Xavier Frías Conde A Brief Introduction to Functional-Categorial Grammar (FCG) © Xavier Frías Conde, 2015 Área de Galego-Português. Faculdade de Filologia. UNED (Spain) All rights reserved worldwide 1. PRINCIPLES OF F.C.G. A brief background FCG is a linguistic theory whose first steps are to be Placed between 2004-09. Its main aim is to offer a new approach to syntax It is not a completely functional-based theory, instead It tries to combine both: • Functionalism • Generative Grammar A functional approach is anyway predominant, though many contributions of Generative Grammar have been incorporated to FCG. Among its principles: • Provide a complete but simple framework to grammar, mainly syntax • Provide a useful tool in comparative linguistics and second language teaching Principles As most modern syntactic theory it is based on: • Semantics • And Syntax, which provides a further syntactic Structure Semantic – Syntax interface In the beginning was Semantics Meaning is the base of everything ✔ *The new washing-machine tells funny jokes Where is the problem? ✔ From a syntactic point of view: OK ✔ From a semantic point of view: ERROR Another example ✔ *A yellow idea Predicate Frames The main item in any statement is the Predicate. Predicates decide what they need to complement their meaning See → <somebody> <something/somebody>  John saw Helen  John saw the revolution  * The revolution saw John Even a different structure may vary the meaning of the predicate Take → <somebody> <something> → Pt. Pegar em  John took the mobile Take → <somebody> <somebody> <somewhere> → Pt. Levar John took the children to school. More about Predicate Frames In a predicate frame there is usually an external valency and zero, one or two internal valencies John is running → one external valency, zero internal valencies  John took an aspirin → one internal valency  John put the bags on the table → two external valencies It is raining → no valencies, neither internal nor external Apart from that, there are additional items which complement the information provided by the predicate, but they are not mandatory. These are known as adjuncts.  John is running a lot  John took an aspirin in the morning  * John put the bags  * John put on the table  John put the bags on the table this morning More about Predicate Frames This is an example of predicate frame, where Valencies are renamed as actants, which are mandatory items required by the predicate: The Thematic Grid The thematic grid is the syntactic interpretation of a semantic predicate frame. SUBJ PRED OBJ 1st VALENCY PREDICATE 2nd VALENCY There is a clear correspondence between: • the first actant and the Subject • the second actant and the Object. The previous graphic represents the core of the sentence, the mandatory items, which is also known as the kernel. Basic Syntactic Structure Actant Function Structure Satellite Category The approach to parsing: • FCG benchmark lies on the difference between functions and categories, rather than on actants and satellites. • Both actants and satellites are functions. • Categories are not generated by semantics, they are a mere syntactic product Functions Functions are to be taken as universal elements projected by Predicates. All functions are generated by the Predicate, except Adjuncts. •Core Predicate → PRED o Copula → COP o •External Functions o Subject → SUBJ •Internal Functions → all the rest o Object → OBJ  Direct → OBJ1  Indirect → OBJ2  Others → OBJ3 Adjunct → ADJ o Attribute → ATT o Examples of syntactic relationships SUBJECT SUBJECT SUBJECT SUBJECT PREDICATE PREDICATE PREDICATE PREDICATE OBJECT OBJECT1 OBJECT1 OBJECT2 OBJECT2 ADJUNCT Categories (1) Categories are not universal, though they exist in all languages. As for Indo-European languages, these are the main ones: • Adverbials → ADV • Modal-auxiliaries → AUX • Negation → NEG • Diathesizer → DIAT Categories are optional, and tend to be a rather grammatical value. Categories (2) Even certain languages possess categories unknown in others. Romance languages possess clitics, which do not exist in Germanic languages. They work as impletives  IMP Impletives are defined as a pre-Object position Expletives exist in German, French or English, but not in Spanish or Portuguese. Accordingly, expletives are defined as a preSubject position  EXP Supletives have a similar function and explain how Germanic verbs may be split (particle+verb)  SUP On top of the sentence On top of sentences there is a rather abstract category known as complementizer (COMP). All sentences, even simple ones, are headed by a COMP. This concept is taken from Generative Grammar and refers to pure grammatical categories affecting the whole sentence through the verb: • Time • Aspect • Mood • Agreement, etc. It is not compulsory to represent when dealing with simple sentences. Beyond the complementizer it is possible to find the so-called pragmatic functions. Pragmatic Functions Apart from the functions emerging from the thematic grill, sentences may incorporate a few more functions originated outside the kernel and with a rather pragmatic value. The main ones are: • Question (interrogator) → INT • Focus → FOC • Vocative → VOC • Topic → TOP • Relator → REL Vocative is a curious pragmatic function, since it shows declension in certain languages such as Latin or Czech. Representation of sentences FCG represents the structure of sentences like this: COMP SUBJ AUX PRED OBJ1 John is listening to the radio Anyway, the tree-like structures may be omitted Movement Theory (1) The so-called movement theory, first coined by Generative Grammar, is also present in FCG, though not for all cases, actually it is more constrained. The Chomskyan concept of Deep and Surface Structure is retrieved here, which justifies the existence of movements. TOP INT SUBJ AUX PRED OBJ1 ADJ where did you did buy it where TOP INT SUBJ AUX PRED OBJ1 what did you did buy what Movement Theory (2) TOP SUBJ NEG IMP PRED OBJ1 O Pedro pro não o vi o Pedro A movement involves leaving the original place of a function (never a category) and move into an upper position for different purposes (often to emphasize the clause). The moved item is written off. Furthermore, as it can be seen in the previous example, there can be more than one movement. Movements may be optional or mandatory. In English interrogative questions undergo mandatory movements. Emphasis in Romance is optional, though. Reversibility Hower, not all word order changes are to be explained by means of movement. In FCG the concept of reversibility is used to explain it. Reversibility works as a mobile structure, which allows an item to be placed after or before another one without recurring to movements to explain the shift of the position: MOD MOD SUBJ PRED SUP OBJ i Called up the children SUBJ PRED OBJ SUP i Called the children up The same principle is applicable to the PRED OBJ ADJ word order, which may occur as PRED ADJ OBJ in many Romance languages. About pro and PRO Another couple of items present in Generative Grammar that are to be found in FCG are pro and PRO, though at times with slightly different values 1) 2) Little pro indicates that the hidden item has a phonetic form that is easily retrievable (it is overt). Big PRO indicates that the hidden form cannot be retrieved (it is covert) Examples PT: O Pedro quer que pro escrevas a carta. pro → tu EN: He said pro he was tired. pro → that PT: Quero PRO comprar um televisor novo pro → eu (which cannot be retrieved in anyway) Examples MOD SUBJ AUX PRED OBJ ADJ Tonight I will watch TV at home SUBJ AUX PRED OBJ ADJ TOP I will watch TV at home tonight INT SUBJ AUX PRED OBJ Do you do want a beer? TOP INT SUBJ PRED OBJ Onde é que você mora onde? FOC SUBJ AUX Your words I TOP INT SUBJ What did John NEG PRED OBJ believe your words AUX PRED OBJ did listen to what? don’t 2. COMPOUND SENTENCES Compound Sentences Compound Sentences are made up of two or more clauses. Simple clauses are made up of one clause. A clause requires a lexical verb and then a thematic grill, though the external valency (Subject) may be absent. Compound sentences require instead: • a main clause • one or more depending clause It is not true that the main clause may always have a complete meaning. In many cases the main clause does need the so-called depending clause to get a complete meaning, as in:  I want to pay a visit to my cousins  * I want  * To pay a visit to my cousins. Binding Compound Sentences Dependent clauses must be linked to main ones. There are two procedures for that: 1. By means of embedding 2. By means of attachment Embedding means insertion, so that dependent clause is embedded within the main clause acting as an actual syntactic function (subject or object) [( My brother came <to bring back this book> )] [(He said <that he was tired >)] Adjunction working either as an Adjunct or as a Topic. [< If you need help,> ( just call me up) ] [< I didn't finish the book> (because it was boring)] Embedded Clauses (1) They mainly correspond with what in Traditional Grammar is known as completive clauses. Functions can be broken down in such a way that sentences appear as compound of two or more storeys. This representation of sentences with FCG allows to understand the real way in which sentences are embedded or attached. This is an example of an embedded-OBJ clause such as it is represented in FCG Embedded clauses (2) More examples of embedded clauses COMP (e) SUBJ I PRED want OBJ COMP SUBJ PRED OBJ (e) PRO to buy a new car Attached Clauses An attached clause works as a MOD MOD COMP SUBJ PRED If you come SUBJ PRED OBJ pro call me Relative Clauses Relative Clauses are a special kind of embedded clauses not performing any function, but as an extension of a NP MOD (e) SUBJ The man REL SUBJ PRED OBJ that you met the man COP ATT is Mike Conclusions 1. The approach shown on this introduction refers exclusively to functions, but FCG also works with the form (syntagmatic theory) 2. However, the syntagmatic approach tries to turn up much simpler than the one offered by Generative Grammar. 3. Therefore it is possible to state that FCG works on two different levels, both the functional and the formal ones. xfrias@flog.uned.es