The contrastive analysis of the word order of the attributes inside the noun phrase: A case study

Dana Švenčionienė

doi:10.5755/j01.sal.0.20.1243

Abstract

The article deals with some principles that regulate the order of attributes in the noun phrase whose position is variable by their syntactic and semantic function in Lithuanian and fixed in English.The English and Lithuanian languages differ as to whether their syntactic organization in the noun phrase reflects relations of a head word with a noun, with an adjective, with an article, with a numeral, with a participle, or the noun phrase comprises terms or phraseological units bearing figurative sense. In English, the position of the attributes is before the head word they modify in the noun phrase, i.e. in adposition or expressed by means of postposition. The grammatical means of indicating syntactic relations in the nounphrase and its attributes in Lithuanian are endings and inflexional suffixes. Generally, the word order flexibility within the noun phrase in Lithuanian is presented on the basis of morphological case marking.Therefore, the syntactic structure of attributes inside the noun phrase in English and Lithuanian sentences is a complex of interrelations between its constituents. Thus, the semantic meaning of a sentence of the same content in the both languages can be expressed by different word order. Though, the order of attributes in the noun phrase can be different too. Generally this study is concerned only with the noun phrase thatoccurs before the main verb of a sentence in English, whereas the position of the corresponding noun phrase translated into Lithuanian can even occur after the main verb. The comparative analysis of the noun phrase and its attributes is based on the restrictive effects of semantic meaning and grammaticalized variations of word order on the syntactic interpretation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.20.1243

Highlights

The morphosyntactic expression of the verb as the grammatical predicate which constitutes the basis of a clause structure and content has been researched at length and in depth in the works of English grammars (Huddleston, Pullum, 2002; Biber et al, 2007) and in current Lithuanian academic works (Holvoet, 2004(a); Holvoet, Čižik, 2004(b); Holvoet, Judžentis, 2004(c); Holvoet, Pajėdienė, 2004(d); Holvoet, Semėnienė, 2004(e)
The quantitative research of the data of the simple and analytical structures of the verb i.e. the grammatical predicate has been performed viewing the grammatical expression of the verb forms that are used in the English and Lithuanian sources (Farret, Simoes, 2006; Kytra, 2006)
Grammatical verb forms determine the patterns of word relations treating the structure of the verb in English and Lithuanian

Summary

Introduction

The morphosyntactic expression of the verb as the grammatical predicate which constitutes the basis of a clause structure and content has been researched at length and in depth in the works of English grammars (Huddleston, Pullum, 2002; Biber et al, 2007) and in current Lithuanian academic works (Holvoet, 2004(a); Holvoet, Čižik, 2004(b); Holvoet, Judžentis, 2004(c); Holvoet, Pajėdienė, 2004(d); Holvoet, Semėnienė, 2004(e). Considering the nature of language the emphasis is put on the argument that “language is viewed as an organism characterized by systems sensitive to different analysis” (Salmon, 2000, p.15). One way or another the term ‘morphology’ has been borrowed from the biological science and brought into linguistics. Disagreements have been raised among linguists concerning the boundaries within grammar in reference to syntax which makes an important part of grammar It is maintained (Salmon, 2000, p.20) that the boundary between morphology and syntax is constantly changing

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