September 19, : Grammars and Lexicons Lori Levin

Roles of Noun Phrases Semantic Roles Grammatical Relations Pragmatic Relations

Grammatical Relations Subject –Sam interviewed Sue. –Sue was interviewed by Sam. Object –Sam interviewed Sue. –Sam gave Sue a book. Oblique –Sam talked with Sue. –Sam presented a book to Sue. –Sam walked along the river. Second object –Same gave Sue a book. –Think of this as an “unemployed” object. Perlmutter and Postal, Relational Grammar

Indirect Object Not a grammatical Relation? Sam (agent, subject) gave Sue (recipient, object) a book (theme, second object) Sam (agent, subject) gave a book (theme, object) to Sue (recipient, oblique)

Grammatical Relations Coding Properties Behavioral Properties

How to understand an English Sentence [ s [ np Sam] [ vp interviewed [ np Sue ]]] constituent structure SUBJ PRED OBJ grammatical rlns. agent interview patient semantic roles interview lexical mapping SUBJ OBJ S NP SUBJ VP V NP OBJ VP V PP OBL Encoding of Gml. Rlns. For English!!!

How to understand an English Sentence [ s [ np Sue] [ vp was interviewed [ np by Sam ]]] constituent str. SUBJ PRED OBL grammatical rlns. patient interview agent semantic roles interview lexical mapping OBL SUBJ S NP SUBJ VP V NP OBJ VP V PP OBL Encoding of Gml. Rlns. For English!!!

English: Grammatical relations encoded by word order The cat chases the dogs. The cats chase the dog. What does this mean? *The cats chases the dog.

Italian: grammatical relations encoded by verb agreement Il gatto insegue i cani. I gatti inseguono il cane. cat-sg chase-3sg dog-pl cat-pl chase-3pl dog-sg Insegue il gatto i cani. Il cane inseguono i gatti. What does this mean? Il gatto inseguono i cani.

Encoding of Grammatical Relations Brian MacWhinney: Competition Model Word order and agreement compete for encoding of grammatical relations. Word order is stronger in English Agreement is stronger in Italian.

Coding Properties of Grammatical Relations Agreement Word order Case marking See handout from Van Valin, Chapter 2

Ergative, Absolutive, Nominative, and Accusative The man planted the seeds. A = subject of A 0 transitive verb O = object of The man eats meat. transitive verb A 0 The man sleeps. S = single argument S of intransitive verb The man yawns. S

Nominative and Accusative He planted the seeds. Nominative: He eats meat. A and S He sleeps. have the same He yawns. form. Sam saw him. Accusative: O is different from A and S.

Ergative and Absolutive Burushaski, (isolate -- not related to any other known languages, Pakistan), from Manning, Ergativity Ne hír-e phaló bók-i. the. MASC man- ERG seed. PL.ABS sow-3SG.MASC.S The man planted the seeds. Ne hír yált-i. the. MASC man. ABS yawn. PRET -3 SG. MASC.S The man yawned. Ergative: -e, on A only Absolutive: no suffix on S and O

Ergative and Absolutive Greenlandic Eskimo, (Manning, Ergativity) Oli-p neqi neri-vaa Oli- ERG meat. ABS eat- IND.TR.3SG.3SG Oli eats meat. Oli sinippoq Oli. ABS sleep- IND.INTR.3SG Oli sleeps. Ergative: -p, on A only Absolutive: no suffix on S and O

Unmarked Cases Nominative (A, S) and Absolutive (S, O) are unmarked in many languages. –There is no suffix, prefix, particle, etc. Why are some cases unmarked? –If you need to tell the difference between two things (A and O), you only need to mark one of them. –Accusative: O is marked. –Ergative: A is marked. –If there is only an S, it doesn’t need to be marked because it doesn’t need to be distinguished from anything.

Behavioral properties of grammatical relations Behavioral property 1: Reflexive Pronouns Reflexive pronouns: –Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves Regular pronouns: –I, me, you, he, she, him, her, it, we, us, they, them Antecedent: The noun phrase that the pronoun refers to. –Sue thinks that Sam saw her.

Reflexive Pronouns in English James(i) saw himself(i). –Antecedent is subject. James(i) told Miriam(j) about himself(i). –Antecedent is subject. James(i) told Miriam(j) about herself(j). –Antecedent is direct object. Miriam(j) talked to/with Sam(i) about himself(i). –Antecedent is oblique (prepositional phrase).

Reflexive Pronouns in Norwegian Reflexive pronoun #1: –Jon(i) fortalte meg om seg selv(i). John told me about himself. (Antecedent is subject.) –*Vi fortalte Jon(i) om seg selv(i). We told John about himself. Antecedent must be the subject.

Reflexive Pronouns in Norwegian Reflexive pronoun #2: –*Jon(i) snakker om ham selv(i). John talks about himself. (Antecedent is subject.) –Vi fortalte Jon(i) om ham selv(i). We told John about himself. Antecedent cannot be the subject.