Summer 2015 Mini Grammar Sketch Assignment

Sample Solution Based on English (from Payne, 2011)

NOTE: This example is by no means a "hint" as to how the actual mini-grammar-sketch language
works! We just want to illustrate what we mean by the descriptions of the various parts of this
assignment. See DM for more details. Here are some data. The solutions are based on a hypothetical
larger data set. (This is not the first page of the paper! Data should be included in an appendix, after the
references.)

1. t stks "It stinks."

2. hij waks t skuwlz "He walks to the schools."
3. e pntd t "They printed it."
4. wij evd tag "We shaved the tiger."
5. ij nd h b "She shunned her brother."
6. e wat es "They watched the race."
7. a watma kloz "I washed my clothes."
8. hij wakt t skuwl "He walked to the school."
9. e pnt t "They print it."
10. wij ev tag "We shave the tiger."
11. hij evz tagz "he shaves the tiger."
12. ij nz h b "She shuns her brother."
13. e wa esz "They watch the races."
14. hij waz ma kloz "He washes my clothes."
15. hij z wak t skuwl "He is walking to the school."
16. e a pnt t "They are printing it."
17. wij a ev tagz "We are shaving the tigers."
18. ij z n h b "She is shunning her brother."
19. e a wa es "They are watching the race."
20. am wa ma kloz "I'm washing my clothes."
21. hij hz wakt t skuwl "He has walked to school."
22. e hv pntd t "They have printed it."
23. wij hv evd tag "We have shaved the tiger."
24. ij hz nd h b "She has shunned her brother."
25. e hv wat es "They have watched the race."
26. av wat ma kloz "I've washed my clothes."

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A Mini-Grammar Sketch of English

Tom Payne

LING 360 Morphology and Syntax

August 9, 2011

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Contents

Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................ 1

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2

Part I: Morphological and syntactic typology ....................................................................... 2

Intransitive and transitive clauses ...................................................................................... 5

Question particles............................................................................................................... 5

Noun phrases...................................................................................................................... 6

Verb phrases....................................................................................................................... 7

Adpositional phrases .......................................................................................................... 8

Part II: Grammatical Relations .............................................................................................. 8

Part III: Voice and Valence ................................................................................................ 10

References ........................................................................................................................... 13

Abbreviations

1PL = First person plural

1SG = First person singular
2 = Second person (singular and plural are neutralized in all paradigms)
3SG = Third person singular
3PL = Third person plural
ABL = Abilitative
ACC = Accusative
AUX = Auxiliary
DAT = Dative
DEF = Definite article
DEMO1 = Demonstrative pronoun/adjective, near speaker.
DEMO2 = Demonstrative pronoun/adjective, away from speaker.
Deon1 = Weak deontic mode
deon2 = Strong deontic mode
DIM = Diminutive
infer = Inferential mode
F = Feminine
FUT = Future
GEN = Genitive

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 HUM = Human
INDEF = Indefinite article
Ldemo1 = Locative demonstrative, near speaker.
ldemo2 = Locative demonstrative, away from speaker
LOC = Locative
M = Masculine
NN = Non-Nominative case
NOM = Nominative case
NOMLZR = Nominalizer
NOPAS = Non-past
NS = Non-subject
PART = Particle
pot = Potential mode
PPAS = Past participle
PPRES = Present particple
PAS = Past
PL = Plural
RECIP = Reciprocal
REFL = Reflexive
REL = Relative pronoun

Introduction

This paper presents a brief grammatical sketch of standard North American English.1 Today,

English is spoken as a first language by approximately one billion people worldwide, mainly in Africa,

India, the British Isles, North America, Australia and New Zealand. It is spoken as a second language by

about another two billion people.

Part I: Morphological and syntactic typology

This language employs suffixation to express basic inflectional information. Nouns are marked

for plurality, with a suffix |-z|. Unmarked nouns are assumed to be singular:

1
The dialect represented in this sketch is that of Doris L. Payne, a native of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Many
thanks to Doris, Steve Knapp, Lynn Conver and others who have contributed data and opinions to this work.

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 Position class diagram of the Noun:

Root Number
skuwl "school"
|-z| PLURAL
tag "tiger"
es "race"
b "brother"
klo* "cloth"

Examples of singular and plural nouns in context are given below:

(1) a. hij wak-s t skuwl-z "He walks to the schools." (ex. 2)

3SG.M.NOM walk-3SG.PRES LOC DEF school-PL

b. hij z wak- t skuwl

3SG.M.NOM AUX.3SG.PRES walk-PPART LOC DEF school
"He is walking to the school." (ex. 15)

(2) b. wij a ev- tag-z "We are shaving the tigers." (ex. 17)
1PL.NOM AUX.PRES shave-PPART DEF tiger-PL

a. wij ev-d tag "We shaved the tiger." (ex. 4)

1PL.NOM shave-PAST DEF tiger

Verbs are slightly more complicated. However, again all inflectional categories are expressed via

suffixation. Verbs in the major class are directly marked for past tense with a suffix |-d|. Present tense is

unmarked, but in the present tense, a suffix |-s| appears when the subject is 3rd person singular. Verbs can

also be marked with one of two participial endings, |-|, PPART, 'present participle,' and |-d|, PaPART,

'Past Participle.'The forms displayed below illustrate the major class forms. There are also many minor

class and irregular forms, especially of the past tense (see below for further examples).

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 Position class diagram of the verb:
Root Tense/aspect/subject
wak "walk"
|-z| 3SG, PRESENT TENSE
pnt "print"
|-d| PAST TENSE,
ev "shave"
|-d|/|-n| PAST PARTICIPLE
n "shun"
|-| PROGRESSIVE ASPECT
wa "watch"
|-0| NON-3SG, PRESENT TENSE
wa "wash"

Examples of all five possible verb forms in context are given below:

(3) a. UNMARKED PRESENT:

e pnt t "They print it." (ex. 9)
3PL.NOM print INAN

b. 3SG PRESENT:
t stk-s "It stinks." (ex. 1)
INAN stink-3SG.PRES

c. PAST:
e pnt-d t "They printed it." (ex. 3)
3PL.NOM print-PAST INAN

d. PRESENT PARTICIPLE:
i z n- h b
3SG.F.NOM AUX.3SG.PRES shun-PPART 3SG.GEN brother
"She is shunning her brother." (ex. 18)

e. PAST PARTICIPLE:
wi hv ev-d tag "We have shaved the tiger." (ex. 23)
1PL.NOM AUX2.PRES shave-PaPART DEF tiger

This language is somewhat isolating. As seen from the position class diagrams and examples

above, there is very little inflectional morphology on either nouns or verbs. Derivational morphology is

more complex, but that is outside the scope of this paper, and does not significantly affect the description

of the language as "somewhat isolating." However, what morphology there is tends to be fairly fusional.

Many morphemes, such as the 3SG.PRES suffix |-z| combine more than one morphological category.

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Furthermore, several minor classes of verbs exhibit suppletion for tense. The following are a few

examples not found in the corpus above:

(4) PRESENT PAST MEANING

stk stk "stink"
b bt "bring"
baj bt "buy"
go wnt "go"
fal fl "fall"
o u "throw"
d du "draw"
dajv dov "dive"

Intransitive and transitive clauses

A comprehensive study of naturally occuring texts reveals that the basic constituent order of this

language is SV in intransitive clauses (ex. 5), and AVP in transitive clauses (ex. 6). Variations in this

pattern are rare, and clearly function in pragmatically marked contexts:

(5) S V
mn ajv-d. "A man arrived."
INDEF man arrive-PAST

(6) A V P
dg-z ejs kt-s. "Dogs chase cats."
dog-PL chase.PRES cat-PL

Datives and other obliques (marked by prepositions) typically occur after S, A and P:

(7) A V P [ DAT ] [ LOC ]

aj gejv t t juw t str
1SG.NOM give.PAST INAM DAT 2 LOCDEF store
"I gave it to you at the store."

Since these are the basic orders, I conclude that this is a VO language.

Question particles

Some varieties of this language use yes/no question particles. In these varieties the Q-particle

always follows the main sentence. This is consistent with expectations for VO language as discussed in

Greenberg (1963):

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(8) j- gow- t str ej
2SG.NOM-AUX.PRESS go-PPART LOC the store eh
"You're going to the store, eh?"

Noun phrases

Determiners, numerals and descriptive modifiers precede their head nouns:

(9) DET MOD HEAD DET MOD HEAD

a. la kt b. bluw bs
INDEF large cat DEF blue bus
"a large cat" "the blue bus"

NUM MOD HEAD DEMO MOD HEAD

c. ij gli dk-l-z d. t b u fl la n
j w j

three ugly duck-DIM-PL DEMO2 beautiful lion

"three ugly ducklings" "that beautiful lion"

This regular placement of descriptive modifiers before the head noun is inconsistent with the

otherwise dominant VO pattern of this language according to Greenberg (1963). However, more recent

work by Dryer (1988) and others indicates that order of adjective and noun correlates very loosely, if at

all, with main clause constituent order.

This language has two types of genitive constructions. The most common type places the genitive

element before the head noun. When the genitive element is a full NP, it receives a suffix

|-z|:

(10) GEN HEAD GEN HEAD

a. n-z ka b. mi-z skss
John-GEN car Mary-GEN success
"John's car" "Mary's success"

However, when the genitive element is pronominal, the pronoun is chosen from a distinct genitive set of

pronouns (see Part II).

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 The second, more unusual, type of genitive construction places the genitive element in a

prepositional phrase with the preposition v, 'of', after the head noun. Again, a distinct set of pronouns is

used in such constructions when the genitive element is pronominal:

(11) HEAD GEN HEAD GEN

a. ka v n b. s ka v majn
DEF carof John DEMO1 car of mine
"the car of John" "this car of mine"

HEAD GEN HEAD GEN

c. bg v bown-z d. t sst v hz
INDEF bag of bone-PL DEMO2 sister of
3SG:F:GEN
"a bag of bones" "that sister of hers"
(i.e., a bag that contains bones)

The difference in choice of one or the other type of genitive construction is partially

discourse/pragmatically based, and partially semantically based. Investigation of the discourse/pragmatic

and semantic properties of these constructions lies outside the scope of the present sketch.

Since the dominant type of genitive construction in this language is GEN-NOUN, this is another

area in which the language is inconsistent with the canonical VO language type according to Greenberg

(1963).

Verb phrases

Within the verb phrase, inflected auxiliaries consistently precede the main verb:

(12) AUX VERB

hij d-z hv dal. "He DOES have a dollar."
3SG.MASC.NOM AUX.ACT-3SG.PRES have INDEF dollar

(13) AUX VERB

hij wl ijt bijn-z. "He will eat beans."
3SG.MASC.NOM AUX.FUT eat bean-PL

(14) AUX VERB

ej d falow nstkn-z. "They should follow instructions."
3PL.NOM should follow instruction-PL

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(15) AUX VERB
flm hz sijv-d l. "Fillmore has received the letter."
Fillmore AUX.PERF.PRES receive-PAPART DEF letter

Multiple auxiliaries are also allowed in this language. In this case, it is always the left-most

auxiliary that receives tense and person inflection, if relevant:

(16) AUX1 AUX2 AUX3 AUX4 V

kntow wl hv b-n bij- plej-d f tn mnt-s.
3PL concerto AUX.FUT AUX.PERF AUX.STAT-PAPART AUX.STAT-PPART play-
PAPART for ten minute-PL
"The concerto will have been being played for ten minutes."

The fact that inflected auxiliaries precede main verbs in this language is consistent with

observations by Greenberg (1963) for languages of the VO type.

Adpositional phrases

This language uses prepositions to mark most oblique NPs:

(17) a. tuw juw b. n haws c. d sp

to 2 LOCDEF house during DEF spring
"to you" "in the house" "during the spring"

There is only one postposition, gow:

(18) j gow "a year ago"

INDEF year ago

We conclude that this language is dominantly prepositional. This characteristic is consistent with

the canonical VO constituent order type as discussed in Greenberg (1963).

Part II: Grammatical Relations

This language illustrates a consistent Nominative-Accusative system for organizing grammatical

relations. This system is manifested in case (pronouns only), verb agreement, and constituent order.

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 Case: Personal pronouns from the nominative set are used for all S and A arguments (examples

19 through 22 below). Personal pronouns from the "non-nominative" set are used for O arguments

(examples 21 and 22). See the table in 25 for all the pronominal forms:

(19) S V OBLIQUE
i j
wak-s t skuwl "She walks to school."
3SG.F.NOM walk-3SG.PRES to school

(20) S V
hij stk-s "He stinks."
3SG.M.NOM stink-3SG.PRES

(21) A V O
j
hi wa-t hm "He watched him."
3SG.M.NOM watch-PAST 3SG.M.NNOM

(22) A V O
ij wa-t h "She watched her."
3SG.M.NOM watch-PAST 3SG.M.NNOM

Verb agreement: The examples in 23 and 24 below illustrate that there is a vestigial verb

agreement system in the present tense only. In this system, verbs exhibit a suffix |z| when the S or A

agument is 3rd person, singular, and no suffix for any other category of subject. Verbs never agree with O

arguments. Therefore, verb agreement, such as it is, also manifests a nominative-accusative system.

(23) Present tense Past tense

t stks "It stinks." t stk "It stank."
hij stks "He stinks." hij stk "He stank."
ij stks "She stinks." ij stk "She stank."

a stk "I stink." a stk "I stank."

juw stk "You stink." juw stk "You stank."
wij stk "We stink." wij stk "We stank."
e stk "They stink." e stk "They stank."

Transitive verbs do not agree with objects in any tense:

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(24) Present tense Past tense
e wa h "They watch her." e wat h "They watched her."
e wa hm "They watch him." e wat hm "They watched him."
e wa t "They watch it." e wat t "They watched it."

e wa mij "They watch me. e wat mij "They watched me.

e wa juw "They watch you." e wat juw "They watched you."
e wa s "They watch us." e wat s "They watched us."
e wa m "They watch them." e wat m "They watched them."

Finally, constituent order in this language also manifests a nominative-accusative system in that S

and A arguments consistently precede the verb, while O arguments consistently follow. Examples 20

through 22 and many others in this paper illustrate this fact.

Three cases are distinguished in pronouns, and two in full noun phrases. The following chart

gives the three case forms for basic pronouns:

(25) Nominative Non-nominative Genitive

1SG a mij ma
2SG juw juw jo
3SG.F ij h h
j
3SG.M hi hm hz
3SG.INAN t t ts
1PL wi j
s a
2PL ynz ynz ynzz
3PL (F, M and INAN) e m e

Part III: Voice and Valence

There are no purely morphological valence adjusting constructions in the available corpus. Future

research will determine whether or not such constructions actually exist.

This language uses lexical and syntactic means to express reflexives, reciprocals and causatives.

It uses syntactic structures to express passive functions.

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 Lexical reflexives are verbs that can be grammatically transitive (examples 26 and 27), or

grammatically intransitive (examples 28 and 29), but when they are grammatically intransitive, they

express reflexive meanings:

GRAMMATICALLY TRANSITIVE:

(26) hi ev-d tag "He shaved the tiger."

3SG.M.NOM shave-PAST DEF tiger

(27) hi-z wa- ma klo-z

3SG.M.NOM-be.3SG.PRESwash-PRESPART 1SG.POSS cloth-PL
"He's washing my clothes."

GRAMMATICALLY INTRANSITIVE:

AGENT PATIENT

S
(28) hi ev-d "He shaved (himself)."
3SG.M.NOM shave-PAST

(29) hi-z wa- "He's washing (himself)."

3SG.M.NOM-be.3SG.PRESwash-PRESPART

Other verbs are lexical reciprocals, in that they express reciprocal meanings when used

intransitively, as long as the subject is plural:

AGENT PATIENT

S S
(30) lan nd tag mbres-t "The lion and the tiger embraced
DEF lion and DEF tiger embrace-PAST (each other)."

This is in contrast to their transitive use, in which a distinct object is mentioned:

(31) lan nd tag mbres-t h b

DEF lion and DEF tiger embrace-PAST her brother
"The lion and the tiger embraced her brother."

Syntactic reflexives and reciprocals also exist, employing special pronouns involving the forms -

slf 'reflexive' and i 'reciprocal':

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 AGENT PATIENT

A O
(32) i wa-z h-slf "She watches herself."
3SG.F.NOM watch-3SG.PRES 3SG.F.POSS-REFL

(33) e wa i "They watch each other."

3PL.NOM watch each other

Similarly, lexical and syntactic causatives also occur in this language:

LEXICAL CAUSATIVE NON-CAUSATIVE

AGENTcause AGENTeffect THEME

A O O
(34) i o-d hm tag b. hi s tag
3SG.F.NOM show-PAST 3SG.M.NNOM DEF tiger
3SG.M.NOM see.PAST DEF tiger
"She showed him (caused him to see) the tiger." "He saw the tiger."

SYNTACTIC CAUSATIVE

AGENTcause AGENTeffect THEME

A O O
(35) i med hm si tag
3SG.F.NOM make.PAST 3SG.M.NNOM see DEF tiger
"She made him see the tiger."

Syntactic passives occur in this language, but no lexical or morphological passives have been
found to date.
SYNTACTIC PASSIVE:

PATIENT AGENT

S OBLIQUE
(36) klo-z w wa-t ba h b
DEF cloth-PL be.PAST wash-PPART by her brother
"The clothes were washed by her brother."

This is a syntactic passive, because the PATIENT, kloz, occurs in subject position, the AGENT,

h b, is in an oblique role, and the verb is syntactically and morphologically marked in that it follows

the auxiliary bi (w is a past tense form of this highly irregular verb), and appears in the past participle

form.

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 Much more data is needed to determine the precise functions of passives, and other clause types

in discourse.

References

Dryer, Matthew. 1988. Object-verb order and adjective-noun order: dispelling a myth. Lingua 74.185-217

Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963. Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of
meaningful elements. In Universals of language ed. by Joseph H. Greenberg. Cambridge, Mass.
MIT Press.

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