Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
1
The Range of Functions of NP’s
1. Review and Definitions:
● We have looked at different types of morphological and syntactic
alignment in languages.
● In particular, we looked at languages with a ‘split ergative’ pattern of
argument marking, broadly where some nominals have an Ergative-
Absolutive pattern and others a Nominative-Accusative pattern.
● Michael Silverstein: types of nominal can be arranged along an
‘animacy hierarchy:
● N-A marking is more likely at the more ‘animate’ end
● E-A marking is more likely at the less ‘animate’ end
● Where the two patterns of marking meet (or fail to meet) in
the middle, this is where you find tripartite or neutral marking
systems
● Moved on from morphological ergativity to look at the notion of
syntactic ergativity. In languages like Dyirbal S+P function as the
pivot for syntactic processes (e.g. coordination), in contrast to
English where pivot is always A+S (subject).
Definitions: Pivots and “Deletion under identity”
Last lecture we talked about coordination and the linking of various
grammatical roles. For example:
1. [She tickled the man] and [ […] laughed]
A P S S==A
The second clause above is missing a subject (in particular, an S). In
English, this missing S is understood to be the same as the A in the first
sentence. This kind of deletion, where a missing grammatical function is
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
2
linked to (and therefore identical to) another grammatical function that is
present is called “deletion under identity”. As (1) demonstrates, a deleted
S is linked to an A in English. We saw also that the converse is true – a
missing A is linked to an S:
2. [She laughed] and [ […] tickled him].
S A P A==S
The linking of the S and A grammatical functions is this manner defines a
“S,A pivot” – this is the term used to describe how two grammatical
functions are linked when one is deleted under identity. We saw that
Dyirbal has a S,P pivot:
3. Balan jugumbil banggul yaranggu balgan, […] baninyu
the woman the man hit came_here
P A S
“The man hit the woman and [she/*he] came here”
4. Ngaja nginuna balgan, […] baninyu
I you hit came_here
A P S
“I hit you and [you/*I] came here”
So, why do we care? We started investigating these pivots because we
wanted to know whether the way grammatical functions are grouped
morphologically affects the syntax of a language. For example, English
case (as seen by the pronouns) is nominative/accusative, and so is the
syntax. Dyirbal, despite having split ergative morphology has universally
ergative syntax:
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
3
Case Morphology Pivot / Syntax
English – most
pronouns
Nom/Acc (S,A vs P) S,A (Nom/Acc
syntax)
English – CN’s Neutral? (S,A,P all
unmarked)
S,A (Nom/Acc
syntax)
Dyirbal – 1st/2nd
Pro
Nom/Acc (S,A vs P) S,P (Erg-Abs
syntax)
Dyirbal – CN’s Erg/Abs (S,P vs A) S,P (Erg-Abs
syntax)
Note: we could also consider verb agreement here as an additional
column – e.g. recall that English verbs in the present tense agree with S or
A arguments but not with P arguments.
2. NP’s and the properties of subjects and topics
2.1 Subjects in English
In nom/acc languages, the subject of a sentence is the A or S grammatical
function, and the object is the P grammatical function. We can group A
and S together in English because they share the following characteristics:
(a) Category
The prototypical subject is an NP (N’’):
The moral obligations are more important.
More important are the moral obligations
(b) Position
The default position of the subject is before and external to the verb sequence.
(c) Case
A personal pronoun subject is in Nominative case.
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
4
(d) Agreement
The verb agrees with the subject in person and number.
The minister knows the candidates.
The candidates know the minister.
(e) Reflexivisation
Most typically, reflexive pronouns are in a coreferential relation with the subject of the clause they
occur in.
Lizi asked herselfi why she should go.
Johni admired himselfi.
(f) Subject-auxiliary inversion
In ‘yes/no’ interrogative clauses and some other constructions, the subject follows an auxiliary
verb instead of preceding all verbs.
She can swim. She likes it.
Can she swim? Does she like it?
(g) Order of elements in ‘wh’ interrogatives
If the ‘wh’ word is subject, the order of elements remains the same. If the ‘wh’ word is not the
subject, then it is placed at the front and subject-auxiliary inversion is required.
Who bought it? (equivalent to e.g. John bought it)
What did you buy? (the word what here is object, cf. You bought what?)
(h) Tags
Tags attached to a clause contain a subject pronoun that is co-referential with the subject of that
clause.
You will persuade Aunty Grace, won’t you?
Graham can sing, can’t he?
The woman in the photoi is your motherj, isn’t shei?
Exercise – add tags to the following sentences:
John was eaten by a shark.
Anne and Richard love to eat porridge.
According to my friend they apparently have no idea.
Out stomped George.
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
5
Go away.
There are some problems with that idea.
What you have been suggesting alarms Fred.
(i) Coordination
The subject can occur with a VP coordination.
Jill typed the letter and [_] posted it herself.
(j) Passivisation
The process of passivisation involves promotion of an object argument to subjecthood.
The entire committee voted for the new Dean. (object)
The new Dean was voted for by the entire committee. (subject of passive)
(k) Obligatoriness
In general, the subject is obligatory. A corollary of this is that English has ‘dummy subjects’:
It is raining.
It is time to go home.
(l) Imperative omission
The omitted second person is subject.
[You] Pick up the leaflets before 9.00a.m.
[You] Look after yourselves!
(m) Uniqueness
There can be no more than one subject per clause (unlike, e.g. adjuncts, complements).
Note that these characteristics of subjects can conversely be used as tests
for subjecthood in English. For example, the tag test:
He saw her didn’t he/*she
Her he saw, didn’t he/*she
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
6
Important: the above list of properties is specific to English subjects.
Subjects in other languages may have different properties (though there is
often a fair bit of overlap particularly among Indo-European languages).
2.2 Subjects and semantic roles
Below is a list of some common semantic roles (a.k.a. thematic roles,
theta roles etc.):
agent
cause/author/effector
patient
experiencer
recipient
theme
instrument
benefactive
source
goal
location (in space or time)
manner
path
reason
Roughly, the higher the semantic role in the list above, the more likely a
language is to encode it using a core grammatical function such as subject
or object.
2.3 The task of the grammar
The task faced by the grammar is to reconcile conflicting needs:
● to represent semantic roles unambiguously (e.g., a 1-1
correspondence between semantic roles and morphological cases
would be maximally transparent)
● to represent semantic roles economically (too many case forms may
make a language too hard to acquire/learn)
● to package this information in a way that is sensitive to the discourse
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
7
context.
All languages face the same task here but come up with different
solutions:
● in some languages the notion of semantic role is most important;
● in other languages the discourse notion of topic is most important;
● in other languages the grammatical relations of subject, object, etc.
represent a formalised encoding of prominence of an argument with
respect to some combination of factors to do with semantic role
(actorhood) and discourse function (topicality).
2.4 What is the English solution to this problem?
● Make subject=agent=topic the unmarked construction (and
grammaticalise this to make less than prototypical agent-subjects
behave like agent-subjects grammatically, e.g. experiencers of
emotion still get encoded as subjects in sentences like I felt content.)
● Organise a good deal of the syntax around a uniformly defined
grammatical subject – word order, verb agreement, coordination
reduction, control of reflexives, etc.
● Develop various marked constructions to allow different types of
information structuring (e.g., front the object if it’s especially topical
in the discourse, etc.).
Thus in English, if the V occurs with an agent, this agent will be encoded
as subject, unless a ‘special’ construction designed to select a non-agent
subject is used; the latter allow non-agent arguments to achieve more
prominence (often because they are topical).
2.5 Topics
In discourse, the topic of a sentence is, roughly speaking, what we are
talking about in the sentence. This is a discourse/pragmatic notion and is
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
8
to be distinguished from notions like ‘subject’ (which are morphosyntactic
notions) and ‘agent’ (semantic).
Some languages separate out the discourse notion of ‘topic’ and mark the
topic NP explicitly by some kind of morphological marking, or perhaps by
word order (topic usually comes first). For example, Japanese marks
topics explicitly with the particle wa.
Even English retains the ability to separate out the topic:
As for education, John prefers Bertrand Russell’s ideas.
Topic Comment
Languages that mark topic in their basic constructions are called topic-
prominent languages. These languages mark topic in each clause, maybe
marking on the topic or verbal agreement with it (e.g. Philippine
languages) The topic can be thought of as the current centre of attention
in discourse – and as a result it is usually definite rather than indefinite.
(English) As for education, John prefers Russell’s ideas.
(Japanese) Gakkoo-wa boku-ga isogasi-kat-ta
school-topic I-subj busy-pst
“School (topic), I was busy”
(Korean) siban-n hakkjo-ga manso
now-topic school-subj many
“at the present time (topic), there are many school”
Contrast topic with focus. The focus of a sentence can be thought of as
the new, interesting, information in the sentence. The topic is what we
are talking about and tends to go first, the new information in a clause is
the focus, and tends to come at the end. Consider the difference between
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
9
the following sentences (see Collins & Hollo – English Grammar, an
Introduction for more details):
(1) Ernie sent the largest parcel to Bert.
(2) Ernie sent Bert the largest parcel.
Other things being equal (1) is preferred over (2) in the context where we
already know about a large parcel being sent, what is new is who it is
being sent to. (2) would be preferred in situations where we know Bert
was sent something, but don’t yet know what.
Some further examples from English:
1. The duke gave my aunt this teapot.
Agent
Subject
Topic
2. My aunt was given this teapot by the duke.
Subject Agent
Topic
3. This teapot, the duke gave my aunt.
Topic Agent
Subject
4. By the duke my aunt was given this teapot.
Topic Subject
Agent
5. This teapot my aunt was given by the duke.
Topic Subject Agent
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
10
6. John opened the door with the key.
The key opened the door
The door opened.
[same semantic roles, different assignment to grammatical relations]
7. That woman ordered a pizza.
That woman resembles my mother.
That woman was massaged by Felicity.
[different semantic roles, same grammatical relation]
Why not always agent=subject=topic? Consider the following short
passages which each tell the same story but in different ways:
a. An old battered car came down the hill when I was walking along
Sydney Road one night. A man who seemed to be very confused was
driving the car. Perhaps the bright lights blinded him. A car coming
from the opposite direction collided with him.
b. One night, I was walking along Sydney Road when down the hill
came an old battered car. It was driven by a man who seemed to be
very confused. Perhaps he was blinded by the bright lights. He
collided with a car coming from the opposite direction.
2.6 The concept of ‘subject’: can it be considered a universal
grammatical function?
Some typical characteristics of ‘subjects’ cross-linguistically:
● Agentive role
● Topical entity
● Tendency to be leftmost NP [not a very good test]
● Morphological prominence;
● Verb agrees with it
● NP omission on identity (omitted constituent is usually subject)
● Imperative omission (omitted second person is subject)
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
11
● Reflexivisation (coreferential relation with subject of sentence
marked)
● Passivisation (subjects of passives correspond with objects of active
voice sentences), etc
2.7 If the subject in English is S+A, then what is the subject in
Dyirbal?
In a language like Dyirbal, we have seen that there is a distinction
between the core grammatical function A on the one hand and S+P on the
other. These groupings are distinguished morphologically, and S+P also
functions as a pivot for various syntactic processes. So is the S+P grouping
the ‘subject’ in Dyirbal? We could say so.
Note that while it has similar kinds of morphological and syntactic
properties to subjects in English, in some other respects it is rather
different:
● Lacks agentive role
● Lacks topical entity
● Lacks tendency to be leftmost NP
So in practice, people often simply avoid imposing notions like ‘subject’
on languages like Dyirbal, and instead talk about ‘pivots’ for various
morphological and syntactic processes.
And for other ergative languages which are not syntactically ergative like
Dyirbal, and for other languages with patterns of marking such as active-
stative, it may not be possible to distinguish a general syntactic notion of
subject – rather, we talk in terms of the core grammatical functions of
S/A/P or generalised semantic roles such as ‘Actor’ and ‘Undergoer’.
Summary – Roles and Relations in Syntax and Semantics
See the handout below for some useful definitions:
Syntax – Week 8, Lecture 2
12