Analyzing grammar : an introduction

Preface and acknowledgments page xi List of abbreviations xiv 1 Grammatical form 1 1.1 Form, meaning, and use 1 1.2 Aspects of linguistic form 2 1.3 Grammar as a system of rules 4 1.4 Conclusion 5 2 Analyzing word structure 7 2.1 Identifying meaningful elements 7 2.2 Morphemes 12 2.3 Representing word structure 14 2.4 Analyzing position classes 18 2.5 A typology of word structure 22 Exercises 24 3 Constituent structure 26 3.1 Ambiguity 26 3.2 Constituency 28 3.3 Hierarchy 32 3.4 Syntactic categories 33 3.5 Tree diagrams: representing the constituents of a clause 38 3.6 Pronouns and proper names as phrasal categories 44 3.7 Conclusion 46 Practice exercises 47 Exercises 47 4 Semantic roles and Grammatical Relations 51 4.1 Simple sentences and propositions 52 4.2 Arguments and semantic roles 53 4.3 Grammatical Relations 55 4.4 Adjuncts vs. arguments 58 vii viii Contents 4.5 “Indirect objects” and secondary objects 61 4.6 Conclusion 62 Exercises 63 5 Lexical entries and well-formed clauses 66 5.1 Lexical entries 66 5.2 Argument structure and subcategorization 67 5.3 Properties of a well-formed clause 72 5.4 Uniqueness of oblique arguments 79 5.5 Zero-anaphora (“pro-drop”) 79 5.6 Further notes on English Phrase Structure 81 5.7 Conclusion 83 Exercises 83 6 Noun Phrases 87 6.1 Complements and adjuncts of N 87 6.2 Determiners 89 6.3 Adjectives and Adjective Phrases (AP) 90 6.4 Possession and recursion 92 6.5 English NP structure (continued) 97 6.6 Conclusion 98 Practice exercise 98 Exercises 98 7 Case and agreement 102 7.1 Case 102 7.2 Agreement 111 7.3 Conclusion 118 Exercises 119 8 Noun classes and pronouns 128 8.1 Noun classes and gender 128 8.2 Pronouns 135 Exercises 143 9 Tense, Aspect, and Modality 147 9.1 Tense 147 9.2 Aspect 152 9.3 Perfect vs. perfective 158 9.4 Combinations of tense and aspect 161 9.5 Mood 163 9.6 Modality 165 9.7 Conclusion 168 Exercises 169 Contents ix 10 Non-verbal predicates 173 10.1 Basic clause patterns with and without the copula 174 10.2 Existential and possessive clauses 180 10.3 Cross-linguistic patterns 181 10.4 A note on “impersonal constructions” 185 10.5 Further notes on the predicate complement (XCOMP) relation 187 10.6 Conclusion 189 Exercises 190 11 Special sentence types 196 11.1 Direct vs. indirect speech acts 196 11.2 Basic word order 197 11.3 Commands (imperative sentences) 199 11.4 Questions (interrogative sentences) 203 11.5 Negation 211 11.6 Conclusion 214 Practice exercise 214 Exercises 215 12 Subordinate clauses 218 12.1 Coordinate vs. subordinate clauses 218 12.2 Complement clauses 220 12.3 Direct vs. indirect speech 224 12.4 Adjunct (or Adverbial) clauses 227 12.5 Relative clauses 230 12.6 Conclusion 240 Practice exercise 241 Exercises 241 13 Derivational morphology 247 13.1 Stems, roots, and compounds 248 13.2 Criteria for distinguishing inflection vs. derivation 250 13.3 Examples of derivational processes 253 13.4 Word structure revisited 259 13.5 Conclusion 265 Practice exercise 265 Exercises 266 14 Valence-changing morphology 270 14.1 Meaning-preserving alternations 271 14.2 Meaning-changing alternations 277 14.3 Incorporation 280 14.4 Conclusion 282 x Contents Practice exercises 283 Exercises 284 15 Allomorphy 288 15.1 Suppletion 290 15.2 Morphophonemic changes 292 15.3 Rules for suppletive allomorphy 296 15.4 Inflectional classes 297 15.5 Conclusion 299 Practice exercises 301 Exercises 302 16 Non-linear morphology 304 16.1 Non-linear sequencing of affixes 305 16.2 Modifications of phonological features 307 16.3 Copying, deleting, re-ordering, etc. 309 16.4 Inflectional rules 312 16.5 Conclusion 313 Exercises 314 17 Clitics 316 17.1 What is a “word?” 317 17.2 Types of clitics 319 17.3 Clitic pronouns or agreement? 325 17.4 Conclusion 329 Practice exercise 329 Exercises 330 Appendix: Swahili data for grammar sketch 334 Glossary 341 References 352 Language index 360 Subject index 362