Aspects of the syntax of prepositions and prepositional phrases in English and Polish
The present thesis focusses on the structure of PP's in English and Polish, and the occurrence of PP's in subject and object positions. The main theoretical references are the X-bar Theory of syntactic categories and the Government Binding framework (GB). A consideration of English data corroborates Jackendoff's and Emonds' claim that apart from an NP, prepositions can take a PP and an SâČ complement or no complement at all, though details of Jackendoff's analysis are revised. Polish prepositions allow the same range of complements, including no complement, although,with a greater variety of complex prepositions and with intransitive prepositions modified by relative and appositive clauses, the P-PP and the P-SâČ structures are less common in Polish than in English. Subject and object PP's have so far received little attention. Like PP objects of prepositions, they are used if the intended meaning cannot be expressed by a suitable NP. The appearance of subject PP's in raising and passive sentences poses a problem for classical Transformational Grammar, though not for a slightly revised version of GB â another category-based framework. The analysis proposed here involves a particular view of the representation
Jaworska, Ewa
English language ; Prepositional phrases ; Prepositions ; Syntax ; Polish language
Aspects of the syntax of prepositions and prepositional phrases in English and Polish. The present thesis focusses on the structure of PP's in English and Polish, and the occurrence of PP's in subject and object positions. The main theoretical references are the X-bar Theory of syntactic categories and the Government Binding framework (GB). A consideration of English data corroborates Jackendoff's and Emonds' claim that apart from an NP, prepositions can take a PP and an SâČ complement or no complement at all, though details of Jackendoff's analysis are revised. Polish prepositions allow the same range of complements, including no complement, although,with a greater variety of complex prepositions and with intransitive prepositions modified by relative and appositive clauses, the P-PP and the P-SâČ structures are less common in Polish than in English. Subject and object PP's have so far received little attention. Like PP objects of prepositions, they are used if the intended meaning cannot be expressed by a suitable NP. The appearance of subject PP's in raising and passive sentences poses a problem for classical Transformational Grammar, though not for a slightly revised version of GB â another category-based framework. The analysis proposed here involves a particular view of the representation
aspects syntax preposition prepositional phrase english polish present focus structure english polish occurrence subject_object position main_theoretical reference x_bar theory syntactic category government_binding framework consideration english data jackendoff emonds claim apart preposition take complement complement though detail jackendoff analysis revise polish preposition allow range complement include complement although_great variety complex preposition intransitive preposition modify relative clause structure less common polish english subject_object far_receive little_attention like object preposition use intend meaning express suitable appearance subject raise passive sentence pose_problem classical grammar though slightly revise_version another category based framework analysis propose involve particular view representation