Lingg 166 Paper

What are ang and ng in Tagalog, and their equivalents in Cebuano? WHAT IS ANG? Tagalog ang has been analyzed as: (1) an article, equivalent to English the (2) a particle, because of its having an uninflectable form; (3) a noun or nominal marker, because it is used to introduce a nominal phrase; (4) a determiner, being immediately followed by a nominal head phrase; (5) a thematizer and syntactic thema marker, in that it serves more than the role of a specifier and acts as an equational syntactic grammaticalizer (Llido 2006). Other varying labels for ang are: (6) topic case marker (Yap 1971); (7) relational marker that marks the topic or focus of the sentence (Ramos 1971); (8) definite phrase introducer (Wolfenden 1971). WHAT IS NG? Tagalog ng has been assumed to be: (1) relational marker, a non-focus marking particle of actor or goal complements of noun phrases (Ramos 1977); (2) attributive phrase introducer (Wolfenden 1971). The Tagalog ng which is used as a topic or focus marker is not to be confused with the

ng, which is a variant of the ligature na. Ligatures are used to tie the noun phrase into the construction to which it belongs to. Tagalog ng distinguishly mark different grammatical functions: agent/experiencer and patient/object/theme (de Guzman & Bender 2000). To differentiate them, they will be called ngagent and ng-patient respectively. Ng also functions as a possessive and adverbial marker. Both ang and ng seem to perform grammatical functions and are used to indicate syntactic relations. PARTICLES, MARKERS, and DETERMINERS Before moving on to analyzing the function of ang and ng, the different word classes used to label ang and ng will be defined here.

A PARTICLE is defined as (1) a function word – unstressed word in the sentence, expressing primarily grammatical relationship (Pei 1966); (2) a word, usually uninflected and invariable, used to indicate syntactic relationships (Pei & Gaynor 1954); (3) a word which cannot occur with affixes, nor as subject or predicate, most of the particles are either modifiers or markers of syntactic relations (Constantino 1965). A MARKER has been determined to be (1) a special constituent or signal determining the function of a phrase, word, or morpheme (Pei 1966). A RELATION MARKER is a noun marking particle that indicates the grammatical function (actor, goal, location, beneficiary, and instrument) of the noun or noun phrase that they introduce (Ramos 1977). A DETERMINER is (1) a generic expression for articles, possessives, demonstratives, etc. (Pei 1966); (2) A word class, which serves to specify the degree of applicability of a noun phrase (Trask 1997). An ARTICLE is (1) a noun marker – common article and demonstratives occur with common nouns, and the proper article occurs with proper nouns (Constatntino 1965); (2) a special type of determiner found in some languages which typically expresses the degree of specificity or definiteness assigned to the noun phrase containing it (Trask 1997). GRAMMATICAL and SEMANTIC RELATIONS The grammatical and semantic roles marked by ang and ng will be determined in terms of case and thematic roles. CASE pertains to how the arguments of a predicate are formally encoded to distinguish between S (subject), A (agent), P (patient) and obliques. S, A, and P may be referred to as the core cases, while any other argument which is not an A, an S or a P is an oblique (Nolasco, 2005). In the case of Philippine languages, case is outwardly expressed by verbal conjugation (through the use of inflectional affixes) and separate uninflectable morphemes such as ang and

ng.

THETA/THEMATIC ROLES refers to the semantic relationship between verbs and their arguments (Haegeman 1991). Arguments are said to be elements or constituents which are obligatory in a sentence. The verb determines the number of arguments needed. As an example, the Tagalog verb binigay ‘to give’ requires three arguments: the doer of the action, its object, and its goal. Ergo, Binigay ko ang bayad sa kanya ‘I gave the payment to him/her’. The verb binigay assigns the role AGENT/ACTOR to the subject argument ko, the role OBJECT to

bayad, and the role GOAL to kanya. Haegeman 1991 mentions the following thematic roles: (1) AGENT/ACTOR – the one who intentionally initiates the action expressed by the predicate. (2) PATIENT – the person or thing undergoing the action expressed by the predicate. (3) THEME – the person or thing moved by the action expressed by the predicate. (4) EXPERIENCER – the entity that experiences

some

(psychological)

state

expressed

by

the

predicate.

(5)

BENEFACTIVE/BENEFICIARY – the entity that benefits from the action expressed by the predicate. (6) GOAL – the entity towards which the activity expressed by the predicate is directed. (7) SOURCE – the entity from which something is moved as a result of the activity expressed by the predicate. (8) LOCATION – the place in which the action or state expressed by the predicate is situated. Some authors have merged the roles of PATIENT and THEME into one. Features such as voice, focus and aspect will be discussed minimally here as they are attributed mainly to verbs, in which they (voice, focus, and aspect) are morphologically realized as affixes. The verbal morphology of Tagalog and its properties are not the central topic of the paper.

BASIC SENTENCE

A basic sentence in Tagalog and most Philippine languages is composed of at least two lexemes, which may be both nouns, or a noun and a modifer. A minimally grammatical sentence requires, that at least one of the lexemes be marked by ang. Verbs are not needed to build grammatical equational syntactic sentences. Therefore, these sentences carry no argument structure because they carry no verbs (Llido 2006). The equational sentence structure is unmarked, while verbalized sentences are marked and can be converted into equational sentences (Llido 2006). Abugado ang kapatid niya. Masipag ang dalaga. Ang pumupunta sa Sebu ang mahirap, hindi ang pumunta sa Maynila. Madalas ang (pag)punta ng dalaga sa Maynila. Bukas na ang kasal ni Selya. Para sa dalaga ang bulaklak. Nasa bahay ang dalaga. Wala sa bahay ang dalaga. May bulaklak ang dalaga. Walang bulaklak ang dalaga. Ang dalaga ang may bulaklak. Masama ang pumunta sa cabaret. Mabilis ang takbo ng bata. Ikaw ang napakatamad. Napakasipag ng dalaga. Ang dalaga ang napakasipag.

Deverbalized nominalizations? Ang babae ang pumasok.

VERBALIZED SENTENCES: TRANSITIVE and INTRANSITIVE SENTENCES In Philippine languages, an INTRANSITIVE CONSTRUCTION contains verbs that require a single obligatory nominal complement known as the subject (Reid & Liao 2004). The subject is the source of the action and the most affected entity at the same time. It is assigned the absolutive case. Intrasitive verbs are inflected with –um- or m- (Nolasco 2005). A TRANSITIVE CONSTRUCTION is one where the agent (the source of the action) is encoded in the ergative case and the patient (the most affected entity) is encoded in the absolutive case. Transitive constructions are also indicated by verbs with voice affixes such as –

in, -an, and i- in Tagalog, or their counterparts in other Philippine languages (Nolasco 2005).

NG and ANG in INTRANSITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

(1) a. Tumayo ang bata. b. Tumayo si Adam. c. Tumayo siya. d. Tumayo iyong bata. e. Ang bata ay tumayo. f. Ang bata, tumayo

g. Ang bata ang (siyang) tumayo. (2) a. Tumayo ang mga bata. b. Nagsitayo ang mga bata. c. Ang mga bata ang (siyang) tumayo. d. Ang mga bata ang nagsitayo. e. Iyong mga bata ang nagsitayo. (3) a. Kumain ng mangga ang bata.

b. Kumain ang bata ng mangga. c. Ang bata ang kumain ng mangga. (4) a. Pumutol ng kahoy ang tao sa pamamagitan ng itak. b. Pumutol ang tao ng kahoy sa pamamagitan ng itak. c. Ang tao ang pumutol sa kahoy sa pamamagitan ng itak. (5) a. Kumain ng marami ang bata. b. Marami ang kinain ng bata. (6) Lumapit sa dalaga ang bata.

Tumayo iyong bata. Iyong bata ang tumayo. Katatayo ng bata.

COUNTERPART in CEBUANO

Case Determiners in Tagalog and Cebuano Tagalog

Personal

Common

Cebuano

Abs

Erg

Obl

Abs

Erg

Obl

Singular

Si

Ni

kay

Si

Ni

Kay

Plural

Sina

Nina

Kina

Sila

Nila

Kanila

Ng

Ng

Ug

Ug

Ng

Sa

Ng

Sa

Unspecific Specific

Ang

Ang

B. Ang morposintaktika ng pagkatransitibong Pilipino

Ang pagkatransitibo at pagkaintransitibo sa WP ay naipapahayag sa morpolohiya ng pandiwa at sa pagmamarka ng kaso ng mga nominal na prase (NP). Sa isang transitibong konstruksyon, ang pandiwa ay minamarkahan ng alinman sa mga transitibong panlaping –in, an at i. Ang A ay minamarkahan ng isang pantukoy-kaso (case determiner) na kung tawagi’y ergatibo, samantalang ang O ay minamarkahan ng isang pantukoy-kaso na absolutibo. Sa tradisyunal na gramatika, ang ergatibo ay tumutukoy sa ngprase samantalang ang absolutibo ay tumutukoy sa ang-prase.Magkagayunman, kinocoindex ng panlaping transitibo ang O na nasa anyo ng isang ang-prase. Sa isang intransitibong konstruksyon, ang pandiwa ay minamarkahan ng intransitibong panlaping –umo ng alomorpo nitong palitlapi na m. Kinocoindex ng intransitibong panlapi ang nagiisang agumento (S) ng konstruksyon. Ang palitlapi na may ang panlaping matatagpuan sa unang tunog ng mga pandiwa gaya ng mangaral, maglaro, makakuha at makikain. Ang mga pandiwang ito ay binubuo ng istem na pangaral, paglaro, pakakuha at pakikain. Pinapalitan ng m na palitlapi ang kanikanilang unang tunog upang mabuo ang nabanggit na mga pandiwa. (Para sa mga detalye, tingnan ang Nolasco 2003 o alinman sa sumunod kong mga akda). Ang nagiisang argumento, S, ay minamarkahan ng pantukoy-kaso na absolutibo (ang), kapareho ng O ng transitibong konstruksyon. Malinaw kung gayon, na ang mga padron ng mga transitibo at intransitibong konstruksyon ay ergatibo-absolutibo, at hindi nominatibo-akusatibo. Summary: What are the functions of ang and ng? What word class are they? There is still much dissension as to the label which should be given to ang and ng Case-marking agreement features. Tagalog marks for absolutive, ergative, and oblique case. Semantic agreement features. Common vs. Personal, Definite vs. Indefinite, Proximate vs. Remote, Specific vs. Non-specific, Singular vs. Plural Word order does not play much part in assigning case features. The determiners/particles that come before noun phrases do. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bunye M.V. & Yap, E.P. (1971). Cebuano Grammar Notes. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press. Constantino, E. (1965). The Sentence Patterns of the 26 Philippine Languages . Lingua 15 : 71124. De Guzman, V. (2000). Some Remarks on the Grammatical Functions of the Nonabsoultive Agent in TAgalog. Grammatical analysis : morphology, syntax, and semantics : studies

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