Changing Grammatical Relations Flashcards
Name two ways of changing grammatical realations
applicatives and passivisation
What is passivisation?
A valency decreasing process
an active sentence with a transitive verb becomes a passive sentence with an intransitive verb, as the demoted subject no longer stands as a core argument
Explain passivisation in terms of promotion
The original argument with the object (patient) function is promoted to subject
The original subject (agent) is demoted to an optionally realised oblique
How does passivisation vary between languages?
Not all languages promote the patient object to subject, but demotion the agent subject is universal
How can you identify English passives?
Contain the auxiliary BE + past participle
Object from active->promoted to subject
Subject from active->demoted to “by” phrase or deleted
How is a phrase with an intransitive verb passivised?
Verb becomes impersonal passive
Subj=supressed, impersonal construction doesn’t create a new one
How can you identify the passive in other languages?
Some use a morphological marker that appears on the verb - Indonesian
Explain applicatives
Promotion of oblique/obj2 to the direct obj
Demotion of the direct obj to oblique/obj2
may also involve special changes to morphological to indicate the applicative construction (chichewa)
What is the English equivalent to applicatives?
Dative shift
Ali bought a bike for her son –> Ali bought her son a bike
Explain dative shift restrictions
Benefactive argument must be seen to acquire ownership of the theme
How does dative shift differ ffrom applicatives
dative shift is lexically restricted, but applicative is a productive process (applies to all verbs)
Give the hierarchy of grammatical functions
Subj>Obj>Obj2>Obl>poss (adj)
