Apuntes Linguistica

COMPARATIVE
LINGUISTICS
2023 2024
Comparative-linguistics-T1.pdf
Belenurbelz
LINGÜÍSTICA COMPARADA (INGLÉS-ESPAÑOL)
4º Grado en Lenguas Modernas, Cultura y Comunicación
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Reservados todos los derechos.

No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
Comparative linguistics Topic 1
2022-2023
María Gema Chocano
gema.chocano@uam.es
COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
Teacher: Mª Gema Chocano ( gema.chocano@uam.es )
TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO TYPOLOGICAL CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
[Info de internet]
El enfoque sincrónico observa la lengua desde un punto de vista estático, realiza
un corte temporal y determina cuáles son las pautas que en ese momento
estructuran la lengua, aceptada por la comunidad lingüística. Por su parte, el
enfoque diacrónico examina la evolución de esta en el tiempo. Se centra en
investigar de qué forma se modifican los signos de las palabras, aparecen nuevos y
otros se vuelven arcaicos. Así lo explica en su obra: “Curso de Lingüística General”
publicada en 1916, que este año cumple su centenario.
En cambio, John Lyons, lingüista británico nacido en 1932 pese a centrar su trabajo
en el campo de la semántica, también abordó el estudio de la lengua desde estas
dos perspectivas; introduciendo ciertos matices.
Él opinaba que, partiendo de la misma diferenciación que hace Saussure, convenía
entender además que el estudio sincrónico no tiene por qué estar sujeto al estudio
de una lengua moderna, también puede realizarse sobre lenguas consideradas
“muertas”, una vez garantizada la validez de los textos disponibles.
Asimismo, este académico aseguraba que el tiempo no es el factor determinante
en todo cambio lingüístico, ya que existen muchos otros factores -internos o
externos al lenguaje- que pueden determinar su cambio.
En este sentido, Lyons afirmaba que sería erróneo considerar que el progreso
lingüístico no es más que la sustitución de un sistema de comunicación homogéneo
por otro sistema igualmente homogéneo en un “punto” concreto del tiempo. Por
tanto, para este lingüista resultaba imposible establecer una distinción precisa y
clara entre “cambio” diacrónico y “variación” sincrónica de la lengua.
a64b0469ff35958ef4ab887a898bd50bdfbbe91a-6778414
Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
Proto-Indoeuropeo à no se sabía la relación entre las lenguas. Se dieron cuenta de
que comparando lenguas dese una perspectiva se daban cuenta de que todas las
lenguas en Europa - incluso en Asia con el sánscrito- tenían algo en común.
Sanskrit, persian, tocharian… they are indoeuropean langagues. à Estas son
intralingual comparative diachronically langagues.
Grimm’s Law. Se intentaron comparar textos donde se fijaron que donde en

algunas palabras que empezaban por la letra “p”, en otras una “f”, otras donde
habñia una “k”, había una “h”. Aquí es donde se comenzaron a diversificar las ramas
de las familias de las lenguas (así se propusieron las lenguas germánicas). Los
lingüistas se planteaban preguntas como: ¿Por qué el sánscrito se parece al latín y a
l griego?
si lees esto me debes un besito

LINGÜÍSTICA COMPARADA (INGLÉ...
Banco de apuntes de la
No vamos a ver diacronía en este curso, pese a que para los estudios comparativos
son muy útiles, pero nos centraremos en los estudios sincrónicos.
The interlingual synchronic aspect is, in this course, our perspective. There are two
perspectives:
· Typological linguistics. Synchronic interlingual comparison: typological
linguistics. The aim of typological linguistics is to map out the space and
limits of variation between languages irrespective of their genetic
affiliation. In this respect, the main claim of typologists is that, against the
view of structuralist linguists like Joos, languages do not vary randomly
and without limits. As far as the number of compared languages is
concerned, the scope of typological studies is unlimited, i.e. panchronic.
However, the features analyzed in typological studies are generally very
reduced: at a syntactic level, they are mostly connected to sentential and
phrasal word order.
a. Tone (the possibility of using pitch for the expression of lexical and
grammatical meanings): tonal languages (Chinese, Vietnamese) vs
non-tonal languages (English, Spanish).
b. Affixes (presence / absence, and the kind of information encoded in
them):
isolating languages, where there are no affixes or they are very limited
(Chinese); agglutinative languages, where affixes denote single categories
and appear next to each other with little or no phonological alternation
(Turkish; Finnish); inflectional languages, which use affixes that usually
encode several grammatical categories and present phonological
alternations (Latin, but, to a much lesser extent, also English and Spanish).
c. Position of the object relative to the verb: OV languages (German,
Japanese) vs VO languages (English, Spanish). As shown by language
typologists, a number of other traits are correlated with OV and VO order: in
OV languages adpositions follow their complements, and auxiliaries follow
lexical verbs ([XP Adp], [VP Aux]); in VO languages, adpositions precede their
complements, and auxiliaries precede lexical verbs ([Adp XP], [Aux VP]).
These kinds of correlations, first observed by Greenberg (1963) are usually
known as implicational universals, since they are often stated in the form
of logical implications, i.e. ‘if a language has property A, then it has property
B.’

· Contrastive linguistics. Synchronic interlingual comparison: contrastive
linguistics. The focus of contrastive linguistics is the study of (generally)
two languages synchronically with the aim of discovering their similarities
and especially their differences. The goal of contrastive linguistics is to
analyze, in the most fine-grained way, as many features of variation in
those two languages as possible. König (2012) refers to this property of
contrastive studies as “fine granularity”. An example of ‘fine granularity’ is
shown in (8) and (9) below and illustrated in (10) (König & Gast 2008: 195).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Por ejemplo, en algunos aspectos el vasco se puede parecer al chino.
En los años 50 se tenía en cuenta el estructuralismo. Los typologists cliam que las
variaciones tenían límites, sabemos que hay límites en las lenguas naturales. Por
ejemplo, no existe en ninguna lengua ningún predicado que tenga más de tres
argumentos. Desde esa perspectiva, la tipología tenía razón y la postura
estructuralista no. Hay unos patrones en las lenguas.
Tipológicamente hablando, hay lenguas que tienen una construcción común (¿Qué
compró Mary? / What did Mary buy?) en las preguntas, pero en otras también son
válidas las construcciones de las ecoe question (¿Mary compró, qué?)
En español tenemos un elemento obligatorio que en el ingles no, por ejemplo:
What did you say that Mary bought? / ¿Qué dijiste que compró María?
Hay veces que perdemos detalles de análisis por comparaciones, cuando nos
fijamos en las diferencias más destacables. There are typological classification
regarding phonetics, syntax… Hay una division de lenguas según si tienen la
posibilidad de tener un tono o no.
Hay distinciones entre lexical information o información funcional (car-s à s:
expresa plural; want-ed à ed expresa el past). La información gramatical la
podemos ver en partículas.
We have different kind of langagues regarding morphology, typologically speaking:

· Isolating languages. Cuando no tienen sufijos para dar información
gramatical o prácticamente no tienen. Por ejemplo: el chino. Para ello no
significa que no puedan expresar plural, sino que lo hacen de otra
manera.
· Aqglutinative languages. Es una lengua que tiene sufijos, pero que la
información que tendríamos para denominar un plural, un femenino y un

tiempo (por ejemplo) está todo en una misma partícula. Son morfemas
(=portmanteau morpheme) que expresan diferentes piezas de
información a la vez. El vasco por ejemplo.
· Inflectional languages. El latin por ejemplo es muy inflectional (más que
el inglés o el español, por ejemplo. Ex: Romae sum (latín) = en Roma
(español)). En términos de afijos se expresan distintas informaciones. La
noción de casos (case), los casos son cada una de las formas que toma un
sustantivo para expresar una función sintáctica. En latín existen seis casos
generales, más un séptimo caso mucho menos frecuente.
Las bases para la clasificación de las lenguas según la estructura es teniendo en

cuenta la posición del objeto respecto al verbo:
SVD (es la estructura que sigue el español o el inglés, por ejemplo) / SVD.
Un patrón común se puede ver compartido en más lenguas.
OV –> Tienen post-positions en vez de prepositions. Ej: en vez de decir “En Roma”,
se diría “Roma en”, como el alemán o el japonés. Tener esto implicaría tener otras
características.
Adpositions :
· Preposition. Si tenemos la partícula delante del nombre (Adp+N).
· Postposition. Si tenemos la partícula después del nombre (N+Adp). Solo
hay dos en latín “gratia” (ars / artis / gratia). En alemán sólo hay dos
postpositions (entlang)
A conclusión of synchronic interlingual comparison: contrastive linguistics would

be:
A veces, hay estructuras que son aceptadas por unos hablante y otras que no en
una misma lengua.
Análisis de un ejemplo:
a. Who did Charles think [that he saw <who> in our garden]?
Hay una declarative clause . la palabra “who” cuando aparece en esa declarative
clause hace que tenga que ser obligatorio en inglés ponerla al inicio de la pregunta.
Sin embargo, en alemán no se puede hacer eso:
b. *Wen glaubte Karl, [dass er in unserem Garten <wen> sah]? who thought Karl
that he in our garden who saw ‘Who did Karl think that he saw in our garden?
Esto significa que en alemán hay más limitaciones que en el inglés que tiene más
libertad de expresión.
Si intentamos expresar algo así: *“What did Charles leave the town before Peter
bought what?” Habría una adverbial clause que no se puede poner (además del
“what” final), si lo hacemos non-finite, sería gramatical y aceptable. à What did
Charles leave the town before leaving? (Otro ejemplo más claro sería: What did you
file before reading?). Es esencial prestar atención a los detalles.
La comparación entre el español y el inglés
Wh-movement :
Who that who (el último who pasa delante también, mientras que en el chino
no sería así, por ejemplo. Este tipo de estifmas tenemos la noción de movement vs
no movement). Los movimiento s provocan transformaciones.
Generative grammar de Chomsky está activo a día de hoy y tenemos muchos

estudios al respecto. Otro approach respecto a movement transformations puede
ser funcional grammar. Desde los años 50 ha habido distintos stages, el más
destacado es:
· Principles and parameters (=PP), comenzado en los 80. todos los seres
humanos estamos dotados biológicamente hablando de la capacidad del
lenguaje. El órgano relacionado para el lenguaje y el habla es el mismo
para todos. En todas las lenguas tenemos unas características comunes
debido a la universalidad de la lengua dada por la capacidad biológica
que tenemos à Universal grammar. Es algo compartido por todos. Debido
a que todos los seres humanos tenemos la misma facultad de habla,
compartimos unas gramáticas comunes, unos principios compartidas por
TODAS las lenguas. Principios. The big types of properties are principles:

- Todas las palabras están conformadas por: sound and meaning. En
todas las lenguas combinamos themes.
- Merge es la posibilidad de juntar cosas, lo cual es una propiedad de
natural languagues, se ha demostrado la posibilidad de combinar
elementos de forma ilimitada. Esto se ha comparado con los monos,
ellos no tienen esa capacidad. Se trata de una
- Vowels. No hay lenguas sin vocales que son el núcleo de las sílabas. En
todas las lenguas tenemos la vocal a, y mínimo 3 vocales.
- Hay verbos tomando un objeto o dos delante (VO O) o detrás (O
OV) de este verbo, pero nunca *OVO.
Parameters. Esto está basado en el imput, en el data de nuestro cerebro. Los

parámetros son siempre binarios y se trata de algo que elige el niño en su
desarrollo, no son normas preestablecidas en nuestro cerebro. Es una
gramática que se construye. Por ejemplo:
- Wh-movement / Wh-in situ

- OV / VO
- Pro-drop / Non-pro-drop
Si el imput no está claro del todo, el niño no tiene claro a qué corresponde, es
cuando la lengua sufre cambios. Si el imput no está claro, se establecen otras
normas. Imaginemos que en el caso de un niño que tiene en la cabeza: want /
wanted / yesterday. Y piensa que si quiere expresar el pasado, tiene que añadir
“ed”, interpreta que con el verbo go, para expresarlo en pasado dice: “goed” en vez
de “went”. Con este tipo de casos es cómo la lengua sufre cambios. Por ejemplo,
“dreamed” es una nueva creación a día de hoy (cuando se tenía la palabra
“dreamt”).
La variación es muy importante.

Hay cosas que no podemos contemplar en las lenguas como por ejemplo no tener
vocales en las lenguas, es decir, que no se respeten los principios, pues son
biológicos.
Implicaciones universales.
Hay parámetros que pueden ser similares entre sí y que intentan unificarse. Por
ejemplo,

Head parameter à Son los que eligen los parámetos, los que ciertos elementos
dependen de ellos. (N Post, Lex. Aux.). siendo que el head follows the complement
o que el head precedes the complement (Ex: OV / VO…). El inglés y el español son
head languages, no todas lo son.
The approach que vamos a adoptar este curso es comparative. Sin embargo
tenemos 3 posibilidades:
· Diachronic comparison.
· Synchronic comparison:
- Typological linguistics
- Contrastive linguistics
Las diferencias entre typological linguistics and contrastive linguistics, typological es
entre many lenguas y está menos detalladas las características pues se miran
general features. Por la parte de contrastive linguistics se comparan dos o tres
lenguas como máximo y se analizan las características de forma más detallada
(fine-grained analysis).
Our approach versus English and Spanish in this c
Our approach will be a contrastive linguistics (synchronic comparison).
Principles are universals affecting all languages.
Typologically speaking, there are in all languages:

- Wh-in-situ. In certain contexts, in some langagues. It’s good to adopt
the contrastive linguistics in this cases. Example: Sub- finite [wh- ]
(grammatically correct in English, but not in German) (Page 6).
Negative for Chinese, Japanese…
- Wh-movement (Positive for german, english, spanichs…)
Here the universal would be: All languages have wh-elements and these would be
parameters. Parameters are considered as characteristics coming from something
bigger, in a chained way.
In wh-movements languages proceed in a particular way.

English
*Who3 did Charles think who2 [that he saw who1 in our garden] (finite this clause)
Who is Peter. Who starts with 1, continues with 2, and ends with 3. We know that
"who" moves in circles.

The difference in German would be that if the 1 and 2 in English are removed, it
would be correct, but in German it would still be ungrammatical.-
*Wen3 glaubte Karl, [wen2 dass er in unserem Garten wen1 sah]?
(Wen dass = who that)
a. Who did Charles think [who that he saw who in our garden]?
b. * Wen glaubte Karl, [wen dass er in unserem Garten wen sah]?
c. * Wen glaubte Karl, [wen dass er in unserem Garten wen sah]?
d. Wen glaubte Karl, [wen dass er in unserem Garten wen sah]?
El rumano presenta la misma estructura que el aleman de necesitar el wh-element

dos veces.
That-trace Filter (-). Tiene un valor negative si “wen dass” structure es posible. El
filtro es una regla, es edcir, the rule doesn’t hold in this language. La regla es en
contra de la secuencia
Complementler-trace filter (+). Tienen un valor positive si es posible “who that”

structure, el inglés.
Todo esto nos ayuda a entender the typological contrastive analysis.
EXERCISES:
1. Principles and Parameters (From Brinton, 2000). Look at the following

statements. Decide whether they represent principles (universal features of
languages in general) or parameters (the differences in the syntax of specific
languages).
a. In statements, the subject precedes the verb. PARAMETER

b. There are question words that request information about who, what, when,
etc. PRINCIPLE
c. There exists a system for negation. PRINCIPLE
d. Questions are formed by inverting the subject and verb. PARAMETER. For
example this statement is not true at all in Englis, just inverting the subject and the
finite verb expressing an agreement.
e. A sentence contains a subject, though it may not be overtly
expressed. PRINCIPLE
f. Adjectives precede the noun that they modify. PARAMETER
g. The basic word order of a sentence is SVO. PARAMETER, AS IN GERMAN FOR
EXAMPLE IT IS VSO.
h. In statements, the subject must be overtly expressed. PARAMETER. This is a
parameter we will study (pro-drop parameter)
i. Tense is indicated by adverbials. PARAMETER. Just note there are langagues
que sistematicamente lo presentan, podemos tener distintos tipos de presentes.
Example:
Estoy cansada – PRESENT
Napoleón está en la isla en 1830 – PRESENT PRO-PAST (=Historical present)
Mañana estoy en casa de Juan todo el día – PRESENT PRO-FUTURE
¿Cómo diferenciamos si un presente se refiere al presente, pasado o future? by
means of adverbials.
Esta característica solo es posible con el uso del presente
j. Nouns refer to people, places, or things. PRINCIPLE

k. There is a means of expressing number. PRINCIPLE. All languages have a way
of expressing numbers even if it is not symbolic, as for example in pidgins. Puede
ser a través de morfemas, con palabras funcionales cogiendo un elemento léxico,
incluso el hecho de poder usar el singular y el plural (ex.: car-s/two car).
2. Now choose three of those statements you have classified as representing

parameters and provide an example of (i) a language exhibiting the positive
value of the parameter; and (ii) a language exhibiting the negative one. If you
need it, you may resort to http://wals.info).
3. Read Moravcsik (2013, chapter 1) and do the exercises in it.
Restricted and unrestricted universals are about conditions. In restricted universals,

there’s a condition, but for unrestricted universals doesn’t have any conditional.
Implicational is the same as restricted universal, they are synonyms.
EXERCICES OF “WHAT IS LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY” of Moravcsik
1. Look up the word for ‘salt’ in dictionaries of different languages. Are

there any similarities? If so, what might be the reason?
10

11
Examples in African languages:
Examples in European languages:

Examples in Asian languages:
Others:
In the case of European languages there are similarities in the corresponding

vocabulary word of “salt” in its spelling. Those languages, such as Asian ones, that
are not alphabetical languages, maybe they have similarities in they pronunciation,
12

but that is something I do not know at all. However, I have researched the origins
of salt and it dates back to 26070 BC in China. Despite not understanding Chinese
characters, I looked up how to say the word "salt" and it turns out to be "/Yán/,
which is also a short word with the same number of phonemes and the same vowel
as many European and Asian languages. This may show that there are not only
similarities because of language families and shared ancestry, but also because of
cultural influences.
In turn, there are Indo-European languages that also share similarities in the way
they are written and pronounced. In this case, it may be due to a shared historical
origin and contact.
This leads us to the conclusion of the three factors mentioned in this chapter on
'why languages are similar': genetic relatedness, language contact, and shared
cultural environment. (To some extent this could also include two other reasons:
types and universals). It is important to take into account when we “borrow”
vocabulary from other languages. The word salary comes from salt because people
were paid with salt.
2. Universals – both unrestricted and restricted – can also be stated for

the distribution of structural characteristics within languages. An
unrestricted universal for English words is that they all contain at least
one vowel. But now consider the following: “All consonant-initial words
of English start with /s/.” This is clearly untrue: there are thousands of
words like table or paper that do not start with /s/. Try to formulate a
restricted universal of the following type: “All English words that have
characteristic X start with /s/.” For identifying X, consider words like
string, sprain, splint, and others; also non-existing words like *ptring,
*tprain, *kplint, and others.
All English words that have characteristic X start with /s/ à All English words that
start with two consonants being the second one a /p/, /t/ or /k/ start with the
consonant /s/.
We can say it in a simpler way:
In English initial consonant cluster containing a plosive(=/stop) must start with /s/
(the start of the cluster)
[The p,t,k (plosives)
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Cluster = two consonants together]
[Restricted and unrestricted universals are about conditions. In restricted
universals, there’s a condition, but for unrestricted universals doesn’t have any
conditional. Implicational is the same as restricted universal, they are synonyms].
3. Consider the crosslinguistic generalizations in (a), (b), (c), and (d).
A. Determine for each whether it is an unrestricted or an

implicational universal and whether it is absolute or
statistical.
B. Determine each statement’s predictive force for English

by choosing one of the following answers:
(i) This statement makes a correct prediction

about English.
(ii) This statement makes an incorrect

prediction about English.
(iii) This statement makes no prediction about

English.
Here are the statements:
(a) In most languages where the adjective precedes the

noun, both the demonstrative and the numeral also
precede the noun. (Greenberg 1966a, #18; cited
above in (48))
A. This is considered an implicational/ restricted (as it refers to languages

that have Y, also have X) statistical universal (as it does not refer to “all”).
B. (i) This statement makes a correct prediction about English.
(b) In all languages in which the inflected verb precedes

the subject in wh-questions, the wh-word is normally
14

initial. (Greenberg 1966a: #11b; cited above in (45b))
A. This is considered an implicational/restricted universal (as it refers to
languages that have Y, also have X); and an absolute universal (as it begins
with “all languages”).
B. (i) This statement makes a correct prediction about English.
(c) Whenever the verb agrees with the subject or the

object in gender, it also agrees in number. (Greenberg
1966a, #32)
This is considered an implicational/restrictive universal (as it

refers to languages that have Y, also have X). It is absolute
universal as it is a partial agreement because gender is
depending on number.
(d) In most languages, interdentals are fricatives.
This is considered an unrestricted universal (as it sais languages have X) and, a

statistical universal (as it does not refer to “all”).
(iii) This statement makes no prediction about English. Examples: /ð//θ/.
4. In Section 1.1, it was noted that SOV and VSO languages tend to have
mirror-image orders. Consider the order of Subject, Object, and
Verb, Possessor and Possessum, and Noun Phrase and Adposition
in English. Which of the two types does English belong to or stand
closer to?
English is a SVO language. Examples: Spain is beautiful; I have a pet; My aunt's dog
was abandoned…
[Las tres estructuras se regulan por el head parameter.
Possessor and possessum:
Peter’s book à “Peter” is the possessor and “book” is possessum. This is a head-final
15

What is an adposition?:
The preposition and the postpositioin take a noun complement (antes o después
del nombre), si queremos denotar a ambas partículas sin denotar dónde están, si
antes o después del noun, se dice directamnte adposition, como algo genérico (es
como cuando decimos affixes para englobar a prefixes, suffix, interfix, cironfix…)]
Head-initial/head-final express possession, the head-final is an older construction:
Head es el element que describe la clause. Ej: Peter’s book es un NP, donde el
element principal es book y como está después del complement, se trata de un
head-final
S[OV]VP à Head-final
S[VO]VP à Head-initial
Prepositional phrases es always la preposition à English is always head-initial in

prepositional phrases. Example: The leg [of the table] à head-initial
Las únicas estructuras diferentes en inglés que son Head-final (que el núcleo va
después del complement/object) son: Possessor and possessum y las de los
adjetivos con los NP.
5. Here is a paradigmatic implicational universal (Greenberg 1966a: #24).

If the relative clause precedes the noun either as the only
construction or as an alternative construction, either the
language is postpositional or the adjective precedes the noun or
both.
What does this statement say about the language types “mimicked” by the
following sentences? For each type, circle your answer. Relative clauses are
bracketed; * indicates the structure is ungrammatical.
(Son estructuras, lenguas inventadas, es para el ejercicio)
TYPE A:
(a) The [yesterday I bought] apples are sweet. The relative clause precedes
the noun. PRECEDING
16

(b) sweet apples THE ADJECTIVE PRECEDES THE NOUN
(c) the store in POSTPOSITION
Answer (señalo la respuesta correcta en negrita y subrayado):
i. predicts this type
ii. excludes this type
iii. there is not enough data to decide
iv. does not say anything about this type
With the implicational universal, is this possible? Yes, it is.
TYPE B:
(a) The [yesterday I bought] apples are sweet. PRECEDING RC
(b) apples sweet THE ADJECTIVE FOLLOWS THE NOUN (N Adj)
(c) in the store (Concerning adpositions) PREPOSITIONS (P NP)
Answer:
Is this possible according to this universal? Is it postpositional? No.The adjective

excludes this type
TYPE C:
(a) The apples [I bought yesterday] are sweet. FOLLOWING RELATIVE CLAUSE
(=RC)
17
(b) *The [yesterday I bought] apples are sweet. THE ADJECTIVE CANNOT
PRECEDE THE RELATIVE CLAUSE (*Preceding RC)
c) sweet apples THE ADJECTIVE PRECEDES THE NOUN (Adj N)
Answer:
iv. does not say anything about this type Because it doesn’t talk
about theclause preceding the noun
TYPE D:
(a) The [yesterday I bought] apples are sweet. PRECEDING RC
(b) (b) apples sweet THE ADJECTIVE FOLLOWS THE NOUN (N ADJ)
Answer:

iii. there is not enough data to decide Because WE NEED THE DATA
FOR THE ADPOSITION STRUCTURE, WE ONLY HAVE ONE PART
(THAT FITS, BUT WE DON’T KNOW THE REST)
TYPE E:
(a) The apples [I bought yesterday] are sweet. FOLLOWING RELATIVE
CLAUSE (FOLLOWING RC)
(b) The [yesterday I bought] apples are sweet. PRECEDING RELATIVE
CLAUSE (PRECEDING RC)
(c) sweet apples ADJECTIVES PRECEDING (ADJ N)
(d) in the store PREPOSITIONS (P NP)
Answer:
i. predicts this type because we have the preciding RC and it is
enough having as well the “ADJ N”
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19

Comparative-linguistics-T2.pdf
Belenurbelz


Comparative linguistics - Topic 2
2022-2023
María Gema Chocano
gema.chocano@uam.es
COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
Teacher: Mª Gema Chocano ( gema.chocano@uam.es )
TOPIC 2: CLAUSAL WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH
Word order classification, the basis on which we will establish the different parts.
(Compulsory readings are those with an asterisk in the handout).
The classification of word order is made by 3 basic constituents with respect to

declarative sentences:
- SVO
When we say subject it can be more than one word as well, a more complex
subject, even a clause.
a. Phil seems strange.

b. The new neighbor seems strange.
c. That the Red Sox won the pennant seems strange.
How do we identify what a subject is? The basic criterion is that it accompanies the
verb and that it is coordinated with respect to number and person.
In typology, the object refers to a complement.
One regular transitive (I saw [Peter]), but another transitive (I looked [at Peter]) The
complement is a prepositional phrase.
In English we have the SVO order, but we also have the alternations which imply
other kinds of possibilities. 3 of these possibilities are:
Basic vs non-basic clausal word order. 3 possibilities

a. Beans, I hate (Declarative OSV)
b. Believe you me. (Declarative VSO)
c. Seymour sliced the salami. (Declarative SVO à The typical one)
¿Cómo sabemos cuál es la posibilidad más común?

Basic clausal word order is determined on three bases:
(i) frequency;
(ii) markedness (Ex.: Beans, I hate)
(iii) appropriateness to pragmatically neutral contexts.
For example, in case b, we see that word order is tartan with certain verbs in certain
contexts because of the origin of the possibility of that alternation. Such a
construction could not be made with just any verb.
One hypothesis about the VSO construction is that it existed long ago in earlier
English. However, this construction was seen to disappear in the 18th century. In
turn, it reappears later, at the beginning of the 20th century in a novel called
"Believe you me". The second hypothesis is that this structure (VSO) is one that
comes from slang language (remember that there are inversions in subordinate

clauses in questions). Moreover, it takes into account the exported influence of Irish
where it is a language with the VSO structure.
The possibility of prefixing the object has to do with intonation (Example: "Beans, I
hate" markedness), that is of contrast. We assume that the basic patterns do not
have a markedness, we do not expect a contrast outside the norm, the common
structure of the language.
Pragmatically speaking, i.e. contextually speaking, what is the pattern of a language

in a markedness sentence? When we produce an answer, responding to a question
of what is happening.
Example:
What’s new, what’s up, what happened?

a. # Beans, I hate.
b. #Believe you me.
c. Seymour sliced the salami.
Si empezamos diciendo: “Beans, I hate”, necesitamos un activo que haga que esto
sea correcto.
Unmarked (SVO) à Canonical
Marked à Non-canonical (OSV) For this, we need a trigger given by a context
(contrast, emphasis…)
We will study canonical and non-canonical structures in English and Spanish
We have cross-linguistic patterns that have different structures with a different

frequency each. All the possible patterns there are:

If we look at the numbers we see that 45% of the languages have the SVO structure,
another 45% of the world's languages have the SOV structure. This is the majority,
but it does not mean that there are no other possibilities (VSO such as Irish; VOS,
OSV...).
It is quite normal that in linguistics there are discrepancies regarding data. For
example, it is disputed whether Yiddish Langague (also known as Judeo-German, a
language belonging to the Ashkenazi Jewish communities of both Central and
Eastern Europe, and their emigrants and descendants in Israel, the Americas and
elsewhere in the world) is SOV (like German) or SVO (like English).
There are two main patterns: SOV, SVO (having the verb in second position or in
final position, implying that the objet goes before or after the verb). Having the verb

in the last position or in the middle position, we see that the object is also next to it.
This means a close relationship between verb and object. These two patterns are
the most common in languages all over the world, which implies a close
relationship between the two in almost all languages. This is important because
when we construct a sentence, the element we usually take first is the predicate
and what is always combined first is the object (there is evidence for this). Example:
I saw Peter First the verb has been chosen and the object reference has been taken.
We can check this by developing the grammar trees.
§ The tree branch broke the window.

a.’ Peter broke the window.
b. !!The tree branch broke those promises. à Semantically incorrect because an
inanimate subject cannot break a promise. En la ausencia de promesas
podemos ver que es el objeto el que selecciona el sujeto
b’. Peter broke those promises.
There is a syntactic transformation from SVO to VSO, derived order

(=transformation). Many VSO languages come from a transformation
(based-generated).
There are two types of transformations: with a semantic and a pragmatic impact.
E.g. "Beans I hate" has a pragmatic impact.
"The boy" has no pragmatic imput because that is the rule. That which responds to
something required by the language is unmarked. There are syntactic rules that
have nothing to do with context.
In Swedish, they have the determiner in the final position because it is their norm,
as in English it would be in front of the English noun ("the boys"). We expect a larger
number of languages where the transformations are not obligatory.
In many languages the subject comes before the object. Subject saliency (Comrie,
1989: 93): in a transitive clause the subject is generally the initiator of the action
expressed by the verb and the entity in control of that action, whereas the object is
the entity being acted on. These properties of the subject make it more salient than
the object in human cognition, and the saliency is reflected in the basic clausal
word order of most languages.
Example of saliency in many structures:

One of the differences between English and Spanish is in relation to a group of
psychological verbs (like /gustar), we have the same number of arguments in both
languages (like/gustar <x, y>), but we have syntactic differences:
I like pears à I: Experiencer (animate), the subject; pears: theme (can be animate or
inanimate), the object .
Me gustan las peras à Me: experiencer (animate), morphologically it is the object;
las peras: theme (could be animate or inanimate), subject (we know this because of
the agreement between subject and verb.).
(The feature of an experiencer is that it is always animate)
Me gustan las peras à Marked word order in Spanish (OVS) (Esto es así por las what
happened questions)
Las peras me gustan à Unmarked (SVO)
This occurs only in certain types of verbs (psychological in this case), in this case it is
because the participants tend to appear before the inanimate (animary scale).

Agents tend to be more salient. This is related to salient options. Animate objects
tend to appear always before inanimate subjects (even if the subject is animate in
certain verbs).
As we know, English belongs to the Germanic language family, and Spanish to the
Roman language family.
La Germanic family is divided into 3 main branches:

- North/Scandinavic languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic,
Faroese à The most important with respect to the number of people
who speak it)
- West Branch à German, Dutch, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Frisian, English (the
closest, historically, relative to English are Frisian and English)
- East branch. It is made up solely of the Gothic language, which is now
dead.
Icelandic is the most conservative language due to its isolation. The most innovative
languages that have changed the most are Frisian and English (but more so
English).
The properties regarding word order of the Germanic languages will be limited to
the syntactic part. The most important feature is:
- Verb-second à In a root declarative clause, the finite verb occupies
the second position. (By finite verb we mean a verb with inflection.
Inflexion has to do with tense agreement).
Xp (subject, object, Advp, PP) Vfinite
(root means independent)

All the Germanic languages except English are V2, i.e. in declarative root
clauses the finite verb, main or auxiliary, appears in the second position of the
clause. In other words, irrespective of the category that occupies the
sentence-initial position, the finite verb immediately follows that category.
Example:
Gestern hat Peter einen Vogel gesehen.
Yesterday has Peter a bird seen
‘Yesterday Peter saw a bird.’
We see the differences in certain features such as grammatical and ungrammatical

in German and English. We have verb second residues in English, for example the
structure of the negative inversion. The trigger is in a more restricted situation:
XP Vfinite → In English, for this to be possible, the trigger has to be a negative XP.
However, in German XP could be anything.
Examples:
(1)
*Not a soul saw he
Not a soul did he see
In this example we have a lexical verb, so in the first case it is ungrammatical
because to make the structure of the negative inversion we need an auxiliary, it
cannot be done with a lexical verb.
(2)
Never in my life have I seen
*Never in my life I have seen
En este ejemplo tenemos un auxiliary
The form with agreement features must appear after the XP constituent.

In Germanic languages the verb occupied a very high position. What is verb second?
The inflection is the auxiliary. The high position in the tree is justified.
In German verb-second must appear in root (=independent) declarative sentences.

It is also possible in bridge verbs, in subordinate clauses which depend on a bridge
verb. What is a bridge verb? A related basic verb say or think (say, tell, think,
believe... Fear or affirm would not work because they are not basic verbs).
Example of German:
Ich glaube, gestern hat Peter einen Vogel gesehen.
Ich glaube, dass Peter gestern einen Vogel gesehen hat.
*Ich glaube, dass hat Peter gestern einen Vogel gesehen.
Analysis:
Ich glaube, [gesternXP hatVFIN PeterSUBJ einen Vogel gesehen]. El primer elemento
aquí es el complemento
*Ich glaube, [dass hatVFIN gestern PeterSUBJ einen Vogel gesehen]. Si se usa el
complementizer en primera posición, es agramatical debido a la transformación
OBLIGATORIA. Hay una regla obligatoria.
The notion of complementizer is the element that introduces a subordinate

element (that, dass, que..).
(Lo que aparece en primera posición es siempre lo primero que aparece en el

árbol)
Subject saliency:
If you look at the word order, you will see that most of them (90%) the subject
precedes the object.
Los sujetos presentan un agente, los sujetos animados tienden a aparecer antes
que los inanimados. Agents tend to precede themes, always. à Subject saliency
V2 à Syntaxtic property. It means that in a root declarative clause XP VFINITE, the verb
always appears in second position, no matter what precedes it.
Negative preposing:
Never in my life have I
Bridge verb
The possibility of having the object in two different positions:

· VO à English, Yiddish and all Scandinavian languages
· OV the rest of them.
In a root declarative clause, if the inicial XP is not the object (could be subject,
adverb…) the verb would follow it. (XP V OBJ)
Hay que mirar subordinate clauses para saber si una lengua es VO / OV. Hay que
distinguir entre VO or OV in Germanic languages by looking at subordinate clauses.
In order to check if the languages are OV or VO hay que comparar

The non-finite verb follows the verb if we compare German with Swedish (same
word order as in English):
XP hat Peter einen VogelOBJ gesehenV à
XP hadeAUX lastV den här bokenOBJ
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V2 is the result of an operation
En el caso de las lenguas germanas es necesario hacer tests
Cuando tenemos una root clause se hace un movimiento del verbo, no son fiables
estas clauses para comprobarlo y pore so hay que ver embedded clauses.
En las lenguas VO or OV, aunque predominen en su lengua un orden común, tienen

posibles alternancias:
- Peter hatAUX gesternADV einen VogelOBJ gesehenV
- Peter hataux einen VogelOBJ gesternADV gesehenV.
Compound tense, the object precedes de verb and we have the auxiliary at the
beginning. En cuestiones pragmaticas, el objeto puede estar más arriba o más
abajo. Tenemos una opción que es que el pronominal NP que ocupen la posición
más alta.
Las opciones son siempre algo que dependen de la pragmatic. Si se trata de
infomación que ya conocemos, es posible hacer la segunda opción. Es una opción
con condiciones.
In German objects can be scrambled à The scrambling phenomenon

In Scandinavian languages objects can be restricted with pronouns. In Icelandic only
nominal constituents (nouns and pronouns) are affected from the normal position,
and in Mamland Scandinavian languages only pronouns are affected à Object
Shift.
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English had scrambling fact at the beginning. It had an object shift, even in the XIXth
century. Example: He loves her not. Pronouns are the last elements showing object
shift. Nowadays we don’t have it in English, but we do in Spanish.
BASIC CLAUSAL WORD ORDER IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES.
They come from latin and we divide it in western (ex: Portuguese, Spanish…),
central (ex: Italian), eastern (ex: Romanian)…
We will see that French is the language that has change a lot from their basic roman
characteristics.
Word order pattern:
The basics word order regarding the 3 basic elements in a sentence: Subject, verb
and object. We apply 3 criteria:
- Frequency. The basic structure is the one that appears more.
- Context
- Phonological pattern.
In the most frequency structure in a what happened question, this is the basic
pattern in a language.
The Romance language basic word order it SVO. Test:

Can SVO be used in a what happened question? Yes. Exemples:
What’s up?
a. Spanish à María ha comprado el periódico.
b. European Portuguese à O Paulo sabe francés the Paulo knows French ‘Paulo
speaks French.’
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c. Brazilian Portuguese à O João comeu o bolo. the João ate the cake ‘João ate the
cake.’
d. Catalan La Maria ha comprat el diari. the Maria has bought the newspaper
‘Maria has bought the newspaper.’
e. French Marie a acheté le journal. Marie has bought the newspaper
f. Italian Maria ha comprato il giornale. Maria has bought the newspaper
g. Romanian Mama a fácut o prăjitură. mom has made a cake
SVO, a basic pattern in all the Romance languages with no exception.
There is a great division between the SVO languages with the exception of Spanish
and Romanian, because apart from the SVO order, they have the VSO, but it is less
frequent and therefore it is not considered their common order, but it also answers
the What happened question.
In the case of Spanish, taking into account the 3 criteria, using the pragmatic criteria
(what happened), the VSO structure can be used as an answer, although the SVO is
more frequent. However, in Romanian language, it is more common to use VSO as
a response, although both are pragmatically correct. In South American Spanish
such as Mexican Spanish, VSO is more common as a response structure to the what
happened question, but not in Peninsular Spanish.
Except for Brazilian Portuguese, we have in all Romance languages alternative

positions regarding the structures of SVO/SOV
Except Brazilian Portuguese, all Romance languages allow for ‘Object Shift’ or
‘Scrambling’3 of O past S, which results in VOS. In contrast to SVO in general, and
VSO in Spanish and Romanian, VOS is pragmatically constrained, as (24) illustrates
13
for Spanish. Constraints on VOS are much more severe in the rest of the languages,
excluding Romanian, where the facts are similar to the Spanish ones
VOS → Here the subject appears at the end. It has to do with the context, it is only
possible in certain situations. We have two possibilities:
- - If we have the basic structure of SVO, the subject happens to have
the movement of going in the last position due to an emphasis. The
phenomenon can be common in English for example.
- VOS cannot answer a what happened question. We can only find it in
a type of question with already given information, ex.: ¿Quién ha
comprado el periódico?
If we apply the criteria and tests that we use in English (and in other languages), not
everything is going to fit, there are still problems.
This is the pattern we use in all the Romance languages (but Spanish is more
constraint) with all the information to see the base answer:
¿Quién ha comprado el periódico?
Ha comprado el periódico María. à Given information: Ha comprador el periódico;
Focus: María
Germanic languages are caracterizadas por clitics. Es decir, pronouns which need a
verbal host.
Clitic cluster à “Cúmulo/grupo clitic”.
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All the Romance languages have clitics, pronouns that are phonologically
dependent on a verbal head (i.e. the verbal head and the clitic constitute a single
minimal phonological unit). Clitics generally precede finite verbal forms, and follow
non-finite ones (particularly, infinitives and imperatives), as shown in (25) for
Spanish:
(25)
a. María lo compró / Lo compró María.
b. María quiso comprarlo / Quiso comprarlo María.
The clitic complement (DO, IO) of an embedded infinitival verb may precede the
main verb. Such a phenomenon, known as clitic climbing, is shown in the Spanish
examples in (26) (compare to (25b)):
(26) María lo quiso comprar / Lo quiso comprar María.
En las romance languages, nuestros clitics se mueven en la sintaxis. En todas las

lenguas romances tenemos clitics.
[Se lo di] / I [saw him] → [grupos consonánticos, van juntos].
In Spanish:
· Si el verbo es finite, el clitic precede al verbo à “María lo compró”
· Si el vebo es non-finite, el critic follows the verb à “María quiso comprarlo”
A parte de decir esto, hay una tercera opción:

· Clitic climbing → “Lo quiso comprar María”. El clitic que es el objeto del
infinitive, aparece attached to the finite verb, no es objeto de quiso. El
objeto de quiso, es “comprarlo”. Ha habido un movimiento del clitic.
The big difference between French and the other Romance languages is that French
is a non-drop language. When we don't drop the subject in Spanish or Italian, for
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example? When we want to emphasise and to avoid ambiguity, for example in
terms of gender, to clarify whether it is he or she.
María lo compró → “Lo” es distressed.
BASIC NOTIONS OF INFORMATION STRUCTURES:
Information Structure refers to the packaging of information that meets the

immediate communicative needs of the interlocutor, i.e. the techniques that
optimize the form of the message with the goal that it will be well understood by
the addressee in the current attentional state.
Se trata de organizar nuestros mensajes en cuanto a lo que es información que ya

se sabe y la información nueva. Se trata de la forma de cómo usamos las fuentes
fonológicas y sintácticas para organizar esta información, no se trata de un tercer
elemento, sino que está integrado en la estructura. Desde esta estructura, cuáles
son las fuentes que nos interesan? Phonology (it can give us contrast) and word
order. Information structure tiene que ver con este uso de sintaxis y fonología para
armar una estructura informative.
Example:
a. Mary hates chocolate.
b. Chocolate Mary hates.
c. Chocolate Mary loves.
Which sentences here say the same thing? A and B, semantically they mean the
same thing, but pragmatically they do not. we combine the same semantic
information by conveying two different things pragmatically speaking. Esto nos
16

demuestra que se trata de trasmitir lo mismo a través de dos estructuras, significa
que tenemos un tercer component: meaning, sounds and information structure.
§ Mary hates chocolate.

§ *Mary hate chocolate. à Morphological mistake.
§ There happened an accident.

§ *There laughed three children. à Syntactic mistake because of the position
of the two NP.
What did you see on the road?:

§ We saw a TIGER on the road.
§ #We saw a tiger on the ROAD. à Information structure mistake. It has to do
with the prominence on one particular element, the emphasis cannot be
in “road”. This is a matter of infromation structure as we want to make
important the element that gives new information. If the question would
be “Where did you see the tiger?” That would be correct
We have morphological, syntactical, pragmatically, and information structure

mistakes.
What would be the correct answer to these questions? :

a'. What about the pies? In what condition are they?
b'. What about the pipes? What's wrong with them?
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a. The pipes are RUSTY.
b. The PIPES are rusty.
c. The pipes ARE rusty.
Solo la respuesta a, a todas las preguntas porque lo nuevo es RUSTY.
Todo esto es más posible en inglés que en español debido a ser plastic/non-plastic:
- Plastic: - English, for example, is a language that capitalises on its

information, it expresses itself more through its phonological
characteristics. English is a plastic language because it expresses
differences in terms of information structure with its phonology.
- -Non-plastic: Spanish, for example. The point is that the language
more often marks its information structure through its syntax.
INFORMATION STRUCTURE
Information Structure refers to the packaging of information that meets the

immediate communicative needs of the interlocutor, i.e. the techniques that
optimize the form of the message with the goal that it will be well understood by
the addressee in the current attentional state.
Cuando decimos un enunciado tenemos: phonology information, morphology

information, syntax structure and information structure.
Hay dos criterios: marked/unmarked.
18

Uno de los criterios es que un unmarked Word order es lo que responde en una
what happened question. El orden SVO es unmarked en las lenguas Romances.
Examples:
- Mark, Peter saw à OSV (marked)
- Peter saw Mark à VSO (unmarked. This is the frequent syntax
answering a what happened question in English)
Both are possible. It has to be about information structure. We have to know when
they are possible, because marked word order is correct in some contexts.
Regarding morphology, phonetics/phonology it is exactly the same.
By means of phonology and syntax, we transmit differences between the different

information structure. We have sound and meaning from combinations.
Examples:
a. Mary hates chocolate. b. Chocolate Mary hates. c. Chocolate Mary loves.
Semantically speaking a and b means the same true conditions. C means different.
If a and b means the same, what are the differences? The difference it’s regarding
information structure as b can only be used in restrictive contexts as is a marked
sentences whereas the a. option is unmarked and would be correct in any context.
a. Mary hates chocolate. a'. *Mary hate chocolate.

B is ungrammatical, this is not used from a native speaker. The same occurs in: b.
There happened an accident. b'. *There laughed three children. The there
construction cannot be used in not unaccusative verbs, laugh is another class of
verb, an ergative one.
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c. What did you see on the road?
c'. We saw a TIGER on the road.
c''. #We saw a tiger on the ROAD.
If I want to answer with the whole structure, c is correct. C’ It’s an ungrammatical

option that a native speaker would never use. C’’# Wouldn’t be used by native
speakers in this context. It doesn’t mean that is ungrammatical, but that it is
restrictive in certain contexts, depends on the pragmatics. For example in the
context of: Where did you see a tiger? This answer would be correct.
IMPORTANT: New information is the one that is the want carrying the main pitch
(=the most prominent stress).
Examples:
a'. What about the pies? In what condition are they?
b'. What about the pipes? What's wrong with them?
c'. Why does the water from the tap come out brown?
d'. I have some rust remover. Do you have any rusty thing?
e'. I wonder whether the pipes are rusty.
a. The pipes are RUSTY. b. The PIPES are rusty.c. The pipes ARE rusty.
A’ and b’ would be correctly answered with a.

e’ would be well answered with the c answer. (- I wonder wether the pipes are rusty;
+ The pipes ARE rusty)
When did Peter wash his car?
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a. (He washed it) last week.
b. It was last week that he washed it.à It cleft sentence. The main pitch in an it
cleft sentence it’s “last week”. This type of sentence is to make a part of speech
prominent by splitting it into two clauses. We are making a complex structure out of
a simple one, we are creating a marked SVO structure, putting the cleft part at the
beginning and leaving the information we already know at the end of the sentence.
c. #It was his car that Peter washed last week.
d. #It was washed by Peter last week.
Let's remember that the information structure of English has to do with the tones
of the language, English is a plastic language. Clefting is one of the options that
English has in terms of information structure.
INFORMATIONAL CONTENT
In Information Structure (IS) à New information VS Old information.

Informational content: the expression of given / old information, and new
information.
Given / old information: information that is assumed by the speaker to be known

to the addressee at the time of the speaker's utterance, because it is common
knowledge, part of the extralinguistic context, has been mentioned in the discourse
or can be inferred from it. Given /old information tends to precede new
information; therefore it’s generally placed by the beginning of the sentence. Given
/ old information never carries main pitch if it has been mentioned in discourse.
Given information tends to appear before new information. New information tends
to appear after the given information à This is the unmarked structure.
21
There is a rule, a way in English that has the discouse. Material already mentioned
in discourse appears always stressed. Example: A king lives in France. The king
traveled…
Speaker, hearer, outsider à 3 participants in discourse context.
Anna was in her flat. The bell rang and she turned on the light. à no han sido
mencionados, pero indirectacmente sí y se infiere que the bell y the light son given
information by means of inference.
El inglés es selectivo con stressing things.
Discourse is about common knowledge or information we know by means of

inference.
New information is information is assumed by the speaker not to be known to the

addressee at the time of the speaker's utterance. New information tends to follow
given / old information, thus appearing by the end of the sentence. New
information carries main pitch.
Marked structure is a kind of forcement in terms of phonology and in terms of

reinforcing syntax by emphasising something.
La nueva informacion es stressed siempre à He washed it LAST WEEK. (Unmarked) /
It was LAST WEEK that he washed it (Marked. It cleft is a kind of reinforcement. This
is a exhaustive focus, which means que solo fue esa semana, no hay más
posibilidades. Sin embargo en la unmarked sentence se abre a más posibilidades.)
Focus carries the main pitch with the new information.
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Unmarked / canonical / neutral word order vs marked / non-canonical / non-neutral
word order. (All synonims)
Thetic statement: algo en el que todo es nueva información y nada se presupone.
they are statement without topics.
Example of thetic statement à Let me tell you something: John ate some COOkies
yesterday. (SVO) à This is an example of the beginning of a discourse
IMPORTANT: If I ask about the subject, we will probably use SVO, but the stressed
could not be in cookies but in John as that is the new information I am asking about.
The focus has to be in the new information. Example: - Who ate biscuits yesterday?
+ JOHN ate some cookies.
[RECORDEMOS. Para saber si una lengua es SVO/VSO, lo vemos con la prueba de

cómo se respondería a una “What happened question”]
CORREO DUDAS:
Te escribo varias cosillas a raíz de estar leyendo la lectura de Leonetti:
● No termino de entender el concepto de prominence/prominencia y cuando
se usa en unos contextos como “prominent argument” (y no sé si va
relacionado con “no external argument”).
MÁS QUE SER EQUIVALENTE A EXTERNAL ARGUMENT, SE REFIERE A PAPELES
TEMÁTICOS. EL ARGUMENTO MÁS PROMINENTE ES EL QUE TIENE PAPEL TEMÁTICO
DE AGENTE, DESPUÉS EL QUE RECIBE EL DE EXPERIMENTANTE Y ASÍ. LOS MENOS
PROMINENTES SON EL DE PACIENTE Y TEMA. LOS AGENTES SON CASI SIEMPRE
ARGUMENTOS EXTERNOS, PERO LOS EXPERMENTANTES SON A VECES INTERNOS.
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● Cuando se habla de “thetic”.
UNA ORACIÓN DONDE NO HAY PARTICIÓN ENTRE TOPIC Y COMMENT, SINO QUE
ES TODA ELLA COMMENT. EL TÍPIC EJEMPLO SON LAS EXISTENCIALES.
● El concepto de null subject no estoy segura de si lo entiendo y va relacionado
con omitir explícitamente en sujeto como en español o si se refiere a otra
cosa.
SE REFIERE EXACTAMENTE A ESO.
● Y algo que me parece básico de entender y que pensaba que lo tenía claro es
entender cuándo algo es marked o unmarked porque leyendo y subrayando
los apuntes del topic 2 en las páginas 13 y 14 con los ejemplos como en el
caso 52a (" Aquí roncan los niños") y 52c ("Ha tosido/roncado Juan"), no
entiendo por qué una es unmarked y otra no...
PORQUE “RONCAR” ES UN VERBO INERGATIVO (INTRANSITIVO CUYO ÚNICO
ARGUMENTO ES EXTERNO). CON ESTOS VERBOS VS COMO ORDEN NO MARCADO
ES BUENO SI SE DAN CIERTAS CONDICIONES. POR EJEMPLO: ASPECTO
IMPEFECTIVOO Y NO PERFECTVO, SUJETOS INESPECÍFICOS, ETC.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24

En inglés y en español, el main pitch en los casos de discourse-initial o
what-happened aparece en el elemento que está más a la derecha. Example: John
bought a BOOK. / Juan compró un LIBRO. Mientras que en alemán el main pitch iría
a la izquierda (OV)
-“What did John buy?” à Aquí sabemos quién compró y que la acción es comprar,
pore so la nueva información es el qué compró
25
+“John bought a BOOK”.
-“What did John do?” à Esto sería una pregunta sobre el predicado, es decir, el focus
va otra vez a la derecha. La regla dice que si tenemos nueva información de más de
una palabra o elemento, el focus estará en el elemento que esté más a la derecha.
+John [bought a BOOK] / Juan [compró un LIBRO]
Wide focusà A focus in which we have a constituent larger than a phrase or a

complex phrase. The kind of focus answering informational focus is called
informational focus. The information of discourse-initial and also answering a
what-happened question would be a wide focus as it is more than a simple focus.
This would be a focus projection.
If the new information is only about one constituent à Narrow focus
-Who bought a book?

+JOHN bought a book
-¿Quién compró un libro?
+JUAN compró un libro
Stress is what gives the focus.
What did John do with the book?

John bought it/the book (This two elements are discourse given, as it is previously
mention). By the stressing I cannot
Focus projection rules sais that when we have a piece of complex new information,
el problema es que solo podemos stressed un element, solo podemos podemos
26

poner el focus en un element, será en el elemento que esté más a la derecha. Esto
pasa en PP, VP and sentences.
FOCUS PROJECTION à Set of rules that solves the focus problem in a wide focus,
when we have more than one element of new information, so that the stress goes
in the most right element placed.
Main pitch no puede aparecer en el último elemento si no es información nueva,

tendría que estar en su elemento más a la izquierda que sea nuevo, cumpliendo
que sigue siendo el elemento que está más a la derecha que sea nueva
información. Ejemplo: - What did John do with the book? +John BOUGHT the book/it
This refers to the focus projection:

- Narrow focus → New information only in a simple constituent
- Wide focus → If we have projection focus applied
Informational focus à When we require information

Contrast focus à Has to do about something that triggers in the context. Example:
John BORROWED the book
There are two main types of non-canonical structures. Common characterization

o non-canonical patterns:
· Postposing (not very accurate). Refers to the idea that sth that usually
appears in initial positions, this structure appears in final positions. In SVO
structures, in non canonical structures. It would be a post-verbal subject.
The subject would appear after the main verb. We can fin it in:
- There structures. We have two: existential there and presentational
there. It would be a post-verbal subject. The subject would appear
after the main verb.
27

- Right-Dislocation and Heavy-NP-Shift. This elements would be other
element than the subject. This constitutes two initial constituents.
There’s a movement here, whereas in the there structures not.
· Argument reversal – Stylistic inversion. Two types:
- Predicate fronting
- Locative inversion
Example: An old manSUBJ came into the roomLOCATIVE (SVO)
Into the room came an old lady à This is a locative inversion, a type of
argument reversal. The locative changes into the subject position and the
subject changes to another postposition.
· Preposing. The presence of any constituent preceding the subject. XP

[Subject V XPthis moves to the front]. The XP should be an XP that usually appears
after the verb. Preposing has 3 phenomenon:
- Topicalization
- Left-Dislocation
- Focalization
They serve different pragmatic characteristics, but are all the same.
“Attached to this message is the info you asked for” à Example of predicate fronting
EXISTENTIAL THERE
Existential there à Asserting the existence of there. The equivalent in Spanish is

“hay”.
28

We have an expletive, a linking verb/support copula, then a Postverbal NP and then
a there that could be a locative/Coda or an adjective phrase. Example:
- “ThereEXPLETIVE isLINKING VERB nothingPV NP thereLOCATIVE”
Expletive occupies the subject position. This is called “structural subject”
The postverbal is called “notional subject”. It is the one agreeing with the verb.
The locative is the coda.
There are restrictions also applying to codas. The codas must be a locative. In the
case of an adjective, it has to be of a certain type: only temporary adjectives.
Example:
- “There were several windows open” / “Había varias ventanas abiertas” à
Temporary properties are correct
- “*There were several windows white/big…” à They are inhered, that’s why this is
ungrammatical. Permanent properties are not correct, the individual levels.
This is a universal about processes, the existential. Sin embargo, en español sería
correcto: “Había varias ventanas blancas” / “ThereEXPLETIVE wereLINK several white
windowsPN NP (somewhere)”. We need a coda, where is it? This is a covered coda, it
means that it is assumed that the several windows are in somewhere. Given
information, one of the ways is deleting it.
In the case od There were several white windows, the white windows are elements
all together, whereas in the case of “There were [several windows] [open]”, we find
a two elements PV NP.
Existence requires a locative always, just because something exists in somewhere.

Existential structure can be replace by a SVO structure. Example:
There is nothing there à Nothing is there
Except from one case: *Several windows were. Several If the coda is covered, SVO is
not possible. In the absence of an explicit coda, it isn’t possible.
29
CODAà General term that talks about elements appearing after a Postverbal NP
-----
Hay varias ventanas / * Habían varias ventanas
What is the syntactic function of “varias ventanas” à Subject. Había varias ventanas
à *Había varias ventanas / Las había. This is the difference od Spanish and English
existential structure in English. We can see it when we replace it: Las había.
Spanish is a pro-drop language, that’s why it doesn’t need a proper subject.
PRESENTATIONAL THERE
a. ThereEXPLETIVE arrivedUNACCUSATIVE VERB several Russian shipsPOSTVERBAL NP.

a’. Several Russian ships arrived.
b. There remain only two further issues to discuss.
b’. ?? Only two further issues to discuss remain.
c. There seems little doubt that the fire was started deliberately. à Seem is an
unaccusative verb
c’. *Little doubt that the fire was started deliberately seems. à This is not odd, it is
ungrammatical, the complement of the verb seem (unaccusative verbs in general),
the postverbal NP cannot appear in subject position.
We find similarities and differences between existential and presentational there.

Whe have an expletive there in presentational there. We don’t have a linking verb,
we have unaccusative verbs. The semantic field of unaccusative verbas is about
appearance, existence, change of state…
30

He is gone à He has gone, it is a residue of a remaining structure. It comes from old
grammar. It is an unaccusative verb. Los verbos unaccusative se conjugan siempre
con el auxiliary have, salvo este ejemplo residual. En el caso del francés se siguió
conservando el auxiliar être en los verbos unaccusative (Ex: Je suis arrivé).
Two types of intransitive verbs:

- Unaccusative verbs. They had an evolution about selecting the
auxiliar of the unergative verbs, but they have sintactic difference like
they appear in presentational there structure, whereas the unergative
verbs don’t.
- Unergative verbs. They select the auxiliary have, but they cannot
appear in presentational there structure.
What are the differences between these cases?:

- A question remains
- ?? Only two further issues to discuss remain.
The second case includes a relative clause. The problem is that it is too long, it is a
heavy constituent. There’s a rule that says that the big elements should be at the
end of the sentence. The problem is only about the pragmatics because of having a
heavy constituent.
-------
- It seems [that they are coming tonight]

- It is obvious [that they are coming tonight]
We have an unaccusative verb. There requires a Postverbal NP, while it requires a
postverbal element, a clausal. So, if the postverbal element is a Postverbal NP, the
31

expletive element is THERE. And if the postverbal element is a Postverbal clause,
the expletive element is IT.
- *That they are coming tonight seems
- That they are coming
Come is not unaccusative verbs.
Unaccusative verbs exist in all languages, it is an universal.
EXISTENTIAL STRUCTURE
Restriction in postverbal NP in existential structure:
EXPLETIVE LINKING PVNP CODA
In literature, the postverbal NP cannot be *the, *that, *this, *’s…This kind of

structure obeys a definiteness restriction. We may have something definite if the
definite NP is a hearer-new. Thanks to study the information structure, people
realize about that PVNP must fulfill some requirements.
CODA → General term that talks about elements appearing after a Postverbal NP
Postverbal subjects:
- Existential there
- Presentational there
- Stylistic Inversion
32

Presentational verb and presentan el mismo tipo de verbos, en ambos hay
unaccusative verbs.
En español postverbal subjects son posibles con todo tipo de verbos. En español es
posible con verbos transitivos. Examples:
a. Leyó el libro Juan. → TRANSITIVE, MARKED. Marked porque, recordemos que en

español tenemos dos estructuras que son que son unmarked: SVO y VSO. En este
caso tenemos VOS order, lo que significa que es marked.
Es marked porque. No puede servir para respuesta a un what happened questions,

no puede ser discourse initially.
SVO es universal, se puede usar en todo tipo de contextos and VSO can only be
used with discourse initially and a what happened question.
b. Ayer leyó Juan el libro. → TRANSITIVE, UNMARKED
c. Juan leyó el libro. → TRANSITIVE, UNMARKED
En español, los verbos psicológicos tienen diferentes canonical word order.

Examples:
a. A Pedro no le gusta el té. → A Pedro (obj) no le gusta (verb) el té (subj) →

Psychological, Unmarked (OVS)
b. A Pedro el café le gusta. → Psychological, Marked
c. El café le gusta a Pedro → SVO → Marked in psychological predicates. ¿Qué le

gusta a Pedro?
33
Psychological predicates take two arguments (x,y). Tenemos el objeto primero, el
verbo y luego el sujeto, siendo esta estructura unmarked (OVS) con este tipo de
verbos en español. Esto resolvería todo tipo de contextos.
The subject in a is “el té”, we know it because of the agreement. Example: A Pedro le
gustan los tés.
EL MEJOR TEST PARA SABER SI LA ESTRUCTURA ES MARKED O UNMARKED:

Answering a What happened question and discourse initially.
Postverbal subject in English only with intransitive verbs, whereas in Spanish it can
be possible with all verbs.
Intransitive verbs:
- Unaccusative verbs. Ex.: arrive, come… → Themes

- Unergative. Ex.: worked, laugh, dance… → Agents
Spanish is a non-plastic language and English is a plastic language. En
Tenemos restricciones pragmáticas en español que hacen que todas las estructuras
sean posibles, pero no en todos los contextos.
a. Aquí roncan niños y adultos. → Unergative verb (roncar), unmarked/canonical.

Esta frase presenta unas características que lo presentan como algo bueno, es un
verbo ergativo, pero presenta VS, que es posible en peninsular spanish y canarian
solo si presenta un XP delante. Responde a una what happened question y también
sería un discourse initially. También se trata de algo general, no a un niño o adulto
concreto. Combinando una acción habitual, un sujeto habitual, en presente, es la
mejor forma de presentar un verbo unergative unmarked.
34

b. Ha llamado el abogado. → Unergative verb, unmarked/canonical. VS → se denota
un evento donde el abogado es algo genérico.
Añadir un XP delante es para facilitar la inversión en ciertas situaciones. Aquí es
algo genérico y natural
c. Ha tosido / roncado Juan. → Es marked porque la forma natural de responder a

una what happened question sería:
¿Qué ha pasado? Juan ha tosido / #Ha tosido Juan. El sujeto aquí es algo específico,
esto implica que lo natural sería que fuera al principio el sujeto.
d. Con la polución tosemos todos. → Unergative, unmarked
Diferencia de que haya un topic o no:
a. Llegan trenes cada día. → VS. Si no tengo un determinante, esta es la estructura

obligatoria porque los trenes aquí son generales, no se considera “trenes un topic”,
sino que se habla de un evento. Si hubiera un determinante, serían posibles ambas
estructuras (VS y SVO).
Bare NP = A noun without a determiner.
b. Los trenes AVE llegan cada día. → SVO Los trenes aquí es un “theme”, se trata de
unos trenes concretos.
Postverbal subjects are always allowed in discourse initially, pero si los trenes son
específicos también sería posible dejar el sujeto. Ej: (*Niños cantan aquí. / Los niños
cantan aquí; *Trenes llegan cada día).
Diferencia de que haya un topic o no:
35

Cuando no tienes un topic, todo lo presentas como nueva información y no
presentas un statement con un individuo concreto. Cuando tienes un topic, hablas
de un sujeto concreto añadiendo nueva información a ello.
Existential verbs in Spanish:
a. Vive / hay gente en esa comarca. → Existential unmarked
b. Esa gente vive en esa comarca. → Existential unmarked
c. *Hay esa gente en esa comarca. → Definite, discourse - old
Hay gente en esa comarca →

Gente hay en esa comarca → Marked
Marked in contrastive situations. +Hay problemas en el mundo - Problemas hay en
el mundo.
There are some people (here)
*Some people are here
REVISAR ESTO CON LA LECTURA DE LEONETTI

There was Mary → Infiero que hay más gente en la fiesta. Esto en español es
imposible No definite, discourse-old, hearer-new. En español tenemos una
restricción mayor. *Hay el libro ahí / Está el libro ahí.
El inglés parece la lengua más constraint, salvo en las existential structures
tenemos unos NP que son posibles en ingles pero no en español. en español, no
definite can appear en una construcción que ponga haber: por qué? en este caso
no tenemos esa posibilidad (*había maria en la fiesta) seguramente por el uso del
verbo estar donde en ingles there es posible con un definite NP, Esto tiene que ver
con la existencia de dos cópulas diferentes en español: haber y estar.
36

En ingles solo los unaccusative verbs permiten postverbal subjects, whereas in
spanish, syntactically, it can appear with any verb (unaccusatives, unergatives,
transitives,).
—-------------------------------------------------------------
La única lengua que permite postverbal subject si admite external argument
después del verbo, sería el español. esto tiene que ver con
There arrives a ship → A ship arrives
En el caso de los unaccusative verbs:
(Caso del There structure)
Requiere el there delante en inglés o un covered element, como el romance pro.

Esto depende del pro-drop parameter.
37
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECORDAMOS:
Regarding postverbal subjects, differences:
- In English it is possible only with unaccusatives verbs
- In Spanish it is possible with unaccusative, transitive and unergative verbs
So, English is more restrictive. The only difference is that if in english tenemos
postverbal subject, tenemos que tener algo en la posición inicial como puede ser
“there”, a locative o un predicado en la posición del sujeto. Mientras que en español
38

es completamente opcional. Esto está relacionado con en términos interpretativos
por el Extended Projection Principle (EPP) in conjunction with other notion: the
pro-drop parameter. EPP dice que todas las sentences tienen que tener sujeto
(structural subject), se tiene que llenar la posición del sujeto. El Pro-drop parameter
dice que puede ser algo que se escuche o algo que no. Podemos tener dos
opciones en Pro-drop parameter:
- There; Locative/. En inglés es obligatorio y tiene que ser fonológicamente
escuchado. XP VS. Los sujetos son obligatorios en las lenguas que los
elementos que expresan tense and agreement are not enough by
themselves to express the proper subject.
- Pro (nominal). En español si no tenemos un inicial XP, tenemos algo llamado
“pro”. It stands for pronominal. se trata de un carácter que no escuchamos
fonéticamente. Pro-drop languages son las lenguas que tienen un sujeto que
no está explícitamente presente fonológicamente. (XP) VS. El sujeto está
cubierto igualmente aunque no sea con XP explícito antes del VS, por lo
tanto, no incumple el Extended Projection Principle. Example: (pro)i Llegó el
treni
pro LLueve / *rains / It rains → In English it is obligatory the explicit phonological

subject.
The basis for all this is that we have to take for granted the EPP in all languages, you
may hear it or not, but it is there.
Pro-drop languages están relacionadas con lenguas con una morfología rica para
que se pueda interpretar el pro y cubrir el sujeto.
(Chomsky dice que EPP está basado en el inglés).
En español usamos un sujeto expresamente en muchas ocasiones para una

función contrastiva.
39

Why is English a plastic language? Inglés tiene una morfología pobre y por ello se
diferencia con las entonaciones.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verbal focus → Contrast in the sentence itself. It is forced to be declarative or
negative. You are making a contrast by confirming or refusing another sentence.
Example: + I didn’t do that. - Yes, you did it.
Background is giving information and focus is the new information. Background is

everything understood in the discourse.
What (topic) did Pam buy? (coment)
Pam bought (Background) a book (focus)
Topic is what the sentence is about.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREPOSING AND POSTPOSING
Preposing: the placement of an XP in sentence initial position for topichood and/or

contrast.
Topic: in informal terms, topic is what the sentence is about; the rest of the
sentence is the comment.
Contrast: the alternative to an expression present in discourse.
Postposing: the placement of an XP in or by sentence final position for reasons
related to IS or parsing.
PREPOSING (Preposing = Fronting)
40

In ENGLISH By putting something in the sentence in initial position, I get different
structures:
- Topicalization. proposing to make the initial constituent a topic. It is
discourse-linked.
- Focalization →If I put something to make it contrastive with something else.
it must be contrastive. You need something in the discourse as an alternative
possibility. Contrastive focus. Focalization is contrastive and closed
- Left-dislocation. It correlates with topicalization. It can be discourse-linked
or not.
Example of topicalization: My brother, I haven't seen in years → The sentence is

about my brother, I want to talk about him. Esta frase tiene un discourse-linked, es
decir, el topic tiene que haberse mencionado antes, viene contextuado.
¿Qué diferencia hay entre topicalization y left-dislocation? Solo hay una diferencia
sintáctica, la cual es la presencia o ausencia de una referencia pronominal.
Left-dislocated tiene la referencia de un pronombre en el resto de la frase. Mientras
que en topicalization, tenemos un gap. Example:
Topcialization → My brother, I haven't seen __ in years
Left-dislocation → My brother(i), I haven't seen him(i) in years
Correferencial se refiere a que se refiere a la misma entidad real.
My brother, I haven't seen in years → Discourse linked, por eso el focus no puede
ser “my brother” sino otra cosa
Discourse-linked / Non-discourse-linked → My brother, I haven't seen him in years.
Focalization → [Peter] I saw __ (not Mark) → Topicalization as there is no pronoun.

Peter se mueve a la posición inicial. Pragmáticamente hablando, Peter constituye
41
una alternativa (contrastive function). In focalization and topicalization we have a
gap, whereas in left-dislocation we have a pronoun. En focalization tenemos un
contraste y en topicalization tenemos un discourse-lined para centrarnos en ese
sujeto.
You saw Mark, didn’t you?
No, PETER I saw → It is only an answer of whether if I have seen one or the other
(focalization)
I saw PETER → It can be contrastive or informational focus
PREFRONTING EXAMPLES:
● Topicalization:
a. I didn’t speak to Mary.
b. Mary I didn’t speak to ------
A: Can I have a bagel?
B: Sorry, we're out of bagels. A bran muffin I can give you.
● Left-Dislocation:
a. I didn’t speak to Mary.
b. Mary, I didn’t speak to her.
Another example of left-Dislocation: We went to Florida last summer, and we went

to Disney World. The best ride the whole time was Jurassic Park. It was so scary. My
sister Chrissie, her eyes were poppin' out.
42

● Focalization:
What did they name their dog?
a. They named their dog FIdo.
b. #FIdo they named their dog.
(They weren't sure whether to name their dog Fido or Teddy). What did they name
their dog?
b. FIdo they named their dog.
● Right-Dislocation:
a. He’s a nice guy, your brother.
b. They shot him, poor bastard.
● Heavy NP-Shift:
a. I bought that novel for Maggie.
b. *I bought for Maggie that novel.
c. ?? I bought the novel than won the most important European literary prize
for Maggie.
d. I bought for Maggie the novel that won the most important European
literary prize.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ ] = stands for intonational phrases.
43

# = represents a pause if it is in the middle; pragmatically incorrect if it is at the
beginning of the sentence.
?? = No es aceptable, no lo diría un hablante nativo.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non focal fronting = Kind of elements that trigger syntactically process of fronting
but doesn’t have impact on informational structure. Example: [Bastante] hiciste ya.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POSTPOSING
Postponing. It is about putting something at the end

● Right-Dislocation. Example: He(i) is a nice guy, your brother(i) →
Co-referential NP. The co-referential constituent must be discourse-linked (it
is obvious as it present before in the sentence)
● Heavy NP-Shift. When you have something very long, you put it at the end
of the sentence, it is the most natural structure.
Example of Heavy NP-Shift.
a. I bought that novel for Maggie. → It is not heavy, a regular thing.
b. *I bought for Maggie that novel. → No se puede poner al final este NP hay una
estricta relación entre este NP y el verbo, por eso no se puede posponer. *I saw
yesterday Peter, tampoco se podría posponer por la relación estrecha que hay. Solo
se puede posponer en caso de que el NP sea heavy enough, de ahí la estructura del
Heavy NP-Shift..
c. ?? I bought the novel than won the most important European literary prize
for Maggie.
44

d. I bought for Maggie the novel that won the most important European
literary prize.
En español tenemos no tenemos topicalization en español, sino que tenemos

“clitic-dislocation”. Lo encontramos en francés, italiano… esto depende de la
existencia de clitics en vez de pronombres regulares.
EN ESPAÑOL Preposing :
● Clitic-Left-Dislocation. El clitic tiene que estar presente.
● Focalization
A mi hermano no lo he visto en años → Lo es correferencial con “mi hermano”, no

puede aparecer como un objeto sino que tiene que aparecer con el verbo, esto
tiene que ver con que el verbal head es muy alto en español. En inglés sería igual:
My brother, I haven’t seen him in years
EN ESPAÑOL. Postposing:
● Right-Dislocation
● Heavy-Np Shift
EXAMPLES:
- Clitic-Left-Dislocation:
a. No he visto a tu madre en todo el día.
b. A tu madre no la he visto en todo el día.
c. *A tu madre no he visto en todo el día. → La ausencia de clitic lo hace

agramatical.
- Focalization:
45
a. En primaVEra fueron a París (no en otoño).
b. CaFÉ preferieron los visitantes (no agua).
c. *En primaVEra a Paris fueron (no en otoño).
d. *CaFÉ los visitantes prefirieron (no agua).
En español tenemos un subject verb inversion obligatoria.
What did they name their dog?
b. #FIdo they named their dog.
c. Fido named their dog.
Si empiezo la frase con un focus, el verbo tiene que ir detrás. Lo mismo ocurre en
las clitics, porque el clitic va ligado al verbo. Example: Jorge, lo llamaron sus padres.
Focus S V (in English and Spanish).
En español, los objetos y complementos aparecen al final si son heavies o no,

mientras que en inglés solo se pueden posponer si es heavy. Example: *I saw
yesterday Peter / I sway yesterday the person I met in the disco. // Vi ayer a Peter /
Via a Peter ayer.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
46

Object Shift → Movement to the left, typical NP objects
Heavy NP-Shift → movement to the right. Typical from nominal clauses
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking at the syntactic differences:
a. Listo no lo parece. → Clitic-left dislocation
a'. *Clever he doesn't seem it. →
b. A todos no los hemos visto todavía. → todos is a quantifier
b'. *Everybody I haven't seen them yet.
c. Que fumas lo sabemos todos.
c'. *That you smoke we all know it.
Clitic-left-dislocation can be with any XP, whereas in English restricted to referential

NPs.
a. Estos libros(i) a Juan(ii) nunca se(ii) los(i) dejaría. → We find two clitics here.
Se is “le” when: le → se + lo
a’. *These books to John I would never lend them to him.
b. Un regalo a Juan jamás se lo ha comprado.
b’.*A gift for John he has never bought it for him. → Impossible in English
47

a. La casa la limpia Juan. → Clitic-Left-Dislocation. La casa es el preposed element,
“la” the clitic that makes a phonology and syntactically constituent with the verb: La
casa (NP) la limpia (V) Juan (S)
b. *The house cleans it John. → SVO es la estructura. Excepto las estructuras de
there structure y locative (or stylistics inversions in general), la estructura del inglés
es siempre SVO. Por eso no es posible esto en inglés, pero el español tiene un word
order menos restringido
En español el orden del resto de los elementos que no son el NP y su clitic es más
libre cuando tenemos una clitic-left-dislocation. En focalización todo es más
restringido.
NEGATIVE INVERSION
Negative Inversion → Preposing of the constituent containing the proper

constituent.
*Never in my life have I seen such a mess I have
a. *Not a soul he saw.
a’. *Never in my life I have seen such a mess.
b. *Not a soul saw he.
b’. Never in my life have I seen such a mess.
c. Not a soul did he see.
La estructura correcta es la que es con la inversión en el caso de tener un auxiliar.

*Not a soul saw I.
Focalization in Spanish la condición es más pragmática que sintáctica.
48

En inglés, it is more syntactic, it is an instant of V2.
This is an instance of operator movements (like so phrases). The operator requires
the inversion.
Negation is clearly an operator.
a. A Juan el LIbro le compró María (no el cuaderno). → Clitic-left-dislocation (a

Juan; le) with focalization (el libro is focalized).
b. *John the BOOK Mary bought him (not the notebook).
c. *For John the BOOK Mary bought (not the notebook).
En inglés la única posibilidad es tener un solo constituyente del focus, it is unique in

english and spanish. The order is more or less fixed:
Topic/Left-Dislocation Focus Topic/Left-Dislocation
They are recursive, that means that they can be repeated.
Topics preceding following or preceding focus
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cross linguistically, concerning preposing, we have 3 possibilities: left-dislocation,
focalization
We can repeat many times left-dislocation (referring to the same constituent),
whereas focalization is unique, we can only have it once. Focalization restringido a
un solo elemento.
Example:
Scorpions(i), those(i) I really hate → Scorpions is the docalization, and those is the
left-dislocation. Aquí hay una focalization y una left-dislocation.
49
That man(i), him(i) I clearly remember → him is tropicalized porque precede al
sujeto, pero ambos se refieren al mismo elemento. En inglés podemos hacer esto.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REMEMBER:
Unaccusatives are verbs that have only a Theme. Examples are melt, sink, fall.
Unergatives are verbs that have only an Agent. Examples are dance, hop, jog.
Transitive and intransitive verbs. A verb can be described as transitive or
intransitive based on whether it requires an object to express a complete thought
or not. A transitive verb is one that only makes sense if it exerts its action on
an object. An intransitive verb will make sense without one. Some verbs may
be used both ways.
A transitive verb is one that requires a direct object to finish its meaning. Example:
He (subject) plays (transitive verb) guitar (direct object). An intransitive verb is one
that does not need a direct object to complete its meaning. Example: She (subject)
laughs and smiles (compound intransitive verb).
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXERCICES:
1. V2 or ‘Stylistic Inversion’? Although we haven’t explicitly dealt with them in

class, English so-inversion structures are characterized by having the verb
preceding the subject (1a), (1b), apparently paralleling ‘Negative Inversion’
(1c) as well as ‘Stylistic Inversion’ (1d)).
(1) a. I have already visited Mary. So have I.
b. So bravely had the soldiers fought that the Congress gave them all a medal.
c. No sooner had he finished his dinner than he felt sick.
d. Then came the most exciting moment of the tournament.
50

However, as we have seen in class, ‘Negative Inversion’ and ‘Stylistic
Inversion’ are not members of the same syntactic type. Explain why this is the
case and determine whether so-structures belong to one type or the other
providing at least one relevant argument.
Negative inversion is a residue of V2 in English of old English grammar, having an

XP + Finite verb. They are second residues. The trigger is in a more restricted
situation:
XP Vfinite → In English, for this to be possible, the trigger has to be a negative XP.
However, in the rest of the Germanic languages XP could be anything. In English, to
make the structure of the negative inversion we need an auxiliary, it cannot be
done with a lexical verb.
Stylistic inversion is a kind of postverbal subject. “Stylistic inversion” is related with

the postverbal subject phenomenon, that is when the unmarked order is modified
by postposing the subject, that is in first position, to the final position.
Taking this into account…:
a. I have already visited Mary. So have I. → Negative inversion type (V2).
b. So bravely had the soldiers fought that the Congress gave them all a medal. →
Negative inversion type (V2).
c. No sooner had he finished his dinner than he felt sick. → Negative inversion
type (V2).
d. Then came the most exciting moment of the tournament. → Stylistic

inversion, as there is no auxiliary, it is a simple sentence and it is about an
unaccusative verbs
51

CORRECCIÓN en clase:
Todas ellas tienen un constituyente precediendo el sujeto. En el caso
Las 3 construcciones son diferentes en el sentido de que 1.a y 1b es un so
constituent. el preposed constituyente en el b es un adverb
1.a: so inversion ; 1b: so inversion 1c: negative inversion 1d: locative inversion
Inversion behaves in one way or another
Structure of negative inversion is V2 → XP Vfinite Subject. The finite verb is in

the second position and then it is followed by the subject.
Locative inversion structure → Locative/Predicate (=XP) Vfinite Subject

¿Cómo puedo distinguirlo en base al data?
Ahora “so”, tenemos que clasificarlo en negative inversion o locative inversion. Por
ello, ¿cómo lo podemos clasificar? Tenemos un verbo transitivo y los stylistic
inversion suelen estar con los unaccusative verbs. So inversion pueden encajar en
negative inversion por el tipo de verbo que es. Otra diferencia que vemos en los
ejemplos es que tenemos una compound tense en las negative inversions y en la
locative tenemos una simple tense. Probemos:
They fought against of the rest Europe with no powerful armies → With no powerful
armies did they fought against the res of Europe (Si intento continuar con una
simple sentence, estaría incorrecto). en el caso de negative inversion donde
necesito el dummy do. ¿Por qué? Porque si necesitamos el dummy do es porque el
verbo finite no aparece en la posición de V → [ XP [ did [they]. Ha habido
movimientos del V2.
En stylistic inversion tiene un the locative tiene un behaviour de un sujeto → (IP)[XP

(VP)[came a man (subj) . el FRONTED ELEMENT está en la subject position y came
52

está en el VP y el sujeto está después del verbo pero en el propio VP y por eso
necesitamos un accusative verb.
Negative inversion se puede tener con cualquier verbo, pero la stylistic inversion
solo o generalmente con unaccusative verbs (a veces con alguno transitivo, pero
casi nunca), en la locative inversion en este caso , el verbo no se mueve casi y el
sujeto está al lado en su lugar original.
(Recordar que → Unaccusatives are verbs that have only a Theme. Examples are
melt, sink, fall. Unergatives are verbs that have only an Agent. Examples are dance,
hop, jog.)
El V2 se restringe solo en las estructuras donde el XP es el resultado de un

movimiento de proyección. En locative inversion tengo el verbo en segunda
posición pero el complemento es el notional subject.
[Stylistic inversion (general). Its subtypes are: predicate fronting and locative
inversion]
So inversion → no está restringido con ningún tipo de verbos y no puedo hacer

simple sentences, por lo tanto it belongs to negative inversion structure.
Negative inversion and so-inversion are V2 structures→ Operator inversion ( as so

and the negative particles are V2 operators).
(RESPUESTA DESPUÉS DE CORREGIR):
“Stylistic inversion” is related with the postverbal subject phenomenon, that is when the
unmarked order is modified by postponing the subject, that is in first position, to the final
position. In this context the preposed information must be more familiar than the
postposed one. On the other hand, negative inversion is a remaining construction of
what is called V2, the main characteristic of German languages (except English which
has almost lost it). This rule says that the verb must always be in the second position. In
53
negative inversion the verb always occupies the second position and a negative clause
is preposed.
Xp + V finite +subject
Loc/pred + v finite+ subject
pro v2 (=potencia el V2): allows transitive verbs such as visited ( I visited someone=
need complement), the verb is a simple tense in SI while in V2 a complex tense is
necessary because the finite verb cannot move to such a high position but the auxiliary
can (auxiliary moves from tense to complementizer ).
CP[Xp C[did InfP[they ⇒2 movements 1. Auxiliary from inflexion to complementizer 2.

Expletive from inflexion to xp
Ip[ XP vp[came a man
So-inversion and negative inversion are the same type, that is, part of what we call
operator inversion.
2. Spanish ‘Object Shift’. As seen in class, VOS in Spanish is the product of

‘Object Shift’, in traditional accounts, or ‘Scrambling’, in Ordóñez’ (1998) view.
Examine the examples in (1), taken from Zubizarreta (1998), and (2) and
characterize this construction in terms of Information Structure.
54

(1) ¿Quién ganó la lotería ayer?
a. Ganó la lotería ayer Juan.
b. #Ganó la lotería Juan ayer.
c. #Ayer ganó Juan la lotería.
All of them are marked, except for c that can be the answer of a What happened
question.
A. In the first case I have a narrow informational structure. The final position is
the subject. Juan → sentence finally. Focus está en primera posicion con Juan
B. Juan XP. El XP es el focus
C. Juan XP. El XP es el focus
Dónde está el focus en español? En el último elemento.
En español (SVO language), VOS es posible solo porque el focus va en el sujeto (la
pregunta va sobre el sujeto). Si el focus no está en el subject, no está bien.
[Focus proyection rule solo con wide focus (en VPs and sentences)]
(2) ¿Qué pasó ayer?
a. (Ayer) ganó Juan la lotería.
b. #Ayer ganó la lotería Juan.
En este caso, la pregunta es un what happened question. Todo es nueva

información excepto por “ayer”.
55

A → VSO
B → VOS
El primero está bien porque es unmarked order, es decir, la estructura usada para
uan what happened question. El sujeto en última posición no es un word orden en
español para un wide focus. Está restringido el VOS a “who questions” en español.
VSO → Para wide focus, what
VOS → Narrow focus con preguntas sobre el sujeto, que es lo común en español.
El punto es que en ambos casos es narrow focus, informational or contrastive.

Focus en el sujeto sea informational or contrastive.
(VOS es focus solo en el sujeto)
Provide the English counterparts of the pragmatically adequate (1a) and (2a).
Explain in detail the differences between the two English examples.
1a. *Won the lottery yesterday John
2a. *(Yesterday) won John the lottery.
This is related to word order and how constrictive a language is based on its word
order possibilities. In addition, English is a very poor morphological language and
therefore subject and verb are closely related.
CORRECCIÓN:
La única posibilidad sería → JOHN won the lottery yesterday
Yesterday [John won the lottery] ???
56

(1) ¿Quién ganó la lotería ayer?

a. Ganó la lotería ayer Juan. VO(xp)S marked order with transitive verb. Narrow
informational focus. “Juan” is the new information and answers the question
correctly ("Juan" is main focus) B
b. #Ganó la lotería Juan ayer. VOS(xp) order with transitive verb. Focus is in "ayer"
and do not answer a question with "quien" B
c. #Ayer ganó Juan la lotería. (xp)VSO unmarked order with transitive verb. In this
case it sounds odd because it is not discourse initially nor an answer to a “what
happened?“ question. B
(2) ¿Qué pasó ayer?

a. (Ayer) ganó Juan la lotería. (xp)VSO unmarked order with transitive verb. In this
context it is correct because it is an answer to a “what happened?” question. B
b. #Ayer ganó la lotería Juan. (xp)VOS marked order with transitive verb. Narrow
focus on the subject. Answers questions about the subject (who)
Provide the English counterparts of the pragmatically adequate (1a) and (2a). Explain in
detail the differences between the two English examples.
1a. JOHN won the lottery yesterday. SVO unmarked order. Main pitch is in “john”
which is the new information (focus). It answers perfectly the question about
WHO won the lottery. B
57
2a. Yesterday John won the lottery. SVO unmarked order. Main pitch is in the most
right element and answers a “what happened” question. Focus/ new information
is “the lottery” filling the gap that “What” provides. B
3. Spanish ‘Object Shift’. (From Ordóñez 2000). Can you think of any reason,
related to Information Structure, for the contrast between (1a) and (1b)? Your
conclusions in the immediately previous exercise (2) may be of help.
(1) a. No me envió un telegrama tu madre, sino tu hermana.
b. #No me envió un telegrama tu madre, sino una carta.
El VSO en español está activado por el contexto, por la situación. La conclusión

tiene que ir relacionada. Cuando tenemos VOS en español es porque el sujeto está
en el focus.
En el A, aquí oponemos dos elementos que son sujeto. En el B, oponemos el sujeto

y el objeto, por eso no es pragmáticamente correcto. ¿Por qué uno está bien y otro
no?
Contrast, lingüísticamente, para hacerlo tengo que hacer un focus. Esto tendría que
contrastar con algo de la main clause, y si tiene que contrastar con algo en última
posición en el caso del español. En el caso A → tu madre, sino tu hermana. En el
caso B, nos encontramos un objeto non-focus, con ausencia de un elemento focus
de objeto después.
“Sino tu hermana” necesita un elemento de contraste previamente, al final de su

clause, el cual está en última posición (se su propia clause) con “tu madre”. Para
que el segundo contraste salga bien, tendría que poner un elemento de focus al
58

final en contraste con el non-focus que hay previamente. Se arreglaria diciendo “No
me envió una carta, sino un telegrama”
(1) a. No me envió un telegrama tu madre, sino tu hermana.

b. #No me envió un telegrama tu madre, sino una carta.
Sentence a. is (xp)VOS marked order with a transitive verb. There is a narrow contrast
focus in which the first part of the sentence is the known information and the second
part is the focus. In this context a correction is being made related to the fact that she
sent a telegram to her sister not to her mother. In the other hand, the second sentence
is odd because the contrast is between “telegrama” and “carta”. For this to make
contrast, the order should be “tu madre no me envió un telegrama, sino una carta”, that
is a postverbal subject would not be necessary.
In b) the contrast between "telegrama" and "carta" is not possible because the focus is
in the final position "tu madre" and not in "un telegrama"
5. Given / old information. In the discussion of this notion in the class

handout, it is stated that “given / old information never carries main pitch if it
has been mentioned in discourse.” Explain why the data below (based on
Simik 2012) support such a claim.
(1) Context:
A: Hi, where are you going?
B: I'm going to the observatory… I'd like to see the eclipse of the SUN.
59

(2) Context:
I'm really interested in the sun. It's my hobby. But so far... I haven't seen any
eCLIPSE of the sun.
En el 1 es un contexto de wide focus porque quiero ver el eclipse del sol, todo
presentado como algo nuevo.
En el contexto 2, es wide focus, pero hay un discourse element, ya hemos hablado
del sol y por eso es un discourse given, el main pitch salta, no puede estar en el
último elemento porque ahí tiene que estar el stressed element.
[Wide focus → Constituent larger than one elemento, a complex constituent, it can
be a whole VP, or more-
Narrow focus → Focus en un XP, un solo constituyente]
(1) Context: A: Hi, where are you going?

B: I'm going to the observatory... I'd like to see the eclipse of the SUN.
(2) Context: I'm really interested in the sun. It's my hobby. But so far… I haven't seen
any eCLIPSE of the sun.
Wide focus: more than a simple constituent is new info
In 1) there is a wide focus while in 2) even though there is a wide focus, "sun" is given
info and can't appear stressed.
60

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DUDAS RESUELTAS
● ¿El object-shift es solo en las lenguas: Icelandic, Mainland Scandinavian y

Faraoese, y el Scrambling es en todas las lenguas romances menos el
portugués brasileño? Sobre eso también tengo la duda de si se trata
exactamente del mismo fenómeno salvo que el object-shift es para VO
languages y el scrambling es para las lenguas que son OV (siendo su unmarked
word order). Es decir, que se basa en que el objeto vaya delante o detrás de
adverbios y la negación.
EN LA BIBLIOGRAFÍA SOBRE LENGUAS GERMÁNICAS SE DISTINGUE ENTRE
OBJECT SHIFT, QUE SE DA EN LAS LENGUAS ESCANDINAVAS, Y SCRAMBLING,
QUE SE DA EN LAS LENGUAS DEL GERMÁNICO OCCIDENTAL QUE SON OV, ES
DECIR, ALEMÁN Y HOLANDÉS. LO QUE SE DA EN LAS LENGUAS ROMANCES SE
HA VENIDO LLAMANDO TRADICIONALMENTE OBJECT SHIFT PERO PARA
ALGUNOS AUTORES, POR EJEMPLO, ORDÓÑEZ (1998), EL FENÓMENO DEBERÍA
LLAMARSE SCRAMBLING. LA RAZÓN ES QUE AFECTA NO SOLO A
COMPLEMENTOS NOMINALES (OBJETOS DIRECTOS), COMO EL OBJECT SHIFT,
SINO TAMBIÉN A COMPLEMENTOS CON OTRA CATEGORÍA, POR EJEMPLO PP,
TAL Y COMO OCURRE CON EL SCRAMBLING GERMÁNICO. EN AMBOS
PROCESOS EL COMPLEMENTO, NOMINAL, PREPOSICIONAL, ETC. PRECEDE A
ADVERBIOS Y NEGACIÓN.
● ¿There-insertion es una estructura marked? ¿Y el preposing y el postposing,

hacen todo ello referencias a formas alternativas a la estructura unmarked?
THERE-INSERTION ES UNA ESTRUCTURA NO CANÓNICA EN TANTO EN CUANTO
EL ORDEN DE PALABRAS NO ES SVO, SINO QUE EL SUJETO APARECE POSPUESTO.
LAS ESTRUCTURAS DE PREPOSING Y POSPOSING SON ESTRUCTURAS MARCADAS
EN TANTO EN CUANTO UN ELEMENTO QUE NORMALMENTE PARECERÍA EN EL VP
61
APARECE EN UNA POSICIÓN PERIFÉRICA BIEN A LA IZQUIERDA (PREPOSING) O A
LA DERECHA (POSTPOSING).
● ¿Las Clitic-Disertions no existen en inglés?
NO, SIMPLEMENTE PORQUE EL INGLÉS NO TIENE CLÍTICOS.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXERCICES:
(6, 7 Y 9 NO LOS CORREGIMOS PORQUE SE ENTREGAN PARA NOTA FINAL)
4. Topicalization. Read chapter 3, section 3.3.3 in Casielles (2004) and summarize

the main arguments why (2a) and (2b) cannot be treated on a par.
(1) a. Money I couldn’t find.
b. Dinero no pude encontrar.
6. Preverbal and postverbal subjects with intransitive verbs. Examine the Spanish
examples in (1)-(2) and compare them with their English counterparts in (2)-(3).
Which language is more restrictive in the use of preverbal subjects? Which one is
the most restrictive in the use of postverbal ones? Explain in detail referring
specifically to each of the structures in (1)-(2).
(1) a. Pronto surgieron esos problemas. b. Esos problemas surgieron pronto. c.

Pronto surgieron problemas.
d. *Problemas surgieron pronto.
e. PROBLEMAS surgieron (y no soluciones).
(2) a. Correteaban los niños sin parar. b. Los niños correteaban sin parar. c.
Correteaban niños sin parar.
62

d. *Niños correteaban sin parar.
e. NIÑOS correteaban sin parar (y no adultos).
(3) a. #There arose those problems soon. b. Those problems arose soon.
c. There arose problems soon.
c. Problems arose soon.
d. PROBLEMS arose (and not solutions).
(4) a. *There ran the children ceaselessly. b. The children ran ceaselessly.
c. *There ran children ceaselessly.
d. Children ran ceaselessly.
e. CHILDREN ran ceaselessly (and not adults).
7. English VS. Indicate which of the sentences below are ungrammatical and replace
them by grammatical counterparts(From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012).
a. Here is a cheque for $80.
b. Now have arrived all the members of the family. c. Here have to be taken the
tough decisions.
d. Soon will start the 100 meter sprint.
e. After every storm comes a rainbow.
f. Next week is coming the inspector.
8. Spanish learners find it difficult to know when to insert it into a clause. For each
of the following sentences, indicate whether it should be inserted at the position
63

shown by ...... (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Based on your answers,
could you provide a specific rule for it-insertion in English?
a. Before every exam ... comes a week of preparation. b. Then ... began the build-up
to the main event.
c. When the train arrived ... was still raining.
d. Then ... appeared another interesting document.
e. At the meeting ... was proposed to cancel all classes.
f. In our view ... is important to consider the costs of the latest proposals. g.
Therefore ...is only logical for us to expect difficulties.
h. Often ... appears that patients are being deliberately stubborn.
i. Here ... lived the famous author Thomas Hardy.
9. Spanish ungrammatical sentences. Determine the reasons for the

ungrammaticality of the Spanish sentences below and provide their grammatical
counterpart. Are these Spanish ungrammatical structures ungrammatical in English
too?
a. *Me gusta el café a mí.
b. *LOS LIBROS Sara trajo, no los cuadernos.
c. *Ese pañuelo compró Jaime a Julia.
d. *Nada que podamos hacer hay.
e. *A JULIA ESE PAÑUELO se lo compró Jaime ( y no a Daniela el bolso).
10. English ungrammatical sentences. Determine the reasons for the

ungrammaticality of the English sentences below and provide their grammatical
64

counterpart. Are these English ungrammatical structures ungrammatical in Spanish
too?
a. *In the strike participated policemen.
b. *I spoke yesterday with the director.
c. *For that sin James Julia will never forgive.
d. *Loomed in the distance the Andes Mountains. e. *I’ve never visited, Julia.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25 octubre 2022
TOPIC 3: THE MORPHOSYNTAX OF THE VERB IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH
UPPER INSERTION
By assuming that VP adverbs, we noted there is a difference between English and

Spanish with the inflection. En español podemos ver los verbos en una low position
o en una high position. En inglés, los finite lexical verbs están en una posición baja.
Mientras uqe en español, sabemos que los finite lexical verbs en español están
arriba, donde la inflexión y ahí solo pueden aparecer los verbos finite con auxiliares
y modales en inglés- En inglés podemos ver que los non-finite no pueden ir abajo
como los verbos en inglés en la low position.
En español, si tenemos que preposing something, en español tiene que estar vacío
mientras que en el inglés se prepone todo el VP Averb.
65
2. Morphological ‘richness’ and the position of the verb in the sentence.
2.2. VP-adverbs.
VP-adverbs must be distinguished from sentence-adverbs. Sentence-adverbs are
those that modify the entire proposition expressed by the clause. Sentence-adverbs
include elements belonging to several categories: PPs (por supuesto, of course), non-
derived adverbs (quizás, perhaps), a number of -mente, -ly adverbs (obviamente,
obviously). In English as well as in Spanish sentence-adverbs may immediately
precede the subject (11a), (12a) or follow it (11b), (12b). However, if the verbal form
is analytic (i.e. Aux + lexical verb), sentence adverbs must precede Aux in English
(13). This pattern is, however, deviant in Spanish, at least with auxiliary haber (14).
(Spanish examples from Zagona 2002).
(11) a. Probably Mary read that book. b. Mary probably read that book.
(12) a. Probablemente María leyó ese libro. b. María probablemente leyó ese
libro.
(13) a. Mary had probably read that book. b. *Mary probably had read that book.
(14) a. ?María había probablemente leído ese libro.
b. María estaba probablemente leyendo ese libro.
VP-adverbs are adverbs that modify the event (or state) expressed by VP, or some
constituent of it. These include time adverbs (ayer, yesterday; hoy, today; a menudo,
often; ya, already, etc.); place adverbs (aquí, here; allí, there; lejos, far; afuera, outside;
etc.); extent / degree adverbs (casi, almost, apenas, barely; solo, only, etc.); manner
adverbs (bien, well; mal, badly; rápido, quickly; fácilmente, easily, etc.); and quantity
adverbs (mucho, a lot; poco, little; demasiado, too much, etc.).
66

Although some VP-adverbs always appear in postverbal position in both English
and Spanish (15), other VP-adverbs can follow the finite verb in Spanish (16) but not
in English (17), unless the (finite) verb is a modal or an auxiliary (have, be) (18).
(15) a. María ama a su hija mucho.
a.’ *María mucho ama a su hija. b. Mary loves her daughter a lot. b’. *Mary a lot
loves her daughter.
(16) a. Pedro lee a menudo el periódico.
b. Pedro habla siempre italiano.
c. Entiendo completamente tu punto de vista. d. Pedro sabe ya todas preguntas.
(17) a. Peter often reads the newspaper. a’. *Peter reads often the newspaper. b.
Peter always speaks Italian.
b’. *Peter speaks always Italian.
c. I completely understand your point of view. c’. *I understand completely your

point of view. d. Peter already knows all questions.
e. *Peter knows already all questions.
(18) a. Peter has often read the newspaper.
b. Peter should always speak Italian.
c. I have completely understood what you said.
d. Peter will completely understand your point of view.
e. Peter DOES completely understand what you are saying.
67

Fact #1. Certain VP-adverbs can follow the finite verb in Spanish but not in English,
unless the finite verb is a modal or an auxiliary.
If we take VP-adverbs to occupy fixed positions, and linear precedence to
correspond to syntactic height: in English, modals and auxiliaries occupy a syntactic
position (INFL) higher than that hosting both finite lexical verbs and non-finite verbs
(V); in Spanish, ‘modals’, auxiliaries and finite lexical verbs occupy a syntactic
position (INFL) higher than that hosting non-finite verbs (V). English and Spanish
would thus differ only with respect to the position finite lexical verbs occupy, higher
in Spanish than in English.
Finite form composed by → lexeme (root) + suffix expressing tense and agreement
2.2. Constituency tests
2.2.1. VP-Preposing
(20) a. We went to Canada to learn, and learn we did.
68

b. He tried to finish the job, but finish it completely he couldn’t. c. We thought he
would get married, but married he has not.
d. We thought he was getting better, but getting worse he was.
El suffix es la inflexión (esto es crosslinguitic, ocurre en todas las lenguas) porque es

grammatical information, la cual queremos que aparezca como algo funcional.
Mientras que el verbo, su lexema, es solo información lexica. Todo el material,
orginalmente aparece en la low position (En inglés: el arbol: en la posicion de
IFLEXION: -t; En la posicion de V: learn-). Mientras que en español → Todo está en la
inflexión, el VP es left empty: INFLEXION:-imos; V: aprend-) Esto es debido a que
una lengua es más rica morfológicamente que la otra, el español tiene una gran
riqueza.
En inglés si queremos mover el VP al principio, no nos podemos dejar la inflexión

unattached, por eso la necesidad de un auxiliar. En español es un raising antes de
que el VP fronting applies.
Finite form is the combination of the infinitive form + the inflexion
69
(21) a. *Fuimos a Canadá a aprender y aprender (hicimos).
a’. Fuimos a Canadá a aprender y aprendimos.
b. Intentó terminar el trabajo, pero terminarlo del todo no pudo. c. *Pensamos

que se casaría pero casado no se ha.
d. *Pensamos que estaba mejorando pero empeorando estaba.
But married he has not → He has not married
Terminado del todo no puedo → (viene de:) No pudo terminarlo todo. Pudo viene
de la posición de la inflexión y terminarlo viene de la posición de V.
70

Tenemos datos que se contradicen en español, el infinitivo puede aparecer en la
posición V el infinitivo puede, pero el past participle no puede aparecer en la
posición del V. Puedo prepose “tener que”, “poder hacer”…, pero no un past
participle. En inglés sí se puede.
*Casado no se ha → No se ha casado
But married he has not → he has not married
Terminarlo todo no pudo → No pudo terminarlo todo
71

El español es más complicado en esta perspectiva.
*Empeorando estaba → Estaba empeorando
72

2.2.2. VP-ellipsis.
(22) a. I learned a lot in Canada and you will too.
b. I could help him to finish the job and Mike could too. c. George has married and
Tom has too.
d. He was getting better and his wife was too.
73
(23) a. *Aprendí mucho en Canadá y aprender (harás) tú también.
b. Aprendí mucho en Canadá y aprenderás mucho tú también.
c. Pude ayudarle a terminar el trabajo y también pudo Miguel.
d. *Jorge se ha casado y Tomás se ha también.
e. *Estaba mejorando y su mujer estaba también.
Aprenderás → “-ás”, está separado de “aprende-”. Cuando “Aprende-” se sube, el

VP, se queda vacío y eso implica que no hay nada. Deleting the VP no tiene sentido
porque estamos eliminando algo que está vacío.
74

En español no hay Dummy Do!
En el caso del futuro en español, this is out:
En inglés → Ej: Cuando el sufijo es left stranded, tenemos una estrategia: la
inserción del “do”, sin embargo si intentamos esa left stranded en español,
necesitaríamos insertar algo para attach la inflexión, pero no tenemos dummy do
en español, por eso no es posible. Tenemos “hacer”, pero no es dummy do porque
es un infinitivo.
Dummy do rellena las non-finite forms. El dummy do es un elemento solo para la

posición de la inflexión.
Repair strategy is applying the dummy do, so we cannot do it in spanish.
En el caso de tener un infinitivo en español, fronting is possible in Spanish, as it

appears in V. (También pudo ayudarle). Cuando hay un participio o un gerundio, no
se puede hacer una preposing en español, pero con el infinitivo sí.
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2.2.2. VP-ellipsis.
(22) a. I learned a lot in Canada and you will too.
b. I could help him to finish the job and Mike could too. c. George has married and
Tom has too.
d. He was getting better and his wife was too.
(23) a. *Aprendí mucho en Canadá y aprender (harás) tú también.
b. Aprendí mucho en Canadá y aprenderás mucho tú también.
c. Pude ayudarle a terminar el trabajo y también pudo Miguel.
d. *Jorge se ha casado y Tomás se ha también.
e. *Estaba mejorando y su mujer estaba también.
En español cuando tenemos en términos de inflexión un verbo, no podemos hacer

una VP Ellipsis, pero si hay un infinitivo sí. (También pudo ayudarle ).
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Conclusion: for VP fronting, VP ellipsis, en español necesitamos un infinitivo, sino
no se puede. En inglés se puede con todo (infinitivos, lexical verbs, past
participles…). Lexical verbs and non lexical forms in english are in VP, in Spanish just
the infinitives
2.2.3. Pro-form replacement.
(24) a. I learned a lot in Canada and you will do so too.
b. I could help him to finish the job and Mike could do so too. c. George has
married and Tom has done so too.
d. He was getting better and his wife was doing so too.
(25) a. Aprendí mucho en Canadá y también lo harás tú.
77
b. Pude ayudarle a terminar el trabajo y Miguel pudo hacerlo también. c. Jorge se
ha casado y Tom lo ha hecho también.
d. Estaba mejorando y su mujer lo estaba haciendo también. (Esto no es un do so
replacement.)
(26) a. Fancy breaking a glass! I’ve never done it before. → No tenemos do-so,
tenemos do+direct object (do it) ¿Cuál es el complemento del dummy do? The VP. El
dummy do aporta la inflexión. ¿Cuál es el complemento de la inflexión? El VP. Por
eso en este caso, este do es léxico, no es el auxiliar. It hace referencia a “breaking a
glass”. En español tenemos un lexical do donde aquí en inglés se uda el “do it”, que
es igual que el make it.
b. Did she put the cake in the oven? Yes, she did it when you were out.
FINITE LEXICAL VERBS AND NON-FINITE VERBS IN ENGLISH APPEARS IN VP

POSITION, THE REST IN THE INFLEXION POSITION (Finite, auxiliaries, modals,
Dummy do). IN SPANISH ALL FINITE LEXICAL VERBS, FINITE AUXILIARS, AND
MODALS IN INFLEXION POSITION. El español es complicado en las non-finite forms
porque solo los infinitivos pueden aparecer en español
VERBS IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH IN THE TREE:
INFLEXION POSITION V POSITION
English: finite aux, modals, “do” English: finite lexical verbs & non-finite
(dummy do) Spanish: non-finite, infinitive??, past
Spanish: finite lexical verbs, finite aux, participle, gerunds (tenemos evidencias
modals que nos hacen difícil clasificar esto en
español. Normalmente el infinitivo
suele estar higher)
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Fact #2. VP-preposing, VP-ellipsis and pro-form replacement are processes applying
to the VP. Therefore, they can only target (finite and non-finite) verbs in V, not in
INFL.
The English data is in agreement with the facts, but a question arises in the case of
Spanish: (i) if, according to our hypothesis, non-finite lexical verbs are in V, like their
English counterparts, why is VP-preposing ungrammatical in (23d), (23e)? Note that,
as our hypothesis predicts, (23c) is grammatical.
(27) a. Entregada al ganador, la medalla ha sido entregada. (Vicente 2009)
b. Haciendo todo eso estaba Juan cuando sonó el timbre. → Juan estaba haciendo
todo eso (haciendo está en el VP)
Entregada al ganador, la medalla ha sido entregada → Esto es VP-Preposing.
Both the English and the Spanish data are in agreement with our hypothesis,
special constraints on the relevant Spanish structures aside.
EN ESPAÑOL: Por un lado vemos que los participios y los gerundios no están en el
VP y otros casos en los que no se puede, de ahí la complejidad de esta clasificación
de las posiciones de los verbos en español. Por ello, no lo sabemos del todo,
tenemos posturas que lo apoyan y otras que no.
Si tomamos el ejemplo 27 como algo más fuerte para la posición de los verbos
nonfinite en español, diríamos que se puede en VP ambas lenguas poner los
non-finite, pero Gema Chocano cree que seguramente sea higher porque también
coincide con lenguas romances.
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En español, todos los finite lexical verbs van en la posición de la inflexión.
2.3. Negation.
(28) a. John did not read the newspaper.
a’. *John not read the newspaper.
b. John could not read the newspaper.
b’. *John not could read the newspaper. c. John had not read the newspaper.
c’. *John not had read the newspaper.
d. John was not reading the newspaper.
d’. *John not was reading the newspaper.
Lexical verbs en inglés requieren de un dummy do en la negación. Negation

precedes the verb, which is in the VP. Si tenemos un modal, sería igual Esta sería la
estructura:
80

Sin embargo, en español, en la posición de V no se podría poner en la posición de
V: leído ? / leyendo ?/ leer? Por eso la negación en español iría arriba del todo. si los
verbos léxicos están en la posición de inflexión, la negación en español tiene que
estar más arriba. La única posibilidad es esta, que aparezca en la posición alta, pero
no se limita solo al español sino también al italiano por ejemplo, siguen el mismo
patron. Todo esto son proyecciones funcionales. Aquí encontramos un parámetro
en cada idioma, related to the position allowed for languages indicating negation:
preceding or following the negation. The two funcional proyection: en español la
negacion es complemento del complementizer y en inglés es complemento de
inflexion (esto está en debate, no tomarlo como algo cerrado)
81
Fact #3. In English, clausal negation precedes finite lexical verbs and non-finite
lexical verbs, but follows modals and auxiliaries. In Spanish, clausal negation
precedes all kinds of verbs.
Given that English and Spanish only differ in the behavior of finite lexical verbs,
which are in V in English but in INFL in Spanish, we expect a contrast between the
two languages only in (a) sentences, contrary to fact: the Spanish sentence in (ib) is
ungrammatical; modals and auxiliaries in Spanish follow negation, instead of
preceding it as they do in English.
(i) a. John did not read the book. b. *Juan leyó no el libro.
82

(30) Clausal negation is possible in all languages (a principle). Clausal negation can
precede or follow INFL (a parameter). In English clausal negation follows INFL; in
Spanish clausal negation precedes INFL.
2.4. Floating quantifiers.
Quantifier → They are adjectives morphologically (spanish examples: todos, todas).

They are specials as sometimes they behave as determiners. Morfologicamente son
adjetivos porque también determinan número y persona (en español), pero se
diferencian de los adjetivos regulares (en español y en inglés) en que ellos
preceden al determinante, mientras que los regulares lo posponen. → Los niños
franceses / Todo/as los niños / All the boys / The French boys
Los cuantificadores son especiales por sus posibilidades de dónde pueden ir en el

árbol, de ahí que se llamen “floating quantifiers”.
(31) a. All my friends hate the beach.
a’. My friends all hate the beach. → En este caso el “all” interviene entre el sujeto y
el lexical verb. (Preceding the lexical verb).
b. All my friends could visit that place.
b’. My friends could all visit that place. → Floating → Ocupa posición entre inflexion
y V. (Posición similar a los VP Adverbs).
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En español, los verbos léxicos irían en la inflexión.
c. All my friends have visited that place.
c’. My friends have all visited that place.
(32) a. Todos mis amigos odian la playa.
a’. Mis amigos odian todos la playa.
b. Todos mis amigos pueden visitar ese lugar.
Aquí se demuestra que en español No finite verbs are higher. Si “Todos” está en el
VP, en la proyección entre la inflexión y V, tiene que haver un XP (Probablemente
un Aspect Phrase, una proyección). Los datos que nos dan los floating quantifiers
84

sirven como evidencia para enseñarnos que los non-finite forms están en una
posición más alta que el VP.
85
Asumimos que la posición que ocupa el quantifier es una posición fija en español y
en inglés, en el VP.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recordar que un NP es un DP realmente.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
En español los non-finite verbs pueden estar en V or higher.
b’. Mis amigos pueden visitar todos ese lugar.
c. Todos mis amigos han visitado ese lugar.
c’. Mis amigos han visitado todos ese lugar.
Fact #4. The floating quantifier precedes finite lexical verbs and non-finite lexical
verbs in English (31 a, a’), but follows modals and auxiliaries (31b, b’), (31c, c’). In
Spanish the floating quantifier follows finite lexical verbs (32a’), non-finite lexical
verbs (32b’), (32c’) as well as ‘modals’ and auxiliaries (32b’), (32c’).
On the standard assumption that the floating quantifier appears in a position

between INFL and V, the English data fit our hypothesis: modals and auxiliaries in
INFL precede it, whereas finite lexical verbs and non-finite lexical verbs in V follow
it. The Spanish data, however, are not so straightforward: as expected, ‘modals’ and
auxiliaries as well as finite lexical verbs, all of them in INFL, precede it, but also do
non-finite lexical verbs, supposedly in V. Let’s suppose that in Spanish, a language
with a very rich morphology, even non-finite verbs can appear in a position higher
than V (but crucially lower than INFL).
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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PARA EL SUBJUNTIVO, LEER LA LECTURA PARA ENTENDERLO BIEN
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. A note on syntactic types: modals.
MODALS:
En español todos los finite verbs van en la inflexión (pudo, debió), esto es un input.
En los modales vemos que también están en el input, en la inflexion (can, might).
Pero hay una diferencia en español y en inglés → Los verbos aunque sean iguales
en el verb raising, no hay diferencia entre el verbo lexico en sintactics termis,
cuando sube el verbo. En inglés, might no vendría de la posición del VP, sino que
son elementos que se han insertado directamente en la inflexión. Esto lo sabemos
por… :
(49) a. They must visit George. → Modal + inflexion
b. They must have visited George. → Modal + auxiliary + Past Participle
c. They must be visiting George. → Modal + Aux + -ing
d. *They have musted visit George. → Impossible
e. *They must can visit George. → *Mod + Mod
Conclusion: en inglés no se puede juntar un modal con otro modal.
ATT!:
(50) a. Deben visitar a Jorge.
b. Deben de haber visitado a Jorge.
87

c. Deben de estar visitando a Jorge.
d. Han debido (de) visitar a Jorge. → Esta es la diferencia con el inglés. “Han debido”
no se puede hacer el equivalente en inglés. Aquí un modal puede convivir con otro
modal y también encontramos non-finite forms en los modales en español,
mientras que en inglés esto es imposible. Non-finite forms are impossible in
English. Esto son verbos especiales porque tienen características especiales.
e. Deben de poder visitar a Jorge.
(51) a. can, could, *(to) can, *(have) could, *(be) canning.
b. must, might, *(to) must, *(have) might, *(be) musting.
(52) a. puede, pudo, poder, (haber) podido, (estar) pudiendo. b. debe, debió, deber,
(haber) debido, (estar) debiendo.
En español tenemos: pudo, poder, haber debido, estar debiendo… Tenemos todas
las posibilidades y se comportan como los verbos regulares, como los lexical verbs.
CONCLUSIÓN: En español son lexical verbs, no modales, los verbos “poder”,

mientras que en inglés no. En inglés no son léxicos, son solo modales. Por lo tanto,
podemos decir que en español no tenemos modales como tal sino un equivalente
parecido al inglés.
Un modal no puede estar con otro modal, eso es un test para identificar un modal:
*He can must
*He must can
*He will must / can
Un modal si puede convivir con un auxiliar → He can have… / He can be writing…
88

Sintácticamente son elementos diferentes en inglés, son una inserción diferente.
En español todas las formas verbales son iguales, pero en inglés no. Los modales
en inglés son base-generated. En español presentan non-finite forms.
En inglés tenemos 3 formas sintácticas en inglés:
Lexical verbs - V (están en V siempre)
Aux - V - to - I
Modals - INFLEX
En español todos los verbos se comportan igual:
V-to-I
Cuando hablamos de la sintaxis hablamos de los árboles. Will es un modal de

forma sintáctica, pero en el sentido morfológico implica tense. Hay que saber en
qué sentido hablamos.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
La emergencia de los modales en inglés:
¿Por qué el inglés tienen una clase de modales que en el español no hay? Esto se
debe a la desaparición del subjuntivo.
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90

Topic-3-Comparative-linguistics-...
Belenurbelz


Comparative linguistics - Topic 3
2022-2023
María Gema Chocano
gema.chocano@uam.es
Lexical verbs in English are characterized by being in a very low position in the tree.
Talking about finite verbs…:
En inglés se suelen estudiar los verbos en tres categorías:
- Lexical verbs (semantic content). Aparecen en una very low position: V (at the
bottom of the tree)
- Auxiliary verbs (grammatical content)
- Modals (content which is not completely lexical)
Desde el punto de vista sintáctico, estos verbos se comportan de manera diferente. Los
verbos auxiliares y los modales ocupan una posición más alta: la de Inflexión. En inglés, no
hay una morfología rica
En español, desde el punto de vista semántico tenemos lo mismo:
- Lexical verbs
- Auxiliary verbs
Sin embargo, en español, sintácticamente todos los verbos son iguales en español: son
inflexional verbs.
No tenemos modales en español. Son verbos sintácticos. Ha debido venir: esto no podría
ser en inglés porque esto son verbos regulares en español que no hay en inglés. Los
modales es algo no común, es algo característico del inglés.
Modal verb → Verbal form insertada en la altura de la inflexión cuando no hay finite verbal
forms. Son especialmente especiales en su forma sintáctica, pues no tienen inflexión:
*cans.
Hay relación entre la riqueza morfológica y la posición que ocupa un elemento en el árbol.
En español, incluso los non-finite verbs, ocupan una posición más alta que los verbos en
inglés.
Español todo es uniforme, pero en lexical verbs del inglés tiene un comportamiento
diferente. Los verbos en español pueden subir, pero los lexical verbs no pueden en inglés.
El lexical predicate es el lexeme, el lexical part.En la inflexión tenemos el sufijo (-s, -e…).
En inglés tenemos el mismo sistema, pero en los lexical verbs
¿Qué es la riqueza morfológica?
Veremos por qué el español es rico mofológicamente.
Morphological richness has → person, tense, mood, number and aspect

Synthetic→ Expresa nociones gramaticales a través de sufijos (diferente de analytic)
o alomorfos de la raíz. Example: work / work-ed // sing - sang - sung
Syncretic → El mismo segmento repetido varias veces en el mismo paradigma. Ej:
walk-Ø (1a persona), wal-Ø (2a persona)Tienen el mismo sufijo para la característica
del paratime. El mismo sufijo repetido para un paradime. No es syncretic si no se
puede distinguir.
Rich = synthetic, non-synthetic
A definition of ‘morphological richness.’
A verbal form is morphologically rich with respect to one of the grammatical

features it encodes if that grammatical feature is expressed synthetically and
non- syncretically.
A grammatical feature is expressed synthetically if it is expressed by an affix and

/or an allomorph in the stem. Synthetically contrasts with analytically, or the
expression of a grammatical feature by means of a function word.
1. a. trabaj-ará. VS b. (he) will work.
1.a. : synthetic one
1.b.: analytic (grammar expressed with an auxiliary: future encoded in an auxiliary).
2. a. cant-ó. VS b. (he) sang-Ø.
Español es synchretic (expresamos información gramatical con inflexión) y el inglés

es analytic (expresamos información gramatical con auxiliares).
En español tenemos la información gramatical expresada a través de sufijos. En

inglés tenemos dos formas de expresar la gramática:

En el caso de los verbos regulares: synthetically. Ex: work-ed (ed expresses tense)
En el caso de los verbos irregulares: synthetically. Ex.: I sang. Asumiendo que no
tiene sufijos en número y persona pero tiene un allomorph (= tener la posibilidad
de distintas opciones según la gramática que se quiera expresar. Ex:
sing/sang/sung). La tense no está encoded aquí. Tenemos formas que aparece la
tense al final (-”ed”) y otros que vienen dentro de su allomorph.
A grammatical feature is expressed non-syncretically if the forms that contain it

can be distinguished by the presence of different features for the expression of
another grammatical feature.
3. a. trabaj-ar-á, trabaj-ar-é, trabaj-ar-ás, trabaj-ar-emos, trabaj-ar-éis,

trabaj-ar-án. b. (he) will work, (I) will work, (you) will work, (we) will work,
(you) will work,
(they) will work.
Spanish verbal forms are rich in what concerns the expression of mood, tense,
aspect and agreement (person and number). English verbal forms are poor in all
these categories.
Paradigma = paradigm. Example: form of the paradime in english about boy:

boy/boys/boy’s. set of forms sharing lexical information but differing in grammatical
information. Ex. in Spanish of the paratime of niño: niño / niña / niños / niñas.
Niñato no sería del mismo paratime porque la información del sufijo -at- no es algo
sintáctico sino léxico.
En ESPAÑOL:

Mood expresa el subjuntivo, indicativo, imperativo… Tenemos distinción para casi
todas las personas. en indicativo todo es syncretic and synthetic pues todas son
diferentes
En subjuntivo tenemos synthetic forms.
Synthetic form en indicativo, menos en una opción que es
TENSE
Tense: the presence or absence of a dedicated synthetic paradigm for the

expression of past punctual perfective tense.
As was the case with Mood, the expression of Tense is rich in Spanish (synthetic
paradigms, with only one syncretic form), but poor in English: although both the
present and the past paradigms are synthetic, they are almost totally syncretic.
La única forma del subjuntivo en inglés es con “were”. Veremos que esto no es un
subjuntivo: “God, bless our home, sino un infinitivo con un modal.
Regarding mood → Spanish is rich, English is poor
¿Cómo sabemos si algo es rico o no, saber si hay paradigmas ricos en una lengua?
Hay que fijarse en el perfective past.
¿En español podemos distinguir past tense from present tense synthetically and
non-syncretically? Yes.

Únicamente tenemos una Synchretic form en la primera y tercera persona. El resto
es synchretic y synthetic.
El problema es que en inglés el presente y el pasado aunque sea synthetic, pero no
son syncretic.
La relación entre presente y pasado tienen una oposición que puedo diferenciarlas
por sufijos, pero las formas son syncretic porque no distinguen a la persona
excepto por la -s de la tercera persona del singular del presente. Ejemplo: Present
→ work (-s), sing (-s) / Past → Work-ed; sang-Ø
Regarding the expression of tense and morphology English is poor and Spanish is
rich.
Tense → La riqueza se basa en la presencia de tiempos pretéritos. Podemos

distinguir presente de pasado de forma synthetical and non-syncretic. En español,
por tanto, es más rica. En inglés, la diferencia pasado-presente se expresa
synthetic, pero un syncretic (repite la misma forma), por eso es más pobre.
Aspect → Expresar acción puntual o duración. Español →> Pretérito perfecto VS

pretérito imperfecto.
Aspect in a language → Marca si es perfective or imperfective. Indica si es algo

puntual o no. Aunque hay más factores como la semántica, si hay un DO o no…
Uno expresa duración y otro algo puntual (Ex.:pretérito imperfecto, pretérito
perfect). La distinción se suele hacer por ser synthetic o non-syncretic.

English. There is not a differentiated set of synthetic forms for the expression of
imperfect aspect, which is very frequently encoded in the simple past forms. En
inglés no hay formas especiales para distinguir entre “corría” y “corrió”, por eso
recurren a perífrasis, auxiliares, etc.
EXAMPLE
a. Grandfather smoked a pipe after dinner.
a.’ El abuelo fumaba en pipa después de la cena. (HABITUAL ACTION)
a’’ El abuelo fumó en pipa después de la cena.
b. Grandfather used to smoke a pipe after dinner.
b’.’ El abuelo fumaba en pipa después de la cena.
b’’ *El abuelo fumó una pipa después de la cena.

Para hacer la distinción de si era algo habitual o no en inglés → Uso de auxiliares,
expresiones…
En lenguas se usan también palabras léxicas para distinguir lo perfective e

imperfective aspect as “tomorrow”. Español es rico en el aspecto, el inglés es pobre.
IN TENSE, MOOD AND ASPECT SPANISH IS RICH AND ENGLISH IS POOR
El español es la lengua más rica de las lenguas romances. (See Leonetti’s reading)
Morphological ‘richness’ and the position of the verb in the sentence.
Hay una conexión entre morphological richness y flexible word order. Cuanto mas
pobre es una lengua morfológica, más restringida es la lengua en su word order y
viceversa. por eso el inglés es más restringido que el español. Hay evidencias que
prueban que hay una conexión entre la posición del verbo en la oración y la riqueza
morfológica. Lo podemos ver en muchas lenguas. si hay riqueza morfológica, los
verbos aparecen en posición más alta que los verbos que vienen de lenguas menos
ricas morfológicamente. Lo podemos demostrar con test:
VP adverbs test. (Adverb related to the VP):
Los vamos a distinguir de sentence adverbs:
VP-adverbs must be distinguished from sentence-adverbs. Sentence-adverbs are

those that modify the entire proposition expressed by the clause. Sentence-adverbs
include elements belonging to several categories: PPs (por supuesto, of course), non-
derived adverbs (quizás, perhaps), a number of -mente, -ly adverbs (obviamente,
obviously). In English as well as in Spanish sentence-adverbs may immediately
precede the subject (11a), (12a) or follow it (11b), (12b). However, if the verbal form
is analytic (i.e. Aux + lexical verb), sentence adverbs must precede Aux in English
(13). This pattern is, however, deviant in Spanish, at least with auxiliary haber (14):
(11) a. Probably Mary read that book.
b. Mary probably read that book.
(12) a. Probablemente María leyó ese libro.
b. María probablemente leyó ese libro.
(13) a. Mary had probably read that book.
b. *Mary probably had read that book.
(14) a. ?María había probablemente leído ese libro.
b. María estaba probablemente leyendo ese libro.
(Pueden ser todo tipo de adverbios).
VP-adverbs are adverbs that modify the event (or state) expressed by VP, or some
constituent of it. These include time adverbs (ayer, yesterday; hoy, today; a menudo,
often; ya, already, etc.); place adverbs (aquí, here; allí, there; lejos, far; afuera, outside;
etc.); extent / degree adverbs (casi, almost, apenas, barely; solo, only, etc.); manner
adverbs (bien, well; mal, badly; rápido, quickly; fácilmente, easily, etc.); and quantity
adverbs (mucho, a lot; poco, little; demasiado, too much, etc.).
Although some VP-adverbs always appear in postverbal position in both English

and Spanish (15), other VP-adverbs can follow the finite verb in Spanish (16) but not
in English (17), unless the (finite) verb is a modal or an auxiliary (have, be) (18).
(15) a. María ama a su hija mucho.
a.’ *María mucho ama a su hija.
10

b. Mary loves her daughter a lot.
b’. *Mary a lot loves her daughter.
(Algunos están atados en la final position)
(16) a. Pedro lee a menudo el periódico.
b. Pedro habla siempre italiano.
c. Entiendo completamente tu punto de vista. d. Pedro sabe ya todas preguntas.
(17) a. Peter often reads the newspaper.
a’. *Peter reads often the newspaper.
b. Peter always speaks Italian.
b’. *Peter speaks always Italian.
c. I completely understand your point of view.
c’. *I understand completely your point of view.
d. Peter already knows all questions.
e. *Peter knows already all questions.
(Estos son los interesantes para ver la riqueza morfológica).
(18) a. Peter has often read the newspaper.
b. Peter should always speak Italian.
11

c. I have completely understood what you said.
d. Peter will completely understand your point of view.
e. Peter DOES completely understand what you are saying. (With the dummy do)
IMPORTANT!
VP-Adverb precede al verbo en inglés, pero en posición pospuesta al verbo en

español.
Spanish → Vfinite + VP-adverb
English → VP-adverb + Vfinite (only if the verb is lexical). If the verb is an auxiliary
verb or a modal verb: V fin-(aux/modal) + VP-adverb
Ver ejemplo 17 y ver la counterpart → Pedro lee a menudo el periodico ; Pedro

habla italiano; Entiendo tu punto de vista…
(The head in English siempre precede al object, pero la aparente libertad del orden
de las palabras de las adjunctions entre la derecha y la izquierda ). Vemos dos
premisas aquí. La primera es que el vp ad adverb tiene que estar conectado con el
VP, la segunda premisa es que los adverbios son adjuncts (elementos que nunca se
combinan con el head, pues el head se complementa con su objeto y ya todo ello
se combinan los adverbios en la izquierda o la derecha del VP). ES IMPOSIBLE VER
EL ADVERBIO ENTRE EL VERBO Y EL OBJETO (Además que las combinaciones van de
dos en dos). La única posibilidad para ue pudiera estar en el medio, es disrupt the
adjacency between read and “the book” (preposing or post posing “the book”.
Mover el verbo sería solo posible en español porque permite elevar la posición en
el árbol del verbo por su riqueza, pero en inglés no. ). Example: *I read completely
the book / I completely read the book / I read the book completely
12

En español → “Leyó completamente el libro”. Para poder tener esto en ingles
tendríamos que poner una inflexión en el verbo porque no puedo mover el verbo.
Leyó completamente se puede decir porque el verbo por su riqueza morfológica, su
inflexión, está en una posición alta, mientras que en el inglés no. De ahí la
necesidad del uso de auxiliares.
Conclusions:
● Fact #1. Certain VP-adverbs can follow the finite verb in Spanish but not in
English, unless the finite verb is a modal or an auxiliary.
If we take VP-adverbs to occupy fixed positions, and linear precedence to

correspond to syntactic height: in English, modals and auxiliaries occupy a syntactic
position (INFL) higher than that hosting both finite lexical verbs and non-finite verbs
(V); in Spanish, ‘modals’, auxiliaries and finite lexical verbs occupy a syntactic
position (INFL) higher than that hosting non-finite verbs (V). English and Spanish
would thus differ only with respect to the position finite lexical verbs occupy, higher
in Spanish than in English.
13
Asumo que los adverbios ocupan lugares fijos en su posición en el árbol. Lo que
aparece primero en la oración, aparece más arriba en la estructura del árbol.
En cuanto a la inflexión en inglés solo encontramos modals y auxiliaries. Esto lo
sabemos por la posición relativa respecto al adverbio:
—--------------------------------------------------------------
2. Constituency tests:
14

● VP-preposing
Vamos a ver dos estructuras que se comportan diferente en español y en inglés:
VP-Preposing (Coger el VP y se pone en posición inicial).
Esto es algo funcional para grammatical features. En la inflexion vemos todo lo

relativo a la persona, numero… Esto consiste en subir o bajar la inflexión al verbo →
El sufijo baja si el verbo no puede subir (lowering), como en el inglés.
Si queremos tener un VP preposing:
“and [learn](VP) we did”
¿Qué pasa con el afijo? El afijo baja si no puedo mover el verbo, pero si consigo
subir el VP en el VP-preposing, qué pasa con el afijo? Insertamos un auxiliar para
resolverlo.
ENGLISH
a. We went to Canada to learn, and learn we did.
b. He tried to finish the job, but finish it completely he couldn’t. c. We thought he

would get married, but married he has not.
d. We thought he was getting better, but getting worse he was.
SPANISH
a. *Fuimos a Canadá a aprender y aprender (hicimos).
a’. Fuimos a Canadá a aprender y aprendimos.
b. Intentó terminar el trabajo, pero terminarlo del todo no pudo. c. *Pensamos

que se casaría pero casado no se ha.
15

d. *Pensamos que estaba mejorando pero empeorando estaba.
El sufijo es obligatorio y tiene que estar attached to something. Attachment está
restringido a un verbo.
IMPORTANT!
Coger el sufijo y bajarlo es lo común en inglés, pero necesitamos el dummy do en

inglés si queremos hacer un VP-preposing.
This is actually a topicalization, it occupies the highest position in the tree.
16

17
Lingüística comparada: inglés-español
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
TOPIC 4: THE MORPHOSYNTAX OF THE NOUN IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH
1. The general structure of NPs.
2. The head noun.

2.1. Number, gender, and case.
2.2. Dropping and replacement of N.
2.1.1. Dropping.
2.1.2. Replacement.
3. Pre-modifiers.
3.1. Determiners.
3.1.1. Definite articles.
3.1.2. Indefinite articles.
3.1.3. Demonstratives.
3.1.4. Some differences: generics, body parts, personal names, and
expressions of temporal location.
3.2. Nouns.
3.2.1. Genitives.
3.2.2. Bare nouns.
4. Post-modifiers: prepositional phrases.
5. Adjectives.
Bibliography:
*Gallego, Ángel J. 2011. Sobre la elipsis. Cuadernos de lengua española 111.
Madrid: Arco Libros. Chapter 4.
Huddleston, Rodney. & Geoffrey K. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of
the English Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 5.
*Leonetti, Manuel. 2015. Determinantes y artículos. In Gutiérrez Rexach, Javier
(ed.) Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica vol. 1, pp. 532-543. London: Routledge.
*Mackenzie, J. Lachlan & Elena Martínez Caro. 2012. Compare and Contrast.
An English Grammar for Speakers of Spanish. Granada: Editorial Comares. Chapter 9.
Whitley, M.S. (2002), Spanish / English Contrasts: A Course in Spanish
Linguistics, Washington: Georgetown University Press. Chapter 8.
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. The general structure of NPs.
(1) English:
NP → D (Quant) (AP) (NP) N (PP) (S)
The (two) (big) (Physics) books (on the shelf) (that your brother bought).
(2) Spanish:
NP → D (Quant) (AP) N (AP) (PP) (S)
Los (dos) (grandes) libros (grandes) (de la estantería) (que tu hermano
compró).
2. The head noun.
2.1. Number, gender, and case.
• NUMBER.
(3) a. rats /s/, mugs /z/, houses /ǝz/, oxen, men-Ø, fish- Ø.
b. rata-s, jarra-s, casa-s, buey-es, hombre-s, pec-es.
(4) a. sheep, salmon, deer, series, species, and ‘nationalities’ (the Italian, the Swiss…).
b. los sacacorchos, los cumpleaños; los lunes, las tesis; los perros policía.
(5) a. glasses, handcuffs, thanks, surroundings.

b. gafas, esposas, gracias, alrededores.
(6) a. Mathematics, billiards, measles is…

b. Cattle, poultry, people, folk, police, government are …
c. Las matemáticas son / *es … ; la matemática es / *son …
d. La gente es / *son …; las gentes son / *es …
• (GRAMMATICAL VS BIOLOGICAL) GENDER.
(7) a. El niño, la niña, el sol, la luna, la mesa, el pan.

b. Das Kind, das Mädchen, die Sonne, der Mond, der Tisch, das Brot.
c. The boy, the girl, the sun, the moon, the table, the bread.
(8) a. Lo vi ((a) el niño, el sol).

a’. La vi ((a) la niña, la luna, la mesa).
b. Ich habe ihn gesehen (das Kind, der Mond, der Tisch).
b’. Ich habe es gesehen (das Kind, das Mädchen, das Brot).
b’’. Ich habe sie gesehen (das Mädchen, die Sonne).
c. I saw him (the boy).
c’. I saw her (the girl).
c’’. I saw it (the sun, the moon, the table, the bread).
2
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
• CASE.
(9) a. Peter / Mary is nice.

b. I have visited Peter / Mary.
c. I have given Peter / Mary a ticket.
(10) a. He / she is nice.

b. I have visited him / her.
c. I have given him / her a ticket.
(11) a. Pedro / María es agradable .

b. He visitado a Pedro / a María.
c. Le he dado a Pedro / a María una entrada.
(12) a. Él / ella es agradable.

b. Lo / la he visitado.
c. Le he dado una entrada.
(13) a. Der Peter / die Maria ist nett.

b. Ich habe den Peter / die Maria besucht.
c. Ich habe dem Peter / der Maria ein Ticket gegeben.
(14) a. Er / sie ist nett.

b. Ich habe ihn / sie besucht.
c. Ich habe ihm / ihr ein Ticket gegeben.
(15) a. I have helped him.

b. Lo / *le he ayudado.
c. Ich habe ihm / *ihn geholfen.
(16) a. He visitado (*a) un museo.

b. He visitado *(a) un amigo.
2.2. Dropping and replacement of N.
2.2.1. Dropping.
(17) a. Mary has four brothers and Martha has met only one.
a’. María tiene cuatro hermanos y Marta conoce solo a uno.
b. All my friends came but only some stayed.
b’. Todos mis amigos vinieron pero solo se quedaron algunos.
c. Although many students applied for the course, few were accepted.
c’. Aunque muchos estudiantes solicitaron el curso, se admitió a pocos.
(18) a. My favorite dress is red.

a’. Mine is green.
b. Mi vestido favorito es rojo.
b’. El mío es verde.
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Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(19) a. Sarah’s favorite dress is red.

a’. Martha’s is green.
b. El vestido favorito de Sara es rojo.
b’. El de Marta es verde.
(20) a. The legs of the chair are red.

a’. *The of the table are green.
b. Las patas de la silla son rojas.
b’. Las de la mesa son verdes.
(21) a. This dress is red.

a’. *That is green.
b. Este vestido es rojo.
b’. Ese es verde.
(22) a. The bottle on the table is empty.

a’. *The in the fridge is full.
b. La botella de la mesa está vacía.
b’. La de la nevera está llena.
(23) a. I like the red dress

a’. *but hate the green.
b. Me gusta el vestido rojo
b’. pero odio el verde.
(24) a. The poor need some help.

b. The latter is a well-known issue.
c. The unknown is frightening.
(25) a. El tren Madrid se retrasó, pero el de Zamora no.

b. *El tren a Madrid se retrasó, pero el a Zamora no.
c. Este tren a Madrid se retrasó, pero ese a Zamora no.
2.2.2. Replacement.
(26) a. The legs of the chair are red.

b. The ones of the table are green.
(27) a. This dress is red.

b. That one is green.
(28) a. The bottle on the table is empty.

b. The one in the fridge is full.
(29) a. I like the red dress

b. but hate the green one.
(30) a. *El tren a Madrid se retrasó, pero el a Zamora.

b. El tren a Madrid se retrasó, pero el que va a Zamora no.
4
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
c. but the one to Zamora didn’t.
(30) a. I read the chapter.

a’. I read it too.
b. I read a chapter.
b’. I read one too.
c. I read the chapters.
c’. I read them too.
d. I read some chapters.
d’. I read some too.
(31) a. Leí el capítulo.

a’. Yo también lo leí.
b. Leí un capítulo.
b’. Yo también leí uno.
c. Leí los capítulos.
c’. Yo también los leí.
d. Leí unos capítulos.
d’. Yo también leí algunos.
3. Pre-modifiers.
3.1. Determiners.
(32) a. the; el, las, los, las, lo.

b. a(n); uno, una, unos, unas.
c. this, these, that, those; este, esta, esto, ese, esa, eso, aquel, aquella, aquello.
d. my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs;
mi(s), mío(s)/a(s), tu(s), tuyo(s)/a(s), su(s), suyo(s)/a(s), nuestro(s)/a(s),
vuestro(s)/a(s), su(s), suyo(s)/a(s).
e. all, each, both, some, much, many, few, little, too much, too many, several, etc.
todo, cada, ambos, algún, mucho, poco, demasiado, varios, etc.
3.1.1. Definite articles.
• The Unicity Condition: definite articles introduce a unique referent potentially

identifiable to the hearer / addressee.
(33) Uniqueness by deixis.

a. Open the window, please.
b. Abre la ventana, por favor.
(34) Uniqueness by encyclopedic knowledge.

a. The president will visit Mexico next month.
b. El presidente visitará Méjico el mes próximo.
c. The sun set at 9:15.
d. El sol se puso a las 9:15.
e. The lion is a ferocious animal.
f. El león es un animal feroz.
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Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(35) Uniqueness by anaphora.

a. He had a pet, and the pet was a ferret.
b. Tenía una mascota, y la mascota era un hurón.
(36) Uniqueness by bridging (anaphora + encyclopedic knowledge).

a. Have you seen MacMillan’s latest novel? The cover is really beautiful.
b. ¿Has visto la última novela de MacMillan? La cubierta es realmente hermosa.
(37) Uniqueness by endophora.

a. She likes the shirt that you bought last week.
b. Falta poco para el comienzo de la temporada.
(38) Uniqueness doesn’t entail specificity (i.e. reference to an individual identifiable to

speaker and hearer).
a. I want to talk to the owner (whoever that is).
b. Elige el que más te guste.
c. The lion is a ferocious animal.
d. El león es un animal feroz.
3.1.2. Indefinite articles.
• Indefinite articles introduce an element of the kind denoted by the noun not
necessarily identifiable to the hearer / addressee. Three possible readings:
(39) Non-specific.
a. She will marry a doctor who lives in Austin, whoever he is.
b. Se casará con un médico que viva en Austin.
c. A bad job is better than being on the dole.
d. Una persona normal se comportaría de otra forma.
(40) Specific.
a. She will marry a doctor who lives in Austin.
a’. She will marry a doctor who lived in Austin in the eighties.
b. Se casará con un médico que vive en Austin.
(41) Non-referring, descriptive.

a. Peter is an actor.
a.’ Peter is an excellent actor.
b. Pedro es actor.
b’. *Pedro es un actor.
6
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
3.1.3. Demonstratives.
• Demonstratives introduce a unique referent identifiable to the hearer / addressee

expressing, at the same time, the degree of distance between the speaker and the
noun they introduce. In English, there are distinctive forms for only two degrees
of distance, close to the speaker (this, these), and everywhere else (that, those).
In Spanish, there are distinctive forms for three degrees: close to the speaker
(este(s), esta(s), esto(s)), close to the hearer (ese, esa(s), eso(s)), and everywhere
else (aquel, aquella(s), aquello(s)). Two main uses:
(42) Deictic. Spatial or temporal distance.

a. Could you open that door, please?
b. ¿Podrías abrir esa ventana, por favor?
c. This summer I’m travelling to Greece.
d. Este verano viajo a Grecia.
(43) Anaphoric.
a. He had a pet, and that pet was a ferret.
b. Tenía una mascota, y esa mascota era un hurón.
(44) a. *This president will visit Mexico next month.

b. *Este presidente visitará Méjico el mes próximo.
a. Have you seen MacMillan’s latest novel? ?? That cover is really beautiful.
b.¿Has visto la última novela de MacMillan? ?? Esa cubierta es realmente hermosa.
(45) a. This book.

b. Este libro.
c. *Book this.
d. *Libro este.
e. *The book this.
f. El libro este.
3.1.4. Some differences.
3.1.4.1. Generics.
• Definite article (34e, 34f, 38c, 38d above).
(46) a. The lion is a ferocious animal.

b. El león es un animal feroz.
(47) a. *The lions are ferocious animals.

b. Los leones son animales feroces.
(48) a. The Italian are said to be excellent cooks.

b. Se dice que los italianos son excelentes cocineros.
7
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(49) a. *The water boils at 100º C.

b. El agua hierve a 100º C.
c. *The poetry is one of her favorite genres.
d. La poesía es uno de sus géneros favoritos.
• Indefinite article (39c, 39d).
(50) a. A lion is a ferocious animal.

b. ?? Un león es un animal feroz.
c. Una persona normal se comportaría de otra forma.
d. Un problema irresoluble es el que no tiene solución.
• Zero article / bare nouns.
(51) a. *Lion is a ferocious animal.

a’. Lions are ferocious animals.
b. *León es un animal feroz.
b’. *Leones son animales feroces.
(52) a. Water boils at 100ºC.

b. *Agua hierve a 100º C.
c. Poetry is one of her favorite genres.
d. *Poesía es uno de sus géneros favoritos.
(53) a. *Admiro a voluntarios.

a’. Admiro a los voluntarios.
b. *Le sorprendió la reacción de parientes.
b’. Le sorprendió la reacción de sus parientes.
(54) a. Compró cigarrillos.

b. Compró cerveza y mantequilla.
c. Dar miedo, tener razón, surgir complicaciones, preparar tortillas; por teléfono, en
coche; corrección de pruebas, harto de tonterías; *me encantan pizzas.
3.1.4.2. Body parts.
(55) a. I broke my leg.

b. Me rompí la pierna.
c. I don’t like it when people pat me on the back.
3.1.4.3. Personal names.
(56). a. Elizabeth.
a’. *The Elizabeth.
b. Queen Elizabeth.
b’. *The Queen Elizabeth.
8
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(57) a. Isabel.
a’. La Isabel (colloquial, non-standard).
b. *Reina Isabel.
b’. La reina Isabel.
3.1.4.4. Expressions of temporal location.
(58) a. At four; on the seventh; on Friday; in July; in (the) summer; in 2021.

b. A las cuatro; el siete; el viernes; en julio; en (el) verano; en 2021.
3.2. Nouns.
3.2.1. Genitives.
(59)
a. Lisa’s new car.
b. The woman from Denmark’s car.
c. My elder sister’s stay in the hospital.
d. The prisoner’s release.
e. Those two hooligans’ destruction of the monument.
f. John’s reply to my question.
(60)
a. *The Lisa’s new car.
El coche de Lisa.
b. *The the woman from Denmark’s car.
El coche de la mujer de Dinamarca.
c. *That my elder sister’s long stay in the hospital.
Aquella larga estancia de mi hermana mayor en el hospital.
d. *The the prisoner’s release.

La puesta en libertad del prisionero.
e. *That those two hooligans’ destruction of the monument
Esa destrucción de los dos gamberros del monumento.
f. *This John’s reply to my question.
Esta respuesta de John a mi pregunta.
(61)
a. Lisa has/owns a car.
b. The woman from Denmark has/owns a car.
c. My elder sister stayed in the hospital.
d. The authorities released the prisoner.
e. Those hooligans destroyed the monument.
f. John replied to my question.
9
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(62)
a. Summer’s day.
Día de verano.
b. Children’s edition.
Edición para niños / edición infantil.
c. Bachelor’s degrees.
Grado universitario.
d. Women’s magazine.
Revista para mujeres / revista femenina.
e. Ladies’ gloves.
Guantes de señora / guantes femeninos.
f. Ship’s doctors.
Médicos de barco.
(63)
a. A perfect summer’s day.
b. This children’s edition.
c. Two bachelor’s degrees.
d. A women’s magazine.
e. These very expensive ladies’ gloves.
f. Some ship’s doctors.
(64)
a. A winter’s day / ?? a spring’s day.
b. A ship’s doctor / ?? a school’s doctor.
c. A women’s magazine / ??a country’s magazine.
(65)
a. Hour’s delay
b. One dollar’s worth of chocolate
(66)
a. This hour’s delay.
Este retraso de una hora.
b. The one dollar’s worth of chocolates he bought.
Los bombones que compró por un dólar.
(67)
a. *An hour’s walk.
b. *One dollar’s chocolates.
3.2.2. Bare nouns.
(68)
a. A Physics student.
a’. The student studies Physics.
b. A Harvard student.
b’. The student studies at Harvard.
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Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(69)
a. *A Physics Economics student.
b. A Harvard middle-class student.
(70)
a. A Harvard Physics student.
Un estudiante de Física de Harvard.
a’. *A Physics Harvard student.
*Un estudiante de Harvard de Física.
b. He studies Physics at Harvard.
b’. *He studies at Harvard Physics.
(71)
a. Some Physics and Economics students.
Algunos estudiantes de Física y Económicas.
b. Some Harvard and Yale students.
Algunos estudiantes de Harvard y Yale.
c. *Some Harvard and Physics students.
*Algunos estudiantes de Harvard y de Física.
(72)
a. Several [Physics and Economics] students.
Varios estudiantes de Física y de Económicas.
a’. Several [Harvard and Yale] students.
Varios estudiantes de Harvard y Yale.
b. Several Physics [students and teachers].
Varios estudiantes y profesores de Física.
b’. Several Harvard [students and teachers].
Varios estudiantes y profesores de Harvard.
c. Several [Theoretical Physics] students.
Varios estudiantes de Física Teórica.
c’. Several Harvard [Physics students].
Varios estudiantes de Física de Harvard.
(73)
a. * Several [ice- and custard-] creams.
b. *Several ice- [lollies and creams].
d. *Several [crushed ice-] creams.
e. *Several ice- [Italian creams].
(74)
bookshelf estantería para libros color TV televisión en color
teacup taza de té six-cylinder engine motor de seis cilindros
gold watch reloj de oro winter clothes ropa de invierno
bus station estación de autobuses orange juice zumo de naranja
data bank banco de datos Physics book libro de física
11
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(75)
world problems problemas mundiales
tax problems problemas impositivos
model wife esposa modelo
borderline case caso límite
mother tongue lengua materna / lengua madre
(76)
a. Corolla airbag malfunction indicator lamp special service campaign.
b. A metal furniture screw manufacturer.
4. Post-modifiers: prepositional phrases.
(77)
a. John’s car.
El coche de Juan.
a’. The furniture of the hotel.
El mobiliario del hotel.
b. Kate’s dream.
El sueño de Kate.
b’. The dream of the blue turtles.
El sueño de las tortugas azules.
c. The prisoner’s release.
La puesta en libertad del prisionero.
c’. The defeat of the Romans.
La derrota de los romanos.
(78)
a. England’s cheeses.
Los quesos de Inglaterra.
a’. The wines of France.
Los vinos de Francia.
b. In three weeks’ time.
En el transcurso de tres semanas.
b’. At the age of twenty.
A la edad de veinte.
(79)
a. The enemy’s destruction of the city.
a’. The city’s destruction (by the enemy / *of the enemy).
a’’. ??La destrucción de la ciudad del enemigo / ??La destrucción del enemigo de la
ciudad. / La destrucción de la ciudad por (parte d)el enemigo.
b. John’s knowledge of that matter.
b’. *That matter’s knowledge (by John).
b’’. El conocimiento de Juan de esa materia. / El conocimiento de esa materia por parte
de Juan.
12
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(80)
a. *My students’ one.
a’. One of my students.
a’’. Uno de mis estudiantes.
b. *In London’s city.
b’. In the city of London.
b’’. En la ciudad de Londres.
(81)
a. This student of Physics of highly remarkable intelligence.
a’. Este estudiante de Física de inteligencia sumamente notable.
b. *This student of highly remarkable intelligence of Physics.
b’. *Este estudiante de inteligencia sumamente notable de Física.
(82)
a. Their reply to my letter in that period.
a’. Su respuesta a mi carta en ese periodo.
b. Their help to a disabled relative on Sundays.
b’. Su ayuda a un familiar discapacitado los domingos.
c. Their criticism of the book in an American magazine.
c’. Su crítica del libro en una revista americana.
d. Their donation of money to humanitarian organizations in the summer of 1998.
d’. Su donación de dinero a organizaciones humanitarias en el verano de 1998.
(83)
a. Their reply to/*of/*by… my letter in that period / at that moment.
a’. Su respuesta a/ *de/ *por… mi carta en ese periodo / al momento.
b. Their help to/*of/*by… a disabled relative on Sundays / during the holidays.
b’. Su ayuda a/ *de/ *por … un familiar discapacitado los domingos/ en domingo/
durante las vacaciones.
c. Their criticism of/*on/*about… in the magazine / on TV.
c’. Su crítica de/ *en/ *sobre… el libro en una revista / por radio.
d. Their donation of/*with/*by… money to/*in/*for… humanitarian organizations in
the summer of 1998 / on that particular day.
d’. Su donación de/ *con/ *por… dinero a/ *en/ *para… organizaciones humanitarias en
el verano de 1998/ los meses de verano de 1998.
(84)
a. The girl with the green eyes.
a’. La chica de ojos verdes.
b. The woman from Denmark.
b’. La mujer de Dinamarca.
c. The statue in the park.
c’. La estatua del parque.
d. The best hotel in Madrid.
d’. El mejor hotel de Madrid.
e. The guest at the door.
e’. El invitado de la puerta.
f. The book under the table.
13
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
f’. El libro de debajo / debajo de la mesa.
5. Adjectives.
• English adjectives precede the noun in most cases.

• Spanish adjectives precede or follow the noun. Adjectives follow the noun in the
unmarked case (el vestido verde / * el verde vestido). Depending on the kind of
adjective, preceding the noun may entail no change in meaning at all (85), a
subtle change in meaning (86), or a radical change in meaning (87).
(85) Extreme quality / high affective content.

Mi fiel amigo / mi amigo fiel.
Una ruta difícil / una difícil ruta /una ruta difícil de ascender / *una difícil de
ascender ruta.
(86) Descriptive (pre-modifying epithets).

Campos verdes / verdes campos.
(87)
a. El antiguo rey / el rey antiguo. The former king / the ancient king.
b. Ciertas formulas / fórmulas ciertas. Certain formulas / true formulas.
c. Una gran reina / una reina grande. A great queen / a large queen.
d. Media manzana / manzana media. Half an apple / average apple.
e. El mismo portavoz / el portavoz mismo. The same spokesperson / the spokeperson
himself.
f. Una nueva blusa / una blusa nueva. A new (different) blouse / a brand-new
blouse.
g. Pobre hija / hija pobre. Poor (pitiful) daughter / poor (not rich)
daughter.
h. Pura agua / agua pura. Mere water / pure water.
i. Simple caso /caso simple. Mere case / simple (not complex) case.
j. Varios solicitantes / solicitantes varios. Several applicants / all kinds of applicants.
(88)
a. A kind woman.
a’. A woman kind to everyone.
b. An independent woman.
b’. A woman so independent that she rejects help.
(89)
a. A big room.
a’. A big enough room.
b. A better result.
b’. A better than average (*ours) result.
c. An easy book.
c’. An easy-to-read book / *an easy-to-paint-surface.
14
Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(90)
a. The suitable day.
b. *The day suitable.
c. The only suitable day.
d. The only day suitable.
a’. The possible result.
b’. *The result possible.
c’. The best possible result.
d’. The best result possible.
(91)
a. The people present.
b. *The present people.
c. The present government.
a’. The students concerned.
b’. *The concerned students.
c’. Concerned parents.
a’’. The cars involved.
b’’. *The involved cars.
c’’. Deeply involved activists.
(92)
a. The heir apparent, the body politic, the president elect, the devil incarnate, the poet
laurate, a notary public.
b. The house currently ablaze, all people now alive, the ones asleep.
15
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
TOPIC 5: FORM-MEANING COMBINATIONS IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH
1. The lexicalization pattern of directed motion events.

1.1. Conceptual components.
1.2. Lexicalization patterns in English.
1.3. Lexicalization pattern in Spanish.
2. The lexicalization pattern of change of state events.

2.3. Lexicalization patterns in Spanish.
3. ‘Thinking for Speaking’ (Slobin 1996).
Bibliography:
*Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav. 2019. Lexicalization patterns. In

Truswell, Robert (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Event Structure, pp. 395-425. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. Introduction and section 1.
Rodríguez Arrizabalaga, Beatriz. 2014. The birth of a new resultative
construction in Spanish: a corpus-based description. Folia Linguistica 48.1: 119-167.
*Rodríguez Arrizabalaga, Beatriz. 2016. Construcciones resultativas en español.
Caracterización sintáctico-semántica. Philologica Canariensia 22: 55-87.
*Slobin, Dan. 1997. Mind, code, and text. In Bybee, Joan, John Haiman &
Sandra A. Thompson (eds.) Essays on Language Function and Language Type:
Dedicated to T. Givón, pp. 437-467. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalization patterns: semantic structure in lexical
forms. In Shopen, Timothy (ed.) Language Typology and Syntactic Description I:
Clause Structure, pp. 57-149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. The lexicalization pattern of directed motion events.
 Talmy (1972, 1973, 1975, 1985; 1991, 2000):

Research questions: What are the core conceptual components of a particular
event type? Which ones are lexicalized (or ‘conflated’) in the verb?
Conclusion (to be discussed later): languages fall into types according to the
constructions they typically use for the description of particular event types.
1.1. The lexicalization pattern in directed motion events.
 MOTION: motion itself.

FIGURE: the moving entity.
PATH: the path of motion defined with respect to the GROUND.
GROUND/GOAL: a reference object with respect to which the moving entity’s
path is described.
MANNER: the manner of motion.
 Only MOTION, FIGURE, and PATH are required components.

GROUND/GOAL is intrinsic to the PATH itself, although it may be expressed
independently as a lexical unit in the sentence.
 The verb can simply lexicalize MOTION but most often lexicalizes additional
content: PATH, MANNER, or FIGURE.
(1) a. The spy moved stealthily into the courtyard.

FIGURE MOTION MANNER PATH GOAL
b. Tracy ran into the room.

FIGURE MOTION+MANNER PATH GOAL
c. The cat jumped out of the basket.

FIGURE MOTION+MANNER PATH GOAL
d. Tracy ran.
FIGURE MOTION+MANNER
e. They descended slowly.

FIGURE MOTION+PATH MANNER
f. They descended.
FIGURE MOTION+PATH
g. It rained.
MOTION+FIGURE
2
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
 MOTION+PATH: the verb restricts the path of motion. The manner of motion can
be expressed outside the verb in a PP or adverbial phrase, or just be omitted.
advance, arrive, ascend, come, depart, enter, escape, exit, fall, flee, go, leave,
plunge, recede, return, rise, leave, abandon.
(2) a. Kelly entered running.

b. Kelly entered walking.
c. Kelly entered.
 MOTION+MANNER: the verb lexicalizes the manner of motion and the path may
be expressed by another constituent in the sentence.
amble, bounce, clamber, crawl, creep, dart, float, fly, glide, hasten, hike, hobble,
jump, march, meander, nip, plod, prowl, ramble, roll, run, scamper, scurry, slide,
slog, slouch, skip, swim, totter, waddle, wade, walk.
(3) a. Kelly ran into the room.

b. Kelly ran out of the room.
c. Kelly ran to the corner.
d. Kelly walked to the corner.
e. Kelly ran.
 The most frequent pattern in English (and the other Germanic languages) is the
lexicalization of ‘Manner.’ The ‘Path’ may appear as a PP (4a), a particle (4b), or
a prefix (4c), not possible in English but possible in other Germanic languages
like German. Talmy (1972) calls these PPs, particles, and prefixes expressing path
satellites, hence the label of satellite-framed languages for English and the other
Germanic languages, where, as said above, this lexicalization pattern is the most
frequent one.
(4) a. An owl flies out of a hole in a tree.

b. An owl popped out.
c. weil da eine Eule plötzlich raus-flattert.
because there an owl suddenly out-flaps
 In English lexicalized ‘Paths’ appear in verbs of Latinate or other Romance

origins (arrive, ascend, enter, etc.), reflecting Romance influence. Comparable
verbs are said to be unattested in Danish and German.
1.2. Lexicalization patterns in Spanish.
 MOTION+PATH: the verb restricts the path of motion. The manner of motion can
be expressed outside the verb in a PP or adverbial phrase, or just be omitted.
acercarse, alejarse, aproximarse, atravesar, bajar, caer, cruzar, descender,
desplazarse, dirigirse, distanciarse, entrar, ir, irrumpir, llegar, pasar, penetrar,
regresar, retroceder salir, subir, venir, volver, etc.
3
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(5) a. La botella entró en la cueva flotando.

b. La botella entró en la cueva.
c. La botella entró.
 MOTION+MANNER: the verb restricts the manner of motion but not the path,
whose expression, according to Talmy (1985), results in ungrammaticality in
Spanish and the other Romance languages. Hence, according to Talmy, Spanish and
the other Romance languages are verb-framed languages: the expression of the
path by means of a satellite, as in Germanic languages, is said to be incompatible
with the lexicalization of ‘Manner’ in the verb.
bailar, balancearse, bordear, botar, cojear, correr, escurrirse, flotar, girar,
menearse, nadar, pasear, patalear, retorcerse, rodar, saltar, serpentear,
tambalearse, temblar, volar, etc.
(6) a. *Juan bailó a la oficina.

b. *La botella flotó a la orilla.
 However, a satellite expressing ‘Path’ (a PP headed by a) is perfectly possible with

verbs like andar, arrastrarse, conducir, correr, deslizarse, navegar, resbalar y
volar, as the following examples, taken from searches in different corpora of
contemporary Spanish by Fábregas (2007), show:
(7) a. Dos horas más tarde volaba a Panamá en un avión militar.

b. Michel corre al molino y destruye el cementerio.
c. Camina al baño.
d. Pues entonces anda al museo del Check-Point-Charlie.
e. A cada instante su imaginación se deslizaba a la escena.
f. El bastoncillo resbalaba al suelo una y otra vez.
g. Nos recogió y condujo a la goleta.
h. La nave del gran faraón Tutankamon, que también navegaba a Iemenu.
i. Después de tomarse una copa y ver un rato la tele, se arrastra a la cama.
j. Cuando me encontró, desató el nudo y nadamos a la superficie.
 Furthermore, as shown by Fábregas (2007), a satellite expressing ‘Path’ (a PP

headed by the preposition hacia / hasta) is possible even with those verbs which are
incompatible with a satellite expressed by a PP headed by a (see (6) above):
(8) a. *La botella flotó a la orilla.

a’. Silenciosamente flotaba hacia la puerta.
b. *Bailaron a la puerta.
b’. Bailaron hacia / hasta la puerta.
 According to Fábregas (2007), verbs compatible with a directional PP headed by a

(andar, arrastrarse, conducir, correr, deslizarse, navegar, resbalar, volar, etc.) are
also compatible with a measure phrase (9). On the other hand, verbs incompatible
with a directional PP headed by a but compatible with a directional PP headed by
hacia / hasta (bailar, flotar, etc.) are incompatible with a measure phrase.
4
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(9) a. Juan voló dos metros.

b. Juan nadó dos metros.
c. *Juan bailó dos metros.
d. *Juan flotó dos metros.
 Facts are very similar in other Romance languages like French and Italian, where
all manner of motion verbs may appear in a satellite-framed construction if the
satellite indicating ‘Path’ is a marked preposition of the type of Spanish hacia /
hasta: depuis ‘from’, jusqu’a ‘up to,’ or vers ‘toward’ in French; fino a ‘up to’, or
sotto ‘onto’ in Italian:
(10) a. Nous avons nagé *à / jusqu’à la rive en dix minutes.

we have swum to / up to the bank in ten minutes
b. La barca è galleggiata fino al ponte in un secondo.
the boat is floated up to the bridge in a second
 Finally, in Italian manner of motion verbs are starting to appear with ‘Path’
satellites like via ‘way’, dentro ‘in’, fuori ‘out’, su ‘up’, and giù ‘down’ (Iacobini &
Masini 2006). This phenomenon is also possible in Spanish, but more restrictedly:
the ‘Path’ satellite is just a repetition of the ‘Path’ lexicalized in V (Aske 1989).
These Italian and Spanish structures apparently resemble verb-particle
combinations of the kind attested in English.
(11) a. L’ uccello è volato via.

the bird is flown away
b. Juan subió arriba / Vamos adentro / Juan salió afuera.
 In the light of the data above, Talmy’s classification of languages as verb-framed or

satellite-framed languages seems to be too rigid. Although Spanish, French, and
Italian make extensive use of verb-framed constructions, satellite-framed
constructions are possible too. Verb-framed constructions are not barred in English
either, although satellite-framed constructions are much more frequent in this
language.
(12) In the San Diego Zoo: DO NOT TREAD, MOSEY, HOP, TRAMPLE, STEP,
PLOT, TIPTOE, TROT, TRAIPSE, MEANDER, CREEP, PRANCE, AMBLE, JOB,
TRUDGE, MARCH, STOMP, TODDLE, JUMP, STUMBLE, TROD, SPRING, OR
WALK ON THE PLANTS (Slobin 2006: 66).
2. The lexicalization pattern of change of state events.
 Talmy (1991, 2000) argues that there is a correlation between the constructions a
particular language uses in the description of directed motion events and those it
uses in the description of change of state events: only those languages that
predominantly use path phrases with manner of motion verbs allow for resultative
constructions in the description of change of state verbs (i.e. Germanic but not
Romance languages).
5
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(13) a. Maria hammered the metal flat.

b. *María martilleó el metal plano.
 For many researchers, the conceptual components of change of state events are
those found in directed motion events, with ‘Path’ being just a kind of ‘Result.’ As
in the case of directed motion events, either ‘Result’ or ‘Manner’ may appear
lexicalized in the verb. The first option, i.e. lexicalization of ‘Result’ and ‘Manner’
independently expressed by a PP, AdvP, etc. is the one found in Romance
languages. The second option, i.e. lexicalization of ‘Manner’ and the expression of
‘Result’ as a satellite, is found in English.
(14) a. Maria hammered the metal flat.

MANNER RESULT
b. María aplanó el metal con un martillo / a martillazos.
RESULT MANNER
 Types of resultative constructions in English.
(15) Transitive (transitive and unaccusative verbs). (Examples from Rodríguez

Arrizabalaga 2014).
a. He pushed the door shut to the frisking chiming of the bell.
a’ Kit threw open the door to the front room.
b. She dyed her hair a warm chesnut.
b’. The walls were painted a sickly yellow.
c. I know how long it takes to scrub things clean.
c’. So she began to run, to the stream, to wash herself clean.
d. Hamilton shot dead 16 children and their teacher before killing himself.
d’. The fog is choking us to death like mustard gas.
e. She might not be able to bend the limbs straight again.
e’. He didn’t knock her unconscious.
f. My St. Christopher medal hadn’t worn smooth.
f’. The oil has frozen solid.
f’’. The toast burned black.
(16) Intransitive (unergative and pseudo-transitive verbs). (Examples from Rodríguez

Arrizabalaga 2014).
a. I had screamed myself hoarse.
a’. Chuck sneezed his dog to madness.
b. Beth chewed her gums sore.
b’. Jim jogged his Nikes to thread.
(17) a. He pushed the door.

b. Hamilton shot 16 children and their teacher.
c. The oil has frozen.
d. The toast burned.
6
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(18) a. *I had screamed myself.

b. *Chuck sneezed his dog.
c. *Beth chewed her gums.
d. *Tim jogged his Nikes.
(19) From Harley (2008)

a. cut it apart / *divide it apart
b. fill it full / *inflate it full
c. walk yourself tired / *perambulate yourself tired
d. work yourself ragged / *decide yourself ragged
e. squeeze it empty / *compress it empty
f. stab it dead / *impale it dead
g. train yourself fit / *condition yourself fit
h. freeze solid / *congeal solid
i. dance yourself pink / *exert yourself pink
j. eat yourself sick / *devour yourself sick
k. drink yourself unconscious / *imbibe yourself unconscious
l. scrape it raw / *abrade it raw
m. break it short / *divide it short
n. grow big / *expand big
o. burn black / *combust black
(20) From Harley (2008)

a. …complained his way out the door.
b. …exclaimed his way through the museum.
c. …composed his way into the hall of fame.
d. …narrated his way to an Oscar.
 Resultative constructions in Spanish?

No, there are no resultatives in Spanish: McNulty, 1988; Aske, 1989; Sanz, 2000;
Snyder, 2012; Levin y Rappaport Hovav, 2016, among others.
Yes, but they are ‘fake’ resultatives, completely different to the English
constructions: Bosque, 1990; Demonte y Masullo, 1999; Mendívil Giró, 2003,
2004; Armstrong, 2012.
Yes, they are ‘true’ resultatives, although they differ from the English ones in
several aspects: Washio, 1997; Mateu, 2012; Rodríguez Arrizabalaga 2002, 2003,
2004, 2014, 2016.
(21) a. El pastelero batió los huevos cremosos.

b. Pinté la cocina de rosa.
c. Cinco mujeres apedreadas hasta la muerte en Somalia Mogadiscio.
d. Lava esa camisa bien lavada y luego plánchala bien planchadita.
(Examples taken from Rodríguez Arrizabalaga 2016).
(22) a. *Me grité ronca.

b. *Beatriz masticó las encías doloridas.
c. *El aceite se ha congelado sólido.
d. *María martilleó el metal plano.
7
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(23) a. I know how long it takes to scrub things clean.

a’. *I know how long it takes to scrub clean things.
b. Se baten las claras a punto de nieve muy firme con un pellizco de sal.
b’. Se baten a punto de nieve muy fuerte las claras de huevo.
(24) a. Kit threw open the door to the front room.

b. I snapped open the cylinder.
(25) a. Cortó la hierba corta.

b. Cortó corta la hierba.
(26) a. Lava esa camisa bien lavada.

a’. *Lava esa camisa lavada.
b. *Wash that shirt well washed.
b’. *Wash that shirt washed.
b’. Wash that shirt clean.
(27) a. She kicked the door open/ *opened / *opening.

b. She shot him dead / *killed / *dying.
(Goldberg 1991)
(28) a. The gardeners watered the flowers good and wet.

a’. *The gardeners watered the flowers wet.
b. The teacher sharpened the pencil good and sharp.

b’. *The teacher sharpened the pencil sharp.
(Randall 1982)
(29) a. Jesse shot him dead.

a’. Jesse shot him to death.
b. *Jesse stabbed him dead.
b. Jesse stabbed him to death.
c. *Jesse hanged him dead.
c’. Jesse hanged him to death.
(Green 1970)
(30) a. Las informaciones iniciales apuntaban que Al Joei y otro clérigo, Haidar Kelidar,
fueron disparados hasta la muerte el jueves en el santuario shií más sagrado, la
mezquita del Imám Alí. (El País, 19 Abril 2003).
b. *Las informaciones iniciales apuntaban que Al Joei y otro clérigo, Haidar

Kelidar, fueron disparados muertos el jueves en el santuario shií más sagrado, la
mezquita del Imám Alí.
(Rodríguez Arrizabalaga 2014)
8
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(31) a. I painted the kitchen pink.

a’. Pinté la cocina de / en rosa.
b. She dyed her hair red.
b’. Se tiñó el pelo de / en rojo.
(32) Raid los mata bien muertos.

(Bosque 1999)
3. ‘Thinking for Speaking’ (Slobin 1996).
 ‘Linguistic relativity’: the influence of language on the thought processes of its

speakers.
 Strong version: ‘Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis’ (Whorf, 1956). Language determines

cognition. Examples: (i) speakers of Nootka, a language of Vancouver Island, have
a ‘monistic view’ on the universe because their language lack the distinction
between objects and actions; (ii) Hopi’s language have two words for water, one
denoting ‘drinking water in a container’, the other denoting ‘a natural body of
water.’
 Weak version: ‘Thinking for Speaking’ (Slobin 1996, and subsequent work).
Language affects rather than determines cognition. Language filters and frames our
thoughts when we speak or write, directing our attention to certain aspects of our
experience of the world. The ‘Thinking for Speaking’ hypothesis is concerned with
the mental processes that occur during the act of interpreting and verbalizing
experience. ‘Thinking for Speaking’ entails “picking those characteristics of objects
and events that (a) fit some conceptualization, and (b) are readily encodable in the
language” (Slobin 1996: 76).
 ‘Thinking for Speaking’ and Talmy’s (1985) directed motion events.

(i) ‘Path.’ Speakers of S-framed languages display a general tendency to provide
elaborated yet tightly packaged descriptions of paths within a single clause.
Speakers of V-framed languages tend to provide descriptions featuring the static
scene in which movement takes place.
(33) a. Then I, too, went down the steep twisting path through the dark woods to the
beach below.
b. También yo tomé entonces el pendiente y tortuoso sendero que, atravesando la
arboleda oscura, bajaba a la playa.
(Slobin 1997)
9
Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
(ii) ‘Manner.’ Speakers of S-framed languages tend to provide elaborated manner

descriptions. Speakers of V-framed languages typically use neutral motion verbs to
describe movement, providing manner information only when the communicative
context requires it.
(34) a. …luego de diez minutos de asfixia y empujones, llegamos al pasillo de la

entrada.
b. …after ten minutes of being smothered or crushed to death, we finally fought
our way to the exit.
(Slobin 1997)
(35) a. deslizarse: creep, glide, slide, slip, slither.

b. escabullirse: scurry off, scuttle away / off, slip away.
c. saltar: bound, dive, hop, jump, leap, spring.
d. tropezar: stumble, trip, tumble.
(Slobin 1997)
(36) a. The bird flew out through the open door.

a’. El pájaro salió por la puerta abierta / El pájaro salió volando por la puerta
abierta.
b. The snake crawled across the sidewalk.
La serpiente cruzó la acera / La serpiente cruzó la acera reptando.
10
exercises
Exercises Topic 1
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. Principles and Parameters (From Brinton, 2000). Look at the following statements.
Decide whether they represent principles (universal features of languages in general) or
parameters (the differences in the syntax of specific languages).
a. In statements, the subject precedes the verb.

b. There are question words that request information about who, what, when, etc.
c. There exists a system for negation.
d. Questions are formed by inverting the subject and verb.
e. A sentence contains a subject, though it may not be overtly expressed.
f. Adjectives precede the noun that they modify.
g. The basic word order of a sentence is SVO.
h. In statements, the subject must be overtly expressed.
i. Tense is indicated by adverbials.
j. Nouns refer to people, places, or things.
k. There is a means of expressing number.
2. Now choose three of those statements you have classified as representing parameters
and provide an example of (i) a language exhibiting the positive value of the parameter;
and (ii) a language exhibiting the negative one. If you need it, you may resort to
http://wals.info).
3. Read Moravcsik (2013, chapter 1) and do the exercises in it.
1
Exercises Topic 2
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. V2 or ‘Stylistic Inversion’? Although we haven’t explicitly dealt with them in class,

English so-inversion structures are characterized by having the verb preceding the subject
(1a), (1b), apparently paralleling ‘Negative Inversion’ (1c) as well as ‘Stylistic Inversion’
(1d)).
(1) a. I have already visited Mary. So have I.

b. So bravely had the soldiers fought that the Congress gave them all a
medal.
However, as we have seen in class, ‘Negative Inversion’ and ‘Stylistic Inversion’

are not members of the same syntactic type. Explain why this is the case and determine
whether so-structures belong to one type or the other providing at least one relevant
argument.
2. Given / old information. In the discussion of this notion in the class handout, it is stated
that “given / old information never carries main pitch if it has been mentioned in
discourse.” Explain why the data below (based on Simik 2012) support such a claim.

B: I'm going to the observatory...
I'd like to see the eclipse of the SUN.
(2) Context: I'm really interested in the sun. It's my hobby. But so far…
I haven't seen any eCLIPSE of the sun.
3. Which one is the most pragmatically adequate answer to the question in (1), (2a) or
(2b)? Explain why.
(1) When will he leave?
(2) a. He will leave tomorrow morning.

b. Tomorrow morning he will leave.
1
Exercises Topic 2
Prof. Gema Chocano
4. (From Brinton 2000). Identify the underlined phrases as given or new. Note if they
are contrastive.
(a) What I can’t stand is the noise of rock concerts.

(b) Eric is the one who participated in the bike race.
(c) It was in Spain that I was robbed.
(d) At this intersection an accident occurred yesterday.
(e) There is always too much food at wedding receptions.
(f) The Chinese team reached the summit first, and then the British team did.
5. Classify the underlined constituents as definite / indefinite and given / new.

(Examples from Brinton 2000).
(a) A couple I know just returned from a vacation in Africa.
(b) The guide on their trip was excellent.
(c) They visited four countries—a vacation they’ll never forget.
(d) They went on a photographic safari in Tanzania.
6. Spanish ‘Object Shift’. As seen in class, VOS in Spanish is the product of ‘Object
Shift’, in traditional accounts, or ‘Scrambling’, in Ordóñez’ (1998) view. Examine the
examples in (1), taken from Zubizarreta (1998), and (2) and characterize this construction
in terms of Information Structure.

a. Ganó la lotería ayer Juan.
b. #Ganó la lotería Juan ayer.
c. #Ayer ganó Juan la lotería.

a. (Ayer) ganó Juan la lotería.
b. #Ayer ganó la lotería Juan.
Provide the English counterparts of the pragmatically adequate (1a) and (2a).
Explain in detail the differences between the two English examples.
7. Spanish ‘Object Shift’. (From Ordóñez 2000). Can you think of any reason, related to
Information Structure, for the contrast between (1a) and (1b)? Your conclusions in the
immediately previous exercise (2) may be of help.
2
Exercises Topic 2
Prof. Gema Chocano

8. Topicalization. Read chapter 3, section 3.3.3 in Casielles (2004) and summarize the
main arguments why (2a) and (2b) cannot be treated on a par.
(1) a. Money I couldn’t find.

9. Spanish learners find it difficult to know when to insert it into a clause. For each of the
following sentences, indicate whether it should be inserted at the position shown by ……
(From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Based on your answers, could you provide a
specific rule for it-insertion in English?
a. Before every exam … comes a week of preparation.

b. Then … began the build-up to the main event.
c. When the train arrived … was still raining.
d. Then … appeared another interesting document.
e. At the meeting … was proposed to cancel all classes.
f. In our view … is important to consider the costs of the latest proposals.
g. Therefore …is only logical for us to expect difficulties.
h. Often … appears that patients are being deliberately stubborn.
i. Here … lived the famous author Thomas Hardy.
10. English ungrammatical sentences. Determine the reasons for the ungrammaticality of
the English sentences below and provide their grammatical counterpart. Are these English
ungrammatical structures ungrammatical in Spanish too?

d. *Loomed in the distance the Andes Mountains.
e. *I’ve never visited, Julia.
3
TOPIC-2.-Exercices.pdf
Belenurbelz


TOPIC 2 → CORRECTED EXERCICES

English so-inversion structures are characterized by having the verb preceding the
subject (1a), (1b), apparently paralleling ‘Negative Inversion’ (1c) as well as ‘Stylistic
Inversion’ (1d)).
(1)
a) I have already visited Mary. So have I.
b) So bravely had the soldiers fought that the Congress gave them all a medal.
However, as we have seen in class, ‘Negative Inversion’ and ‘Stylistic Inversion’ are
not members of the same syntactic type. Explain why this is the case and determine
argument.
position. In this context the preposed information must be more familiar than the postposed
one. On the other hand, negative inversion is a remaining construction of what is called V2,
the main characteristic of German languages (except English which has almost lost it). This
rule says that the verb must always be in the second position. In negative inversion the verb
always occupies the second position and a negative clause is preposed.
pro v2 (=potencia el V2): allows transitive verbs such as visited ( I visited someone= need
complement), the verb is a simple tense in SI while in V2 a complex tense is necessary
because the finite verb cannot move to such a high position but the auxiliary can (auxiliary
moves from tense to complementizer ).
CP[Xp C[did InfP[they ⇒2 movements 1. Auxiliary from inflexion to

complementizer 2. Expletive from inflexion to xp

So-inversion and negative inversion are the same type, that is, part of what we call operator
inversion.
examples in (1), taken from Zubizarreta (1998), and (2) and characterize this
construction in terms of Information Structure.

b. #Ganó la lotería Juan ayer. VOS(xp) order with transitive verb. Focus is in "ayer" and
do not answer a question with "quien" B
c. #Ayer ganó Juan la lotería. (xp)VSO unmarked order with transitive verb. In this case
it sounds odd because it is not discourse initially nor an answer to a “what

b. #Ayer ganó la lotería Juan. (xp)VOS marked order with transitive verb. Narrow focus
on the subject. Answers questions about the subject (who)
1a. JOHN won the lottery yesterday. SVO unmarked order. Main pitch is in “john” which
is the new information (focus). It answers perfectly the question about WHO won the
lottery. B
2a. Yesterday John won the lottery. SVO unmarked order. Main pitch is in the most right
element and answers a “what happened” question. Focus/ new information is “the
lottery” filling the gap that “What” provides. B

Sentence a. is (xp)VOS marked order with a transitive verb. There is a narrow contrast focus
in which the first part of the sentence is the known information and the second part is the
focus. In this context a correction is being made related to the fact that she sent a telegram
to her sister not to her mother. In the other hand, the second sentence is odd because the
contrast is between “telegrama” and “carta”. For this to make contrast, the order should be

“tu madre no me envió un telegrama, sino una carta”, that is a postverbal subject would not
be necessary.
In b) the contrast between "telegrama" and "carta" is not possible because the focus is in the
final position "tu madre" and not in "un telegrama"
5. Given / old information. In the discussion of this notion in the class handout, it is
stated that “given / old information never carries main pitch if it has been mentioned in

(2) Context: I'm really interested in the sun. It's my hobby. But so far… I haven't seen any
eCLIPSE of the sun.
In 1) there is a wide focus while in 2) even though there is a wide focus, "sun" is given info
and can't appear stressed.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

English so-inversion structures are characterized by having the verb preceding the
subject (1a), (1b), apparently paralleling ‘Negative Inversion’ (1c) as well as ‘Stylistic
Inversion’ (1d)).
(1)
a) I have already visited Mary. So have I.
b) So bravely had the soldiers fought that the Congress gave them all a medal.
However, as we have seen in class, ‘Negative Inversion’ and ‘Stylistic Inversion’ are
not members of the same syntactic type. Explain why this is the case and determine
argument.
position. In this context the preposed information must be more familiar than the postposed
one. On the other hand, negative inversion is a remaining construction of what is called V2,
the main characteristic of German languages (except English which has almost lost it). This
rule says that the verb must always be in the second position. In negative inversion the verb
always occupies the second position and a negative clause is preposed.

pro v2: allows transitive verbs such as visited ( I visited someone= need complement), the
verb is a simple tense in SI while in V2 a complex tense is necessary because the finite verb
cannot move to such a high position but the auxiliary can (auxiliary moves from tense to
complementizer ).
CP[Xp C[did InfP[they ⇒2 movements 1. Auxiliary from inflexion to

complementizer 2. Expletive from inflexion to xp

So-inversion and negative inversion are the same type, that is, part of what we call operator
inversion.
examples in (1), taken from Zubizarreta (1998), and (2) and characterize this
construction in terms of Information Structure.

b. #Ganó la lotería Juan ayer. VOS(xp) order with transitive verb. Focus is in "ayer" and
do not answer a question with "quien" B
c. #Ayer ganó Juan la lotería. (xp)VSO unmarked order with transitive verb. In this case
it sounds odd because it is not discourse initially nor an answer to a “what

b. #Ayer ganó la lotería Juan. (xp)VOS marked order with transitive verb. Narrow focus
on the subject. Answers questions about the subject (who)

1a. JOHN won the lottery yesterday. SVO unmarked order. Main pitch is in “john” which
is the new information (focus). It answers perfectly the question about WHO won the
lottery. B
2a. Yesterday John won the lottery. SVO unmarked order. Main pitch is in the most right
element and answers a “what happened” question. Focus/ new information is “the
lottery” filling the gap that “What” provides. B

Sentence a. is (xp)VOS marked order with a transitive verb. There is a narrow contrast focus
in which the first part of the sentence is the known information and the second part is the
focus. In this context a correction is being made related to the fact that she sent a telegram
to her sister not to her mother. In the other hand, the second sentence is odd because the
contrast is between “telegrama” and “carta”. For this to make contrast, the order should be
“tu madre no me envió un telegrama, sino una carta”, that is a postverbal subject would not
be necessary.
In b) the contrast between "telegrama" and "carta" is not possible because the focus is in the
final position "tu madre" and not in "un telegrama"
5. Given / old information. In the discussion of this notion in the class handout, it is
stated that “given / old information never carries main pitch if it has been mentioned in

(2) Context: I'm really interested in the sun. It's my hobby. But so far… I haven't seen any
eCLIPSE of the sun.
In 1) there is a wide focus while in 2) even though there is a wide focus, "sun" is given info
and can't appear stressed.
4. Topicalization. Read chapter 3, section 3.3.3 in Casielles (2004) and summarize the
main arguments why (2a) and (2b) cannot be treated on a par.
a. Money I couldn’t find.
CORREGIDO
Casielles argues that topicalization does not exist in Spanish, instead she proposes that it is
a case of clitic left dislocation with no overt clitic. Even though in these two sentences it
cannot be appreciated, the first argument that supports this is that English can dislocate any
type of noun, while Spanish only dislocates bare nouns, that is nouns without an article or
determinant. The reason for this is that in other romance languages, such as French, there is
a partitive clitic that is needed in order to trigger this type of dislocation, however, in Spanish
we have lost it. This is why in Spanish we can have a clitic left dislocation with bare nouns
without an overt clitic. As we can see in “EI regalo a mi madre no se lo he dado todavía”
we have a clear clitic left dislocation relative to “a mi madre”, so if we suppose that
topicalization is possible in spanish this sentence should be agramatical because CLLD
cannot co-occur with topicalization. Since this sentence is perfectly grammatical, Casielles
argues that there is no topicalization bot two CLLD. In addition, order in these sentences in
spanish is irrelevant which contributes to reinforce Caseilles’ argument.
them by grammatical counterparts(From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012).
a. Here is a cheque for $80.
b. **Now have arrived all the members of the family. // Now all the members of the family
have arrived
c. **Here have to be taken the tough decisions.// Here, tough decisions have to be taken. or
The tough decisions have to be taken here.
d. **Soon will start the 100 meter sprint. // The 100 meter sprint will start soon or SOON the
100 meter sprint will start.
e. After every storm comes a rainbow.
f. **Next week is coming the inspector.// The inspector is coming next week or NEXT WEEK
the inspector is coming.
8. Spanish learners find it difficult to know when to insert it into a clause. For each of
the following sentences, indicate whether it should be inserted at the position shown
by …… (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Based on your answers, could you
provide a specific rule for it-insertion in English?

a. Before every exam … comes a week of preparation.
b. Then … began the build-up to the main event.
c. When the train arrived it … was still raining.
d. Then … appeared another interesting document.
e. At the meeting it was proposed to cancel all classes.
f. In our view …it is important to consider the costs of the latest proposals.
g. Therefore it…is only logical for us to expect difficulties.
h. Often it… appears that patients are being deliberately stubborn.
i. Here … lived the famous author Thomas Hardy.
-We introduce “it” when as a subject for what in spanish we call “verbos impersonales” such
as meteorological verbs.
-We use “it” as a structural subject in construction among the verb to be and a nominal
predicate, for example “It is logical, It is important”. This “it” replaces something that has
been previously said or that is part of the context. Also “it” can refer to heavy constituents
that are the subject but cannot appear initially due to its heaviness, for example “it is
important to consider the costs of the latest proposals”
CORREGIDO
a. Before every exam … comes a week of preparation. B
b. Then … began the build-up to the main event. B
c. When the train arrived it … was still raining. B
d. Then … appeared another interesting document. B
e. At the meeting it was proposed to cancel all classes. B
f. In our view …it is important to consider the costs of the latest proposals. B
g. Therefore it…is only logical for us to expect difficulties.B
h. Often it… appears that patients are being deliberately stubborn. B
i. Here … lived the famous author Thomas Hardy. B
-"It" as an expletive is not compatible with a NP notional subject, but if the notional subject is
a VP (subordinate clause) "it" is mandatory.
as meteorological verbs. There is no NP
Weather verbs: - if we consider it an expletive there is no notional subject

-We can consider it as a quasi argument
- Notional subject: agree with the verb

- Structural subject: the specifier of the VP
- (There)i seems [i to be someone in the garden ]

It is an existential clause we need "There" ⇒there + be+ NP (hearer new)+ locative. The
expletive has raised to the initial positioning and it blocks the presence of "it".

too?
Correct:
Correct: Yesterday I spoke with the director // With the director I spoke yesterday
Correct: Julia will never forgive james for that sin // For that sin Julia will never forgive
James
Correct: The Andes Mountains loomed in the distance or IN THE DISTANCE, the Andes
Mountains loomed
Correct: JULIA, I’ve never visited

too?
CORREGIDO
Correct: Policemen participated in the strike
The order is not correct and we cannot have a postverbal subject with a verb like
“Participate” because it is not unaccusative. B
-There I strict agency between verb and complement so we cannot introduce any other
phrase in between

James
-This sentence is completely ungrammatical because OSV order is impossible in English.

We cannot have two topicalizations at the same time.
Mountains loomed
We cannot have a verb in the initial position (only with imperative) .
Correct: JULIA, I’ve never visited /// I have never visited her, Julia.
This will be correct without the comma, but if we place a comma it is because we want to
focus “julia” by topicalization. In topicalization the topic must be in the initial position.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Preverbal and postverbal subjects with intransitive verbs. Examine the Spanish
examples in (1)-(2) and compare them with their English counterparts in (2)-(3). Which
language is more restrictive in the use of preverbal subjects? Which one is the most
restrictive in the use of postverbal ones? Explain in detail referring specifically to
each of the structures in (1)-(2).
(1) a. Pronto surgieron esos problemas.

b. Esos problemas surgieron pronto.
c. Pronto surgieron problemas.
d. *Problemas surgieron pronto.
e. PROBLEMAS surgieron (y no soluciones).
(2) a. Correteaban los niños sin parar.

b. Los niños correteaban sin parar.
c. Correteaban niños sin parar.
d. *Niños correteaban sin parar.
e. NIÑOS correteaban sin parar (y no adultos).
(3) a. #There arose those problems soon.

b. Those problems arose soon.
c. There arose problems soon.
d. Problems arose soon.
e. PROBLEMS arose (and not solutions).

(4) a. *There ran the children ceaselessly.
b. The children ran ceaselessly.
c. *There ran children ceaselessly.
d. Children ran ceaselessly.
e. CHILDREN ran ceaselessly (and not adults).
them by grammatical counterparts(From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012).
a. Here is a cheque for $80. (gramatical)
b. **Now have arrived all the members of the family. // Now all the members of the family
have arrived
c. **Here have to be taken the tough decisions.// Here, tough decisions have to be taken. or
The tough decisions have to be taken here.
d. **Soon will start the 100 meter sprint. // The 100 meter sprint will start soon or SOON the
100 meter sprint will start.
e. After every storm comes a rainbow. (gramatical)
f. **Next week is coming the inspector.// The inspector is coming next week or NEXT WEEK
the inspector is coming.
8. Spanish learners find it difficult to know when to insert it into a clause. For each of
by …… (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Based on your answers, could you
CORREGIDO
a. Before every exam … comes a week of preparation. B
b. Then … began the build-up to the main event. B
c. When the train arrived it … was still raining. B
d. Then … appeared another interesting document. B
e. At the meeting it was proposed to cancel all classes. B
f. In our view …it is important to consider the costs of the latest proposals. B
g. Therefore it…is only logical for us to expect difficulties.B
h. Often it… appears that patients are being deliberately stubborn. B
i. Here … lived the famous author Thomas Hardy. B

-"It" as an expletive is not compatible with a NP notional subject, but if the notional subject is
a VP (subordinate clause) "it" is mandatory.
as meteorological verbs. There is no NP
Weather verbs: - if we consider it an expletive there is no notional subject
-We can consider it as a quasi argument
- Notional subject: agree with the verb

- Structural subject: the specifier of the VP
- (There)i seems [i to be someone in the garden ]

It is an existential clause we need "There" ⇒there + be+ NP (hearer new)+ locative. The
expletive has raised to the initial positioning and it blocks the presence of "it".
9. Spanish ungrammatical sentences. Determine the reasons for the ungrammaticality

of the Spanish sentences below and provide their grammatical counterpart. Are these
Spanish ungrammatical structures ungrammatical in English too?
a. *Me interesa el cine a mí. /// Me interesa el cine o A mí me interesa el cine
Reason: Firstly “interesar” is a psychological verb, this is, a verb in which the object appears
as the experiencer ( in this case “me/yo”) while the subject appears as the theme ( El cine).
In Spanish these verbs trigger OVS order, so it is a case of unmarked postverbal subject.
Then “Me interesa el cine” is the unmarked order, but if we want to answer a question about
who is interested in cinema we must say “A mí me interesa el cine”. The PP is necessary
because the question is “A quién le interesa el cine?”, so just the presence of the clitic is not
enough to answer the question.
The exact English translation for this sentence is difficult to find because in English we lack
this type of OVS structure. We could say “I am interested in cinema” which is perfectly
correct, but we cannot express the reduplication of the object, except we make a literal
translation like “Me interested in cinema to me” which is totally ungrammatical.
b. *LOS LIBROS Sara trajo, no los cuadernos. /// Sara trajo los libros, no los cuadernos
Reason: Since there is a narrow contrast focus the only order possible is VOS because “Los
libros” is the new information so it must carry the main pitch. In order to carry the main pitch
it must be the most left element. Only in this position it is possible to establish a contrast with
the other element “los cuadernos”.
Since English is a poorer morphological lenguaje, order is crucial so the prefered

mechanism to express information structure is phonology and pitch. Moreover Spanish as it
is morphologically richer, the order is more flexible and it is used to express information
structure. This is the difference between plastic and non plastic languages and it is the

reason why “THE BOOKS Sara brought, not the notebooks” is possible in English but not in
Spanish.
c. *Ese pañuelo compró Jaime a Julia. ///
d. *Nada que podamos hacer hay. /// No hay nada que podamos hacer
Reason: in Spanish double negation is obligatory, so if we have the negative term “nada” we
also need the negation of the verb “ hay”. In addition, the negative particle “no” triggers the
verb to an initial position in order to form the Negation Phrase. This is different in English
because double negation does not exist so “There is nothing we can do” is perfectly
grammatical.
It is also important to outline that since the complement is a subordinate clause, this is a
heavy constituent, following the Heavy Constituent Principle, it cannot be placed before the
verb. This principle is applicable to both Spanish and English.
e. *A JULIA ESE PAÑUELO se lo compró Jaime ( y no a Daniela el bolso).

too?
CORREGIDO
Correct: Policemen participated in the strike
The order is not correct and we cannot have a postverbal subject with a verb like
“Participate” because it is not unaccusative. B
-There I strict agency between verb and complement so we cannot introduce any other
phrase in between
James
-This sentence is completely ungrammatical because OSV order is impossible in English.

We cannot have two topicalizations at the same time.

Mountains loomed
We cannot have a verb in the initial position (only with imperative) .
Correct: JULIA, I’ve never visited /// I have never visited her, Julia.
This will be correct without the comma, but if we place a comma it is because we want to
focus “julia” by topicalization. In topicalization the topic must be in the initial position.
APUNTES RAQUEL, EJERCICIOS CORREGIDOS EN CLASE 24 OCTUBRE 2022:
24/10/22
TOPIC 2 EXERCICE 4
I couldn’t find money
Money i coulnd’t find – FOCALIZATION
Money i couldn’t find it – LEFT DISLOCATION
Money I couldn’t find - TOPICALIZATION – the book Peter read completely ( El
libro Peddro leyo completamente)-> out in spanish due to the clitic
Dinero no pude encontrar : Dinero is a bare noun
In the case of bare nouns the clitic is cover.
è The inventory of clitic in Spanish is smaller in all the Romanian languages.
Topic 2 exercise 8:
Spanish learners find it difficult to know when to insert it into a clause. For each of
by ...... (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Based on your answers, could you
a. Before every exam ... comes a week of preparation. -> w/out / Np is the notional
subject. The Expletive It its incompatible with notional subject in NP
b. Then ... began the build-up to the main event. -> either there or w/out. Np is the
notional subject. STICKS TO THE RULE we have stablished before
c. When the train arrived ...IT was still raining. If we consider it to be an expletive
ther would not be a notional subject in the sentence -> weather subjects The
notional subject its it itself
d. Then ... appeared another interesting document. Notional subject its an NP
e. At the meeting ..IT. was proposed to cancel all classes. -> If the notional subject
it’s a clause we have to write it
f. In our view .IT.. is important to consider the costs of the latest proposals. -> the
notional subject it’s a clause
g. Therefore .IT..is only logical for us to expect difficulties.-> notional subject it’s a
clause
h. Often .IT.. appears that patients are being deliberately stubborn. -> NS clause
i. Here ... lived the famous author Thomas Hardy.->
è If the notional subject it’s an Np no “It”, if there re no notional subject or quasei

argument we need “It”, and if there the notional subject it’s a clause we need “it”.
-> RULES
They give us the data and we give the generalizations
The expletive It is always an structural subject

Structural subject must be distinguish from the notional subject ( the one agreeing
with the verb)
There is a man in the garden -> notional subject
*It/there appears [a tearful figure] NP

*it/There seems [to be someone in the garden]
*There/it appeared [ that John came late] clause
Elements of an existential structure in English

-There + be (linking verb) + Np ( postverbal -> hearer-new) + Locative (aware or
unaware)
There seems to be someone in the garden -> there is someone in the garden (the
presence of it its blocked by the presence of there but there must always appear)

Topic 2 exercise 10
English ungrammatical sentences. Determine the reasons for the ungrammaticality

of the English sentences below and provide their grammatical counterpart. Are these
English ungrammatical structures ungrammatical in Spanish too?
a. *In the strike participated policemen. -> participated it’s not unaccusative verb.
Stylistic inversion in wich the verb is an unergative verb.
b. *I spoke yesterday with the director. -> the verb + the complement with an adverb
in the middle. The complement and the verb must be together in English
c. *For that sin James Julia will never forgive. -> Proposing both objects,
topicalizations, there can’t be two topicalizations at the same time. -> Restricted
to only one.
d. *Loomed in the distance the Andes Mountains. -> Lexical verb + PP + notional
subject. In English we can’t start the sentences with a verb, only in imperatives.
e. *I’ve never visited, Julia. -> I’ve never visited her, Julia. Right dislocation. -> for
dislocations we need the pronoun.

Exercises Topic 3
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. The syntactic position of the verb. (From Castillo 2003). Explain the ill-formedness of
(1) below.
(1) *John always was taken to school by force.
2. The syntactic position of the verb. (Adapted from Carnie 2002). Consider the following
data from Italian. Assume non is like Spanish no, i.e. a negative marker that precedes all
kinds of verbs. Now concentrate on the positioning of the word più ‘anymore.’
(1) a. Gianni non ha più parlato.

Gianni not has anymore spoken
‘Gianni has not spoken anymore.’
b. Gianni non parla più.
Gianni not speaks anymore
‘Gianni doesn’t speak anymore.’
On the basis of these limited data, what do you think is the position of the
(auxiliary and lexical) verbs in the sentences in (2)?
3. The syntactic position of the verb. (Adapted from Carnie 2002). English has two verbs
to have. One is an auxiliary seen in sentences like (1a). The other indicates possession
(1b):
(1) a. I had never seen this movie.

b I never had a book.
You will note from the position of the adverb never, that possessive verb
have is in V, whereas the auxiliary have is in INFL.
Part 1: Consider the following data from American English. How does it support
the idea that auxiliary have is in INFL , but possessive have is in V?
(3) a. I have had a horrible day.

b. I have never had a pencil case like that!
c. Have you seen my backpack?
d. *Have you a pencil?
Part 2: Consider now the following sentence which is grammatical in some varieties of
British English:
(4) Have you a pencil?
Is the possessive verb have in INFL in those dialects? How can you tell?
1
Exercises Topic 3
Prof. Gema Chocano
4. Modals. Although, as shown in (1), must and have to can be roughly semantically
equivalent, (2) indicates that they don’t occupy the same position in the clause. Discuss
why this is the case.
(1) a. I must work late tonight.
b. I have to work late tonight.
(2) a. *I will must work late tonight.

b. I will have to work late tonight.
Then, account for the grammaticality of the following example:
(3) How late have you got to work tonight?
5. Modals. Look at the following examples. Do need in (1) and need in (2) belong to the
same grammatical class? Are they the same element? Justify your answer.
(1) a. He needed no drink.
b. Didn’t he need a drink?
c. He needed to drink.
(2) a. *He needn’t a drink.

b. *Needn’t he a drink?
c. He needn’t have drunk.
6. Be. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) differs from Standard American
English in that it makes use of two different paradigms of be, ordinary be (1a) and so-
called habitual be (1b). The semantic differences between the two have to do with
grammatical aspect, with habitual be restricted to situations that take place usually.
(1) a. I am, you is, he/she/it is, we is, y’all is, they is.
b. I be, you be, he/she/it be, we be, y’all be, they be.
The examples in (2) and (3) show that those semantic differences are paralleled
by syntactic ones:
(2) a. Bruce is running and I am too.

b.*Bruce is running and I do too.
(3) a. *Bruce be running and I am too.

b. Bruce be running and I do too.
The contrast between (2) and (3) is due to the syntactic position each be occupies
in AAVE. Explain in detail why this is so.
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Exercises Topic 3
Prof. Gema Chocano
7. Be. In Belfast and other Northern Hiberno-English dialects, when be carries habitual
meaning the following structures are possible. Explain what these structures reveal about
the syntactic position of habitual be in those dialects.
(1) a. He bes here every Friday.

b. He doesn’t be here every Friday.
c. He DOES be here every Friday.
8. Apart from the use as an auxiliary (1) and linking verb (2), English be may also appear
in what some grammars call the ‘quasi-modal’ (3) and ‘lexical’ uses (4):
(1) a. He was writing some letters.

b. Some letters were written.
(2) He is my closest friend.
(3) You are to come in at once.
(4) a. I require that you be on time/ I demand that you not be late.
b. ?Why do you be so rude?
Construct the relevant sets of data and determine whether the four instances of be
above occupy the same syntactic position. Do your conclusions fit the data in (5)?
(5) a. (You) Be quiet!

b. Don´t be a nuisance!
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. (From Whitley 2002). Error analysis: account for the apparent source of each student
error.
a. *los animals
b. *los atlases
c. esto cuchillo
d. *la arroz
e. *hay un otro razón
f. *la gente lo quieren
g. *me gusto legumbres
h. *carros francesos
i. *los unos que oí
j. *es mi bilogía libro
k. no tengo ningunos clases los fin de semanas
l. *trabaja en sus padres oficina
m. *ciencia nos ayudará
n. *el sofá es un pedazo de mueble
o. *Marta se hizo una profesora a los treinta años
2. (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Indicate for each of the following sentences
whether the italicized noun it contains is being used as countable or non-countable noun.
a. He’s had ten years’ experience teaching English grammar.
b. I’m here on business.
c. Mathematics can be very difficult to enjoy.
d. His data were totally unreliable.
e. Can you give me some advice?
f. Does she speak your language?
g. The news of the city’s destruction arrived too late for the morning papers.
h. She has a small travel business.
i. Seeing him again was a painful experience.
j. Linguistics is concerned with the study of language.
k. What are the advantages of marriage?
l. I am researching some unusual phenomena.
m. A lot of furniture can spoil the appearance of a room.
3. (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Which of the following options produce
ungrammatical sentences? What are the differences in interpretation where more than one
option is possible?
a. Everybody want / wants to be proud of his / her/ their achievements.
b. Nobody should be judged by his / her/ their past.
c. Neither of them has / have ever seen his / her / their parents.
d. It is / are my ambition that keep me going.
e. I love Italian paintings from the fifteenth and the sixteenth century / centuries.
f. The family were expelled from its / their house.
g. The Opposition seem / seems badly divided among themselves.
h. Half of the apples that I bought this morning is / are full of worms.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
i. The police has / have been successful in intercepting various drug shipments.
j. The data is / are not showing any clear pattern.
k. My worst enemies is / are my family.
l. She has many friends, but who has / have been invited to her party?
m. People is / are beginning to doubt her story.
n. Statistics is / are not popular with psychology students.
o. A large number of students want / wants to spend a semester abroad.
p. Fish and chips is / are no longer cheap.
4. Determine the structure of the following NPs and characterize the different genitival
constituents appearing in them. Then, translate them into Spanish. (Examples (a)-(c) from
Santorini & Kroch, 2000).
a. the monster's mother's lair
b. the hero of the poem's name
c. the mother of the monster's dislike of the poem's hero
d. Peter's attempts
e. some expensive ladies' gloves
f. summer's days
g. this year's new fashions
5. (From Radford, 1988). Discuss the ambiguity of the following NPs, and how it might
be represented in structural terms. Are their corresponding Spanish counterparts
ambiguous too? Explain in detail.
a. a toy factory
b. a brass button holder
c. an old French student
d. The house in the wood near the park.
e. The king of England’s people.
6. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). In the sentences below, adapted from The Death
of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, find the PPs that function as modifiers inside NPs, and
determine their function.
a. During an interval in the Melvinski trial, the members and public prosecutor met in
Ivan Egorovich Shebek’s private room, where the conversation turned on the celebrated
Krasovski case.
b. On receiving the news of Ivan Ilych’s death, the first thought of each of the gentlemen
in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among
themselves or their acquaintances.
7. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). Examine the phrases below. Which PPs and NPs
are complements? Provide reasons for your answer.
a. Canadian students of English
b. a French Old English student
8. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). The NP may have at least three interpretations.
Determine what they are and explain why they are possible.
The chocolate toy factory.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
9. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). Provide the structure for the following NPs (use
NP, AdjP, D, etc.). Also list the functions of the different elements.
a. one of their irrational responses
b. the attack on the conclusions of that report
c. a hilarious look at the two geniuses
d. four fluffy feathers on a Fiffer-feffer-feff (from Dr. Seuss’s ABC).
10. As we have seen in class, genericity in English can be expressed by means of the
indefinite (1a), definite (1b) and zero (1c) articles:
(1) a. A lion has four legs.

b. The lion has four legs.
c. Lions have four legs.
However, the data in (2) and (3) don’t seem to fit such a conclusion. Can you find
any relevant difference between the grammatical examples in (1) and the ungrammatical
examples in (2)-(3)?
(2) a. *A lion (as a species) is hungry.

b. *The lion (as a species) is hungry.
c. Lions (as a species) are hungry.
(3) a. *A lion (as a species) will be extinct in the near future.

b. The lion (as a species) will be extinct in the near future.
c. Lions (as a species) will be extinct in the near future.
Finally, translate all the examples into Spanish. Are the (un)grammatical
examples in English (un)grammatical in Spanish too?
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Key to Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. (From Whitley 2002). Error analysis: account for the apparent source of each student
error.
a. *los animals (los animales)
Both English and Spanish use alveolar sibilants to mark plurality and sometimes they
insert the vowel -e. However, the contexts in which this vowel is introduced differ in the
two languages. In English -e is inserted when the last sound is a sibilant (/s z ʃ ʒ ʤ ʧ/),
meanwhile in Spanish it is inserted after all consonants and glides. In this case there is an
overgeneralization of the English rule and, since it does not end in a sibilant, no vowel
has been inserted. Nevertheless, as explained above, the plural of animal in Spanish is
animal-es.
b. *los atlases (los atlas)
There are a few words in Spanish which take a plural suffix other than the sibilant in the
previous exercise. There are some nouns that take a zero suffix, namely those ending in
an unstressed vowel followed by an -s. Thus, it is el/los atlas, because the singular ends
in an unstressed vowel +s > as.
c. esto cuchillo (este cuchillo)
The error is probably due to two factors, gender assignment and the restricted use of
neuter pronouns in Spanish. In English, where gender is biologically determined, cuchillo
should be neuter (cf. its English counterpart knife); in Spanish, where gender is
grammatical, cuchillo is masculine. The second factor has to do with the demonstrative
esto. Spanish demonstratives can modify a noun (este cuchillo) or appear as pronouns,
i.e. with no noun co-occurring with them (Me gusta este). Only in the second case do they
present a distinctive neuter form (Me gusta este / esta / esto). In the first case only the
masculine and feminine forms are possible, as corresponds to a language lacking neuter
gender in nouns (este cuchillo, esta silla).
d. *la arroz (el arroz)
In the absence of a clear hint for determining grammatical gender (suffix -o for masculine
nouns, suffix -a for feminine nouns, in the general case), the learner has taken a masculine
noun as feminine.
e. *hay un otro razón (hay otra razón)
The learner seems to have calqued English another (an + other) into Spanish.
f. *la gente lo quieren (la gente lo quiere)
In Spanish grammatical number takes over semantic plurality. In English, on the other
hand, some collective nouns can be used in the singular because of its form, or in plural
1
Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
because of its meaning. The speaker must have applied this possibility to the case of
Spanish leading to the ungrammatical sentence above.
g. *me gusto legumbres (me gustan las legumbres)
The learner has constructed a sort of hybrid structure, where properties of the
corresponding English and Spanish structures co-occur. Paralleling native Spanish, the
experiencer appears sentence-initially as an object, and the theme appears as a post-verbal
subject. However, paralleling English, the verb agrees with the experiencer (first person
singular) instead of agreeing with the theme (third person plural), as it does in native
Spanish.
h. *carros francesos (carros franceses)
Overgeneralization of the most frequent masculine plural suffix in adjectives (-os) to

francés, whose plural as a noun and adjective take the suffix -es.
(i) *los unos que oí (los que oí)
Spanish allows for the deletion of nouns preceded by an overt determiner and followed
by a relative clause (los susurros que oí > los que oí), but English doesn’t (the whispers
which I heard > *the which I heard). What English does allow for is replacement by
means of the pro-form one (the whispers which I heard > the ones which I heard). The
learner has applied the English strategy to Spanish.
j. *es mi bilogía libro (es mi libro de biología)
Bare nouns can pre-modify a noun in English but not in Spanish, where pre-modifying
NPs (either genitives or bare nouns) are not possible. The learner has extended the English
structure to Spanish.
k. no tengo ningunos clases los fin de semanas (#no tengo ningunas clases los fines de
semana / no tengo ninguna clase los fines de semana)
There are several errors here. The first error relates to the gender of clase, a feminine
noun in Spanish: ningunos should thus be ningunas. The second one is in the use of the
plural ningunos, generally used in Spanish when it constitutes an alternative to the
indefinite article for emphasis: Tus amigos no son unos tontos / Tus amigos no son
ningunos tontos). However, since the emphatic reading of ningunas clases is not
straightforward in the example, the use of the singular, with no emphatic value, results
much more natural: No tengo ninguna clase.. A third error is lack of agreement between
the determiner los and the noun it modifies fin: los fines. Note that, instead, the plural
marker appears in semanas, which can’t agree with the determiner, since semanas is
contained in the PP post-modifying fin.
l. *trabaja en sus padres oficina (trabaja en la oficina de sus padres)
The error is probably due to the learner’s attempt to replicate English pre-modifying
genitive in Spanish: in her parents’ office. Spanish lacks both genitival NPs and bare
NPs in the function of pre-modifiers of a noun.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
m. *ciencia nos ayudará (la ciencia nos ayudará)
Bare nouns can be subjects in English, where their syntactic position is unconstrained,
but not in Spanish, where its distribution is severely restricted.
n. *el sofá es un pedazo de mueble (el sofá es un mueble)
The learner has calqued the English pattern. Uncountable nouns can be used as countable
by merely inserting a determiner in Spanish (un mueble), which is nevertheless much
more restricted in English (some experience / a good experience but some furniture / *a
furniture - a piece of furniture).
o. *Marta se hizo una profesora a los treinta años (Marta se hizo profesora a los treinta
años)
Non-referential NPs in predicative function are article-less in Spanish (profesora), but

indefinite NPs in English (a teacher). In this example, the learner just replicates the
pattern in his/her native language.
2. (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Indicate for each of the following sentences
whether the italicized noun it contains is being used as countable or non-countable noun.
a. He’s had ten years’ experience teaching English grammar. Uncountable.
b. I’m here on business. Uncountable.
c. Mathematics can be very difficult to enjoy. Uncountable.
d. His data were totally unreliable. Countable.
e. Can you give me some advice? Uncountable.
f. Does she speak your language? Countable.
g. The news of the city’s destruction arrived too late for the morning papers. Countable.
h. She has a small travel business. Countable.
i. Seeing him again was a painful experience. Countable.
j. Linguistics is concerned with the study of language. Uncountable.
k. What are the advantages of marriage? Uncountable.
l. I am researching some unusual phenomena. Countable.
m. A lot of furniture can spoil the appearance of a room. Uncountable.
3. (From Mackenzie & Martínez Caro 2012). Which of the following options produce
ungrammatical sentences? What are the differences in interpretation where more than one
option is possible?
a. Everybody want / wants to be proud of his / her/ their achievements.

Everybody wants to be proud of his achievements (traditional grammar).
Everybody wants to be proud of her achievements (non-sexist language, potentially
confusing).
Everybody wants to be proud of their achievements (non-sexist language, not accepted
by some speakers due to the number mismatch between the singular everybody and the
plural themselves)
*Everybody want… The subject must agree with the finite verb, and everybody is
singular.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
b. Nobody should be judged by his / her/ their past.

Nobody should be judged by his past (traditional grammar).
Nobody should be judged by her past (non-sexist but potentially confusing language)
Nobody should be judged by their past (non-sexist language, but inconsistent in what
concerns number agreement).
c. Neither of them has / have ever seen his / her / their parents.
Neither of them has ever seen his father (grammatical number concord between neither
and has; traditional gender concord between neither and his).
Neither of them have ever seen his father (semantic number concord between neither and
have; traditional gender concord between neither and his).
Neither of them has ever seen her father (grammatical number concord between neither
and has; non-sexist gender concord between neither and her).
Neither of them have ever seen her father (semantic number concord between neither and
have; non-sexist gender concord between neither and her).
Neither of them has ever seen their father (grammatical number concord between neither
and has; non-sexist gender concord between neither and their).
Neither of them have ever seen their father (semantic number concord between neither
and have; non-sexist gender concord between neither and their).
d. It is / are my ambition that keeps me going.

It is my ambition that keeps me going.
e. I love Italian paintings from the fifteenth and the sixteenth century / centuries.
I love Italian paintings from the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries.
f. The family were expelled from its / their house.

The family was expelled from its house (grammatical number concord).
The family were expelled from their house (semantic number concord).
g. The Opposition seem / seems badly divided among themselves.

The opposition seem badly divided among themselves (semantic number concord).
The opposition seems badly divided among themselves (grammatical number concord).
h. Half of the apples that I bought this morning is / are full of worms.
Half of the apples that I bought this morning are full of worms.
i. The police has / have been successful in intercepting various drug shipments.
The police has been successful in intercepting various drug shipments (grammatical
number concord).
The police have been successful in intercepting various drug shipments (semantic number
concord).
j. The data is / are not showing any clear pattern.

The data is not showing any clear pattern (concord based on the absence of a recognizable
plural marker).
The data are not showing any clear pattern (concord based on the interpretation of -a as a
plural marker, originally from Greek).
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
k. My worst enemies is / are my family.

My worst enemies are my family.
l. She has many friends, but who has / have been invited to her party?
Who has been invited to her party?
m. People is / are beginning to doubt her story.

People are beginning to doubt her story.
n. Statistics is / are not popular with psychology students.

Statistics is not popular with psychology students.
o. A large number of students want / wants to spend a semester abroad.

A large number of students want to spend a semester abroad.
p. Fish and chips is / are no longer cheap.

Fish and chips is no longer cheap (fish and chips constitutes an uncountable unit, a
singular).
Fish and chips are no longer cheap (fish + chips, two conjoined elements, a plural).
3. Determine the structure of the following NPs and characterize the different genitival
constituents appearing in them. Then, translate them into Spanish. (Examples (a)-(c) from
Santorini & Kroch, 2000).
a. the monster's mother's lair.

[[[the monster’s]NP-3 mother’s]NP-2 lair]NP-1
NP-3 the monster’s is a thematic (possessive) genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-2
mother.
NP-2 the monster’s mother’s is a thematic genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1 lair.
La guarida de la madre del monstruo.
b. the hero of the poem's name.

[[the hero [of the poem]PP’s]NP-2 name]NP-1
PP of the poem is a thematic (possessive) of-construction post-modifying the head of
NP-2 hero.
NP-2 the hero of the poem’s is a thematic genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1 name.
El nombre del héroe del poema.
c. the mother of the monster's dislike of the poem's hero.

[[the mother [of the monster]PP-2’s]NP-2 dislike [of [the poem’s]NP-3 hero]PP-1]NP-1
NP-2 the mother of the monster’s is a thematic (subjective) genitive pre-modifying the
head noun of NP-1 dislike.
PP-1 of the poem’s hero is a thematic (objective) of-construction post-modifying the
head noun of NP-1 dislike.
PP-2 of the monster is a thematic (possessive) of-construction post-modifying the head
noun of NP-2 mother.
NP-3 the poem’s is a thematic (possessive) genitive pre-modifying the head of the NP
complement of the preposition of in PP-1, namely hero.
La aversión de la madre del monstruo por/hacia el héroe del poema.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
d. Peter's attempts.
[[Peter’s]NP-2 attempts]NP-1
NP-2 Peter’s is a thematic (subjective) genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1
attempts.
Los intentos de Peter.
e. some expensive ladies' gloves.

[some [expensive]AP [ladies’]NP-2 gloves]NP-1
AP expensive pre-modifies the head of NP-1 gloves.
NP ladies’ is a non-thematic genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1 gloves.
Algunos guantes de señora caros.
f. summer's days.
[[summer’s]NP-2 days]NP-1
NP-2 summer’s is a non-thematic genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1 days.
Días de verano.
g. this year's new fashions.

[[this year’s]NP-2 [new]AP fashions]NP-1
NP-2 this year’s is a thematic (possessive) genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1
fashions.
AP pre-modifies the head of NP-1 fashions.
Las modas de este año.
4. Describe the syntax of the following nominal constituent, taking into consideration the
argument/adjunct status of modifiers. Then, translate them into Spanish.
b.The students' unanimous rejection of the dean's proposal of two new bachelor's
degree.
[[The students’]NP-2 [unanimous]AP-1 rejection [of [the dean’s]NP-3 proposal [of two
[new]AP-2 [bachelor’s]NP-4 degrees]PP-2]PP-1]NP-1
NP-2 the students is a thematic (subjective) genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1
rejection.
AP-1 unanimous pre-modifies the head of NP-1 rejection as an adjunct.
PP-1 of the dean’s proposal of two new bachelor’s degrees post-modifies the head of NP-
1 as an internal argument, a complement.
NP-3 the dean’s is a thematic (subjective) genitive pre-modifying the complement of the
head of PP-1 proposal.
PP-2 of two new bachelor’s degrees post-modifies the complement of the head of PP-1
proposal as an internal argument, i.e. a complement.
AP-2 pre-modifies the complement of the head of PP-2 degrees as an adjunct.
NP-4 bachelor’s is a non-thematic genitive pre-modifying the complement of the head of
PP-2 degrees.
El rechazo unánime de los estudiantes a la propuesta del decano de dos títulos de grado
nuevos.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
c. The criminal lawyer’s weak evidence for a terrorist link with the victim’s murder in
cold blood.
[[The [criminal]NP-3 lawyer’s]NP-2 [weak]AP-1 evidence [for a [terrorist]NP-4/AP-2 link [with
[the victim’s]NP-5 murder [in [cold]AP-3 blood]PP-3]PP-2]PP-1]NP-1
NP-2 the criminal lawyer’s is a thematic (possessive) genitive pre-modifying the head of
NP-1 evidence.
AP-1 weak pre-modifies the head of NP -1 evidence as an adjunct.
PP-1 for a terrorist link with the victim’s murder in cold blood post-modifies the head of
NP-1 evidence as an internal argument, i.e. a complement.
NP-3 criminal is a bare noun pre-modifying the head of NP-2 lawyer as an internal
argument, i.e. a complement.
NP-4 / AP-2 terrorist pre-modifies the head of the complement of the head of PP-1 link
as an adjunct.
PP-2 with the victim’s murder in cold blood post-modifies the head of the complement of
the preposition for in PP-1 link as an internal argument, i.e. a complement.
NP-5 the victim’s is a thematic (objective) genitive pre-modifying the complement of the
head of PP-3 murder.
PP-3 in cold blood post-modifies the complement of the head of PP-3 murder.
AP-3 cold pre-modifies the complement of the head in PP-3 blood as an adjunct.
La débil prueba del abogado criminalista a favor del vínculo terrorista con el asesinato
de la víctima a sangre fría.
d. Mary’s seemingly firm reliance on Peter’s support to her excessively simple initiative.
[[Mary’s]NP-2 [[seemingly]AdvP-1 firm]AP-1 reliance [on [Peter’s]NP-3 support [to her
[[excessively]AdvP-2 simple]AP-2 initiative]PP-2 ]PP-1]NP-1
NP-2 Mary’s is a thematic (possessive) genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1 reliance.
PP-1 on Peter’s support to her excessively simple initiative is a thematic PP, the
complement of the head of NP-1 reliance.
AP-1- seemingly firm pre-modifies the head of NP-1 reliance as an adjunct.
AdvP-1 seemingly pre-modifies the head of AP-1 firm as an adjunct.
NP-3 Peter’s is a thematic (possessive) genitive pre-modifying the complement of the
head of PP-1 support.
PP-2 to her excessively simple initiative post-modifies the complement of the head of PP-
1 support as an internal argument, i.e. a complement.
AP-2 excessively simple pre-modifies the complement of the head of PP-2 initiative as an
adjunct.
AdvP-2 excessively pre-modifies the head of AP-2 simple as an adjunct.
La confianza aparentemente firme de María en el apoyo de Pedro a su iniciativa
excesivamente simple.
g. Today’s discussion of Mike’s firm proposal against the illegal sale of houses on the
Southern Coast.
[[Today’s]NP-2 discussion [of [Mike’s]NP-3 [firm]AP-1 proposal [against the [illegal]AP-2 sale
[of houses [on the [Southern]AP-3 Coast]PP-3]]PP-2]PP-1]NP-1
NP-2 today’s is a thematic genitive pre-modifying the head of NP-1 discussion.
PP-1 of Mike’s firm proposal against the illegal sale of houses on the Southern Coast
post-modifies the head of NP-1 discussion as an internal argument, i.e. a complement.
NP-3 Mike’s is a thematic (subjective) genitive pre-modifying the complement of the
head in PP-1 proposal.
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Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
AP-1 pre-modifies the complement of the head in PP-1 proposal as an adjunct.

PP-2 against the illegal sale of houses on the Southern Coast post-modifies the
complement of the head in PP-1 proposal as an internal argument, i.e. a complement.
PP-3 of houses post-modifies the complement of the head of PP-2 sale as an internal
argument, i.e. a complement.
AP-2 illegal pre-modifies the complement of the head in PP-2 sale as an adjunct.
PP-3 on the Southern Coast post-modifies the complement of the head of PP-2 sale as an
adjunct.
AP-3 Southern pre-modifies the complement of the head of PP-3 coast as an adjunct.
La discusión de hoy sobre la propuesta firme de Miguel contra la venta ilegal de casas
en la costa del sur.
5. (From Radford, 1988). Discuss the ambiguity of the following NPs, and how it might
be represented in structural terms. Are their corresponding Spanish counterparts
ambiguous too? Explain in detail.
b. a toy factory.
First reading: “a factory that makes toys”, where toys is the internal argument, i.e. the
complement, of factory.
Second reading: “a factory designed for children to play with”, where toy is an adjunct
of factory.
Spanish: Una fábrica de juguetes / una fábrica de juguete, which are both unambiguous.
c. a brass button holder.

First reading: “a holder for buttons which is made of brass”, where button is the internal
argument, i.e. the complement, of holder, and brass pre-modifies holder as an adjunct.
Second reading: “a holder for brass buttons”, where brass buttons is the internal
argument, i.e. the complement of holder, and brass pre-modifies buttons as an adjunct.
Spanish: un soporte para botones de latón (ambiguous) / un soporte de latón para
botones (unambiguous in the first reading).
6. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). In the sentences below, adapted from The Death
of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, find the PPs that function as modifiers inside NPs, and
determine their function.
a. During an interval in the Melvinski trial, the members and public prosecutor met in
Ivan Egorovich Shebek’s private room, where the conversation turned on the celebrated
Krasovski case.
In the Melvinski trial. An argument of the noun interval.
b. On receiving the news of Ivan Ilych’s death, the first thought of each of the gentlemen
in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among
themselves or their acquaintances.
of Ivan Ilych’s death. A thematic of-construction, the internal argument (complement) of

the noun news.
of each of the gentlemen in that private room. A thematic (subjective) of-construction,
the external argument of the noun thought.
8
Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
in that private room. An adjunct of the noun men.
7. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). Provide the structure for the following NPs (use
NP, AdjP, D, etc.). Also list the functions of the different elements.
a. one of their irrational responses.

[one [of their [irrational]AP responses]PP ]NP
PP of their irrational responses post-modifies the numeral one as a partitive, a
complement of nouns / pronouns that indicate a part (one) of a whole denoted by the
partitive phrase (of their irrational responses).
AP irrational pre-modifies the complement of the head of PP responses as an adjunct.
b. the attack on the conclusions of that report.

[the attack [on the conclusions [of that report]PP-2]PP-1]NP
PP-1 on the conclusions of that report post-modifies attack as an internal argument, a
complement (note that attack is a deverbal noun).
PP-2 of that report is a thematic (possessive) of-construction.
c. a hilarious look at the two geniuses.

[a [hilarious]AP-1 look [at the [two]AP-2 geniuses]PP ]NP
PP at the two geniuses post-modifies look as an internal argument, a complement.
AP-1 hilarious pre-modifies look as an adjunct.
AP-2 two, a numeral, pre-modifies the complement of the head of PP geniuses as an
adjunct.
d. four fluffy feathers on a Fiffer-feffer-feff (from Dr. Seuss’s ABC).

[four [fluffy]AP-1 feathers [on a [Fiffer-feffer]AP-2 feff]PP ]NP
AP-1 fluffy pre-modifies feathers as an adjunct.
PP on a Fiffer-feffer-feff post-modifies feathers as an adjunct.
AP-2 Fiffer-feffer pre-modifies the complement of the head of PP feff as an adjunct.
8. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). Examine the phrases below. Which PPs and NPs
are complements? Provide reasons for your answer.
a. Canadian students of English.

PP of English is a complement, the internal argument of both the noun students and the
verb it comes from (They study English).
AP Canadian is an adjunct (it is not in the argument structure of either student or (to)
study).
b. a French Old English student.

NP Old English, in which old is capitalized, is the internal argument (complement) of the
noun student and the verb it comes from (A French that studies Old English).
AP French pre-modifies student as an adjunct (it is not in the argument structure of either
student or (to) study). Note that the complement is closer to the noun it pre-modifies than
the adjunct, in agreement with syntactic requirements.
9
Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
9. (Adapted from van Gelderen, 2010). The NP may have at least three interpretations.
Determine what they are and explain why they are possible.
The chocolate toy factory.
First reading: “a factory that makes chocolate toys”, where toy is the internal argument
(complement) of the deverbal noun factory and chocolate pre-modifies toy as an adjunct.
[the [[chocolate]NP-3 toy]NP-2 factory]NP-1
Second reading: “a factory, made of chocolate, which makes toys”, where toy is the
internal argument (complement) of the deverbal noun factory, and chocolate pre-modifies
factory as an adjunct.
[the [chocolate]NP-3 [toy]NP-2 factory]NP-1
Third reading: “a factory made of chocolate for children to play with”, where both
chocolate and toy pre-modify factory as adjuncts.
[the [chocolate]NP-3 [toy]NP-2 factory]NP-1
10. As we have seen in class, genericity in English can be expressed by means of the
indefinite (1a), definite (1b) and zero (1c) articles:
(1) a. A lion has four legs.

b. The lion has four legs.
c. Lions have four legs.
However, the data in (2) and (3) don’t seem to fit such a conclusion. Can you find
any relevant difference between the grammatical examples in (1) and the ungrammatical
examples in (2)-(3)?
(2) a. *A lion (as a species) is hungry.

b. *The lion (as a species) is hungry.
c. Lions (as a species) are hungry.
(3) a. *A lion (as a species) will be extinct in the near future.

b. The lion (as a species) will be extinct in the near future.
c. Lions (as a species) will be extinct in the near future.
The use of the zero article for the expression of genericity seems to be less
constrained than the use of the indefinite and definite articles: it can appear with
predicates denoting permanent properties (individual-level predicates like have four legs)
and predicates denoting temporary ones (stage-level predicates like (be) hungry). In
contrast, neither the definite nor the indefinite article can denote genericity if the predicate
is a stage-level one, unless that predicate belongs to those only compatible with kinds like
10
Exercises Topic 4
Prof. Gema Chocano
(be) extinct (Dinosaurs were extinct millions of years ago / *My dog was extinct last
year).
Finally, translate all the examples into Spanish. Are the (un)grammatical
examples in English (un)grammatical in Spanish too?
(4) a. ?? Un león tiene cuatro patas.

b. El león tiene cuatro patas.
c.*Leones tienen cuatro patas.
d. Los leones tienen cuatro patas.
(5) a. *Un león está hambriento.

b. *El león está hambriento.
c. *Leones están hambrientos.
d. Los leones están hambrientos.
(6) a. *Un león se extinguirá en un futuro próximo.

b. El león se extinguirá en un futuro próximo.
c. *Leones se extinguirán en un futuro próximo.
d. Los leones se extinguirán en un futuro próximo.
At first sight, the differences between English and Spanish reduce to those
discussed in class: (i) in contrast to English, in Spanish the expression of genericity by
means of an indefinite article is quite deviant (4a), especially in the case of stage-level
and kind-predicates (5a), (6a); and (ii) in contrast to English, plural generics obligatorily
contain the definite article, since Spanish lacks zero articles ((4c), (5c), (6c) vs (4d), (5d),
(6d)). Finally, note that the expression of a generic by means of an indefinite article is
possible in the two languages if a habitual reading of the predicate is forced:
(7) a. A lion is hungry if he’s not regularly fed.

b. Un león está hambriento si no se le alimenta regularmente.
The use of the definite article in this case still results in ungrammaticality:
(8) a. *The lion is hungry if he’s not regularly fed (OK only if the lion is specific).
b. *El león está hambriento si no se le alimenta regularmente (OK only if el león is
specific).
11
Exercises Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
1. Directed motion events. The Spanish sentences in (1) are not very good translations of
their English counterparts. Similarly, the English sentences in (2) do not constitute a
natural translation of the Spanish examples in the set. Discuss in detail why this is the
case.
(1) English → Spanish (examples from Mora Gutiérrez 2001).
a. Why, when I went down.
a’. Sí, cuando me bajé abajo.
b. She rustled out of the room.
Salió del cuarto, acompañada del susurro siseante de sus ropas.
(2) Spanish → English (examples from Martínez Vázquez 2001).

a. Iba para el puerto.
a’. …who was going to the dock.
b. Mis hermanos menores empezaron a salir de los otros cuartos.
b’. My younger brothers began to come out of the other bedrooms.
2. Directed motion events. The examples below (Martínez Vázquez, 2001) are taken from
the CREA (Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual). Do they support or refute Talmy’s
(1985) view of Spanish as a verb-framed language? Provide a full argument.
(1) a. El perro trotó con cautela hacia ella.

b. Patricia gateó hasta la cumbre y se tumbó junto a él.
c. Retiró el asiento y renqueó hasta la ventana, apoyándose en una de las jambas.
d. Y su cabeza rodó dentro del cubo.
e. Se arrastró a su lado.
3. Directed motion events. Analyze what kind of strategy the translator of the English
sentences in (1) has used for translating them into Spanish. Later do the same with the
English versions of the Spanish sentences in (2).

a. I climbed up the path over the cliffs towards the rest of the people.
a’. Tomé el sendero que conducía al lugar donde estaba la gente.
1
Exercises Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
b. Martha walked through the park and along the avenues.
b’. Marta cruzó el parque y paseó a lo largo de las avenidas.
c. He stomped from the trim house.
c’. Salió de la pulcra casa.
d. He scrambled up by the stones.
d’. Gateo subiendo por las piedras.
e. Rabbit slithers in, closing the side door.
e’. Rabbit se desliza dentro y cierra la portezuela.
(2) English → Spanish (examples from Martínez Vázquez 2001).

a. …y salió dando tumbos.
a’. … and (he) staggered out.
b. Sentí que me había salido del espejo.
b’. I felt like I’d stepped out of the mirror.
c. Logró llevarlo a duras penas al dormitorio.
c’. She managed with great effort to drag him to his bedroom.
d. ...hasta que mi hermana la monja entró en el dormitorio.
d’. ...until my sister the nun rushed into the bedroom.
e. Lo conocí poco después que ella cuando vine a las vacaciones de Navidad.
e’. I met him a short while after she did, when I came home for Christmas vacation.
4. Change of state events. Translate the following English sentences into Spanish as
faithfully as possible.
(a) She brushed her blonde hair very smooth.
(b) It was then when we heard that Martin had jumped to his death.
(c) The door burst open.
(d) Nick pushed the door open.
(e) The child’s lips broadened into a smile.
2
Exercises Topic 5
Prof. Gema Chocano
5. Change of state events. The three English examples in (1) are ambiguous, but their
Spanish counterparts in (2) are not. Determine the source of ambiguity and discuss
whether it suffices as an explanation of the asymmetry between the English and Spanish
examples.
(1) a. Martha cooked the fish dry.
b. Her hair fell loose.
c. The water ran cold.
(2) a. Marta cocinó el pescado seco.
b. El pelo le caía suelto.
c. El agua corría fría.
6. Change of state events. Compare the sentences in (1a), (2a) and those in (1b), (2b). Can
you think of a reason for the contrast between them? (Examples from Simpson 2005).
(1) a. ??Hammering metal flat hot makes sense.
b. *Hammering metal hot flat makes sense.
(2) a. ??They burned Joan of Arc black alive.
b. *They burned Joan of Arc alive black.
3
Lingüística comparada (inglés-español)
Prof. Gema Chocano
Topic 5. Key to exercises
1. Directed motion events. The Spanish sentences in (1) are not very good translations of
their English counterparts. Similarly, the English sentences in (2) do not constitute a
natural translation of the Spanish examples in the set. Discuss in detail why this is the
case.
a. Why, when I went down.
a’. Sí, cuando me bajé abajo.
In English (1a), the motion verb go appears with its Path realized as a satellite, down,
according to the most frequent pattern in Germanic languages, which are, according to
Talmy’s classification, satellite-framed languages. The translation of (1a) into Spanish is
not in agreement with the most frequent pattern of Romance languages, where Path is
usually lexicalized in the verb: bajar encodes both Motion and Path, which makes the
presence of the Path satellite abajo superfluous.
b. She rustled out of the room.

Salió del cuarto, acompañada del susurro siseante de sus ropas.
In English (1b) rustle lexicalizes both Motion and Manner, in agreement with the most
frequent pattern in satellite-framed languages. Its translation into Spanish, where salir
lexicalizes Motion and Path but not Manner, is too lengthy and artificial: with the aim of
adding Manner, present in English rustle but absent in Spanish salir, the translator
includes apparently arbitrary information that is missing in the English original sentence.
(2) Spanish → English (examples from Martín Vázquez 2001).

a. Iba para el puerto.
a’. …who was going to the dock.
Although (2a) is completely natural in Spanish, (2b) is not completely so in English,
where verbs lexicalizing Motion and Manner are highly preferred.
b. Mis hermanos menores empezaron a salir de los otros cuartos.

b’. My younger brothers began to come out of the other bedrooms.
The problem is similar to that in (2a). An English verb conflating Motion and Manner
would be better than come in (2b’), preferably a verb including the meaning contributed
by Spanish empezar.
2. Directed motion events. The examples below (Martínez Vázquez, 2001) are taken from
the CREA (Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual). Do they support or refute Talmy’s
(1985) view of Spanish as a verb-framed language? Provide a full argument.
(1) a. El perro trotó con cautela hacia ella.

Motion+Manner (trotó) --- Path (hacia ella)
b. Patricia gateó hasta la cumbre y se tumbó junto a él.
Motion+Manner (gateó) --- Path (hasta la cumbre).
c. Retiró el asiento y renqueó hasta la ventana, apoyándose en una de las jambas.
Motion+Manner (renqueó) --- Path (hasta la ventana)
d. Y su cabeza rodó dentro del cubo.
Motion+Manner (rodó) --- Path (dentro del cubo)
e. Se arrastró a su lado.
Motion+Manner (se arrastró) --- Path (a su lado)
The examples in (1) refute the strong version of Talmy’s hypothesis, namely that verb-
framed languages like Spanish disallow the expression of the Path as a satellite if the verb
lexicalizes Motion and Manner. The examples are, however, compatible with a weaker
version of Talmy’s proposal: motion verbs lexicalizing Manner can co-occur with a
satellite expressing Path in cases in which the preposition in the latter is other than a (a-
d), and even a is sometimes possible (e). Therefore, Talmy’s Generalization must be
understood rather in terms of frequency: verb-framed languages generally prefer the
lexicalization of Path in the directed motion verb instead of the lexicalization of Manner.
3. Directed motion events. Analyze what kind of strategy the translator of the English
sentences in (1) has used for translating them into Spanish. Later do the same with the
English versions of the Spanish sentences in (2).

a. I climbed up the path over the cliffs towards the rest of the people.
a’. Tomé el sendero que conducía al lugar donde estaba la gente.
English climb, which lexicalizes Motion and Manner, and the satellite up, which
expresses Path, are translated as tomé el sendero, a construction with a light verb and the
NP el sendero que conducía al lugar donde estaba la gente lexicalizing Motion and Path.
Of the two PPs modifying path (over the cliffs, towards the rest of the people) only one
is kept, namely towards the people. Manner in English climb as well as Path in up are
missing in Spanish.
2
Lingüística comparada (inglés-español)
Prof. Gema Chocano
Topic 5. Key to exercises
b. Martha walked through the park and along the avenues.

b’. Marta cruzó el parque y paseó a lo largo de las avenidas.
English walked conflates Motion and Manner, while the PPs through the park and along
the avenues encode Path. In Spanish two verbs, instead of one, are used: cruzó, which
lexicalizes Motion and Path (with el parque as Ground / Goal), and paseó, which
lexicalizes Motion and Manner, with the Path encoded in the satellite a lo largo de las
avenidas.
c. He stomped from the trim house.
c’. Salió de la pulcra casa.
English stomped lexicalizes Motion and Manner, Path being encoded in the satellite from
the trim house. In Spanish the verb salió conflates Motion and Path, the Goal / Ground
being pulcra casa.
d. He scrambled up by the stones.
d’. Gateó subiendo por las piedras.
Both English scrambled and Spanish gateó conflate Motion and Manner. Path is, in
both languages, expressed by a satellite, English up, Spanish subiendo.
e. Rabbit slithers in, closing the side door.
e’. Rabbit se desliza dentro y cierra la portezuela.
As in the previous case, there are no differences between English and Spanish in what
concerns the pattern used in the expression of the directed motion event: in both languages
the verb (slithers, se desliza) lexicalizes Motion and Manner, and a satellite (in, dentro)
encodes Path.
(2) English → Spanish (examples from Martínez Vázquez 2001).
a. …y salió dando tumbos.
a’. … and (he) staggered out.
The most frequent pattern in each of the languages appears in this example: in Spanish
the verb salió lexicalizes Motion and Path, while Manner is expressed by means of the
gerund dando tumbos; in English the verb staggered lexicalizes Motion and Manner,
while Path is expressed in the particle out.
b. Sentí que me había salido del espejo.
b’. I felt like I’d stepped out of the mirror.
Similarly to the preceding example, the most typical pattern for each of the languages is
found here: Spanish había salido lexicalizes Motion and Path, with del espejo as Ground
/ Goal, and no expression of Manner. In contrast, English stepped lexicalizes Motion and
Manner, and the satellite out of the mirror expresses Path.
c. Logró llevarlo a duras penas al dormitorio.
c’. She managed with great effort to drag him to his bedroom.
Again, the most frequent pattern appears in each of the examples. While Spanish
llevar(lo) conflates Motion and Path with the expression of Manner in the satellite a duras
penas, English drag lexicalizes Motion and Manner with the expression of Path in the
satellite to his bedroom.
d. ...hasta que mi hermana la monja entró en el dormitorio.
d’. ...until my sister the nun rushed into the bedroom.
In agreement with the most usual pattern in each of the languages, in the Spanish example
entró conflates Motion and Path (with el dormitorio) as a Goal / Ground), with no
expression of Manner. In contrast, in the English example the verb rushed lexicalizes
Motion and Manner, with Path expressed in the PP into the bedroom.
e. Lo conocí poco después que ella cuando vine a las vacaciones de Navidad.
e’. I met him a short while after she did, when I came home for Christmas vacation.
The pattern is quite similar in both examples, which use a verb (vine, came) which
conflates Motion and Path, with no expression of Manner. The only difference is that
Goal / Ground is made explicit in the English example (home) but not in the Spanish one.
4. Change of state events. Translate the following English sentences into Spanish as
faithfully as possible.
(a) She brushed her blonde hair very smooth.
Se cepilló el pelo rubio hasta que quedó suave.
(b) It was then when we heard that Martin had jumped to his death.
Fue entonces cuando oímos que Martín había saltado al vacío/ se había matado
saltando - de un salto.
(c) The door burst open.

La puerta se abrió abruptamente.
(d) Nick pushed the door open.

Nick abrió la puerta de un empujón.
(e) The child’s lips broadened into a smile.

Los labios del niño dibujaron una amplia sonrisa / sonrieron ampliamente.

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COMPARATIVE

LINGÜÍSTICA COMPARADA (INGLÉS-ESPAÑOL)

4º Grado en Lenguas Modernas, Cultura y Comunicación

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

Reservados todos los derechos.

Teacher: Mª Gema Chocano ( gema.chocano@uam.es )

TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO TYPOLOGICAL CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

Grimm’s Law. Se intentaron comparar textos donde se fijaron que donde en

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

We have different kind of langagues regarding morphology, typologically speaking:

si lees esto me debes un besito

Las bases para la clasificación de las lenguas según la estructura es teniendo en

A conclusión of synchronic interlingual comparison: contrastive linguistics would

La comparación entre el español y el inglés

Generative grammar de Chomsky está activo a día de hoy y tenemos muchos

si lees esto me debes un besito

Parameters. Esto está basado en el imput, en el data de nuestro cerebro. Los

- Wh-movement / Wh-in situ

La variación es muy importante.

si lees esto me debes un besito

Our approach versus English and Spanish in this c

Our approach will be a contrastive linguistics (synchronic comparison).

Principles are universals affecting all languages.

Typologically speaking, there are in all languages:

In wh-movements languages proceed in a particular way.

si lees esto me debes un besito

El rumano presenta la misma estructura que el aleman de necesitar el wh-element

Complementler-trace filter (+). Tienen un valor positive si es posible “who that”

Todo esto nos ayuda a entender the typological contrastive analysis.

1. Principles and Parameters (From Brinton, 2000). Look at the following

a. In statements, the subject precedes the verb. PARAMETER

j. Nouns refer to people, places, or things. PRINCIPLE

2. Now choose three of those statements you have classified as representing

3. Read Moravcsik (2013, chapter 1) and do the exercises in it.

Restricted and unrestricted universals are about conditions. In restricted universals,

EXERCICES OF “WHAT IS LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY” of Moravcsik

1. Look up the word for ‘salt’ in dictionaries of different languages. Are

si lees esto me debes un besito

si lees esto me debes un besito

In the case of European languages there are similarities in the corresponding

si lees esto me debes un besito

2. Universals – both unrestricted and restricted – can also be stated for

[Restricted and unrestricted universals are about conditions. In restricted

3. Consider the crosslinguistic generalizations in (a), (b), (c), and (d).

A. Determine for each whether it is an unrestricted or an

B. Determine each statement’s predictive force for English

(i) This statement makes a correct prediction

(ii) This statement makes an incorrect

(iii) This statement makes no prediction about

Here are the statements:

(a) In most languages where the adjective precedes the

A. This is considered an implicational/ restricted (as it refers to languages

B. (i) This statement makes a correct prediction about English.

(b) In all languages in which the inflected verb precedes

si lees esto me debes un besito

A. This is considered an implicational/restricted universal (as it refers to

B. (i) This statement makes a correct prediction about English.

(c) Whenever the verb agrees with the subject or the

This is considered an implicational/restrictive universal (as it

(d) In most languages, interdentals are fricatives.

This is considered an unrestricted universal (as it sais languages have X) and, a

(iii) This statement makes no prediction about English. Examples: /ð//θ/.