Syntax Lectured by Prof. Nurachman Hanafi, MA, P. hD

R U S D I N CLASS : B

 

Syntax Typology question:

1.      By looking at English basic constructions, how would you tell about their grammatical relations?

2.      Using your own mother tongue as the main source of data, please describes its :

(a)    Unaccusativity

(b)   Passivization

Answers:

1)   Grammatical Relations.

Traditional grammars mark great use of the notions of subject and object (and also of the distinction between direct and indirect object). This largely based upon the formal distinctions of noun phrases within a sentence. In Hanafi (2003) these grammatical relation, as they have been called, are a marked by inflection by the case (in the traditional sense) of the nouns, they subject being in the nominative, the direct object in the accusative and the indirect object.

I.     Transitive Construction

According to Hanafi (2003), Two place verb or an active- transitive verb has two arguments which contain of preverbal phrase functions as subject and post verbal phrase as the object. The post verbal phrase can be promoted to the initial position. Dealing with grammatical relation, the construction of two place verb can be analyzed in the form of object properties as follows;

1.    Object is inside of the VP

a.       She laundries her clothes

b.      Ahmad eats his breakfast

In (a) ‘she’ S, ‘laundry’ TRAN (ACT. laundry), and ‘her clothes’ O. (b) ‘Ahmad’ S, ‘eats’ TRAN, ‘his breakfast’ DO.

2.    Object is outside the VP

a.  The manager position he changed  

b. Ahmad sent present to her girlfriend 

In this sentences DO precedes the subject position and its basic verb as in (a).

3.    Object is able to become grammatical subject in the passive form

a.  The new car is drive by himself

b. The swimming pool is used by swimmer

‘The new car’ and the swimming pool’ are become the grammatical subject in the PASSIVE verbs of ‘is drive’ and ‘is used’. 

4.      Object has a case marking in case language

a.       Rijal buys four books

b.      The cat eats two fishes

c.       Anis and Nia bought two pens  

This object markers with suffix s, es and ies and the singular marker a, an to occur the accusative in the sentence as shown as in (a) ‘Rijal’ S, ‘buy’ T-V, ‘four books’ DO. (b) ‘the cat’ S, ‘eats’ T-V, ‘two fishes’ DO. (c) ‘Anis and Nia’ S, ‘bought’ T-V, ‘two pens’ DO. 

II.  Intransitive  construction

Intransitive construction is one of the grammatical relations in studying of the syntax program of the language. In this study I will answer briefly based on Prof. Hanafi grammatical relations as tough to us as follow:

a.  Andi kick the ball

b. Lili is lesbian

In this position of subject both the name of Andi and Lili are independently without causes of the ball and lesbian itself, or the subject are greatly independent exist.

a.    I love my wife

b.    She missed me

c.    Wahyu has forgotten his laptop and can’t type the assignment

This is the kind of subject control the reflexive pronouns as the subject, or we call subject control co-reference.

a.  Sia wale asa ni topa lalo ba rahi na (She angry and she hit by her husband)

The subject controls of switch-reference conjunction with ni in Bimanese.

a.  Sia ngaha                oha

3SG-eat. PRES       rice.Def

‘Dia makan nasi’

b.  Ali drink a cup of coffee

In (a) is a Bimanese sentence that kind of verb agreement or subject control verb agreement. Sia is the subject agrees with rice that he eat. In (b) is the Subject Ali agrees with a cup of coffee. Present tense.

a.    Who visited you last night?

b.    Lia visited Fatimah last night

In (a) who is active visit. You-3SG.Adv. of time. Who is related to NP in the sentence of ‘who visited you last night’? Who in this case is the used for subject as a topic. You stand as the 3SG of Lia in (b).

a.  I expected she win the game

b.  I believe Lia will back home early

The (a) and (b) above are the subject target of advancement process, particularly the subject as the lower clause and move to the object of the position be in upper clause as in ‘she’ and ‘Lia’. The sentences above can be derived with that as in ‘I expected that she win the game’ and I believe that Lia will back home early’.

a.  Arif drive motorcycle

b.  It was Arif who drove the motorcycle

In this case of intransitive construction is the subject as the relativized and clefted. Subject marked with who in English as in (b), or in Indonesia marker with yang e.g. ‘Arif membawa motor’ become ‘Arif yang membawa motor’. Yang stand for relativized and clefted in this sentences.

a.  Dia sepertinya orang yang kaya raya

b.  Sepertinya dia orang kaya raya

In this NP the subject is a lower clause of the respect as in the sentence (a) but the subject can be appears at the higher clause as in the (b). This kind of subject is called undergoes raising which is function as the raising clause.

a.  Mother received the message from Ida

In this model of intransitive construction the subject as the receives a minimal case-marking as in (a) ‘Mother’ as Subject, ‘received’ as V-Past, ‘the message’ IO ‘Ida’ DO.

a.   Rudi climbed the mountain

b.  The robber rob the bank

c.  The dog barking at the thief

Three sentences above are the kind of subject as the agent in an unmarked construction of the NP. The agent is the doing of the action in refer to the basic sentences as in (a) ‘Rudi’ is the agent, ‘climbed’ is the PAST-V, ‘the mountain’ NP.

III.   Distransitive Construction

a ditransitive verb deals with three arguments; subject, direct object, and indirect object.

1.    Direct object is inside the VP

a.    The students studied their English notes

b.    We visited Ahmad and Rijal

c.    Meri sang a song

In this study shows above are the direct object inside the verb phrase. To classify the sentence in (a) ‘the student’ S, ‘studied their English’ ACT-V, ‘notes’ DO. (b) ‘we’ S, ‘visited’ ACT-V, ‘Ahmad and Rijal’ DO. (c) ‘Meri’ S, ‘sang’ ACT-V, ‘a song’ DO.

2.    Direct object followed by Indirect Object

a.  Ahmad accepted the present from his friend

b. Rahma gave a book to Rijal

c.  Mom brought a new game to Tim and Tom

In this case of sentence DO come first and follows by IO and marks by the preposition. To identify the sentences above as in (a) ‘Ahmad’ S, ‘accepted’ ACT-V, ‘the present’ DO, ‘from’ PP, ‘his friend’ IO. (b) ‘Rahma’ S, ‘gave’ ACT-V, ‘a book’ DO, ‘to’ PP, ‘Rijal’ IO. (c) ‘Mom’ S, ‘brought’ ACT-V, ‘a new game’ DO, ‘to’ PP, ‘Tim and Tom’ IO.

3.    Direct object preceded by indirect object

a.       Rahma gave a book to Rijal

b.      Rahma gave Rijal a book

Two sentences above shows that in (b) DO is precede by IO while in (a) is the basic construction of DO and IO.

4.    Direct object can be a grammatical S in the passive form

a.       PT. Pos Indonesia sent Rijal book

b.      Rijal book was sent by PT. Pos Indonesia

In the first sentence (a) is active sentence or basic construction of DO, and in (b) is the passive correspondence or a canonical passive marker. In classification of (a) ‘PT Pos Indonesia’ S, ‘sent’ ACT-V-TRAN, ‘Rijal’ 3-SG.POSS, ‘book’ DO. And in (b) Rijal book’ 3SG.POSS, ‘was’ to be past, ‘sent’ PASS-V-TRAN, ‘by’ Prep, ‘PT. Pos Indonesia’ DO.

5.    Direct object has a case marking in case language

a.       La Rudi membei na la Rijal piti

(Rudi give Rijal money)

The sentence above is Bimanese language marked with na to indicate the DO.

2)   Using of mother tongue :

(a)   Unaccusativity

Unaccusativity is intransitive verb whose surface subject is an underlying direct object. Trask(1993) in Hanafi(2003). There are three types of unaccusativity according Hanafi as follow:

I.     Intransitive verb derivation

The Bimanese intransitive verb unmarked morphology. 

a.    Maru ‘to sleep’

b.    Rai ‘to run’

c.    Tu’u ‘to stand’

d.   Lao ‘to go’

The Bimanese nasal intransitive verbs.

a.       Ngoa ‘to tell’

b.      Ngau ‘to brave’

c.       Ngawa ‘to want’

d.      Ngala ‘to separate’

The Bimanese intransitive verbs with na-prefix derive from noun.

a.       Kani ‘clothes’ = nakani ‘to dress’

b.      Tembe ‘sarong’ = nalombo ‘to cover’

c.       Cafi ‘bras’ = nacafi ‘to clean’

II.  Unccausative-unerogative distinction

The Bimanese unaccausative-unerogative distinction

a.       Suma       wa’u        maru

Suma       was        sleep

‘Suma was sleep’

b.      Wa’u mai     Suma

Has come     Suma

‘Suma has come’

The Bimanese S function as an agent-like and patient-like in the intransitive verbs unergative and unaccusative.

III.    Hanafi’s syntactic test

Based on hanafi’s syntactic test in unaccusativity that the S and O of transitively become A (Agent-like) and P (patient-like). Let’s look in Bimanese language used below by using prefix ka and suffix na :

a.       Rangga         ka-rai-na                     sapede

Rangga         ACT drive-TRAN      cycle

‘Rangga driving cycle’

b.      Hima         ka-mbi’a-na                        ni’u

Hima         ACT break-TRAN          coconut

‘Hima made the coconut break’

c.       Ni’u             mbi’a

Coconut      break

‘The coconut break’

IV.    Bimanese unaccusativity

In this study I would like to write the affixes in the transivization of Bimanese one place verb construction according to Hanafi book (2003).

1.      Unccausative

a.  Rina    weli-na                          tembe

Rina   ACT.buy-TRAN            sarong

‘Rina bought sarong’

b. Sarong           wa’u       colana

The sarong    DEF        paid

‘The sarong was paid’

c.  Ahmad       kempa-na                    ncai

Ahmad       ACT.close-TRAN      door

‘Ahmad shut the door’

2.      Unergative

a.  Rudi         ra-topa-na                 ana-na

Rudi        ACT-hit.TRAN      3SG.POSS

‘Rudi hit his son’

b. Rudi       topa        ana-na

Rudi       hit           his son

‘Rudi hit his son

(b)   Passivization

According to Hanafi (1999), passive properties include; the subject of passive clause is a direct object in corresponding active, the subject of active clause is expressed in the adjunct in passive clause or deleted, the subject of active clause is expressed as an obligatory agent without the preposition in the passive clause, and the verb in passive clause can be marked passive or unmarked

Ø Passive properties

1.      Active sentences

a.       Ina        mbako-na        oha

3SG      ACT.cook        rice

‘Mother cook rice’

b.      Oha        waura      mbako           ba       ina

Rice        was         ACT.cook     by      3SG

‘Rice was cook by mother’

c.       Oha      waura         mbako

Rice     was            ACT.cook

‘Rice was cook’

2.      Passive sentences

a.       Oha        ra    mbako               ba     ina

Rice       is     ACT.cook         by     3SG

‘Rice is cooking by mother’

b.      Oha        ede         mbako            ba       ina

Rice       DEF       ACT.cook      by       3SG

‘Rice was cooked by mother’

c.       Oha       akara      wauna      mbako             ba      ina

Rice      has         been        ACT.cook       by      3SG

‘Rice has been cook by mother’

Ø Canonical Passives

a.       Siadoho      ka-tu’u              mena-na         uma

3PL            PASS.build       together         house

‘They build together the house’

b.      Uma         ka-tu’u             ba        siadoho

House      PASS.build      by        3PL

‘House is build by them’

c.       Uma        ede          ra-ka-tu,u         ba       siadoho

House     DET        PASS.build      by       3PL

‘This house was built by them’

Bimanese canonical passives marked with ka as shows at the sentences above. In the first sentence is the active using ka and na , in the second sentence is the passive by using prefix ka also shows at the last sentences.

Ø Inverted passive

1.   Active sentence

a.    Rahma       ntanda                 TV

3SG           ACT.watch         TV

‘Rahma watches TV’

b.    Sia        karai-na               sepeda    ede

3SG      ACT.drive           cycle       DEF

‘He drive that cycle’

c.    Ngao      ngaha-na         uta

Cat         ACT.eat          fish

‘The cat eats fish’

Bima language inverted verb can be used to form passive where grammatical subject is demoted to the final position precedes the verb.

2.   Inverted passive

a.       Oha       ina-ma       mbako

Rice       3SG           cook

‘Rice mother cook’

b.      Uta         ngao-ma       ngaha

Fish        cat                eats

‘Fish cat eats’

c.       Bakso               ngaha       nahu

Meat ball          ACT.V      I

‘Meat ball I eat’

Ø Accidental passive

a.       La Hima         na-lampa-si       nari-nari

3SG                 PASS.walk      slowly

‘Hima walked slowly’

b.      Sia        ede    ma-aho          tu’u  maru

3SG      was       PASS.late     wake up       

‘He was late to wake up’

c.       Ama      ma-lemba            fare

3SG      PASS.brings        rice

‘Ama brings the rice’

Accidental passive in Bimanese is marked with prefix na, and ma. as shows at the (a), (b), and (c) above. In the sentence (a) suffix si it marker of the passive lampa-si combine with the prefix na.

Ø Adversative passive

1.      Passive sentence

a.       Dou mpanga       ra-bedi-si             ba       polisi

2PL                     AD-shot-LOC      by       police

‘The thief shut by police’

b.      Nahu       ra-mbo,o ku         wunga rai

1SG         AD-fall-LOC       running

‘I was fall when running’

c.       Fatimah     ra-nduku-si       ba      Ama-na

3SG           AD-hit-LOC     by      her father

In Bimanese language adversative passive derives as shown at the sentences above. The passive verbs in Bimanese adversative marked with a confix ra-si at sentences (a), (b), and (c).