ESPESYAL NA KURSO SA PONETIKA, PONOLOHIYA, - functional motivation for this:

ORTOGRAPIYA AT MORPOSINTAKSIS NG MGA WIKA SA

PILIPINAS
Unibersidad ng Pilipinas-Baguio, Oktubre 15-25, 2007 a. obliques are peripheral/optional

PAKSA 4: GRAMATIKAL NA RELASYON I. [Hango sa mga b. arguments carry the meaning of the
babasahin ni Thompson sa Ling 109/209] predicate

A. What are Grammatical Relations (GRs)?
- languages systematically group certain types of arguments
together and treat them grammatically the same
- we call these Grammatical Relations
- The two major types of GR systems group or organize these
three kinds of Arguments (S, A, O) differently:
- Both of them show a functional efficiency in marking GRs
by marking S (in the intransitive clause type) like one of
the NPs in the transitive clause type

- they are part of the grammar of the language, they don’t - one system marks S the same as A
necessarily correlate with meanings in a direct way
S PRED (1-Arg)
- one famous kind of grouping is what we know as ‘subject’ [nom]
vs. ‘object’ A O PRED (2-Arg)
[acc]
- GRs are not universal; if we translate a sentence into - we call this a nominative-accusative system
another language, the GRs may change
- the other system marks S the same as O

B. Two major types of GR Systems [abs] S PRED (1-Arg)

Recall: S = the single Argument that goes with a 1- [erg] A O PRED (2-Arg)
Argument predicate
- we call this an ergative-absolutive system
A = the AGENT (the one who carries the action)
1. Nominative-Accusative GR System
O = the PATIENT (the one that gets acted upon)
S PRED (1-Arg)
-GR systems are based on Arguments, then, but not on how [nom]
Obliques behave A O PRED (2-Arg)

1
 [acc] ______ _______
Cindy – ch wa - h sa’an - kwi1
- if a language has a Nominative-Accusative GR System, Cindy – NOM door – DEF close - 3:PST
there will be morphological or syntactic evidence ‘Cindy closed the door.’

- that S and A behave alike - why do we say that Hualapai has a nominative-
- and that O behaves differently accusative GR system?

S - in Hualapai S and ___ behave alike:

Turkish: kiz iyi
girl good - Evidence: both occur with a ____________
‘The girl is good.’ - and ___ behaves differently:

A O - Evidence: ____ occurs with no ______ suffix2

kiz adam – lar – i gor - du
girl man - PL – ACC see – PST - does English have a nominative-accusative GR system?
‘The girl saw the men.’ How would we find out?
_____ ___ ____ ______
- so why do we say that Turkish has a nominative-accusative GR English: a. Ramon run-s everyday
system?
__ ___ _____ ______
- in Turkish S and A behave alike: b. I eat dinner at 6:30

- Evidence: both are unsuffixed forms of the noun _____ __ ( __) ___________ __________
c. Ramon eat – s three pancakes for breakfast
- and O behaves differently:
______ ___
- Evidence: O takes an ______ suffix d. the boys run

__ __ (___)
e. she run – s
Hualapai (Yuman, Arizona)
_________ __ ___
Cindy - ch mi: - ki 1
Is there a definite article in this clause? ____. The morphome glossed DEF is a
Cindy – NOM cry – 3:PRES suffix.
‘Cindy is crying.’ 2
The O does occur with a DEF suffix – is this relevant to Grs? _____, because
_______________________________________________________.

2
 f. I run

______ ___ ( ___ ) ___ - if a language has an Ergative-Absolutive GR System, there will be
g. Ramon see- s me morphological or syntactic evidence that S and ___ behave alike

- In English, S and ___ behave alike - and that _______ behaves differently

- Evidence: Basque: _____________________, ____________________

- ___ and ___ are both _______ on the verb _____

Martin ethori
- the 1SG pronoun has the form ____ for ___ and ___ Martin came
Martin came
- and ____ behaves differently.
__________ ______
- Evidence: Martin – ek haurra igorri du
- ____ isn’t marked on the verb (i.e. the verb Martin-ERG letter send AUX
doesn’t change no ‘Martin sent a letter’
matter whether O is _________ or _________.)
- why do we say that Basque has an ergative-absolutive GR
- the 1SG pronoun has the form____ for ____ system?

labels: - in Basque S and ___ behave alike

For a nominative-accusative GR system - Evidence: both occur with __________________

- A and S = __________/__________________. - and ___ behaves differently:

- O = _____________/ __________________.
- Evidence: it occurs with the ______ ________
_______
2. Ergative-Absolutive GR System
Tongan, ___________, _______________,
_________________
[abs] S PRED (1-Arg)

[erg] A O PRED (2-Arg) na’e lea ‘a etalavou

PST speak ABS young:man

3
 _________________________ - i.e., how can you tell if a language is using the
________ ______ Nominative-Accusative
na’e tamate’i ‘a kolaite ‘e tevita system or the Ergative-Absolutive system?
PST kill ABS Goliath ERG David
David killed Goliath 1. Case-marking (marking on NP Argument)
2. Agreement (marking of an _________ on the
- in Tongan S and ___ behave alike: Verb or Auxiliary)

- Evidence: both occur with the _________________ 1. Case-marking

- labels: - a language employs case-marking for its GRs if GRs are

marked on one or more Argument NPs
For an ergative-absolutive GR system
- A = _____________________ - a case-marking adposition or affix on the
- S and O = _______________ argument NP

- so there’s only one set of names for the ergative-absolutive - a determiner (i.e., a _____ or an _______ ) in the
GR system, and the terms ‘subject’ and ‘object’ are not applicable, Argument NP
which means that an ergative-absolutive GR system has no - special forms for pronouns in a pronoun NP
‘subject.
1a. nominative-accusative marking
SUMMARY: There are two major types of GR systems.
- if the language marks GRs by case-marking, then in a
- some languages have a nominative-accusative GR system nominative-accusative system, ____ should be marked like
with the GRs ____.
_______________ and ____________________.
____
- some languages have an ergative-absolutive GR system Turkish: kiz iyi
with the GR’s ________________ and _______________. girl good
- neither system marks all the three GRs differently The girl is good
- instead, each system efficiently marks S like either A or O
____ _________
C. How areGRs marked? 2 major ways kiz adam – lar – i gor – du
girl man – PL –ACC see – PST
- what are the ways that S can “behave like” either A or O? _________________________________

- How does Turkish mark GRs?

4
 - the nominative ______ _____ goes with ___ and ___
- S and A are marked alike in case they both have ____
case - the accusative _______ _____ goes with ____
marking
- so with the lexical NPs, German marks case with
- O is marked differently; it has the case marking what word class?
_____ ________________ (see p. 6)
-
German: _________________ ____ S and A are marked alike in case: they both have the
der Gartner ist hier same marking ___
-
ART:NOM gardener COP:3:SG here O is marked differently, it has the case marking ___
__________________________________
-
How does German mark case on pronoun?
___________________ __
-
der Gartner hat es gekauft 1SG has the form ich when it’s ____ or ____
ART:NOM gardener AUX:3SG it bought
- 1SG has the form mich when it’s ___
___ ____________________
ich liebe den Gartner
1SG:NOM love:1SG ART:ACC gardener - both the lexical NP data and the pronoun NP data provide
evidence for Turkish and German being
_______________________________________ _____________________ languages3

1b. ergative-absolutive case marking

________________ ____ - if the language marks GRs by case-marking, then in an

der Gartner liebt mich ergative-absolutive system, S should be marked like ____
ART:NOM gardener love:3SG 1SG:ACC
_____________________________________ ______
Basque: Martin ethori
___ Martin came
ich werde warten Martin came
1SG:NOM FUT wait:INF
_________________________ _______ _____

- How does German mark GRs with lexical NPs?

3
German also has agreement, but right now we're only looking at case-marking
(that is, marking on the ____________ ______).

5
 Martin- ek haurra igorri du
Martin – ERG letter send AUX
D. How do we find out whether and how a language marks its
- in Basque, S and O are marked alike in case: they both grammatical relations?
have ___ case
marking Step 1: label the predicate and the arguments

- A is marked differently, it has the case marking _____ - identify the S in the intransitive clauses
- identify the ___ and the ___ in the transitive clauses
__________________
Tongan: na’e lea ‘a etalavou Step 2: determine whether the language uses case (on arguments),
PST speak ABS young:man and/or agreement (on verbs/auxiliaries) to mark the S, the A, and the
O.
_______ ________
na’e tarnate’i ‘a kolaite ‘e tevita Step 3: figure out whether the case marking and/or agreement groups
PST kill ABS Goliath ERF David S together with ___ or with ____
‘David killed Goliath’
REMEMBER:
- in Tongan, S and O are marked alike in case they both
have the case marking ______ Grammatical Relations = the ways languages systematically group
certain types of arguments together and treat them grammatically the
- A is marked differently; it has the case marking ____ same

- in Tongan, what word class do these case markers belong
to?
_______________________________
- SO: The Ergative-Absolutive languages Basque and Tongan mark
their GRs by case-marking:
– S and ___ take the same case marking
– and ___ takes a ____________ case marking
GR system refers to whether GRs are marked according to a
_________________________ system or a
_______________________ system
GR marking refers to how the language _____________ its GRs,
whether by:
a. _____________________, marked on the _________
b. _____________________, marked on the _____ or the
_______________

(2. Agreement – we’ll look at this next week)