Identifying Grammatical Relations

Question 1

What are the three strategies for indicating grammatical relationships?

Answer 1

constituent order
case marking
agreement marking
they are not mutually exclusive, most langauges use a combo

Question 2

What are grammatical relationships?

Answer 2

the relationship between the core arguments and the verb

Question 3

Explain constituent order

Answer 3

Some languages have a fixed CO, with different orders being associated with distinct pragmatic/semantic interpretations

Question 4

Name a language that uses constituent order

Answer 4

English - subject+object are in fixed positions

Question 5

What are the major constituents of a transitive clause?

Answer 5

S, V, O

6 possible iterations of them

Question 6

What are the most common constituent orders?

Answer 6

SOV/SVO form 80% of languages

Question 7

What are the most common positions for each constituent?

Answer 7

90% of languages put V next to O
96% put S before O
even if subjects are not clause initial, they initiate the action expressed by the verb

Question 8

Explain how constituent order can vary within a language

Answer 8

In some languages, certain orders are associated with certain clause types
German: SOV=embedded clauses, SVO=root clauses

Question 9

Explain case marking

Answer 9

When certain morphology is used to mark the relationship between the verb and nominal arguments
It allows for variation in the position of arguments

Question 10

What is the difference between case marking and agreement marking?

Answer 10

Marking on NP=case marking

on verb = agreement marking

Question 11

What are the two main ways languages differentiate between core arguments?

Answer 11

Generally A and O are differentiated
Either S+A are marked with a nom morpheme whilst O is marked with an accusative morpheme
or S+O are marked with an absolutive morpheme and A is marked with an ergative morpheme

Question 12

Are all participants marked in case marking languages?

Answer 12

It is common for one member of each to be marked (have no special case inflection)

Question 13

What is agreement marking?

Answer 13

The relationship between the argument and the predicate is marked through verbal agreement

Question 14

What is verbal agreement?

Answer 14

When the head verb is marked to reflect grammatical properties of the NP argument

Question 15

How does verbal agreement vary acrosslanguages?

Answer 15

In some languages V only agrees with S
in others (Swahili), V agrees with more than one argument

Question 16

How does constituent order affect agreement marking?

Answer 16

CO can affect which marker is used

• in Northern Sotho, usually, the subject is marked when the standard CO is followed
• when changed, subject is still marked but so is Obj

Question 17

Why does constituent order affect agreement marking?

Answer 17

When there is only on NP preceding the verb, so there is no ambiguity about what is doing the action
When there are two NPs the clarification is needed

Question 18

What are the 5 properties of an object?

Answer 18

O can be passivised
They have a specific position in langs with a fixed CO
In nom/acc languages, obj are marked with acc morphemes
In accusative systems, Objects are the complement of a
two-argument (transitive) verb.
If a verb agrees with two args, one must be obj

Question 19

What are the 6 properties of a subject?

Answer 19

tend to appear first in a clause
often used to express the agent of a verb
understood to be the missing argument of imperatives
often the target in passives
often control referential properties of a NP in another clause(understood subj of embedded clauses)
control reflexive NPs (“self” forms)