Syntax – Week 9, Lecture 1
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Topic 3 – Special Clause Types
1. Revision
● Languages typically code grammatical relations in at least one of
three ways:
● linear order
● case marking on nouns, and
● verb agreement.
● There are different possible ‘systems’ for organizing grammatical
relations, including:
● nominative/accusative systems
● ergative/absolutive systems
● split-ergative systems
● tripartite systems
● neutral systems
● Some languages do not treat the encoding of grammatical relations
as primary and instead:
● in some languages the notion of semantic role is most
important,
active-stative (split-S) systems (e.g. Lakhota)
● in other languages the discourse notion of topic is most
important,
topic-prominent systems (e.g. Kalagon, Japanese)
2. Linguistic Typology
A typology is a categorization of some range of phenomena into various
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types. But what makes a typology useful?
A typology is useful when it makes ‘predictions’ about multiple
characteristics of the items being typologized.
● Typology A: bus, van, automobile, tractor
● Typology B: red ones, green ones, blue ones, white ones
Turning to linguistics, the value of typologizing languages is that it helps
linguists understand the range and limits of possible variation among
human languages. If logically possible types are found to be very rare or
nonexistent, that may provide some insight into how the human mind
works. Thus language typology can give us a ‘window’ on the mind and
communication.
Topic 3: A Conceptual Outline
In this topic we look at some of the ways languages operate with more
than one verb in a sentence.
Basic (unmarked) Clauses
● Defining a Basic Sentence
● Determining Basic Word Order (if any)
Marked/Special Clause Types
● Thematic Variation (e.g. Fronting/Topicalisation, Passive)
● Non-Verbal Predicates
● Existential
● Impersonal Constructions
● Speech Acts – Imperatives and Interrogatives
● Negation
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Multi-Clause Sentences
● Coordination
● Subordination
● Complement Clauses
● Adverbial Clauses
● Relative Clauses
● Clause chains and switch-reference
● Serial Verbs
1. Basic (unmarked) Clauses
Keenan’s definition of a basic sentence :
‘a sentence A is more basic than a sentence B iff (=‘if
and only if’) the syntactic form and the meaning of B
are understood as a function of those of A’ (e.g the
form of B is some more complex modification of the
form of A and the meaning of B is some modification of
the meaning of A) AND a sentence is a basic sentence of
the language iff there is no other sentence more basic
than it.’
A basic sentence would usually be considered as:
● having a single clause,
● being pragmatically neutral,
● having an unmarked word order
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2. Characteristics of a Basic Sentence
Single Clause
● the sentence consists of a single clause
● one main verb/verbal element
Pragmatically Neutral Clause
● Pragmatically neutral clauses are those that do not present any part
of the clause as being unusually highlighted, emphasized, or
contrasted.
● The constituents in pragmatically neutral clauses occur in unmarked
word order.
Non pragmatically neutral clauses:
Beans I like. e.g, Beans I like; rice I hate.
O S V
Once there was a cruel raven. Existential Clause
V S
Whom did the raven see? Question
S V
3. Determining Basic Word Order (if any)
Start with a large corpus of texts (stories, transcribed conversations, or
other discourse types) and eliminate from consideration clause types that
are known to exhibit marked constituent orders in some languages. These
would include:
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● Dependent clauses
● Clauses that introduce participants onto the discourse stage
● Questions
● Negative clauses
● Clearly contrastive clauses
● Clauses in which a pronoun is used to express Sbj and Obj (or S, A,
P).
(French) vous avez vu le vide
you.pl have seen the.m.sg void.m.sg
“you have seen the void”
vous l’avez vu
you.pl it’have seen
“you have seen it”
Aside: Common Word Orders
The dominance of SOV and SVO has been ‘explained’ by Tomlin (1986) by
three principles:
1. Verbs bind with objects more strongly than subjects.
2. More animated referents precede less animate ones.
3. Old information should precede new information.
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An interesting observation is found when examining language change: it is
very rare for a language to change into SOV from SVO. Typically we see
SOV → SVO. However, the basic word order for newly developed
languages is typically SOV.
Return to clauses
After eliminating these types of clauses, it is probable that the clauses
that remain are largely pragmatically neutral.
If in these remaining clauses there are examples of transitive verbs with
full NPs expressing S and O, and if those NPs exhibit a consistent order
relative to the verb, then that order can be considered basic.
● If not, then consider frequency and distribution:
frequency: the basic order is usually the one that is used most
frequently in discourse.
distribution: marked sentence types tend to be appropriate only in
certain specific contexts. Neutral word order is generally the order
that has the widest distribution, i.e. which can occur in the greatest
number of different contexts.
If you can’t decide on a basic constituent order using the above criteria,
then:
the language may be one of the many languages of the world that
employs constituent order to express pragmatic status.
or
it may actually be a language in which any permutation of the
constituents in a clause is allowed and no one particular order can
be identified as being more basic than the others – a free word
order language.
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4. Marked/Special Clause Types
What do special clause types do?
Thematic Variation
● Sentences with the same (truth-conditional) meaning but which
‘package’ the message in different ways are called ‘thematic
variants’ of one another.
● ‘Truth-conditional meaning’ – the way the world would have to be
for the sentence to be true. For example:
Lee called Kim.
Kim was called by Lee.
● Grammars make available a variety of ways of ‘saying the same
thing’, so that at a particular point in a spoken discourse or written
text, we can select a form that is appropriate in the light of:
a) our assumptions about what information the addressee(s) will
already possess [given/new]
At the bus stop this morning I saw a man.
I saw the man at a bus stop this morning.
b) what parts of the message we wish to emphasize or focus on [focus]
Mary gave some flowers to Juan.
It was Mary who gave some flowers to Juan.
It was Juan who Mary gave the flowers to.
(c) what we regard the message as being primarily about [topic]
(we have been talking about Sue)
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Sue married Juan.
(we have been talking about Juan)
Juan married Sue.
(d) the contrasts (if any) we wish to draw [contrastive focus]
Fred gave her a CD, but you should have seen what Jill gave her.
5. Mechanisms for forming ‘thematic variants’:
● ordering (e.g. fronting/topicalisation)
● special constructions (e.g. passive, cleft, pseudo-cleft)
Three thematic factors that may influence the selection of one order over
another are:
(a) a tendency for focal/new constituents to come towards the end of the
clause
1. What did your sister do?
– She sent a letter of protest to the manager.
– ? A letter of protest was sent to the manager by her.
2. What happened to your sister?
– She was taken away by one of the guards.
– ? One of the guards took away my sister.
3. a. I gave Angela the even-numbered ticket.
b. I gave it to Angela.
c. ?I gave Angela it.
4. a. Julianna sold the flute to Anne.
b. Anne bought the flute from Julianna.
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(b) a tendency for phrases identifying primary topic to come at the
beginning of the clause.
5. a. Kim married Pat. 5’ a. Doug bought a sheep from Mal.
b. Pat married Kim. b. Mal sold a sheep to Doug.
6. a. Max has just beaten your brother in the quarter-finals.
b. Your brother has just been beaten by Max in the quarter-finals.
(c) a tendency for long and complex constituents to occur later in the
sentence
7.a. It is unfortunate [that he decided to change the time of the
meeting without consulting the union representative].
b. ?[That he decided to change the time of the meeting without
consulting the union representative] is unfortunate.
The first and last positions in sentence are important ones thematically.
This generally holds crosslinguistically.
6. Some thematic processes in English:
1 – Fronting/Topicalisation / preposing
Your elder sister, I can’t stand.
These steps I used to sweep on my hands and knees.
Beans, I like.
2 – Left-dislocation
Toby, I think he’s the pits. (i.e. I think Toby is the pits)
As for beans, I like them.
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3 – Passive
Tom was sentenced to 20 years by the judge.
This bed has been slept in.
Dr Jekyll turned into a monster.
*A monster was turned into by Dr Jekyll.
Mary gave Felicity a book.
Felicity was given a book by Mary.
?A book was given Felicity by Mary.
Mary gave a book to Felicity
A book was given to Felicity by Mary
4 – Cleft constructions (‘It-clefting’)
It was John who dobbed us in.
It was a sandwich that Ron ate.
5 – Pseudo-cleft constructions (‘wh-clefting’)
What Ron ate was a sandwich.
What John wants to look at is your notes.
What the police told John was that he wouldn’t have a chance.
That he wouldn’t have a chance was what the police told John.
[reversal of direction of identification]
6 – Extraposition
It disturbs her [that he was acquitted]
7 – Postposition (‘Heavy shift’)
He sent me [the statue that he had spent the whole summer carving].
I arrived on December 12 [in a city that I had always wanted to visit].
They continued for several months [to occupy the house].
He explained to her [all the terrible problems that he had encountered].
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9 – Right dislocation
It came as a surprise, Toby’s resignation.
He’s just bought a new car, my uncle.
10 – Existential (there) clauses
There are many persons difficult for us to talk to. (For us to talk to many persons is difficult)
There is a unicorn in the garden. (A unicorn is in the garden)
11 – Dative shift / movement
The man gave a toy to the child.
The man gave the child a toy.
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An example
1 The boss gave the driver the map Unmarked, basic clause
2 The driver was given the map by the boss
3 ? The map was given the driver by the boss
Passive
4 The boss gave the map to the driver Dative shift
5 The map was given to the driver by the boss Dative shift + Passive
6 The map, the boss gave the driver
7 ? The driver, the boss gave the map
Topicalisation
8 The map, the driver was given by the boss
9 By the boss the driver was given the map
Topicalisation + Passive
10 The map the boss gave to the driver
11 To the driver the boss gave the map
Topicalisation + Dative shift
12 To the driver the map was given by the boss
13 By the boss the map was given to the driver
Topicalisation + Dative shift + Passive
14 It was the boss who/that gave the driver the map
15 It was the map (that/which) the boss gave the driver
16 It was the map (that/which) the driver was given by the boss
It-clefting
17 It was by the boss (that) the driver was given the map
18 ? It was the driver (that) the map was given by the boss
19 ? It was by the boss (that) the map was given the driver
Passive + It-clefting
20 It was the boss who/that gave the map to the driver
21 It was the map (that/which) the boss gave to the driver
22 It was to the driver that the boss gave the map
23 It was the driver (that) the boss gave the map to
Dative shift + It-clefting
24 It was the map that/which was given to the driver by the boss
25 It was to the driver (that) the map was given by the boss
26 It was the driver (that) the map was given to by the boss
27 It was by the boss (that) the map was given to the driver
Dative shift + Passive + It-clefting
28 The boss it was who/that gave the driver the map
29 The map it was (which/that) the boss gave the driver
It-clefting + Topicalisation
30 The map it was (which/that) the driver was given by the boss
31 ? The driver it was (who/that) the map was given by the boss
Passive + It-clefting + Topicalisation
32 The boss it was who/that gave the map to the driver
33 The map it was (which/that) the boss gave to the driver
34 The driver it was (who/that) the boss gave the map to
Dative shift + It-clefting + Topicalisation
35 The map it was which/that was given to the driver by the boss
36 The driver it was that the map was given to by the boss
Dative shift + Passive + It-clefting +
Topicalisation
37 What the boss gave the driver was the map Wh-clefting
38 What the driver was given by the boss was the map
39 What was given the driver by the boss was the map
Passive + Wh-clefting
40 What the boss gave to the driver was the map Dative shift + Wh-clefting
41 What was given to the driver by the boss was the map Dative shift + Passive + Wh-clefting
42 The map was what the boss gave the driver Wh-clefting + Reversal of identification
43 The map was what the driver was given by the boss
44 ? The map was what was given the driver by the boss
Passive + Wh-clefting + Reversal
45 The map was what the boss gave to the driver Dative shift + Wh cleft + Reversal
46 The map was what was given to the driver by the boss Dative shift + Passive+ Wh cleft + Reversal
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7. Non-Verbal Predicates
Up to now, most, if not all, of the clauses we have considered have
contained verbal predicates. However, clauses can have a semantic
predicate that is expressed by phrases belonging to the categories of AP,
NP and PP:
Semantic Predicate Type of Clause
Adjective Phrase (AP) Attributive Clause
Noun Phrase (NP) Equative Clause
Prep/Post-positional Phrase (PP) Locative Clause
Some languages like English make use of a semantically empty link verb, or
copula, which selects the predicate phrase as a complement:
That tree is [very tall]AP attributive
This tree is [a Canadian maple]NP equative
The Canadian maple is [on the left]PP locative
But other languages allow a predicate NP, AP or PP to function as the
grammatical head of the clause, with no (overt or covert) verb required.
Note: These sentences are still clauses insofar as they have a predicate and
arguments, but they have no verb.
Tagalog
[Matalino]AP ang=batà.
intelligent NOM=child
‘The child is intelligent.’
[Anak ni=Belen]NP si=Romy.
child GEN=Belen NOM=Romy
‘Romy is Belen’s son.’
[Nasa Maynila]PP ang=gusali.
at.DAT Manila nom=building
‘The building is in Manila.’
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Syntax – Week 9, Lecture 1
Some languages make use of both of these patterns in different contexts,
e.g. present vs. non-present tense (Hebrew); or attributive vs. equative
clauses (Spanish). Some languages have a copula which is not a verb (e.g.,
Hausa, Sùpyìré).
8. Existential constructions
● This construction is used to assert either the existence or the non-
existence of something.
● Existential clauses often involve a special predicate word, which has
different properties from prototypical verbs.
● In many languages the same basic pattern is also used to express
possession or location of indefinite or non-specific items.
9. Impersonal constructions
● Impersonal constructions (or ‘impersonals’) have no grammatical
subject.
● Impersonal constructions are frequently used for meteorological
clauses (e.g. ‘It is raining.’ ‘It is snowing.’)
● Some languages such as English and German instead use a ‘dummy
subject’, an element (e.g. it and there) which has no semantic
content but simply occupies the subject position.
10. Imperatives (Commands)
● Imperatives typically express the speech act of a command or a
directive.
● An imperative verb will always have a second person actor, which (in
most languages) will be the subject.
● Imperative verbs are frequently unmarked for person, even in
languages which normally require the verb to agree with the person
of the subject (Latin, Swahili); and imperative clauses frequently lack
a subject NP (English). Where there is an overt subject NP, it will
always be a second person pronoun.
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● Imperative verbs are also typically unmarked for tense and/or aspect
(Latin, Swahili).
● Some languages form the imperative by using a special particle
(Cambodian).
● Most languages have a variety of methods for softening an
imperative or making it sound more polite (Malay)
11. Negation
● Clausal negation is marked by adding something to a basic positive
clause.
● The two most common patterns for marking clausal negation are the
use of:
● a free word (such as not in English) or a (clitic) particle.
● an affix on the verb (Hebrew, Turkish)
● An alternate pattern is the use of a special negative auxiliary verb
(Finnish)
● Some languages use a pair of markers, such as a free word + a clitic
particle (Quechua).
References
Tomlin, R. S. (2014). Basic Word Order: Functional Principles (Vol. 13). London:
Routledge.