Multiple Motivations for Preposing in Philippine Languages

2014

Philippine-type languages is syntactically predicate-initial; the basic unmarked clause structure consists of a predicate occupying the initial position, followed by arguments which can be nominal, pronominal or anaphora. However, there are instances that this basic order is altered due to certain pragmatic factors. Recent studies (Tanangkingsing, 2011; Rosero, 2011) have shown that languages such as Tagalog, Cebuano and its variant Kana allow extraction and movement of arguments, specifically pronominals to the pre-predicate position. This phenomenon is called preposing. Preliminary analyses of preposing in Kana and Tagalog have demonstrated asymmetries in types of arguments that can be preposed. Phase-based theory accounts of extraction (Richards & Rackowski, 2002; Aldridge. 2004) have shown that absolutive and oblique DPs can be extracted out of a phase while ergative DPs are barred to undergo such operation because of the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC). However, Rosero (2011) has observed that Kana contradicts this prohibition by allowing pronominal arguments to be extracted. Kanarek (2005) also forwarded the same analysis of Tagalog preverbal pronouns. This paper, however, argues that preposing of ergative pronominal has already been grammaticalized in Kana while in Tagalog it remains highly pragmatically-motivated. Furthermore, this paper aims to explore and explain the syntax of pronominal preposing in Kana and Tagalog.

2004

This paper is a brief statement of the typological characteristics of the syntactic structures of Philippine languages. It utilizes a lexicalist theoretical framework to provide comparability among the examples cited. The word order of both verbal and non-verbal predicational sentences is examined, with pronominal and nonpronominal complements, topicalization, and auxiliary verbs. Philippine languages are analyzed as morphologically ergative.

Tokyo: Waseda University Press, 2010

Pronominal orientation is widely argued to be universal component of human languages. Meanwhile, the pronominal system of Philippine languages (henceforth, PL) has always been an obscure subject of investigation. With approximately 150 living languages, the structures of pronominals are just as many. This study attempts to explicate the grammatical functions, along with other known phenomena such as cliticization, homography, inclusivity/exclusivity, person-deixis interface, and hierarchy of some languages in the Philippines. Using an ergative-absolutive analysis, this cross-linguistic investigation of Philippine languages presents examples that illustrate the distinctive features of personal pronouns. Using a 100,000-word corpus for each language included, there are various similarities and differences revealed by the study: (1) some languages allow encliticization and some don't; (2) homography, as well as inclusivity/exclusivity, is a persistent feature of the languages; and (3) the strength of hierarchy poses semantic constraints, among others.

2009

In Andrew CARNIE, Heidi HARLEY, & Sheila Ann DOOLEY (eds.), Verb first: On the syntax of verb-initial languages (Linguistik Aktuell 73). Amsterdam: Benjamins. 303–339.

This paper examines the question of how pronouns and sequences of full nominal expressions are ordered in Tagalog verb-initial clauses. I observe that in one configuration (Actor voice), both VSO and VOS orderings are possible. In order to account for this, I propose that one of these orders results from a proper name standing in what is normally a position reserved for pronouns. This in turn provides evidence that the notion of subjecthood is relevant to Tagalog syntax, and is determined by morphological rather than semantic properties.

Academia Letters, 2022

This paper argues that focus, transitivity, and temporality cannot be analyzed separately from modality. Take for example in Cebuano, (1) Gikasuk-an nako siya. ‘I scolded him’. (2) Nasuko ko (ka)niya. ‘I became angry at him.’ These two sentences have been traditionally analyzed as both in the perfective aspect but exhibiting different focuses. Sentence (1) has been interpreted as either passive or containing a referential focus. Meanwhile, sentence (2) has been held to be active. This tradition, however, glosses over many layers of meaning pertaining to modality. In our view, sentence (1) is a transitive construction in which the referent siya is fully affected by the action indicated by the verb. On the other hand, sentence (2) is an intransitive construction that expresses partial affectedness of the third person (ka) niya. Other features of modality that have not been discussed in earlier studies are the contrast between deliberate versus non- deliberate, effortless versus effortful, stative versus active, punctual versus durative, particular versus general action, internal versus external action, exclusivity versus non-exclusivity. Data was gathered from reference grammars of Cebuano, Ilokano, and Tagalog with field interviews with native speakers.

In Jeffrey HEINZ & Dimitris NTELITHEOS (eds.), Proceedings of the 12th meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics 12). Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of California. 241–254.

This paper reports about how clausal clitics in Tagalog and several closely related languages are positioned relative to the rest of the clause. We show that the distribution of clitics belongs to the following two types: Wackernagel and verb-adjacent. One language, Tausug, attests the former type; most of the rest, only the latter. Tagalog shows a mixture of the two positioning types. In addition, Tausug, unlike other CP languages, allows an initial complementizer to serve as the initial element, which the clitics follow. The other languages' clitics are further restricted to being non-initial in the INFL phrase.

The study looks into the ​ similative construction and its structure in four (4) Philippine languages: Kapampangan, Mandaya, Porohanon, and Tagalog. Semantically speaking, such a construction specifies a ​ PARAMETER by which two arguments are measured: the ​ COMPAREE and the STANDARD​. Arguments cast as ​ STANDARD are almost always marked as ​ ABS arguments while those cast as COMPAREE role are marked as ​ ERG arguments. Interestingly, these constructions seem restricted to the forms which can act as ​ PARAMETERS to the class of so-called ​ stative roots​ : bare, unaffixed forms that denote states or ​ properties​. This distribution suggests that at least in this area of the lexicon, there are indeed constraints in which forms can occur in a particular syntactic position. Keywords: Kapampangan, Mandaya, Porohanon, Tagalog, precategoriality, statives, similatives ISO 639-3 Language Codes: pam, mry, prh, tgl Paper read at the 13th Philippine Linguistics Congress held 16 November, 2018 at the NISMED Auditorium, University of the Philippines Diliman

In Wilaiwan KHANITTANAN & Paul SIDWELL (eds.), SEALS XIV: Papers from the 14th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society (2004), v. 1 (Pacific Linguistics E–5). Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. 193–203.

In this paper we show the range of orders among clitics within a cluster in the Central Philippine (CP) languages. Based on the framework in Billings and Kaufman (2004), we show that CP languages show all of the following ordering types: NOM-first, Actor-first, light-before-heavy, and participant-first.

Asian Englishes, 2015

This paper reports on a corpus-based investigation of expanded predicates in Philippine English across a three-decade period. Looking at the Philippine parallel to the Brown University Standard Corpus of Present-Day American English, it was found that there is not much change on Philippine English expanded predicates with reference to time. Philippine English demonstrated an insignificant increase in its use of expanded predicates. The new English renders a colloquial association for expanded predicates regardless of time period, in fictional and conversational texts, except that expanded predicates doubled within the three-decade period. Expanded predicates in Philippine English have increased much greatly, compared to the older Englishes discussed in this paper. Though British English has lessened its use of expanded predicates, British English still has greater number of expanded predicates than Philippine English and American English. And even though the expanded predicates in Philippine English also increased as they did in American English, Philippine English of the 1990s arrives at a frequency closer to the frequency of British English of the 1990s than that of American English of the 1990s. Nonetheless, change in the three Englishes is insignificant within the three-decade period.