Aspects of Walpiri Morphology and Syntax
, J. Simpson 1983
I present a fragment of Walpiri grammar, within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG), focusing on the morphological and syntactic representation of the relations between arguments and argument-taking predicates. In Chapter 2, I discuss the assignment of grammatical functions to arguments within finite clauses headed by verbs or nominals. I argue for a rule which assigns grammatical functions freely to the daughters of S. This rule is the source of free word-order in Walpiri. I also argue for a rule allowing an argument-taking predicate to introduce a null pronominal for any grammatical function which is linked to an argument of that predicate. This rule is the source of zero anaphora in Walpiri.
Chapter 3 shows that case-suffixes have two main uses: to indicate that a nominal bears a particular grammatical function, such as SUBJECT, or that it is an attribute of another argument, and to act as an argument-taking predicate analogous to an English preposition. To preserve the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis, this last use requires the assignment of grammatical functions within the morphology, as part of the word-building process. I show that this assignment allows an account of the unusual phenomenon of double case-marking.
Chapters 4 and 5 treat the use of nominals as secondary predicates. The existence of discontinuous nominal expressions marked with the same case-suffix is shown to follow from independently needed rules. I claim that nominal secondary predicates are normally independent adjuncts, rather than subcategorizing arguments, as in English. A striking illustration of this is provided by the great freedom resultative attributes in Walpiri have, compared with their English counterparts.
In Chapter 6, I examine the use of nominalized verbs, action nominals, and complementizer suffixes as secondary predicates. Such clauses have full nominal SUBJECTs which bear case, suggesting that they must be anaphorically controlled. I show that the properties of complementizer suffixes can be represented in the same way as the properties of case-suffixes, with the exception that complementizer suffixes specify the grammatical function of their controllers. I present a classification of Walpiri complementizer suffixes in terms of their controllers and their tense properties, including a discussion of clauses with controlled OBJECTs.
Thesis supervisor: Kenneth Locke Hale
Title: Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Linguistics
Table of Contents
1 Introductory Chapter 18
1.1 Introduction 18
1.2 Events and participants 21
1.3 The model 32
1.3.1 An LFG account of grammatical functions 34
1.3.1.1 Constraints 45
1.3.1.2 Complements and adjuncts 52
1.3.1.3 Summary of grammatical functions 64
1.3.2 The lexicon 65
1.3.3 Morphological expression 72
1.3.4 Constituent-structure expression 79
1.3.4.1 Categorial features 80
1.3.4.2 Phrase-structure rules 83
1.4 Outline
2 Simple sentences 88
2.1 Introduction 88
2.2 An intransitive sentence 90
2.2.1 Categorial information 92
2.2.2 Morphological information 103
2.2.3 Semantic information 106
2.2.4 Assigning other functions 109
2.2.5 Building an f-structure 111
2.2.6 Constraints on f-structures 114
2.2.6.1 General constraints on f-structures 115
2.2.6.2 Particular constraints on f-structures 122
2.2.7 Summary of principles and constraints 124
2.2.8 Introduction of PRO 125
2.2.8.1 Clitic-doubling 135
2.3 Transitive sentences 139
2.3.1 Other transitives 148
2.3.1.1 The ABSOLUTIVE-DATIVE case-frame 149
2.3.1.2 The ERGATIVE-DATIVE verbs 158
2.3.1.3 Summary 168
2.3.1.4 Ditransitive verbs 168
2.3.2 Other DATIVEs 170
2.3.2.1 Adjunct DATIVEs 171
2.3.2.2 Unregistered DATIVEs 179
2.3.3 Reflexives 182
2.3.4 Summary of pronominal clitics 189
2.3.4.1 Paradigmatic gaps 195
2.4 Nominal-headed sentences 203
2.4.1 General properties 203
2.4.2 Comparison with verb-headed sentences 208
2.5 Phrase structure 214
2.5.1 Projection of N 215
2.5.2 Projection of V 219
3 Case 227
3.1 Introduction 227
3.2 Users of case in Walpiri 230
3.2.1 Argument-relaters 231
3.2.2 Argument-taking predicates 232
3.2.3 Arguments and attributes 234
3.2.3.1 Nominalized verbs 236
3.2.3.2 Case suffixes 236
3.3 Case as a concord marker 238
3.3.1 Case on adverbs 242
3.3.2 Concord of ADJUNCTS 248
3.4 Case as argument-taking predicate 253
3.4.1 XCOMP 253
3.4.2 Matrix predicates 260
3.4.3 ADJUNCTS 263
3.4.3.1 Sentential ADJUNCTs 263
3.4.3.2 Argument ADJUNCTs 264
3.5 Representation of case-marked nominals 265
3.5.1 Solution 273
3.5.2 Double case-marking 284
3.5.2.1 ERGATIVE 294
3.5.2.2 DATIVE 297
3.5.2.3 ABSOLUTIVE 299
3.5.3 Summary of case representation 301
3.6 Derivational case 301
4 Discontinuous expressions 310
4.1 Introduction 310
4.2 Adjuncts within N" 316
4.2.1 ADJUNCTS within AGR nominals 316
4.2.2 ADJUNCTs within ATP nominals 320
4.2.2.1 Derivational case-suffixes 330
4.2.2.2 LOCATIVE 341
4.2.2.3 Double case-marking and concord 342
4.2.3 Summary 346
4.3 Discontinuous expressions 347
4.3.1 Discontinuous expressions with AGR case 347
4.3.1.1 The unmerged interpretation 348
4.3.1.2 The merged interpretation 350
4.3.2 Discontinuous expressions with ATP case-suffixes 355
4.3.2.1 ATP nominals as merged attributes 361
4.4 Summary 362
5 Nominal predicates 364
5.1 Introduction 364
5.2 Phrase structure position 367
5.2.1 Phrase structure position and XCOMPs in English 367
5.2.2 Phrase structure position and ADJUNCTs 369
5.2.3 Position and ADJUNCTs in Walpiri 377
5.2.3.1 Apposition in Walpiri 377
5.2.3.2 Circumstantials in Walpiri 380
5.2.3.3 Other interpretations 382
5.2.4 Summary 391
5.3 Category 392
5.4 The lexicon 396
5.4.1 Classes of English verbs selecting XCOMPs 397
5.4.2 XCOMPs in Warlpiri 398
5.4.2.1 Copula and XCOMP constructions 402
5.4.3 XCOMP-adding rules 410
5.4.3.1 Depictive-type adjuncts 411
5.4.4 Resultatives 418
5.4.4.1 Translative 420
5.5 Conclusion
6 Nominalized verbs and complementizer suffixes 426
6.1 Introduction 426
6.2 Evidence for anaphoric control 428
6.2.1 Introduction 428
6.2.2 Anaphors and disjoint reference 429
6.2.2.1 Kariyinyanu 429
6.2.2.2 The case of PRO 434
6.2.2.3 Functions of non-finite clauses 438
6.3 Structure of the nominalized verb 446
6.3.1 External structure 446
6.3.2 Internal structure 447
6.3.2.1 Arguments for non-finite verbs as nominals 447
6.4 Complementizer suffix structures 452
6.4.1 OBLIQUEtheta nominal + karra 453
6.4.2 Action nominl +karra 455
6.4.3 Nominalized verb + karra 458
6.5 The complementizer suffixes 464
6.5.1 An account of anaphoric control 465
6.5.1.1 Dependent tense 467
6.6 Overview of complementizer suffixes 478
6.6.1 Simultaneous action obviation system 479
6.6.1.1 Non-finite clauses with overt SUBJECTs: rlarni 485
6.6.2 Subsequent action suffixes 489
6.6.3 Circumstantial suffixes 495
6.6.4 Derivational suffixes 498
6.6.5 Case-suffixes 510
6.6.6 Multiple ADJUNCTs 516