Syntactic theories typically distinguish 2 types of word or phrase accompanying verbs: arguments are accompaniments that can be present if the verb permits them to be present (‘licences’ them). Some arguments of some verbs are mandatory but others are optional. adjuncts are optional accompaniments that can be present without needing permission from that particular verb.…… Continue reading Arguments and adjuncts
Tag: Subject
None is responsible, all can be absolved
I came across the following statement after the acknowledgements in linguist Neil Smith’s 1989 book The Twitter Machine: Reflections on Language: ‘None of the above has seen any part of this book, and can accordingly be absolved of all responsibility for errors and idiocies.’ Unfortunately, the 2nd clause (‘can accordingly be absolved…’) needs an explicit…… Continue reading None is responsible, all can be absolved
Getting your hair cut in Portuguese
Portuguese contains a construction that does not exist in many other languages. The construction uses words: appearing to mean ‘John cut his hair’; but in fact meaning ‘John had his hair cut’.(‘cut’ here is a verb, not a noun.) This post considers: how this construction works similarities with the passive how this construction differs in…… Continue reading Getting your hair cut in Portuguese
Trying too hard to avoid the passive
The US government website plainlanguage.gov gives some useful guidance on plain writing Federal plain language guidelines. Not surprisingly, one section advises using active sentences. https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/conversational/use-active-voice/ This guidance is good, but it falls into the same trap as much other guidance by similar organisations. Although many writers use the passive voice too much, there are times…… Continue reading Trying too hard to avoid the passive
The sins of Adam: more on the Italian verb ‘fare’
This post looks at how Italian uses the verb fare (‘do’, ‘make’) in making a verb causative. A short book Fare: Elementi di sintassi, by Nunzio La Fauci and Ignazio M Mirto (2003) analyses that construction in a chapter called Com’è che Eva fece peccare Adamo? (‘How is it that Eva made Adam sin?’) In…… Continue reading The sins of Adam: more on the Italian verb ‘fare’
Saying where things are in Japanese
Like English, Japanese often uses a basic locative construction to answer a question about where something or someone is. But Japanese uses different constructions for some questions of that kind, although English would use the basic locative construction in those cases too. Kita (2006) summarises 4 such cases. Basic locative construction Japanese often uses a…… Continue reading Saying where things are in Japanese
Mainland Southeast Asian languages
Mainland Southeast Asia is home to speakers of around 280 languages spread across 5 families: the Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic (including Vietnamese and Khmer) Sino-Tibetan (including Mandarin and other Sinitic languages, and Burmese and other Tibeto-Burman languages) Tai-Kadai (including Thai and Lao) Hmong-Mien (languages of southwest China) Austronesian (languages spoken mainly in Oceania, but represented…… Continue reading Mainland Southeast Asian languages
Greenberg’s list of universals
How much do languages differ and how similar are languages? An early attempt to consider these questions was a conference on language universals held in New York in 1961. Papers based on those prepared for the conference were published in 1963 in Universals of Language, edited by Joseph H Greenberg. (a 2nd, paperback, edition, appeared…… Continue reading Greenberg’s list of universals
Workers must keep all tips
A recent news headline on the BBC website gets the story back to front. Here is the incorrect headline. Workers must keep all customer tips under new law This can only mean that a new law imposes a new obligation on workers. That isn’t right, though. The obligation doesn’t lie on workers. Indeed, even if…… Continue reading Workers must keep all tips
Saxon Genitive
English has two common ways of expressing possession: the ‘Saxon genitive’ form adds -’s to the end of the last word in a noun phrase referring to the possessor:the king’s wifethe King of England’s wifethe man over there’s wifeFor more on the Saxon Genitive, please see Does English really have case? – Language Miscellany the…… Continue reading Saxon Genitive