Copular constructions are those types of clauses where the contentful predicate is not a verb, but some other category like AP, NP or PP. It is an assumption among the linguists that the copular sentences carry ambiguity as they either express identity or predication. This chapter is concerned with the syntactic analysis of the copula constructions of Punjabi. The discussion starts with the idea that copula also has some semantic content which is counter to the earlier general assumption that copula is semantically empty. The section 3.1 is concerned with some definitions and classification of copula construction; one, based on the class of constituents involved (Bhatia 1993, Quirk et al 1985), and second based on their functions (Higgins …show more content…
a verb having merely a linking function, is the verb BE. Other copular verbs combine pure linking function with other meanings. For example, become has a resultative meaning, grow (He grew angry) usually adds a notion of gradual change, and look (She looked happy) adds a notion of inference from appearance.” “The copula verb is used for definition, identity, existence, and role functions.” Punjabi copula constructions are generated with the verb ho ‘be’. It is a common assumption about the copula sentence that there should be a predicate with lexical content, because the copula is assumed a semantically empty element (Higgins (1973), Devitt (1994)). However, Rothstein (1999) presented several arguments in favor of the claim that copulas are not semantically empty. We will discuss the semantic content of copula later, first we will present a brief account on various types of copula constructions discussed in the literature. Copula constructions may contain various types of complements like noun, adjective, participle, or predicate adverb. Based on their complements, Bhatia (1993) mentioned the following four types of copula constructions. The constructions with adjective complement show that the subject has experiencer-like
In Marianne Mithun and Wallace L. Chafe’s article “Recapturing the Mohawk Language”, the two authors focus on an important aspect of language that I strongly agree on. Mithun and Chafe demonstrate how native Mohawk speakers acquire unconsciously all necessary rules of the Mohawk language. I find that their discovery can be used as an argument to prove professor Ray Jackendoff’s first fundamental rule: mental grammar.
An example would be “Looking back at our history…” Since, it emphasizes the importance of our history. Antithesis was also used in the speech, which are opposing terms to help show differences between phases. For example, “We are divided, we are weak, we decline, yet when we are united, we are strong…” An allusion was obtained by stating the Declaration of Independence which shows the reference of history in our nation. Chiasmus is a verbal pattern when two clauses are balanced by reverse use of language. For instance, “If you want to go fast,go alone,but if you want to go far, go
First, a brief background in the three dimensions of language discussed throughout this paper. The functional, semantic, or thematic dimensions of language as previously mentioned are often used in parallel with each other. Due, to this fact it is important to be able to identify them as they take place and differentiate between these dimensions i...
Many scholars, such as Russell Tomlin and Jae Jung Song, discussed the diverse word orders of languages. Yet the fact that many languages have distinct word orders could be explained through discovering
Fromm, Erich. “The Nature of Symbolic Language.” Class Handout: English 101. Cerro Coso Community College, 2010. 121-26. Print.
The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistics in Honor of William Bright. Berlin [etc.]. Mouton De Gruyter, 1998. Print. The.
In respect to the distinction of voice, Turner uses the example of a Gullah speaker saying, “they beat him” instead of the English syntactic phrase, “he was beaten” (Turner, 209). Thus, distinctive voice is eliminated by the use of the objective case as opposed to passive verbs in English. This syntactical framework can be found in the African languages of Ewe, Yoruba, Twi, Fante, and Ga (Turner, 209). Similarly to the languages of Ewe and Yoruba, the verb /de/ is the Gullah language is used as a prepositional verb. Also, in the Gullah language verbs are often used in pairs or phrases, which is reflective of the languages of the Ewe and Twi people (Turner,
Chomsky’s theory says that “when we don’t hear displacement it is still there, at an abstract lever of grammar [called] logical form” (207). The Piraha language however reveals that there is no need for displacement or much modification for a message to be conveyed. The Piraha is an esoteric culture meaning that since they are such a small group of people, their language is constructed so that only they can be able to understand it, save for the few who are able to decipher it such as Everett. This means that grammar is not necessarily needed for one to understand the other. This then leads to the idea that the Piraha language does not have recursion or the ability to relate repeated items of the same structure. A Piraha sentence is short and straightforward, it does not have insert phrases to make a sentence longer or efficient. An example of this is from a Piraha, Kohoi, who was crafting arrows and needed some nails for the tip. He says to his son “Hey Paita, bring back some nails. Dan bought those very nails. They are the same.” (227). From this, we can see that there are no phrases inserted inside another sentence. Every sentence is said separately from another to convey a whole
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson, 2007.
... coffin: Theoretical and methodological issues in the analysis of copula variation in African American Vernacular English. Language Variation and Change, 3, 103-132.
...oved and the Moniyhan Report." Modern Language Association 111.3 (1996): 408-20. JSTOR. Web. 11 June 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/463165.
The problem of substitutivity has always been a thorn in the side of the study of semantic logic. Why does it sometimes appear that terms that refer to identical objects cannot be replaced with each other in propositions without altering the truth value or meaning of said proposition? Leibniz's Law would seem to ensure that we could perform such an action without anything significant having changed, but this is clearly not so. I intend to look at the history, not only of this problem, but of the theories that have created an atmosphere in which these questions can be contemplated. Finally, I will offer some of my own insights and perceived problems.
... to define a pragmatic language that can capture the true meaning of our thoughts and sentences in a formal language. This is significant because as often as we do stick to the Cooperative Principle and the maxims that Grice specifies, there are times where we stray from these cooperations to purposefully create implications. Because we do not normally ignore this Cooperative Principle without good reason, implicature is a strong way to get a point across. While Grice’s theory of implicature seems to fall short of setting up a complete evaluation process with which to decipher these points, there are some good things within his argument. Although Grice’s theory does not give a full solution to the formalist and infomalist problems or supply a flawless technique to evaluate implicature all the time, it is worth thinking about and applying to our everyday language.
College, Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 1-3. Retrieved from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/academic/tesol/WJFiles/pdf/TaejoonParkForum.pdf
Being a socio-cultural construct, language undergoes changes with change in society. This change works at two levels: at the level of words and at the level of syntax. Centuries of British rule over India resulted in changes in Punjabi language, adding new words into it which were borrowed from English. Words coming from diverse areas –such as military profession, products of industrialisation, register of law and administration and things of common usage- got included in Punjabi. Quite often these inclusions accompanied changes in word structure and stress shift. Words introduced into Punjabi from English lost their English characteristics and adopted rules of Punjabi morphology, as it happened in case of pluralisation of English words in