understanding grammatical function in morphosyntacsis, linguistics study

1. Subject
Oblique
Complement
Object
Grammatical
Description
Indirect
Adjunct
Object
Object

2. Grammatical
Subject
Logical
Subject
Subject
Thematic
Subject

3.  The grammatical forms that can function as the subject.
 E.g. In English grammar, grammatical subjects are noun
phrases,, prepositional phrases, verb phrases, and noun
clauses.
 Nominalised sentence (Constituent)
- That Edinburgh’s New Town is magnificent is
undeniable
- For you to run off with Mary would be madness.

4.  Dummy no constituent. E.g. It is raining
 Nominalized sentence is extraposed.
E.g. That Edinburgh’s New Town is magnificent is
undeniable
It is undeniable that Edinburgh’s New Town
• Existential asserts the existence of something
Eg. There are glasses in the drinks cupboard.
• Deictic point something
Eg. There is the glass

5. DEICTIC VS EXISTENTIAL
Deictic Existential
• pronounced with non- • pronounced with
reduced form.E.g. reduced form. Eg.
there is /ðɛəriz/, there there is /ðəz/, there
are /ðɛəra/. are /ðəra/.
• There need not be a • There must be a
subject subject
• There can be • There can’t be
questioned. questioned.
• Definite NP • Indefinite NP

6.  Distinguish underlying from surface level of
description.
Everyone believes that Charlie is
handsome
Everyone believes (Charlie is handsome)
Everyone believes Charlie to be
handsome

7.  It is usually related to sentences involving an (agent)
participant. Agent is the "doer" who or what that
causes the action.
 E.g. William invaded England in 1066.
G L
England was invaded by William in 1066.
G L

8.  Agentive Subject performs the action
 Instrumental Subject used to carry out the action
 Dative Subject
 Goal Subject where the action is directed
towards
 Source Subject where the action originated
 Locative Place Subject where the action occurs
 Patient Subject undergoes the action and
changes its state
 Neutral Subject mindlessly performs the action

9.  Characterized by textual considerations –
this is what the sentence is about.
Example;
1. John (G,L,T) took the largest kitten
2. The largest kitten (G,T) was taken by John
(L)
3. The largest kitten (T), we (G,L) gave away.

10. OBJECT
In active declarative sentence with
unmarked word order, four grammatical
features characterize the object:
1. Directly follows the verb
2. Not in construction with a
preposition
3. Can become the subject of the
corresponding passive sentence
4. An obligatory constituent with
transitive verbs

11. OBJECT OF RESULT
also called an ‘effected’ or ‘factitive’ object:
e.g.
 Maggie moves the table
 The workmen are cleaning the horse cages
it can become the subject of a passive sentence,
and there are no paraphrases involving preposition.

12. COGNATE OBJECT
The relevant NP in this object usually contains a noun
morphologically derived from (and hence cognate
with) the verb stem
e.g.
 Mother sewn a sewing.
 She draw a beautiful drawing.
 Lucky painted an awful painting.

13. OBJECT OF CONCERN
They are clearly neither affected (direct) nor effected
(resultant) objects.
e.g.
 Nunung is sipping his coffee
 Nindi is watching Troy

14. THERE IS A HIERARCHY OF ‘OBJECTHOOD’. THE
CONSIDERABLE EXAMPLE IS THE DIRECT OBJECT (DO).
THE CHARACTERISTICS ARE:
 Has a particularly close tie to the main verb
 Is an obligatory sentence constituent
 Immediately follows the main verb
 Will not occur in a paraphrase involving a preposition
 Can be the subject of the corresponding passive
sentence

15. LEARN THIS EXAMPLE :
1a America supplied tanks to the Israelis
1b America supplied the Israelis with tanks
In 1a, tanks is a DO (direct object) while Israelis is
an (OO) oblique object.
On the other hand, in 1b, tanks is an OO while
Israelis is a DO.
Since those sentences are close in meaning –both of
them describe events of supplying tanks- we can see
them as containing the same roles
(agent, patient, neutral). They differs only to which
role is chosen as direct object and so that presented
as more central, because more closely related to the
verb.

16. NOTE THAT THEY CANNOT OCCUR WITH A
PREPOSITION IN THIS POSITION, INSTEAD OF
THEY COULD BECOME THE SUBJECT OF THE
CORRESPONDING PASSIVE:
2a *America supplied with tanks to the Israelis
2b *America supplied to the Israelis with tanks
2c Tanks were supplied to the Israelis by America
2d The Israelis were supplied with tanks by
America

17. FURTHERMORE, CHECK THIS SENTENCE:
2e *America supplied with tanks
But when the PP is omissible:
2f America supplied tanks
2g America supplied the Israelis
The NP in the PP is an OO because the NP in the PP
might, as it were, have become the object, had the
other NP not done so. The OO is omissible, as we
have observed, and cannot generally become the
subject of a passive sentence:
2h *The Israeli were supplied tanks to by America

18. THE EFFECT OF BECOMING AN OBJECT IS
IMPORTANT. THE SYNTACTIC EFFECT HAS BEEN
DISCUSSED; BUT THERE IS ALSO A SEMANTIC
EFFECT, WHICH VARIES FROM CASES LIKE NUMBER
2.

19. INDIRECT OBJECT (IO)
 Exist when a verb is followed by two NPs, neither of
which is associated with a preposition. See this
sentence:
3. Yucha gives Nindy (IO) a candy (DO)
 May occur as an OO (Oblique Object), and can
usually be omitted without affecting the
grammaticality of the sentence, whereas the DO
cannot be omitted [see the example on page 326-
328]

20. PASSIVE FORMATION CASES ON DO AND IO
4a Nunung lent that map (DO) to Yuni (OO)
4b That map was given to Yuni by Nunung
While:
4c Nunung lent Yuni (IO) that map (DO)
4d Yuni was lent that map by Nunung
But not always:
5a Nindy asked Yucha a help
5b ?Yucha was asked a help by Nindy
And:
6a Sister played me Dakon
6b *I was played Dakon by sister

21. The NP that immediately follow the verb has
a privileged status, both syntactically and
semantically. When only one NP is available
for this role (that is, in two-place
propositions) there would seem to be a
hierarchy of ‘objecthood’. When two NPs
are available for the role in three-place
propositions, the situation is more complex.

22. COMPLEMENT
These sentences below are Attributive complement
because they describe the class membership of the
subject noun, or ascribe an attribute to it:
7a Cinderella was pretty
7b Cinderella was a princess
Those can also be called ‘subject complement’ cause
it relate back to the subject noun. Then, in 7b the
noun ‘a princess’ is a ‘nominal complement’. Those
complements are ‘state complements’ since they
are found in stative sentences and describe states.

23. Those sentences below are ‘result
complements’:
8a the mangoes are turning yellow
8b Yucha became a bachelor of english
department
The complement cannot become the subject
of a passive sentence.

24.  The identify complement can be shown
in:
9a Nunung is the man with a bunch of
dollar in his wallet.
The NP is always a definite NP. That
sentence can be reversed:
9b The man with a bunch of dollar in his
wallet is Nunung.
Study this:
9c Nunung is (to be identified as) the man
with a bunch of dollar in his wallet.

25.  The locative complement can be shown
in:
10 Yuni is in her study room
Locative complement is usually a
prepositional phrase. Sometimes it use a
place adverb. Corresponding on that, we
can also recognize a ‘directional
complement’ in sentences like:
11 Nindy hid under the table
12 Yucha walked across the hospital
Directional complements only occur in
nonstate sentences

26.  The italicized constituents in the sentences in 12
are also often called complements:
12a Nunung comes back home safe
12b Yuni talked the issue honest
12c Nindy always buys her spinach fresh
12d Yucha coloured her book green
12 a and 12 b are intensive to the subject, then
others to the object. In some cases, they can be
subtituted by adverbs. We can also make
paraphrase constructions like:
12 e Nindy always buys her spinach in fresh
condition
12 f Yuni was honest when she talked the
issue, etc.

27. ADJUNCTS
Adjuncts are usually adverbials, whether
they are adverb phrases, PP, adverbs, or
subordinate clauses of
time, place, manner, and so on, that
distributionally function like adverbials.
Adjuncts are clearly a rather ‘mixed bag’, in
that syntactically there are numerous
subclasses which have different and
overlapping distribution, and they fill a
variety of semantic roles.

28. MORPHOLOGICAL MAPPING OF
GRAMMATICAL FUNTIONS

29. 1.Introduction
2.Predicates, Arguments, and
Lexical Entries
3.Theta-Roles and Lexical
Entries
4.Grammatical Relations

30. Introduction
 How are grammatical functions mapped onto
morphological representations?
a. Introduce the notions of thematic roles,
grammatical relations and the theory of case
assignment
b. Explore the morphological effects of syntactic
rules that change the canonical pairing of
thematic roles with grammatical function
c. Discussion further afield through an
investigation of the phenomenon of incorporation
whereby the syntax requires the inclusion of one
word within another

31. 2. Predicates, Arguments, and Lexical Entries
Predicates is any word (or sequence of words) which (in
a given single sense) can function as the predicator of a
sentence (Hurfold James R dan Bredan Heasley: 1983)
while those which attribute to them
properties, processes, actions, relations or states are
called predicates.
Arguments is referring expressions of predicates
e.g : the gold watch lost >> lost is predicate, the gold
watch is argument
my father sneezed >> sneezed is predicate, my
father is argument

32. 3.Theta-Roles and Lexical Entries
 Language use syntax and inflectional morphology to
encode some of the semantics relations which obtain in
sentence between a predicate and its arguments.
 We will use the term theta-roles (0-rules) for these
semantic relations. (they are also called (abstract) case
relations or thematic relations in the literature.)
 Recognition of 0-rules is essentially based on the
intuition which is widely shared among linguists that there
is a relatively small number of syntactically relevant
semantic properties that play a role in the transitivity
systems of language.

33. Gruber (1965,1976) and Fillmore (1968)
define of Theta-roles:
 Agent
 Instrumental
 Patient
 Benefactive
 Theme
 Locative

34.  Agent :Agent is the case of the individual
(usually animate) that instigates the action
identified by the verb. e.g., Mamat killed the
chicken
 Instrumental is the case of the inanimate
instrument used to bring about the state of
affairs described by the verb. e.g., mother
washed with a brush

35.  Patientis the case of the entity or
individual that undergoes the process or
action described by the verb. e.g. Toni
punched the board
 Benefactive is the case of the individual
who gains from the action or process
described by the verb.e.g. Andi gave his
girlfriend a letter.

36. GRAMATICAL FUNCTION
CHANGING RULES

37. GF changing rules tend to have significant
morphological repercussions which typically affect
verbs more than other word-classes.
Some common GF changing rules
1. Passive
2. Antipassive
3. Applicative
4. Causative

38. PASSIVE
Often sentences expressing the same propositions can be
realised in a variety of ways, depending on how grammatical
relations are encoded using the syntax and morphology.
Example:
Active voice
Agent/ subject Patient/ object
Nominative accusative
The Vet examined Esmeralda
She examined Her
Passive voice
Patient/ subject
Nominative
Esmeralda was examined by the Vet
She was examined by her

39. ANTIPASSIVE
The antipassive is the process used in ergative
languages to turn a transitive verb into an
intransitive verb.
example:
a. the man cut the tree with an axe
antipassive
b. The man was cutting the treewith an axe

40. APPLICATIVE
 Benefactive/ dative shift/ indirect object
a NP in the benefactive case that has the GF of second object
can be realised as a direct object when the applicative rules
applies
 Locative
in many languages the aplicative can be used with a locative
meaning whic his expressed in English using prepositions like:
in, on, at, etc
 Prossessor raising
when prossessor raising take place, an NP which function as
the ‘prossessor’ modifying the head of possessive noun
phrase is turned into object of the verb. The original object is
shunted into a new slot and becomes the second object.

41. CAUSATIVE
Causative increases the valency of a verb, allowing
it to take a fresh NP with a new ѳ role as it
argument
Example:
a. The boys will cook potatoes
b. Kapere will make the boys cook potatoes
 Luganda language
The causative introduces a new agentive
NP as subject. The original subject
becomes the object and the original object
become second object.

42. MORFOSINTAKSIS
MIRROR PRINCIPLES

43. THE MIRROR PRINCIPLE (MP, BAKER, 1985)
 The order of affixes reflects the order in which the
associated syntactic ‘operations’ apply.
 There is a close parallelism between morphology
and syntax
 Syntax operates on both words and morphemes,
and a complex word can be formed by syntactic
rules, and more specifically head movement, through
incorporation of a lexical root to a morpheme
 Morphological derivations must directly reflect
syntactic derivation (and vice versa)
 The order of morphemes in a complex word reflects
the natural syntactic embedding of the heads that
correspond to those morphemes”

44. If causative creates a transitive verb from an intransitive
verb and only transitive verbs can passivise, causative
must apply before passive.
The morphological consequences:
the causative suffix is attached first, and is closer to the
verb root than the passive suffix. The syntactic derivation
is isomorphic with the morphological derivation.
Mirror principle

45. COUNTER ARGUMENTS ON MIRROR PRINCIPLE
Mirror principle work well where affixation is cyclic such that
each syntactic process trigger a round of affixation
starting near the root and going outward
Mirror principle doesn’t work if the language have non-
cyclic affixation
The use of mirror principle is the default case, applies if
neither morphological positioning nor phonological
factors dictate a particular order of morphemes
Mirror Principle is nothing but a consequence of the fact
that Agree relations are subject to Relativized Minimality
conditions.

46. RECIPROCALITATION :
DERIVES AN INTRANSITIVE VERB FROM AN UNDERLYING TRANSITIVE VERBS
Before Reciprocalitation:
two sentences with transitive verbs that have subjects and
objects in agent and patient role who do something to each
other:
Bill punched Paul – Paul punched Bill
After Reciprocalitation:
The two sentences are conflated and the subject of the
verb refer to two or more participants and the object
function is eliminated, rendering the derived verb
intransitive.
Bill and Paul punched each other

47. THIS IS END OF THE SHOW
Thank you for the attention 
So far, is there any question
please?