Morphology and Syntax

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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Cross-linguistic word order variation

• English SVO (Subject Verb Object)
• Japanese SOV
• Hiromi-ga tegami-o Naoko-ni kaita.
• Hiromi letter Naoko wrote
• Hiromi wrote a letter to Naoko.
• NP Taro-ga ano ie-o kat-ta toiu
  uwasa-o kii-ta.
• Taro that house bought that
  rumour heard
• I heard the rumour that Taro bought that house.

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• VOS, OSV, OVS rare
• VSO Celtic languages, Arabic, .....
• Sgrìobhadh iad an leabhar.
• write-conditional they the book
• 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.