A comparison between Polish and English transformations

Deletion Prepared by: Żaneta Chłystek Bogumiła Plichcińska one the basis of: Świdziński M., Składnia Bobrowski I.,

Gramatyka opisowa języka polskiego

, T.2, WSP:Kielce 1998

OUTLINE:

1. Definition of transformation.

2. General overview of Polish and English transformations.

3. Deletion in Polish and English: a) deleting non-lexical elements; b) deleting lexical elements: - deleting pronouns; - reduction of co-ordination.

Definition of transformation

Transformations are a set of movement rules which inter-relate S-structure and D-structure.

General overview of Polish and English transformations

• • • •

1. Types of Polish transformations:

movements: – operating in simple clauses and in subordinate clauses – – cyclic movement (przenoszenie wielokrotne) indirect movement (przenoszenie niebezpośrednie) replacing lexical elements and adding new ones: – – replacing verbs with their periphrastic forms (zasłówki) replacing the conjunction “i” with the preposition “z” – – nominalisation (nominalizacja) replacing verbs with participles deletion transformation of word order

• •

2. Types of English transformations:

transformations affecting Phrasal Categories: – Topicalisation – – – WH-movement NP-movement Extraposition and Heavy NP-Shift transformations affecting Terminal Categories: – Affix-hopping – – – V-raising Do-support Subject-Aux inversion

Deletion in Polish and English

a) deleting non-lexical elements: all non-lexical elements (e.g. t,  ,  ) must be deleted before they appear in S-structure b) deleting lexical elements: lexical elements can, must or cannot be deleted depending on circumstances (the structure in which they appear and its semantic interpretation)

Deleting pronouns

Idę.

S2  S1 S NP N

ja

VP V

idę

Nominative of the pronoun

ja

in Polish can always be removed in simple sentences; its lexical meaning is determined by the inflection ending

ę .

Deleting pronouns

I go

.

 S1 NP S

I

N VP V

go

We cannot delete the pronoun

I

. It is the subject of the sentence and according to the

Extended Projection Principle

clauses must have a subject.

Deleting pronouns

Ja idę, a ty zostajesz.

 S2 S1 S Spw S NP VP V NP N VP If

ja idę

and

ty zostajesz

are parts of the same N co-ordinate structure in which they are connected with the conjunction

a ,

both

ja

V and

ty

cannot be deleted.

Deleting pronouns

However, the following sentence is well-formed:

Idę, a ty zostajesz.

Other possible sentences are not correct, eg.:

*Idę, a zostajesz.

*Ja idę, a zostajesz.

Hence, there is no rule in Polish that would completely prohibit the deletion of pronouns.

Deleting pronouns

I go and you stay.

S2  S1 S Spw S NP VP NP VP N V N V

I go and you stay

We cannot delete the NPs because they are the subjects of the clauses (EPP). It is possible to delete the second NP The two verbs refer then to the same noun.

you

, however the meaning of the sentence is completely different.

I go and stay

.

Reduction of co-ordination

In Polish: Co-ordinate structures in which the same lexical elements appear may or must (depending on the structure) undergo the so called reduction of co-ordination. E.g.:

Chłopiec zdaje egzamin ustny, a dziewczyna pisemny.

Reduction of co-ordination

(optional) S2 S1  S S S NP Spw VP NP NP V VP NP AP N N N V N AP A A chłopiec zdaje egzamin ustny a dziewczyna zdaje egzamin - in this case reduction of co-ordination is optional pisemny

Reduction of co-ordination

In English: We

can

delete the verb. The result of this deletion in DS is a

trace

that functions as a normal verb (

subcategorisation

).

In co-ordinate structures we

cannot

delete the NPs of the same function. We can only replace them with appropriate pro-forms (after taking into consideration the context).

E.g.:

The boy takes the written exam and the girl takes the oral exam.

- The boy takes the written exam and the girl takes the

oral one. - The boy takes the written exam and the girl t the oral one.

- The boy takes the written one and the girl takes the oral one. (context) -*The boy takes the written and the girl takes the oral.

-*The boy takes the written exam and the girl takes.

! Verbs are said to subcategorise into various sub-groups, depending on whether they require a complement, and if they do, what type of complement they require.

The verb

take

requires an NP complement. Its subcategorisation frames are as follows: take: [V;_NP]

Reduction of co-ordination in Polish

(obligatory) In Polish repeated co-ordinate elements in DS in which both co-ordinate constituents are conjoined by “spójnik przeciwstawny” (e.g.

a

) must be deleted if the N directly dominated by S preceeds the co-ordinate VP or if there are co-ordinate clauses in which there is the same N dominated by S.

Reduction of co-ordination in Polish

tree representation

E.g.: Chłopiec dał Ani książkę, a dziecku gazetę.

S2 S1  S S S Spw NP VP NP N chłopiec V N dał Ani NP NP N książkę a N chłopiec V VP NP NP N N dał dziecku gazetę

Reduction of co-ordination in Polish

examples

The lexical material that appears in both components,

chłopiec dał

, cannot be repeated. If it is, then the sentence is incorrect:

*Chłopiec dał Ani książkę, a chłopiec dał dziecku gazetę.

*Chłopiec dał Ani książkę, a chłopiec dziecku gazetę.

*Chłopiec dał Ani książkę, a dał dziecku gazetę.

Reduction of co-ordination in English

In English: In Ordinary Coordination we can co ordinate only

constituents

. A constituent is a set of nodes that are exhaustively dominated by a common node.

E.g.

The boy gave a book to the girl and (t) a newspaper to the child.

NP the boy c e S1 S’ S” and S S c e NP I e vP Spec v’ I e vP v Spec v’ gave l NP a book the boy VP v gave m NP V’ V PP t l to the girl a paper VP t V PP m V’ to the child In order to find correspondence between the two phrases a book to the girl/ a paper to the child, maybe we could

Verbs like “give, put” take two complements.

Their subcategorisation frames would be [ _NP; NP] [ _NP; PP] eg.

(He) gave the girl a book.

(He) gave a book to the girl .

Such a verb “consists of” two components in its deep structure: - a light verb (v) - an impoverished version of the verb e.g. GIVE The whole structure is called a VP-shell.

VP-shell Spec v vP v' VP NP V’

a book

V PP

GAVE to the girl

If we accept the explanation, then the phrase “a book to the girl” is treated as a constituent. Thus, it can undergo coordination.

The boy [ vP [GAVE] i [ v ] [ VP [ NP a book] [ V’ t i [ PP to the girl]]]] The boy gave a book to the girl and __ a paper to the child .