Contrastive grammar: morphology ctd

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Contrastive grammar morphology ctd

• Tadeusz Piotrowski

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Nouns ctd.
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Case Polish

• Polish Uses 7 cases
• a tendency to reduce the system,
• the Vocative practically disapeared
• to express syntactic functions
• subject, direct/indirect object
• Ksiazke wczoraj mu kupilem
• In English prepositions are used with nouns
• I bought a book for him yesterday.
• to distinguish between certain types of
  adverbials
• na stole/stól, pod ksiazka/ksiazke

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Case Polish

• to convey structural information
• Kupilem chleb/chleba.
• I bought some bread/a loaf of bread.

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Case English

• morphological inflection for case occurs in  -
  in nouns
• and in pronouns

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Case English nouns

• to mark genitive-possesive,
• Jack's horse
• there are however restrictions on this
• predominantly with human nouns,
• and in idioms
• bees knees
• I have never wanted to move into a management
  position," she says, casting her wide eyes down
  the table's vast expanse.
• That they were separated by a table's width
  apparently had nothing to do with Elizabeth's
  dislike of Margrethe's 60-a-day cigarette habit.

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Case English pronouns

• in relative, personal and interrogative pronouns
  to mark
• genitive-possesive
• my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose
• objective
• me, you, him, her, it ,us, them, whom

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Verbs
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Aspect1 (proper)

• a set of inflectional forms of a verb
• that indicate the nature of the action or the
  manner in which the action is regarded
• especially with reference to its beginning,
  duration, completion, or repetition and
• without reference to its position in time
• used first of the Slavic languages, later of many
  others

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Aspect2 (extended)

• the nature of the action of a verb or the manner
  in which that action is regarded
• especially with reference to its beginning,
  duration, completion, or repetition and
• without reference to its position in time,
• whether indicated by a set of inflectional forms,
  by the meaning of the verb itself
• as in find, expressing momentary or completed
  action, by contrast with seek, expressing
  continuing action,
• by an adverbial modifier
• as in sit down, meaning get into a sitting
  position, by contrast with sit there till the
  doctor is ready, where sit means remain in a
  sitting position,
• by such devices as the so-called progressive
  tenses in English
• as was eating, which expresses continuing action,
  by contrast with left, which expresses momentary
  or completed action, in he left while I was
  eating),
• or by some other means

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Aspect

• COMPLETIVE
• expressing completion of an action
• zasnac
• INCHOATIVE
• denoting the beginning of an action, state, or
  occurrence used of certain verbs (as begin, set
  out, get, awake) or of certain verb forms (as
  tremesco I fall to trembling and some other
  Latin verbs in -sco)
• zasypiac
• ITERATIVE
• expressing repetition of an action
• sypiac, pisywac, chadzac

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Verbs

• Imperfective (in Polish) vs. progressive (in
  English)
• imperfective in Polish
• expressed by the form of a verb
• a lexical feature
• most verbs form a pair perfective/imperfective
• progressive in English
• expressed by the phrase
• a syntactic feature

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Polish perfective

• some functions
• completeness of an action
• Otworzyl oczy
• sequentiality (narrative function)
• moving the action on chronologically
• Otworzyl oczy i usiadl. Potem wstal i wyjrzal
  przez okno.
• Przybylem. Zobaczylem. Zwyciezylem.
• Pierwszy kilometr przeszedl a drugi przebiegl.
• Piotrus usiadl na krzesle i zamachal nózkami.

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Polish imperfective

• some functions
• incompleteness of an action
• Czytalem list.
• sequentiality (narrative function)
• Przez pierwszy kilometr szedl a przez drugi
  biegl.
• Otwieral oczy i siadal. Potem wstawal i wygladal
  przez okno.

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Polish imperfective

• Actions described one by one with imperfective
  generally do not suggest simultaneity but rather
  a chronological move in the narrative
• first he opened his eyes and only then he sat...
• BUT NOTICE
• Piotrus siedzial na krzesle i machal nózkami.
• Both verbs are imperfective simultaneity is
  suggested.
• And anyway, the sentence
• Otwieral oczy i siadal...
• above may sound slightly odd.

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Polish imperfective

• Polish imperfective can thus perform the
  narrative function that in English only simple
  past performs (see below).
• duration of an action
• Swiecilo slonce.

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English nonprogressive

• Esp. past simple
• completeness of an action
• He opened his eyes.
• sequentiality (narrative function)
• I came. I saw. I conquered. (NNN 3xNarrative)

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English progressive

• incompleteness of an action
• I was reading a book that evening.
• limited duration and temporariness
• He is typing his own letters these days.
• He's playing the banjo.

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English progressive

• descriptive function and simultaneity,
• descriptive function describing what was going
  on at a specific point in time given by a time
  adverbial or by a nearby nonprogressive verb.
• The guard ran to the wall. The convicts were
  climbing.
• actions described by nearby progressive verbs are
  simultaneuous and relate to a given point of time
• established by adverbial of a nonprogressive verb
• It was shortly before his exam.
• His legs were shaking. His hands were trembling.

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Conclusions
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Conclusions
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Conclusions

• So, it could not be
• For the first three kilometers he walked and for
  next two he was running.
• or
• For the first three kilometers he was walking
  and for next two he ran.
• since it would suggest that he walked and ran
  simultaneusly.
• We also cannot say
• For the first three kilometers he was walking
  and for next two he was running.
• since, assuming no dramatic context is given,
  this would also suggest simultaneity and impel a
  native reader/listener to search for some
  specific time at which it could possibly happen.
  Of course, he would fail.

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Conclusions

• The meaning of the verbs seems to have some
  influence on the aspect they occur in.
• For example, it would probably be correct
  (confirmed by a native) to translate
• Przez pierwsze trzy godziny czytal a przez
  nastepne dwie spal.
• as
• For the first two hours he was reading and for
  next   two he was sleeping.
• as these are activities which one cannot do at
  the same time.