Uniqueness of oblique arguments

The third of the well-formedness conditions in (31) (i.e. Uniqueness) states that “no Grammatical Relation may be assigned more than once by a single verb.” This statement seems to be contradicted by examples like those in (36), which have more than one oblique argument:

(36) a John carved a whistle [for his daughter] [with his pocket knife].

       b Mary threw breadcrumbs [into the water] [for the fish].

        c The farmer drew water [from the well] [with a wooden bucket].

There is a crucial difference between these examples, which are grammatical, and the ungrammatical example in Semantic roles and Grammatical Relations (21a): *John gave a bouquet of roses to his mother to Susan. That example is ungrammatical because it contains two oblique arguments of the same kind, namely two recipients. The grammatical sentences in (36), however, each contain two oblique arguments bearing distinct semantic roles.

These observations suggest that we can maintain the Uniqueness constraint, which seems to be needed in any case for the other GRs, by recognizing more than one oblique grammatical relation. The GRs of the various oblique arguments in (36) can be differentiated by reference to their semantic roles: OBL_INSTR for instrument phrases; OBL_BEN for beneficiary phrases; OBL _GOAL for goal phrases, etc. These various OBL relations are said to be SEMANTICALLY RESTRICTED, since each relation can only be associated with a particular semantic role.1

In English, the difference between the various Oblique GRs is signaled in the syntax by the choice of preposition: with for OBL_INST; for for OBL_BEN; from for OBL_SOURCE; (in) to for OBL_GOAL; by for OBL_AGT, etc. In some other languages, these GRs may be indicated by the use of specific case markers.

¹. In some languages, a single clause can contain more than one secondary object. In such languages several different secondary object relations can be identified, which are again semantically restricted.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

سماحة السيد الصافي يكرم عددًا من عوائل الشهداء ضمن فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة النسوي العالمي الثامن

إحدى أمهات الشهداء: نعتز بتضحيات أبنائنا ونفتخر بشهادتهم دفاعًا عن الدين والمقدسات

ضمن فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة… عرض فيلم يوثق نشاطات الشعب النسوية في العتبة العباسية المقدسة

فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة الثقافي تشهد تقديم أوبريت الثقلين القرآني

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ماذا يحدث لجسمك عند تناول الوجبات السريعة يوميا؟

لصحة عظام المرأة.. الشاي أفضل أم القهوة؟

لبناء العضلات وإنقاص الوزن.. ما أفضل توقيت لتناول البيض؟

أطعمة صحية تساعد على التعافي من "الإنفلونزا الخارقة"

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

دراسة تكشف قدرة الحيتان على سماع الأصوات منخفضة وعالية التردد من مسافة بعيدة

تجربة جديدة: الأسفلت المدعوم بالطحالب يقاوم الحفر ويقلل الانبعاثات الكربونية

تسريبات تكشف ملامح أول هاتف قابل للطي من "أبل"

رصد نوع نادر من القطط في تايلاند للمرة الأولى منذ عقود

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Case and agreement Conclusion

Case

English NP structure (continued)

Recursive rules

Adjectives and Adjective Phrases (AP)

Complements and adjuncts of N

Lexical entries and well-formed clauses Conclusion

Further notes on English Phrase Structure

Well-formedness conditions

Subcategorization

Selectional restrictions

Properties of a well-formed clause