CONTRASTIVE GRAMMAR - REVISION
1) CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS, R.Lado;
those elements of L2 which are similar to learner's L1 will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult
2) EQUIVALENCE VS CONGRUENCE
elements are called “similar” when they are “equivalent”, which means “equal in value or meaning”; that is the case when they have the same underlying semantic structure, even if their surface structures differ;
elements are congruent when at a certain level of derivation they have the same number of equivalent formatives arranged in the same order (i.e. they are formally identical)
3) TYPES OF SYNTACTIC CONTRAST
structural differences - when L1 has a certain structure derived and L2 has no congruent counterpart, i.e. there is a phrase-structure rule not shared by L1 and L2;
categorial differences - where corresponding elements of semantically equivalent and otherwise congruent sentences belong to different grammatical categories;
functional contrast - where translation of a sentence from L1 to L2 involves a change of syntactic function of one of its elements (=e.g. the same semantic role realized by different syntactic functions: we lack money - S -\- brak nam pieniędzy - Oi)
4) SYNTHETIC vs ANALYTIC LANGUAGE =
=Polish vs English
= relatively free word order vs rather fixed word order =
=more inflected vs less inflected
= syntactic functions determined by case endings vs syntactic functions determined by
position in the sentence
5) VERB FORMS: differences in: base forms
tense, person, number, gender marking
aspect marking (Eng. syntactic, Pol. morphological)
moods
6) ENGLISH MODAL VERBS
7) VERB COMPLEMENTATION
-intensive complementation
-categorial contrast between English and Polish Cs (adj vs. adv)
-structural contrast in copulas: TO JEST/ JEST / TO = IS
-transitive complementation
-case marking of Polish objects vs. position of English objects
-overall freedom of word order in Polish vs. strict adjacency principle in English (object should immediately follow the verb)
-realization of non-finite clausal objects: no “infinitive with subject” in Polish!!!
-categorial contrast between NP-PP objects in English and Polish (unpredictable)
-reciprocal and reflexive pronouns as objects:
each other/one another = się AND oneself = się
-ergative verbs: look like intransitive in English and reflexive in Polish (inchoative verbs)
-true reflexive verbs in English (few) and Polish (a lot)
-ditransitive complementation:
-indirect Object = different definition in English and Polish ( In Polish - object which cannot become the passive subject; can appear without Od in the clause);
-position of objects in English vs. case in Polish;
-irregular equivalence between English and Polish NP and PP objects
8) ADJECTIVE COMPLEMENTATION
-PP, NP and clause complements in English and Polish
9) THE PASSIVE
-the passive transformation - syntactic characteristics (similarities and differences between E and P)
-the passive transformation as topicalization and reasons for it
-in Polish the passive - less important than in English due to the relatively free word order and a number of passive equivalent constructions: subjectless, impersonal, reflexive;
-verbs with which the passive is blocked
-clausal objects in the passive: preparatory IT and extraposition in English vs. passive substitutes in Polish (IT was/is believed that…= wierzono, że… wierzy się, że…)
10) EXISTENTIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
-theme and focus principle (theme - the known - in the beginning; focus - the new - at the end)
- THERE in English vs Polish reversed order: Locative phrase + copula + subject
-bare existential constructions
11) NEGATION
- scope of negation (Quirk)
-assertive, non-assertive, negative forms (Quirk)
-sentence negation: operator negation in English; verb negation in Polish
-position of negative particle or word: always before verbs in Polish; before main verb and after auxiliary in English
-multiple negation in Polish (many negative forms)
-alternative negation in English (one negative form and non-assertive forms - possible alternatives)
-ambiguity caused by different scope of negation
-transferred negation: main clause or subordinate clause is negative - possible changes in meaning
-absolute negation: NO answers; in Polish - the answer is a reaction to the previous utterance, not to the fact; In English - the answer reflects the reality; He doesn't want to work - NO, he doesn't VS On nie chce pracować - NIE, właśnie, że chce!
-phrasal negation: scope of negation limited to the phrase (not long ago; wolałabym tam nie pracować)
-lexical negation = morphologically marked negative meaning
-adverbs with negative meaning
-implied negation: included in the meaning of the lexical item, not marked formally (e.g. to deny);
12) WORD ORDER
- synthetic vs analytic lamnguages: free vs fixed word order
-in Polish, free theme-focus exchange without transformations; in English - transformations needed;
-word order important in Polish only when biernik and mianownik of the used nouns have the same inflectional endings: cielę kopnęło prosię; byt określa świadomość; then subject and object cannot be identified on the basis of case;
-in English - free reversing of the word order in STYLISTICALLY MARKED sentences; otherwise transformations are necessary (e.g. passive, extraposition, THERE insertion)
- SUBJECT-VERB inversion in English;
-objects ordering - important only in English
-adverbials: in English - an adverbial must not separate the object from the verb;
-sentence-initial, pre-verb, and sentence-final adverbials
13) NOUNS and NOUN PHRASES
-differences in number marking in English and Polish: many plural inflections in Polish;
-countable and uncountable nouns
-pluralia tantum and singularia tantum
-gender marking in English and Polish: grammatical gender in Polish, natural gender in English;
-morphology of gender in English and Polish (derivational endings producing masculine or feminine forms)
-virile vs non-virile gender in Polish: refers to the verb form in the past in the plural (panowie, chłopcy śpiewali; panie, dzieci, koty, struny śpiewały)
- case marking in English and Polish
-cases in Polish vs. nominative, genitive (possessive), objective in English
-genitive in English and Polish as the possessive case
-two forms of genitive in English
-Polish genitive used in meanings other than possessive (some verbal complements, negative verb complements, partitive structures, after numerals and quantifiers, after certain prepositions)
-elliptical, local, group, and double genitive in English
-objective case in English corresponding to all other cases in Polish (except for the vocative)
-modification of nouns
- premodifiers vs postmodifiers
-adjectives: inflected in Polish, in agreement with the head noun
-adjectives: for temporary or permanent features - pre-or post-modifying in Polish
-adjectives in English: some are only attributive (premodifying), some are only predicative (as Cs after a copula, e.g. ILL, GLAD)
-determiners: articles, demonstratives, possessive pronouns, numerals, genitive nouns, in various combinations n English and Polish (in Polish - possibly co-occurring )
-English: premodifier CANNOT be complemented or post-modified itself: *a proud of his son man
-irregularities between the two languages in function (pre/post) and category (N, Adj modifiers)