syntactic processes
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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. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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
Active John took the old lady to the shop.
Passive The old lady was taken to the shop by John.
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
How do we know the NP is the subject of the passive sentence?
Subject-verb agreement Pronominal case
Subject-nominative Object-accusative
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
Where do we find passive constructions?
Typically in syntactically and morphologically accusative languages.
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’
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.
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
Oblique arguments
Non-core arguments Can be omitted without any grammatical
adjustment
Not all languages have an applicative construction
Marie a donné un cadeau à Pierre.
Marie has give:PP a gift to Pierre
“Mary has given a gift to Pierre.” *Marie a donne Pierre un cadeau.
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.
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
The fronting construction
Move the constituent to the leftward position to focus on a particular phrase. WH-questions
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.
Example
John bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks. What did John buy ______ at Starbucks? Where did John bought a cup of coffee
____?
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?
The role of constituents
The promoted, demoted, and fronted phrases have to be a constituent.
Structure dependency