Questions tagged [grammar]
A body of rules, features, or generalizations which reliably differentiate between grammatical and ungrammatical constructions.
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1answer
15 views
Paradigmatic vs syntagmatic relationship
I was exploring some various aspects of corpus linguistics and studying different approaches to corpus research on the internet when I came across these phinomena of paradigmatic
and syntagmatic ...
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2answers
88 views
When is a thing correctly called a person? [closed]
When does a thing become a person, in any language. When is it correct grammar to refer to a thing as a person?
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2answers
102 views
Can we predict language death just by looking at grammar?
Is it possible to predict that a language is about to die out just by looking at its structure? So without taking into account the number of native speakers it has and other external factors? If so, ...
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1answer
68 views
Standardized and ambiguity-free language
Is there exist a language (the natural or the constructed one) with a completely standardized and ambiguity-free rules, and which is suitable for the modern use?
I am wondering for a language which ...
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1answer
52 views
Grammatical case vs semantic case
I'm not sure what these terms mean. In my lecture notes I wrote that grammatical case is used to show the syntactic functions of a nominal syntagm, depending on its relation to the verb. Semantic case,...
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2answers
54 views
How to break down sentences into known grammatical categories
I'm trying to break down and analyse different sentence structures in English. Each group contains one present, past, and future sentence, but otherwise should be the same within a group.
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He ...
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3answers
122 views
What's the difference between a modifier and a complement?
Take this syntax tree as an example:
Why is a prepositional phrase (PP) sometimes a post-modifier and sometimes a complement? What is the difference in general? I need to be able to spot them and ...
2
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0answers
27 views
Grammar induction from grammaticality rules
Let's have formalisation of grammaticality judgments in some deduction system. Is it possible to learn/induce grammar from rules that govern grammaticality judgments? Is there theory, that connects ...
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1answer
122 views
Is there such thing as a 'half-plural'?
If yes, does any language have this feature?
By 'half-plural' I mean, somewhere between singular and plural, but not dual, trial, or quadral.
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2answers
78 views
Is English “<adjective> to <verb>” an idiomatic schema, or what do you call “easy to do”?
Is the question clear? Idiomatic scheme is not a term of art, I guess, but it's idiomatic and it follows a schema.
It's a weird one, for sure. Some thoughts:
The Adjective can't be removed
* The ...
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1answer
44 views
How to understand semelfactive aspect of a verb? How is it varied/similar to iterative aspect?
How semelfactive aspect of a verb that represents a single occasion of an event like knock,hit etc..is perfective and moment defined.
whereas,iterative aspect is event that is repeated on single ...
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1answer
61 views
Describing continuity and change (like mou and mada in Japanese)
In Japanese, mada まだ refers to a continuing state: 'still (as it was)' or 'not (changed) yet', and mou もう is about change: 'already (changed)' or 'no longer (the same)'. Are there other languages ...
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0answers
68 views
How is “In we go” syntactically valid?
Various simple sentences occur in English that I can't explain precisely.
"In we went!"
"Off he goes!"
Is this an arcane idiom from an earlier grammar, or is there a general rule that can be ...
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0answers
30 views
Principle C of Binding Theory and Cataphoric Reference, why these notions are against each other?
Principle C of Binding Theory stated that 'referential expression' can not be c-commanded, even across clause boundaries.
While cataphoric reference refers to a reference which occurs before its ...
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2answers
2k views
Fourth person (in Slavey language)
I was reading a Wikipedia article about the Slavey (Slave) language in Canada, and it says that Slavey has first, second, third and fourth person. I've never heard about a language having a fourth ...
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1answer
63 views
If you can use nouns as verbs for different languages
Along the same lines of If you can use Chinese nouns as verbs, or vice versa, I am wondering if you can treat nouns as verbs or verbs as nouns in languages such as these:
Inuktitut
Hebrew
Japanese
...
3
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0answers
48 views
Behaviour of attributive nouns in foreign languages
A common construction in some foreign languages, but seemly not in English, is to use a noun where we would use an adjective. The two forms are:
A: PRONOUN "BE" ADJECTIVE
B: PRONOUN "HAVE" ∅-...
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1answer
93 views
Is *grandmother* a compound?
"Grand is used in a specialized sense in kin terms like grandmother or grandson to indicate a further degree of lineal distance beyond that expressed in the head. Such forms can themselves be modified ...
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1answer
209 views
Etymology of Latin infinitive verb endings
I was wondering, what the etymology of Latin infinitive verb endings -are, -ere and -ire was. I assume they are Indo-European, but I haven't found any information about it.
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1answer
45 views
Universal Grammar or Other Area of Study
So, what I am wondering about is what I should look up to study the following. From my understanding, there is a limited number of ways languages are implemented. That is, there is a set of abstract ...
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2answers
48 views
Can the need for ambiguity lead to merge of grammatical person, or other semantic merge?
My mother tongue doesn't distinguish 3.SG.F and 3.SG.M in speech. In some cases I feel the redundancy of it and the need for ambiguity of the grammatical person when I speak a language which ...
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0answers
29 views
Are there any statistic how similar are any two languages? [duplicate]
Are there any statistics on how similar any two languages are?
For a whole language (lexical and structural) or maybe just a comparison of two dictionaries (vocabulary)?
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2answers
104 views
Understanding Feature Grammar syntax
Background: I am a software dev who doesn't really know much about linguistics but I am trying to learn some of it for an application I'm making
I am trying to understand Feature Grammar syntax, and ...
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0answers
38 views
How are clauses containing adverbial clauses and free modifiers represented in syntax trees?
I know that relative clauses simply go in the noun phrase containing the noun they modify, but what about adverbial clauses and free modifiers? How do you represent a clause containing an adverbial ...
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4answers
109 views
All that glitters is confusing!
"All that is gold does not glitter"
"Not all that is gold glitters"
The first phrase appears in Lord of the Rings, modified from Shakespeare, and contextually implies that "Aragorn is vastly more ...
5
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1answer
91 views
Experimental support for construction grammar?
I realize there are many different instantiations of Construction Grammar (CxG), and I'm not necessarily tied to any particular version yet. I was curious if there are experiments that support CxG, or ...
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0answers
31 views
Noun Phrase/absolute clause distinction
What is the difference between a supplemental noun phrase and a absolute clause? In these examples and in general. Is it just the non-finite nature of the second example ?
He won at his favourite ...
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0answers
62 views
Phrase structure trees for serial verb constructions
I have not found an example of a phrase structure tree for a serial verb construction like let’s go [and] see a movie
The serialized verbs go and see would have to be sister nodes, I think, but I am ...
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0answers
87 views
Phrase structure trees for different languages
I am trying to get to the bottom of the difference between (1) and (2) below, and how the intended meanings would be reflected in a phrase structure tree:
(1) If you think that $100 is too little you ...
3
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1answer
682 views
What exactly is “level shift” in translation theory by Catford?
Catford (1978) divides the shift in translation into two major types, level/rank shift and category shift. Level/rank shift refers to a source language item at one linguistic level that has a target ...
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0answers
44 views
Markers that affect intensity of the imperative mood
I'm working on a project that explores how imperative mood varies in 'intensity'.
For example, one can 'soften' the tone of a directive by including the speaker in the command:
"Let's go to school"...
5
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1answer
161 views
'm' of predication vs. nominal sentence in Middle Egyptian
Consider the sentence: "I am a scribe, skillful of fingers."
This is typically stated in Middle Egyptian using the 'm' of predication:
iw=i m sš iqr n(y) ḏbaw
I think this is correct, and 'm' of ...
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2answers
60 views
What is the proper terminology for “I touch” in this sentence?
I am trying to diagram this sentence for a personal project:
Everything I touch with tenderness pricks like a bramble.
From what I understand, Everything is the subject, and pricks is the ...
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0answers
71 views
“Peter sang a song to Julie”, Is “to Julie” is an adjunct or complement?
Peter sang a song to Julie.
It seems that the verb "sang" selects the preposition, but to Julie is optional. And if we apply it to an X' Schema, how shall we do it? To Julie is the dependent of sang ...
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1answer
75 views
How to construct a grammar given a text and a dictionary
So I would like to learn how to construct a grammar from scratch. In order to do this the first step is collecting data, primarily texts, and compiling a dictionary. I think this can be simulated for ...
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1answer
107 views
Why Do We Say “The Same”?
Generally, sentences are constructed like this:
Compared to Joe, he looks similar.
Compared to Joe, he looks different.
Compared to Joe, he looks handsome.
Compared to Joe, he looks ugly.
Yet, when ...
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1answer
173 views
Why Creole languages aren't the default
I am new to exploring Creole languages, after seeing them compared to "Riau Indonesian":
The dialect of Malay spoken in Riau Province is considered by linguists to have one of the least complex ...
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1answer
95 views
Explaining Grammatical “Mood” for the Laymen
I have seen "mood" a lot in linguistics articles, have read about it a few times, but it never seems to click.
Wikipedia links to Linguistic modality. I have come across Modal Logic which basically ...
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1answer
68 views
Complete guide to cross-language grammar [closed]
Wondering what the best (free) resources are for learning about grammar generically across languages. I have seen a lot of "Guide to the X grammar", but not "Guide to grammar in general". Would like ...
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1answer
71 views
The languages with the most complicated grammars [closed]
It looks like Navajo has a very difficult-to-tease-apart verb morphology, as seen here:
Unusually for a natively North American language, Navajo is sometimes described as fusional due to its ...
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0answers
107 views
Does anyone know if there are plans for a 'successor' to Huddleston and Pullum (CamGEL or CGEL)?
Huddleston and Pullum's The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CamGEL or CGEL) is widely considered a 'successor' to a previous 'great English grammar': Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik's ...
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1answer
163 views
Why is sign language different from spoken language?
I have read a bit about sign language, and apparently they have different grammar from the local spoken language. Why would they need this? Doesn't it complicate things to have to learn 2 languages ...
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2answers
81 views
Why was 'grammar' chosen to signify the model of linguistic competence, when 'grammar' was already strikingly polysemous?
Page 5 of (R.L. Trask, Robert McColl Millar's) Why Do Languages Change? (2010 Rev. ed), expounds that 'grammar' originally didn't mean its linguistical meaning (quoted at the bottom): no surprise, as ...
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2answers
64 views
Latest research on the meaning of prepositions
Trying to understand what a preposition is. Wikipedia gives some hints (adpositions are the general case of preposition/postposition/circumposition):
...Adpositions are classed as syntactic ...
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1answer
57 views
Is there a grammatical case indicating displacement?
As part of a constructed language experiment I am trying to write phrases with clause structure of [noun supersedes noun] as just two words. For example, “death before dishonor” or “freedom over ...
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4answers
217 views
Example of a tenseless sentence
I just learned about Tenseless languages, such as Chinese. But I'm interested to see what this looks like and/or means.
For example, wondering if one could write a tenseless sentence in English and ...
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1answer
83 views
How can I identify Grammatical Categories in a sentence?
Please excuse the fact that I'm not an academically trained Linguist.
I am working on a computer program with example sentences and their equivalents in different languages.
The idea I am trying to ...
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2answers
96 views
Does it make any sense when saying someone's grammar was wrong?
This is a followup question of this question that I asked 3 and a half year ago. So based on what I could gather there, "descriptive" grammar comes after a language, hoping the rules are best ...
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1answer
52 views
What part of speech is “group” when used in a construct like “people group,” or “product group”
Given a class C, we may append it with the literal "group" to obtain a class of sets whose elements are instances of C, and which are related in some way.
If you're not super familiar with object ...
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3answers
153 views
How can you know that a word in a sentence is a verb?
I am wondering what it takes to parse a sentence with incomplete knowledge. That is, take a sentence like this:
If I use timeout I have to call again my function at the end of the execution of the ...
