Over the last twenty years or so, most of the work on the syntax of Philippine languages has been focused on the question of whether or not these languages can be said to have grammatical subjects, and if so which argument of a basic transitive clause should be analysed as being the subject. Paul Kroeger's contribution to this debate asserts that grammatical relations such as subject and object are syntactic notions, and must be identified on the basis of syntactic properties, rather than by semantic roles or discourse functions. A large number of syntactic processes in Tagalog uniquely select the argument which bears the nominative case. On the other hand, the data which have been used in the debate to assert the ambiguity of subjecthood are best analysed in terms of semantic rather than syntactic constraints. Together these facts support an analysis that takes the nominative argument as the subject. Kroeger examines the history of the subjecthood debate and uses data from Tagalog to test the theories that have been put forth. His conclusions entail consequences for certain linguistic concepts and theories, and lead Kroeger to assert that grammatical relations are not defined in terms of surface phrase structure configurations, contrary to the assumptions of many approaches to syntax including the Government-Binding theory. Paul Kroeger is presently doing fieldwork in Austronesian languages and teaching linguistics to fieldworkers from around the world.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISBN-10
0937073865
ISBN-13
9780937073865
eBay Product ID (ePID)
1044802
Product Key Features
Author
Paul Kroeger
Publication Name
Phrase Structure and Grammatical Relations in Tagalog
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Publication Year
1992
Series
Dissertations in Linguistics Ser.
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
258 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
9in
Item Height
0.7in
Item Width
6in
Item Weight
14.7 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Pl6053.K76 1993
Copyright Date
1992
Target Audience
Scholarly & Professional
Topic
Miscellaneous, Southeast Asian Languages (See Also Vietnamese), Linguistics / Psycholinguistics, Linguistics / General
Lccn
92-006979
Genre
Foreign Language Study, Language Arts & Disciplines