Syntax Files C1

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Grammatical relations

provide labels for different types of structural relationships that hold between a head and its arguments
Grammatical Linking
- The use of word order and/or inflection to indicate an NP's relationship to a head.
- (ex. English SVO)
Inflection
- making change in a word's form to indicate grammatically relevant information.
- eg. the boy met the teacher -> He met Him
Key feature of subject and direct objects
- their relationship to the verb is represented by word order.
- eg. subject before verb and direct object after it.
- is grammatically linked
Key feature of indirect objects
- often marked by a meaning-bearing element that denotes 'direction toward' (preposition or postposition).
- not grammatically linked.
primary object

when more than one D.O. is possible, it is the one closer to the verb
secondary object

when more than one D.O. is possible, it is the one farther from the verb
Obliques
- constituents of sentence (other than a verb)
- neither subjects nor objects (direct or indirect)
- e.g. they talked about the ball game
- they proceeded carefully
Semantic Topic
- what the sentence is about
- can be subject or D.O.
Grammatical/Structural Topic
- may also be semantic topics
- grammatically linked in distinguishing way
- - positioning (e.g. occur at beginning of sentence followed by a pause, as in Mandarin)
- - particular gammatical marker (eg. japanese wa)