Phrase Structure and Grammatical Relations in Tagalog

Over the last twenty years or so, most of the work on the syntax of Philippine languages has been focused on the question of whether or not these languages can be said to have grammatical subjects, and if so which argument of a basic transitive clause should be analyzed as being the subject. Paul Kroeger's contribution to this debate asserts that the grammatical relations such as subject and object are syntactic notions, and must be identified on the basis of syntactic properties, rather than by semantic roles or discourse functions. A large number of syntactic processes in Tagalog uniquely select the argument which bears the nominative case. On the other hand, the data which has been used in the debate to assert the ambiguity of subjecthood is best analyzed in terms of semantic rather than syntactic constraints. Together these facts support an analysis that takes the nominative argument as the subject.

Kroeger examines the history of the subjecthood debate and uses data from Tagalog to test the theories that have been put forth. His conclusions entail consequences for certain linguistic concepts and theories, and lead Kroeger to assert that grammatical relations are not defined in terms of surface phrase structure configurations, contrary to the assumptions of many approaches to syntax including the Government-Binding theory.

Paul Kroeger was doing fieldwork in Austronesian langauges and teaching linguistics to fieldworkers from around the world at the time of this publication.

List of Tables
List of Abbreviations used

1 Introduction

1 Overview
2 Theoretical framework

2.1 Phrase structure
2.2 Functional structure

3 Some essential aspects of Tagalog morphology

3.1 Modifiers, linkers etc.
3.2 Voice and case-making
3.3 Aspect and mood

2 Subjecthood

1 The history of the problem
2 Nominative properties

2.1 Quantifier Float
2.2 Relativeization
2.3 Number agreement
2.4 Raising
2.5 Control of secondary predicates
2.6 Subject obviation
2.7 Possessor ascension
2.8 Conjunction reduction

3 Actor properties

3.1 Reflexive Binding
3.2 Equi

4 Termhood

4.1 Non-obliqueness of Actors

4.1.1 Participle complements
4.1.2 Participle adjuncts
4.1.3 Adjunct Fronting

4.2 On the termhood of genetive patients: evidence against the ergative analysis

5 “Subjectless” sentences

5.1 Subjectless sentence patterns
5.2 Implications

6 Typographical considerations

3 Topic and Focus

1 Introduction
2 Continuity of discourse topic
3 Pragmatic Topic and Focus

3.1 WH- question-answer pairs
3.2 Selective contrast
3.3 The pragmatic function of ay-Inversion

4 Conclusion

4 Control

1 Introduction
2 Semantic properties of Equi constructions

2.1 Actions
2.2 Responsibility
2.3 Causative coercion
2.4 Cross-linguistic evidence

3 Non-volitive mood and controllee choice
4 The syntactic expression of Actions

4.1 In order to constructions
4.2 Predicates which subcategorize for Actions
4.3 Imperatives

5 Controllee choice

5.1 Obligatory vs. non-obligatory control
5.2 Controllees in volitive complements
5.3 Controllees in non-volitive complements

6 Functional control vs. Anaphoric control
7 A puzzle (partially) resolved
8 A typology of controllee choice
9 Conclusion

5 Phrase structure and configurationality

1 Introduction
2 Word order patterns
3 Configurationality

3.1 Diagnostic properties
3.2 Pronominal coreference in Tagalog

4 Tagalog phrase structure

4.1 Clitic placement
4.2 Pre-verbal constituents

4.2.1 Internal clause boundaries
4.2.2 Categorial distinctions

4.3 The structure on IP

4.3.1 SPEC of IP
4.3.2 Discontinuous predicates and the structure of S
4.3.3 INFL

4.3.3.1 Huwag as an auxiliary
4.3.3.2 Complex predicate constructions

4.3.4 Further notes on IP

4.4 Equalitive clauses and Clefting
4.5 Clitic placement and modifiers

5 Problems for a configurational analysis

5.1 Two structural subjects (Guilfoyle, Hung and Travis)
5.2 Subject Adjunction (Chung, 1990)

6 Modal verbs and Clause Reduction

1 Introduction
2 Modals

2.1 Equi
2.2 Raising

2.2.1 Actor-Subject Raising
2.2.2 “Actor-Raising”
2.2.3 “Parasitic control”

3 The Clause Reduction construction

3.1 Evidence for Clause Reduction
3.2 Phrase structure effects
3.3 A further note on clitic placement
3.4 Constraints on Clause Reduction

3.4.1 Control
3.4.2 Uniqueness of tense

3.5 Clausal Reduction with Equi verbs

4 Clause Reduction as argument structure composition
5 Explaining irregular modal examples

5.1 Equi and “Actor-Raising”?
5.2 “Parasitic control” revisited

7 Unbounded dependencies

1 Introduction
2 Constraints on unbounded dependencies

2.1 The constraint on gaps
2.2 The constraint on extraction domains

3 A unified account

8 Conclusion

1 Summary
2 Theoretical implications
3 The “Internal Subject” hypothesis

References
Index

12/1/92

ISBN (Paperback): 9780937073865 (0937073865)
ISBN (Cloth): 9780937073872 (0937073873)
Subject: Linguistics; Tagalog Language--Grammar; Phrase Structure Grammar

Phrase Structure and Grammatical Relations in Tagalog

Contents