Agreement Problems in Sentences
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A Syntactic Analysis of Copular Sentences*
A SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF COPULAR SENTENCES* Masato Niimura Nanzan University 1. Introduction Copular is a verb whose main function is to link subjects with predicate complements. In a limited sense, the copular refers to a verb that does not have any semantic content, but links subjects and predicate complements. In a broad sense, the copular contains a verb that has its own meaning and bears the syntactic function of “the copular.” Higgins (1979) analyses English copular sentences and classifies them into three types. (1) a. predicational sentence b. specificational sentence c. identificational sentence Examples are as follows: (2) a. John is a philosopher. b. The bank robber is John Smith. c. That man is Mary’s brother. (2a) is an example of predicational sentence. This type takes a reference as subject, and states its property in predicate. In (2a), the reference is John, and its property is a philosopher. (2b) is an example of specificational sentence, which expresses what meets a kind of condition. In (2b), what meets the condition of the bank robber is John Smith. (2c) is an example of identificational sentence, which identifies two references. This sentence identifies that man and Mary’s brother. * This paper is part of my MA thesis submitted to Nanzan University in March, 2007. This paper was also presented at the Connecticut-Nanzan-Siena Workshop on Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition, held at Nanzan University on February 21, 2007. I would like to thank the participants for the discussions and comments on this paper. My thanks go to Keiko Murasugi, Mamoru Saito, Tomohiro Fujii, Masatake Arimoto, Jonah Lin, Yasuaki Abe, William McClure, Keiko Yano and Nobuko Mizushima for the invaluable comments and discussions on the research presented in this paper. -
18.5 Complements Often, a Sub1ect and Verb Alone Can Express a Complete Thought. for Example, Buds Fly Can Stand by Itself As A
18.5 Complements Often, a sub1ect and verb alone can express a complete thought. For example, Buds fly can stand by itself as a sentence. Even though it contains only two words, a subject and a verb. Other times, however, the thought begun by a subject end its verb must be completed with other words. For example, Toni bought, The eyewitness told, Our mechanic is, Richard feels, and Marco seems all contain a subject and verb, but none expresses a complete thought. All these ideas need complements. 18.5.1: A complement is a word or group of words that completes the meaning of a sentence. Complements are usually nouns, pronouns, or adjectives. They are located right after or very close to the verb. The complements answer questions about the subject or verb in order to complete the sentence. S = SUBJECT, AV = ACTION VERB, LV = LINKING VERB, IO = INDIRECT OBJECT, DO = DIRECT OBJECT, PA = PREDICATE ADJECTIVE, PN = PREDICATE NOUN (NOMINATIVE) Toni bought cars. S – AV – DO. The eyewitness told us the story. S – AV – IO – DO. Our mechanic is a genius. S – LV- PN. Richard feels sad. S – LV – PA. Direct Objects 18.5.2 A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb. You can find a direct object by asking What? or Whom? after an action verb. My dog Champ likes a good scratch. Like subjects and verbs, direct objects can be compound. That is, one verb can have two or more direct objects. Compound Direct Objects Like subjects and verbs, direct objects can be compound. -
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR REVIEW I. Parts of Speech Traditional
Traditional Grammar Review Page 1 of 15 TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR REVIEW I. Parts of Speech Traditional grammar recognizes eight parts of speech: Part of Definition Example Speech noun A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing. John bought the book. verb A verb is a word which expresses action or state of being. Ralph hit the ball hard. Janice is pretty. adjective An adjective describes or modifies a noun. The big, red barn burned down yesterday. adverb An adverb describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or He quickly left the another adverb. room. She fell down hard. pronoun A pronoun takes the place of a noun. She picked someone up today conjunction A conjunction connects words or groups of words. Bob and Jerry are going. Either Sam or I will win. preposition A preposition is a word that introduces a phrase showing a The dog with the relation between the noun or pronoun in the phrase and shaggy coat some other word in the sentence. He went past the gate. He gave the book to her. interjection An interjection is a word that expresses strong feeling. Wow! Gee! Whew! (and other four letter words.) Traditional Grammar Review Page 2 of 15 II. Phrases A phrase is a group of related words that does not contain a subject and a verb in combination. Generally, a phrase is used in the sentence as a single part of speech. In this section we will be concerned with prepositional phrases, gerund phrases, participial phrases, and infinitive phrases. Prepositional Phrases The preposition is a single (usually small) word or a cluster of words that show relationship between the object of the preposition and some other word in the sentence. -
I PREPOSITION STRANDING and PIED-PIPING in YORUBA FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS by © Joseph Ajayi a Thesis Submitted to the School Of
PREPOSITION STRANDING AND PIED-PIPING IN YORUBA FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS by © Joseph Ajayi A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Department of Linguistics Memorial University of Newfoundland July 2019 St John’s Newfoundland i ABSTRACT The thesis examines P-stranding and pied-piping in focus constructions in Yoruba language, one of the Benue-Congo languages spoken in Western part of Nigeria. This research is unique given the fact that while existing literature and theories on P-stranding and pied-piping have solely hammered cross- linguistic differences, the thesis discovers intra-linguistic features of P-stranding and pied-piping in Yoruba. According to literature, a language is either a P-stranding or pied-piping one. On the contrary, Yoruba exhibits both P-stranding and pied-piping features in similar environments in focus constructions. It is discovered that a number of prepositions can only strand while some others can solely pied-pipe. The thesis further examines another behavioral patterns of prepositions in Yoruba focus constructions. Interestingly and quite strangely, it is discovered that some prepositions drop, or pied-pipe with the occurrence of resumptive pronouns in Yoruba focus. These multifarious behavioral patterns of prepositions in Yoruba focus pose a great challenge as to how to account for these patterns within the existing literature and theories which rather deal with P-stranding as cross-linguistic affairs. The thesis, however, tackles this challenge by extracting two different theories to account for these preposition features in Yoruba focus as each of the theories (Abels 2003 Phase Theory and Law 1998 Incorporation Thoery) cannot, in isolation, capture the features. -
Syntax Topics • •
Syntax Topics 1. Syntax and morphology are the two parts of grammar. • Morphology deals with the internal economy of the word. • Syntax deals with the external economy of the word. 2. Words are constituents of larger groups, called phrases, which may aggregate into larger phrases, and eventually into a different kind of constituent, called a clause. 3. The difference between a phrase and a clause is that a phrase is focussed on one kind of word: a noun phrase (NP) is an elaboration of a noun, a verb phrase (VP) of a verb, etc; while a clause is a relation between two kinds of phrase: VP (Predi- cate) and NPs (Argument(s) of the Predicate). 4. Every sentence has at least one clause; many have more. If there are several, only one can be the main clause; the rest are subordinate clauses of one kind or another. 5. Grammatical functions expressed in many languages (called synthetic languages) by morphological inflection (e.g, tense, mood, voice, etc.) are expressed in English (an analytic language) by various syntactic constructions and augmentations, often using sets of special words called auxiliaries, particles, or function words. Such words include prepositions, conjunctions, quantifiers, and articles; sets of them are called closed classes, because they are small and don’t borrow new words. 6. The most important kind of word in any sentence is the matrix predicate, which in English can be a predicate adjective or predicate noun (with a form of be in front of it to receive the tense). The matrix predicate governs the type and existence of any subject, object, complement, or inflection appearing with it. -
Latin I Mastery List
LATIN I MASTERY LIST This is the information that you should know at the beginning of second year. We will spend a week or so reviewing – but it would be a good idea to go over this material before returning to school. NOUNS • Memorize endings of declensions 1-5, including neuters • Know that the genitive case gives the noun stem • Know the case usage: Nominative: subject, complement Genitive: possession (“of”) Dative: indirect object (“to/for”) Accusative: direct object, object of preposition Ablative: object of preposition, time when, time within which, means/ instrument, agent Vocative: direct address VERBS • Principal parts of four conjugations • Tenses – know how to recognize, translate and form Present Future Pluperfect Imperfect Perfect Future Perfect • Irregular verbs (all tenses) - sum, eo, fero • Imperative mood ADJECTIVES • 1st/2nd declension (us, a, um) and 3rd declension (is, is, e) • Agreement with nouns: gender, number and case PREPOSITIONS • Prepositions that take the accusative case: ad, in, per, post, prope, propter, apud • Prepositions that take the ablative case: a/ab, cum, de, e/ex, in, sine, sub SCHEMATIZING • Use declensions to accurately schematize (see attached sheet) SCHEMATIZING Schematizing involves: 1. breaking down the sentence into smaller parts 2. identifying the key parts of the sentence (verb/subject/direct object) verb = main verb of the clause noun/pron. and modifiers = subject or word related to subject noun/pron. and modifiers = direct object or word related to d. o. noun/pron. and modifiers = indirect object or word related to i. o. noun/pron. and modifiers = ablative (not in a prepositional phrase) noun/pron. and modifiers = complement/predicate nominative = pause in the sentence: colon, semicolon, comma, etc. -
Resulting Copulas and Their Complements in British and American English: a Corpus Based Study
UNIVERZITA PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Martin Dokoupil anglická filologie & francouzská filologie Resulting Copulas and their Complements in British and American English: A Corpus Based Study. Bakalářská práce Vedoucí diplomové práce: Mgr. Michaela Martinková, PhD. OLOMOUC 2011 Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto bakalářskou práci vypracoval samostatně na základě uvedených pramenů a literatury. V Olomouci, dne 10. srpna 2011 podpis 2 I hereby declare that this bachelor thesis is completely my own work and that I used only the cited sources. Olomouc, 10th August 2011 signature 3 Děkuji vedoucí mé bakalářské práce Mgr. Michaele Martinkové, PhD. za ochotu, trpělivost a cenné rady při psaní této práce. 4 Table of Contents: 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................6 2 Theoretical Preliminaries ....................................................................................................7 2.1 Literature .....................................................................................................................7 2.2 Copular verb in general ..............................................................................................8 2.2.1 Copular verb .......................................................................................................8 2.2.2 Prototypical copular usage ...............................................................................8 2.2.3 Copular verb complementation -
RC HUMS 392 English Grammar and Meaning Complements
RC HUMS 392 English Grammar and Meaning Complements 1. Bill wanted/intended/hoped/said/seemed/forgot/asked/failed/tried/decided to write the book. 2. Bill enjoyed/tried/finished/admitted/reported/remembered/permitted writing the book. 3. Bill thought/said/forgot/remembered/reported/was sad/discovered/knew that he wrote the book. 4. Bill asked/wondered/knew/discovered/said why he wrote the book. There are four different types of complement (noun clause, either subject or object – the ones above are all object complements): respectively, they are called infinitive, gerund, that-clause, and embedded question. These types, and their structures and markers (like to and –ing) are often called complementizers. Other names for these types include for-to complementizer (infinitive), POSS-ing (or ACC-ing) complementizer (gerund), inflected (or tensed) clause (that), or WH- complementizer (embedded question). Which term you use is of no concern; they’re equivalent. Infinitives and gerunds are often called non-finite clauses, while questions and that-clauses are called finite clauses, because of the absence or presence of tense markers on the verb form. That-clauses and questions must have a fully-inflected verb, in either the present or past tense, while infinitives and gerunds are not marked for tense. Non-finite complements often do not have overt subjects; these may be deleted either because they’re indefinite or under identity. Very roughly speaking, infinitives refer to states, gerunds to events or activities, and that-clauses to propositions, but it is the identify and nature of the matrix predicate governing the complement (i.e, the predicate that the complement is the subject or object of) that determines not only what kind of thing the complement refers to, but also whether there can be a complement at all, and which complementizer(s) it can take, if so. -
Preposition Stranding Vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation
languages Article Preposition Stranding vs. Pied-Piping—The Role of Cognitive Complexity in Grammatical Variation Christine Günther Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Universität Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany; [email protected] Abstract: Grammatical variation has often been said to be determined by cognitive complexity. Whenever they have the choice between two variants, speakers will use that form that is associated with less processing effort on the hearer’s side. The majority of studies putting forth this or similar analyses of grammatical variation are based on corpus data. Analyzing preposition stranding vs. pied-piping in English, this paper sets out to put the processing-based hypotheses to the test. It focuses on discontinuous prepositional phrases as opposed to their continuous counterparts in an online and an offline experiment. While pied-piping, the variant with a continuous PP, facilitates reading at the wh-element in restrictive relative clauses, a stranded preposition facilitates reading at the right boundary of the relative clause. Stranding is the preferred option in the same contexts. The heterogenous results underline the need for research on grammatical variation from various perspectives. Keywords: grammatical variation; complexity; preposition stranding; discontinuous constituents Citation: Günther, Christine. 2021. Preposition Stranding vs. Pied- 1. Introduction Piping—The Role of Cognitive Grammatical variation refers to phenomena where speakers have the choice between Complexity in Grammatical Variation. two (or more) semantically equivalent structural options. Even in English, a language with Languages 6: 89. https://doi.org/ rather rigid word order, some constructions allow for variation, such as the position of a 10.3390/languages6020089 particle, the ordering of post-verbal constituents or the position of a preposition. -
Wh-Movement J for Notational Convenience, I Have Used Traces (T I ,T Etc.) to Indicate Copies Throughout This Handout
Introduction to Transformational Grammar, LINGUIST 601 December 3, 2004 Wh-Movement j For notational convenience, I have used traces (t i ,t etc.) to indicate copies throughout this handout. 1 Wh-Movement Question formation involves fronting of the questioned element (e.g. in the Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages). Typically this fronting is obligatory. i (1) a. Who i does Martin like t ? b. *Martin likes who? The * on (1b) refers to the fact that (1b) is not a possible information seeking question. It can be used as an echo question though. The process of question formation in English involves two distinct movements: I-to-C movement and fronting of an interrogative phrase. The two movements are independent of each other. I-to-C movement can take place without interrogative phrase fronting and interrogative phrase fronting can take place without I-to-C movement. (2) a. Y/N Questions: I-to-C but no fronting: Has Martin left? Did Martin leave? b. Embedded Questions: fronting but no I-to-C: I wonder [who John will annoy today]. ???/*I wonder [who will John annoy today]. I wonder [who John annoyed today]. ???/*I wonder [who did John annoy today]. Since most interrogative pronouns in English (the exception is how) start with wh, the process by which interrogative phrases are fronted is referred to as wh-movement. 1.1 Pied-piping Wh-movement is triggered by the presence of an interrogative pronoun. We can assume that interrogative pronouns have a [+wh] feature that forces them to move. i (3) Who i does Derek like t ? Wh-movement can also be triggered by wh-determiners. -
Constructions and Result: English Phrasal Verbs As Analysed in Construction Grammar
CONSTRUCTIONS AND RESULT: ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS AS ANALYSED IN CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR by ANNA L. OLSON A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Linguistics, Analytical Stream We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Emma Pavey, PhD; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Sean Allison, Ph.D.; Second Reader ................................................................................ Dr. David Weber, Ph.D.; External Examiner TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY September 2013 © Anna L. Olson i Abstract This thesis explores the difference between separable and non-separable transitive English phrasal verbs, focusing on finding a reason for the non-separable verbs’ lack of compatibility with the word order alternation which is present with the separable phrasal verbs. The analysis is formed from a synthesis of ideas based on the work of Bolinger (1971) and Gorlach (2004). A simplified version of Cognitive Construction Grammar is used to analyse and categorize the phrasal verb constructions. The results indicate that separable and non-separable transitive English phrasal verbs are similar but different constructions with specific syntactic reasons for the incompatibility of the word order alternation with the non-separable verbs. ii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... -
Sentence Structures & Clauses
Sentence Structures & Clauses Presented by Sanctum English 9982019963 Gopal pura, Jaipur Page 1 of 13 Basic Sentence Structures Structure 1 – Subject – Verb – Adverbial Complement (where? when? how? why?) (SVC(A)) Linking verb is used in such sentences. Biren is outside the house. I went to the store. Bikram lives in Japan. Ravi reads for pleasure. Pensions will rise in line with inflation. The Handle had fallen off the drawer. I went to the store to buy bread for breakfast this morning. (SVCCC) (There can be more than one complements) Structure 2 – Subject – Verb – Subject Complement (SVsC) Here the liking verb is used. Subject Complement gives the additional information about the subject. John is the president. I am Indian. The weatherman must be wrong about today’s forecast. The result was chaos. He is honest. They are happy. What Sharon forgot to mention was that her husband was the CEO of Microsoft and makes lot of money, which is why she can afford all of her holidays. (SVsCC) Structure 3 – Subject – Verb – Direct Object (What? Who? ) (SVO) The verb in this structure is a transitive verb and takes a direct object. I want candy. Who painted your house? The earthquake destroyed the city. Structure 4 – Subject – Verb – Direct Object – Adverbial Complement (SVOC(A)) I put my wallet on the table. I want you to sing. 9982019963 Gopal pura, Jaipur Page 2 of 13 Structure 5 – Subject – Verb – Direct Object – Object complement (SVOC(O)) My friends calls me Bunty. The citizens considered the earthquake a disaster. Structure 6 – Subject – Verb – Indirect Object – Direct Object (SVOO) She gave Marry a letter.