FUNCTIONS OF ANG, NG AND SA

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.

Tagalog (tgl) is a Greater Central Philippine language that is a member of the Austronesian family of languages. It is one of the most widespread languages in the country and is mainly spoken in in most of Luzon and Mindoro. According to the census conducted in 2000, it has 21,500,00 speakers in the Philippines. There have been numerous studies on the language up to date. However, some aspects of the language is still not well-researched. This paper is an attempt to further the research on one of these aspects namely that of prohibitives and its particle in Tagalog. The paper presents the different functions of the particle huwag. It will describe in detail the semantic functions of huwag following using Kaufmann's approach to the speech act theory. It will also be discussing huwag in the context of the other issues in the Tagalog language such as transitivity, focus, etc. This paper is divided into six chapters. The first chapter discusses the background, objectives, scopes and limitations and methodology of the study. The second chapter presents the review of the related literature for the particle huwag as well its counterparts in other Philippine languages. The third chapter discusses the framework for the study in detail. This part includes a discussion on the speech act theory and the prominent approaches to it. The main points in Kaufmann's approach to imperatives using the speech act theory are also presented afterwards. The fourth chapter focuses on the different functions of huwag. It includes the three main functions of imperatives according to Kaufmann (2012) namely commands/ prohibitives, wishes and advice. Other primary and secondary functions found aside from the main ones are also listed here. The fifth chapter describes huwag in the context of the other issues in Philippine languages. It will include a discussion on the current approaches to transitivity and focus, the status of statives and the issues regarding Tagalog prohibitive and negative particles. The sixth chapter concludes the paper and provides a summary of the findings as well as recommendations for further study.

The researchers have observed, from the gathered previous studies, that the grammatical category and function of Tagalog particle ng was not fully established. Although it was chiefly labeled as an attributive marker and a linker, in contrary to being a case marker, the approach to it was not holistic. Thus, in this paper, a unified analysis of ng was done, reinterpreting, reorganizing, and reintroducing the particle with a new approach, asserting that ng is a case marker and a linker, at the same time. Likewise, its functions were enumerated and discussed, supporting the terminology the researchers have given to it.

Yap, Foong Ha, Karen Grunow-Hårsta and Janick Wrona (eds.), Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives . 2011. xvii, 796 pp. (pp. 589–626), 2011

In this paper, we look into expansion and spread of non-referential uses in articles in Philippine languages with special attention to two competing articles, ang and yung, in Tagalog. There are four claims we make in this paper. First, the functions of ang-marked nominals have been expanding from referential to non-referential uses. Second, yung is emerging as an article for referential nominals, taking over and expanding the referential uses of ang. Third, there is an emerging semantic distinction between ang and yung in spoken discourse: ang is for non-referential uses and yung for referential ones. Lastly, in other Philippine languages, as well, there is evidence of an existing article obtaining non-referential uses and a newer article emerging for referential nominals.

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.

This paper reports on corpus-based case analyses of 'ba', 'na', and 'pa' when these enclitic particles are inserted in Philippine English texts. The corpus exploration made also furthers on Bautista's (2011) initial investigation of ''no' in Philippine English, because she has considered the focal word to be a pragmatic particle in the variety of English in the Philippines. The analyses made for this paper were on ICE-PH with the aid of WordSmith Tools 5.0. 'Ba' was shown to alternate with auxiliary inversion in Philippine English yes-no questions and intensify the interrogative force of wh-questions where auxiliary inversions necessarily take place. 'Na' and 'pa' also allow for alternative variants in the expression of various meanings in Philippine English, continuity, recentness, tentativeness, and urgency, among others. Lastly, ''no' was seen to be functioning in place of the very frequent English tag questions in Philippine English, which are morphosyntactically more complicated.

2019

It is common knowledge in the field of Philippine linguistics that an ang-marked direct object in a non-actor focus clause must be definite or generic, while a ng-marked object in an actor focus clause typically receives a nonspecific interpretation. However, in contexts like wh-questions, the oblique object in an antipassive may be interpreted as specific, as noted by Schachter & Otanes (1972), Maclachlan & Nakamura (1997), Rackowski (2002), and others. […] In this paper, I propose to account for the specificity effects […] within the analysis of Tagalog syntax put forth by Aldridge (2004). I analyze Tagalog as an ergative language […]. Cross linguistically, antipassive oblique objects receive a nonspecific interpretation, while absolutives are definite or generic. I show in this paper how the Tagalog facts can be subsumed under a general account of ergativity.

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.

2021

I outline the uniqueness view in brief and argue that, with regard to Tagalog NPs, bare nominative patients do not imply uniqueness and fail the definiteness criteria, leading to NPs to be regarded by default as indefinite. I will seek to establish that bare nominatives cannot be considered presuppositional, that they do not display strong felicity and hence, cannot be definite descriptions. Finally, I will show that contrary to the uniqueness view, “ang” should not be viewed as vacuous. There are two implications for this view beyond the failure of uniqueness in Tagalog.