Questions tagged [grammar]
A body of rules, features, or generalizations which reliably differentiate between grammatical and ungrammatical constructions.
416
questions
2
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0answers
72 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 ...
2
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0answers
46 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"...
2
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0answers
65 views
Pattern to Prefixes and Suffixes in English
I've come across a list of English prefixes and remember learning in school about Latin and Greek being helpful for learning words in English based on prefixes/suffixes. I'm wondering though if there ...
2
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0answers
79 views
Which friend did he find to study with?
The question is about what happens to phrases during the time of making them questions.
We know that the following sentence is a normal English sentence which is correct grammatically.
He found a ...
2
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0answers
26 views
What do introductory non-finite clauses modify?
The introductory non-finite clauses below (in bold)
Speeding down the road, Peter ran a red light.
Discouraged by his losing record, the boxer quit boxing
what, if anything, do they modify?
Do ...
2
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0answers
42 views
Connections between combinatory categorial grammars and abstract categorial grammars?
Are there connections/translation or common tools usage/adaptation between combinatory (concrete) categorial grammars (incl. Lambek calculus) and abstract categorial grammars? Can tools for one of ...
2
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0answers
70 views
Subjective pronouns in English copulas: gradual loss of objective case, or emphatic construction taking over?
I'm interested in the historical linguistics of constructions like "that's me" versus "this is she" when answering the phone. Searching online led to a Google Books peephole view ...
2
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0answers
31 views
Is there relationship (and translation) between Link Grammars and Combinatory Categorial Grammars?
Is there relationship (and translation) between Link Grammars and Combinatory Categorial Grammars? Link Grammars have very unusual parse structure - links between words, but CCGs have parse trees. ...
2
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0answers
153 views
Combinatory Categorial Grammar developments and lexicon for German language?
I am trying to apply Cornell Semantic Parsing framework (implementation of Combinatory Categorial Grammars CCG) to the German language. This framework takes natural language texts, learns grammar and ...
2
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0answers
115 views
What does it mean for a grammar to be linear?
What is the definition of a ''linear'' grammar. For instance, there is a class of grammars called ``linear indexed grammars'' which is different from plain ''indexed grammars.'' What does ''linear'' ...
2
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0answers
60 views
Resources to learn just grammar
I'm interested in learning about the grammar of other languages (notably German, Russian, and Arabic), but I don't really want to learn to speak them. Only their grammar, syntax, morphology, etc., to ...
2
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0answers
64 views
“Did” as a habitual / emphatic marker in Southern varieties of British English
I'm currently doing research on the salience of did as an emphatic marker in Southern varieties of British English as illustrated in (1). I'm comparing this with the salience of did as a habitual ...
2
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0answers
197 views
Is it possible to write complex sentence without subordinate (or dependent) clause? [closed]
My first language is NOT english. Currently I am preparing for IELTS exam at the moment. Today I saw a youtube video about IELTS writing task. In this video, the teacher gave an example of complex ...
2
votes
4answers
153 views
Languages that have morphological distinction between independent clauses with implicit subjects and independent clauses with explicit subjects?
Many languages permit an independent clause to lack an explicit subject (known as null-subject languages). Consider the following sentences taken from Spanish.
TĆŗ eres mi amiga. (You are my friend). [...
2
votes
0answers
48 views
Tenses/Voices that show whether something is finite or not
Are there any languages which have a tense or voice that shows whether something is finite.
For this example only I will indicate in the present tense that something is finitely true by adding an &...
2
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0answers
116 views
In the Minimalist Program, can valued uninterpretable features still act as goals before they are deleted?
the title pretty much says it, if deletion happens with shipping to the interfaces SEM/PHON, can a valued, uninterpretable feature still be a goal for another probe of this feature? In a DP, maybe as ...
2
votes
1answer
420 views
Why are phrase structure rules always inconsistent?
I've noticed that phrase structure rules have been very inconsistent over my studies. I've seen NP = (det)(adj)N ; NP = (det)N(PP); these definitions seem to change with context. Is it just because ...
2
votes
0answers
54 views
Generalisations which a bi-gram probabilistic model might infer from a dataset
I have the following exam question for a machine translation course:
From my understanding, I assume the answer is looking for incorrect English grammar which get discovered by bi-grams.
So the ...
1
vote
3answers
57 views
In what sense do non-restrictive phrases limit meaning?
In what sense do non-restrictive phrases limit meaning?
It's well known that non-restrictive phrases are inessential to the meaning of the sentence because they
do not limit the reference of a ...
1
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2answers
3k views
The verb BE as function word or content word
I'm reading a book on America accent and there's a page with exercises.
Exercice:
Circle the function words in the following sentences:
The sky is blue.
...
...
The answers are provided at the end ...
1
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2answers
141 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, ...
1
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2answers
185 views
Has it been argued that linguistics could only have arisen after exposure to foreign languages?
Would concepts like grammar have even been understood/discussed until other languages with different grammars were encountered?
1
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1answer
76 views
To what extent do different languages allow different understanding of reality?
I know that some languages have more or less tenses, have a more or less complete vocabulary, and in these ways it seems they would allow a native speaker a more or less accurate understanding of ...
1
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3answers
348 views
Why is Spanish SVO and not VSO?
I understand that Spanish sentences have an SVO sentence structure.
(S)(Yo) (V)compro (O)los zapatos.
What confuses me is the fact that when the subject is a pronoun, it is omitted so often that you ...
1
vote
2answers
159 views
sentence structure vs word order difference
What is the difference between a sentence structure and a word order?
(could you please explain that on a few examples?)
Thank you.
1
vote
1answer
392 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,...
1
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1answer
179 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.
1
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2answers
103 views
Is wrong article use a matter of pronunciation or grammar?
I was in a discussion with someone, where they described my wrong use of an article as a "mispronunciation". I argued it was rather a matter of grammar, as I did pronounce the article correctly, but ...
1
vote
1answer
42 views
Which option should I use if I want to learn theories that will account for as much English sentence's structure as possible
Option 1: "Cambridge English Grammar Language" by Geoffrey Pullum
or
Option 2: a site which, i think, is based on government and binding theory: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook/
...
1
vote
1answer
331 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
...
1
vote
1answer
136 views
Difference between forms of the georgian verbs with and/or without objective version vowel
I was studying the complicted verbal morphology of Georgian language, when I came across the description of versioners in Hewit's Georgian: A Structural Reference Grammar. In discussing the Objetive ...
1
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1answer
238 views
Lithuanian possessive perfect
Can someone explain what exactly the 'possessive perfect' is? The book I read gave the following example:
Turiu atsineÅ”Äs maisto.
have:PRS.1SG bring:PTCP.PST.ACT.NOM.SG....
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3answers
107 views
How to figure out how a language may force one to think [closed]
I have many times looked up on the internet, "How to think in a language," or other such pretaining terms, but that often comes up with ways to literally think in a language in terms of language ...
1
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4answers
232 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 ...
1
vote
4answers
154 views
Why isn't a countable noun required to have a determiner when used in the plural?
When used in the singular, a countable noun is required to have a determiner.
*I bought car.
But the same countable noun is not required to have any determiner when used in the plural.
I bought ...
1
vote
2answers
321 views
What is the part of speech of 'modifiers to adjectives'?
This is something I was just thinking about. Adjectives in a lot of languages can also take modifiers of their own: very big, more intelligent, etc... But is there an actual word for the part of ...
1
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1answer
91 views
“The depressed, the stressed, the lonely, the fearful” are these appositives?
An
Introductory Series of
Appositive. Example:The
depressed, the stressed, the
lonely, the fearfulā all have
trouble coping with problems. My doubt is on which basis "The
depressed, the stressed, the
...
1
vote
1answer
202 views
Possessive pronoun position in north germanic languages
I begin with the following translations of the sentence "This is my father":
Icelandic: Ćetta er faĆ°ir minn.
BokmƄl: Dette er faren min.
Danish: Det her er min far.
Swedish: Det hƤr Ƥr min far.
All ...
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3answers
112 views
Why do some scientific possessives have trailing “s” and others don't?
I debated names of scientific terms with my friend, and we both discovered that some of them have the trailing letter "s" while others don't.
Here are some examples:
Mobius strip, Fourier series, ...
1
vote
1answer
107 views
Do affixes and clitics belong to an own part of speech, part of sentence or another category ?
Birds, flowers, children belong to the part of speech of nouns,
to fish, to pick, to play to verbs,
swift, smelly, nice to adjectives
those are the easy ones, what about clitics and affixes and such ...
1
vote
1answer
198 views
Phrases and clauses used as an adverb, and hence don't take a preposition
He had been in precarious situations his entire life.
I know here in this sentence his entire life is used as an adverbial phrase and, hence there was no need of placing a preposition before that ...
1
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1answer
131 views
what would be the hypothetic result of *Ī²ĪµĪ²Ī»ĪµĻĪ½ĻĪ±Ī¹ in Ancient Greek?
I'm talking about the third plural form of medium/passive perfect, in Ancient Greek.
My grammar explains that some very simple verb like ĻĪ±Ī¹Ī“ĪµĻĻ may be inflected that way :
1S ĻĪµĻĪ±į½·Ī“ĪµĻ
-Ī¼Ī±Ī¹ > ...
1
vote
1answer
59 views
The semantics of grammatical transformations? [closed]
Please see the following:
We start with a sentence/clause like -
Mr Wilkins is the oldest person in the village.
It seems like we can "transform" the clause using certain "grammatical rules":
Mr ...
1
vote
1answer
93 views
Is there a term for how English replaces the preposition “of” by putting the word that comes after “of” before the word that comes before “of”?
EG,
Apple Juice --> (The) Juice of Apple(s)
Gold Castle --> (The) Castle of Gold
Liver Disease --> Disease of (the) Liver
Et Al.
1
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1answer
76 views
What are the thematic structures of a clause?
While going through Rodny huddleston's An outline of English Grammar; I came across a concept named :Thematic structures of a clause.
Its been more than a year when I first read it but have failed to ...
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3answers
165 views
In which languages could a phrase like “We went to lunch with Bob” signify an event in which exactly two people took part?
I'm sorry for the perhaps weirdly worded question, but here's my attempt to explain better what I mean:
In English, if I say
"We went to lunch with Bob" means that the people involved are me, Bob, ...
1
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1answer
128 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 ...
1
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2answers
63 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
Do the WALS chapters cover the core grammatical structure of Spanish?
How complete is their description for the Spanish language? Is it missing something out? Here is the description http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_spa
Thank You
1
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1answer
123 views
Comprehensive phonological sketches post-SPE
Is anyone aware of a comprehensive phonological grammar of a language, along the lines of SPE, Sound Pattern of Russian or Chomsky's thesis on Hebrew, written in a framework that postdates SPE? I ...
