The syntactic representations

There are two fundamental assumptions in RRG. First, a syntactic theory of clausal structure captures all the universal features of clauses without imposing non-evident grammatical features on languages. Second, a syntactic theory provides comparable structures between akin or diverse languages. There are neither abstract underlying syntactic representations nor syntactic derivations such as move and merge as in Government and Binding (Haegeman 1991). In RRG, a syntactic representation reflects the form of an actual utterance.

The RRG notion of clausal structure is the structural segmentation of a clause. It is called the layered structure of the clause (LSC). A LSC contains two basic components: predicating elements and non-predicating elements. A predicating element can be either a verbal or a non-verbal unit. A non-predicate element contains two parts: arguments and non-arguments. Figure 2.2 illustrates the syntactic

configuration of a LSC.

Figure 2.2 Universal oppositions underlying clause structure (Van Valin 2005:4)

The predicate element by itself is called nucleus. It stands as the basic unit of a layered structure. A nucleus combines its core arguments into a core layer. A core argument is a semantic argument of the semantic representation of the verb e.g., the actor or the patient. The non-core arguments of predicates are called periphery, e.g., temporal and locative nouns. The combination of a predicate, its core arguments and periphery forms a clause. The layered structure is shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3 Components of the layered structure of the clause (Van Valin 2005:4)

Table 2.1 specifies the correspondence between semantic units and their syntactic ones in LSC. As shown in Table 2.1, each semantic element has a corresponding syntactic unit.

CLAUSE

CORE

PERIPHERY NUCLEUS

Predicate+Arguments Non-Arguments

Table 2.1 Layered structure of a clause (LSC) (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997:27)

Semantic element(s) Syntactic unit

Predicate Nucleus

Argument in semantic representation of predicate Core argument

Non-arguments Periphery

Predicate + Arguments Core

Predicate + Arguments + Non-arguments Clause (= Core + Periphery)

The layered structure of a clause includes another crucial feature: the hierarchical modification of operators. Operators are qualitatively different from predicates and arguments. They express grammatical functions such as tense and negation, and they modify clauses and their parts. Operators can be classified into three sets including the nuclear, core and clausal operators as diagrammed in Figure 2.4. The orders of sets are fixed in general but the order of operators in each layer may vary from languages to languages.

Nuclear operators include aspect, lexical negation and directionals. Take English for instance. The perfective and the progressive markers are two major types of nuclear operators. In Saisiyat, the progressive marker mam= and the perfective marker

<in> are examples of nuclear operators. Saisiyat nuclear operators will be formally introduced in Section 3.4.1.

SENTENCE

(LDP) CLAUSE (RDP)

(PrCs) CORE (PoCs)

(ARG) (ARG) NUC

PRED

XP XP XP X(P) XP XP XP

Aspect

NUCLEAR Negation

Directionals

Directionals

CORE Modality

Negation (internal)

Status

CLAUSE Tense

Evidentials Illocutionary force SENTENCE

Figure 2.4 The layered structure and operator projections (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997:49)

Core operators include directionals, modality and internal negation. Take English for example. The negator not is a core operator. In Saisiyat, kayzaeh ‘can (permission)’ and negators such as ’okay ‘not’ (negator of dynamic verbs) are core operators in Saisiyat. Section 3.4.2 will introduce this part.

Clausal operators include status, tense and illocutionary force. Status includes epistemic modality, propositional negation and categories like realis and irrealis markings. Illocutionary force deals with assertion, question, command and wish of an utterance. For instance, English uses syntactic means to signal illocutionary force i.e.

through the position of tense in matrix clauses (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997:42). In Saisiyat, the interrogative clitic =ay is an example of clausal operators. In Section

3.4.3, I will return to this issue. Figure 2.5 illustrates the LSC of an English sentence.

SENTENCE

LDP CLAUSE

PrCs CORE PERIPHERY

ARG NUCLEUS ARG

PRED

ADV NP NP V PP PP

Yesterday, what did John show to Mary in the library?

V NUCLEUS

CORE

TNS CLAUSE

IF CLAUSE

SENTENCE

Figure 2.5 The layered structure and operator projections in English (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997:51)

Language-specific features of grammars can be accounted for in two parts of the layered structure: (i) extra-core slots such as wh-words in English, and (ii) detached positions which occur outside the clause such as temporal expressions. These syntactic units may have different linear orders in different languages. An extra-core is inside the clause and outside the core. It can either be in the pre-core slot (PrC) or

the post-core slot (PoC). Take English for example; wh-words usually take place in the PrC but not in the PoC, as shown in Figure 2.5. Non-wh-constituents or propositional phrases also occur in this position in English such as the shifted object as shown in (2.1a) and the proposed dative as shown in (2.1b).

(2.1) English (based on Van Valin & LaPolla 1997:36)

a. That book you put on the table is a classical literature.

b. To Dana Pat gave a new watch.

PoCs can be occupied by non-core arguments such as dative NPs in other languages like Japanese. PoCs, like PrCs, are not set off by pause and under the same intonation pattern of the sentence.

A detached syntactic unit is outside the clause and inside the sentence, and it is normally accentuated by intonation breaks form the main clause. A detached position can either be the left-detached position (LDP) or the right-detached position (RDP).

Note that the NP of a detached unit is outside the syntactic jurisdiction of the clause. It does not fulfill the argument realization of the clause. The English examples of detached position are presented in (2.2). English has LDP of location expression like At the park in (2.2a) and the temporal expression yesterday in (2.3b). If the noun phrase in the detached unit functions as a semantic argument in the following clause,

(2.2c).

(2.2) English (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997:36) a. At the park, I talked to Leslie.

b. Yesterday, I walked on the beach with Kim.

c. As for Sam, I haven’t seen him in two weeks.

In a word, detached phrases and extra-core slots belong to non-universal phenomena, and are pragmatically motivated. The layers of nucleus, core, periphery and clause belong to a cross-linguistically universal phenomenon, and this universal aspect is semantically driven.