English: The rain leaked through the roof. *Leaked through the roof. David plays tennis on Saturday afternoons. *Plays tennis on Saturday afternoons.

  6. In some languages subjects may be omitted: Credo che il giusto è un istrion beffardo. believe that the just is an actor derisive ‘I believe that the honest man is but a scornful actor.’ Kanijian ta le. see him ‘He/she saw him.’

  7. Predicates Predicates can contain just a verb, if this verb is intransitive: The woman laughed. Boris the dog barked. But this is different if the verb is transitive ...

  8. Direct objects The hungry boy ate a hamburger in the park. In the distance we saw the Eiffeltower. Why do you like that kind of tv? I would do that if I could.

  9. Direct objects are the first complement of a verb in English: The hungry boy ate a hamburger in the park. *The hungry boy ate in the park a hamburger. I would do that if I could. *I would do if I could that. The chairperson ended the meeting immediately. *The chairperson ended immediately the meeting.

  10. Direct objects are not always NPs: I know [S that the museum will be closed on Monday]. I wonder [S if the post office will be closed as well]. They saw [S that the balloon was about to explode].

  11. Indirect objects Bill sent a letter to Kenny. They dispatched the parcel to the customer yesterday. The president of that state issued a threat to its neighbouring country.

  12. The double object construction Bill sent Kenny a letter. *Bill sent a letter Kenny. Mary gave me a book. *Mary gave a book me. Compare with: *Bill sent to Kenny a letter. *They dispatched to the customer the parcel yesterday. *The president issued to that country a threat.

  13. Not all verbs can appear in the double object construction: They donated some money to the church. *They donated the church some money. The chemist demonstrated the experiment to her students. *The chemist demonstrated her students the experiment.

  14. Prepositional objects David counts on Carol to do that job. Our firm strongly believes in good customer service. I looked at the picture for a long time.

  15. Modifiers They had lunch in a small pub. They met the other day. Almost immediately he dropped the vase. You should never clip the hedge drunk. The band played only covers because they hated their own songs.

  16. Neutral word order in English • The subject is the phrase immediately preceding the VP • The object (if there is one) is the first phrase immediately following the verb. • If there is an indirect object, this immediately precedes the direct object if it (the indirect object) is an NP, and it follows the direct object if it is a PP.

  17. Deviations from the neutral order are possible: Mary had read the newspaper already. (neutral) The newspaper Mary had read already. (focus on the newspaper)

  18. Cross-linguistic word order variation English: SVO (Subject – Verb – Object) Japanese: SOV Hiromi-ga tegami-o Naoko-ni kaita. HiromiletterNaoko wrote ‘Hiromi wrote a letter to Naoko.’ [NP Taro-ga ano ie-o kat-ta toiu uwasa-o] kii-ta. Taro that houseboughtthatrumourheard ‘I heard the rumour that Taro bought that house.’

  19. VOS, OSV, OVS: rare VSO: Celtic languages, Arabic, ..... Sgrìobhadh iad an leabhar. write-conditional theythebook ‘They would write the book.’

  20. Case and word order variation Der Mann gab der Frau den Hut. Die Frau gab dem Mann den Hut. Die Frau sah den Mann. De man gaf de vrouw de hoed. De vrouw gaf de man de hoed. De vrouw zag de man. Der Mann gab den Hut der Frau. *De man gaf de hoed de vrouw.

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