8
votes
Accepted
Are there languages without non-finite verb forms at all?
Inuit (Greenlandic)
My Greenlandic is rudimentary at best, but as far as I can recall from my uni classes many years back, Greenlandic (and I believe other Inuit) verbs have only finite forms. The ...
- 5,281
6
votes
What are the target and source domain of this metaphor
Wikipedia defines the source and target domains as:
Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions (e.g., love is a journey).
Target domain: the conceptual domain ...
- 146
4
votes
Accepted
How do we parse the sentence, "I have never seen a fish get cooked like that"?
In this sentence, "get," just like "be" in other passive sentences, is the passivizer. That is, the active form of "I have never seen a fish get cooked like that" is (just like the active form of "I ...
- 2,364
4
votes
Accepted
What's the name of the elements used to extend otherwise basic clauses?
As you correctly figured out, at nightand for his girlfriend start with a preposition followed by a noun phrase. This is called a prepositional phrase (= PP): The head (= the element which determines ...
- 6,601
4
votes
Does the function of a clause belong to semantics or syntax?
In Pullum and Huddleston’s CGEL grammar, a clause is first a matter of syntax, second a matter of semantics. That is, it is a particular form that is observed in words and sentences, but which may ...
- 817
4
votes
Conditional clauses, use of 'if, then, else' in major non-English languages?
In many languages, for example Bengali, the word comparable to if is optional and frequently absent, whereas the word marking the apodosis (usually with a similar function to then) is mandatory, ...
- 4,118
4
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between evidential, epistemic, and evaluative fragments?
Basically, the definitions usually used in the syntax and semantics literatures are:
If a linguistic form expresses evidential meaning, you are talking about the source that you got the information ...
- 3,472
3
votes
What are the target and source domain of this metaphor
TARGET DOMAIN = arrows
SOURCE DOMAIN = a (terminating) showering liquid
arrows are a showering liquid:
"the shower of arrows (was over)" - the past participle and termination here are in ...
3
votes
What are the target and source domain of this metaphor
The natural phenomena are the source, and the attack/action is the target, in this case.
There are numerous examples in English of acts of physical aggression being compared to weather phenomena, ...
- 194
3
votes
Accepted
What do "finite" and "non-finite" mean in linguistics?
In traditional grammar a finite form of a verb is a fully specified verb form according to all verbal categories relevant to the specific language, like voice, aspect, mood, tense, person, or number.
...
- 31.1k
3
votes
Is ‘for’ a complementizer or a preposition in ‘prefer for John to stay’
there is some confusion in the other answers to this question. let me be clear: on any understanding of the term "complementizer," the word for is indeed a complementizer in the context you give. for ...
- 234
3
votes
What is the name of introductory expressions like "It is not the case that..."
They are not constituents, but just parts of ones that are best called fragments.
In full, as in for example "It is highly unlikely that Ed will turn up", they are extraposition constructions, in ...
- 867
3
votes
Accepted
What is the name of introductory expressions like "It is not the case that..."
Traditionally, linguists do not consider these forms to be a single constituent in English. Rather, it is thought that the entire that-clause is a subordinate clause embedded in another clause, called ...
- 3,472
3
votes
"but" usage (redundancy of "but")
I think you answered your own question!
"but" is used to […] indicate that the first clause is contrastive to the second in a way
In your first example, "I am not a teacher" contrasts with "I am a ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Can “of”, “on”, etc. be regarded as complementizers just as “for” is?
Actually, the complementizer is usually called "for-to" (not just "for") to keep it apart from the preposition "for". I do not see a case for "on" or "of" as complementizers. Rather, these are ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Are examples of double-embedded content clause subjects attested?
It turns out that this type of embedding is discussed (and marked with #: semantically or pragmatically anomalous) in Huddleston & Pullum's CGEL in the section called 'Processing factors', pp 1405-...
- 308
2
votes
Complex sentence without a subordinating conjunction?
These are SIMPLE SENTENCES. These are not complex sentences because they don't have a dependent clause. Any type of clause should have a subject and a verb (an action / conjugated verb). A dependent ...
- 21
2
votes
Accepted
How do you assign Case to sentences with an infinitval clause?
Though BillJ is right in saying that full NPs have no case in English, I think your question would become valid if we replace the full NPs with personal pronouns:
For me to attack him would be ...
- 3,472
2
votes
identifying the type of clause
The part of your sentence in bold is not a clause, it is a present participle phrase which modifies the noun programmer, the phrase is an attribute of programmer. See here or here as for how to tell a ...
- 18.6k
2
votes
Conditional clauses, use of 'if, then, else' in major non-English languages?
As for the order of things:
"In conditional statements, the conditional clause precedes the conclusion as the normal order in all languages. (...) (Greenberg 1963: 84, #14)
(https://typo.uni-...
- 658
1
vote
Is this phrase or clause a clause?
One explanation is all of the words in the mnemonic are adjectives, then this would be adjective phrases and certainly not a clause.
But my first instinct was to interpret this as the following:
The ...
- 11
1
vote
Is "Since + clause" a noun clause or adverbial clause in this phrase?
It's been a while since I've seen you.
Traditional grammar classifies this "since" as a conjunction. But "since" can also uncontroversially occur as a preposition when it has an ...
- 867
1
vote
What is the name of introductory expressions like "It is not the case that..."
There is some syntactic evidence first noticed by Jerry Morgan that certain apparent topmost clauses are more like qualifying adverbs. That involves the agreement of tag-question subjects with main ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
Is ‘for’ a complementizer or a preposition in ‘prefer for John to stay’
That "for" is a complementizer. If it were a preposition, it would take an object which could be pronominalized with "it" or "that", but *"John won't stay though I'd prefer for it". On the other ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
Is ‘for’ a complementizer or a preposition in ‘prefer for John to stay’
I personally would say that it is not a complementizer.
For instance, if we compare the sentences:
(1) Mark prefers for John to stay
(2) John prefers to stay
I personally want to think of (1) and (2)...
- 2,364
1
vote
Looking for the name of research area *my brother helps me (to) translate*
The example is a classical linguistic question with the canonical example phrase "help him (to) write" (for an overview and more references, see, e.g., Pinson (2015)), but it is not a named ...
- 31.1k
1
vote
One usage of infinitive clause
The example sentence is okay, and in his comments, Lawler has explained why. To restate the matter, you have assumed the continuity of the parts of your example. It is usually a good assumption to ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
One usage of infinitive clause
First, the example sentence is jarring because 'a few' can mean anything from 'only a small amount' to 'some'. I would expect to read 'few opportunities exist' instead (although I would doubt its ...
- 666
1
vote
Complex sentence without a subordinating conjunction?
Both "When compared to dogs," and "Compared to dogs," have no subject and are therefore phrases rather than clauses. The sample sentences are simple sentences having one ...
- 19
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