In view of morphology and syntax in linguistics, “questions are indicated by a number of interrogative constructions and by sentence-final particles” (Matthews & Yip, 2011, p. 359). The languages of Turkish and Cantonese will be investigated and compared in terms of forming “yes/no questions”, “alternative questions” and “wh-questions” mainly.
Knowing that Turkish is a synthetic language (Denham & Lobeck, 2013), the most significant rule in question formation is to embed an auxiliary verb “mi”, which is an interrogative particle, after or within a question attaching to or before the predicate (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005; Lewis, 1967). For example, “Zehra Londra-ya eylül-de mi gid-ecek?” is a direct yes/no question which lexically refers to “Zehra
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289). “Cemal bugün okul-a git-me-di, değil mi or öyle mi?” which lexically refers to “Cemal today school-dative go-negative-perfective, not interrogative or thus interrogative” meaning that “Cemal didn’t go to school today, did he or then?” (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p. 289). Besides yes/no questions, “mi” is inserted after each choice with an optional conjunction of “yoksa” between, in alternative questions (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005). They …show more content…
Regarding the direct yes/no questions, “你 煮 好 飯 未 呀?” which lexically refers to “you cook particle food not-yet SPF” meaning that “Have you finished cooking?” (Matthews & Yip, 2011, p. 364). They noted that “未” indicates the perfective of the questions. Syntactically, according to Matthews and Yip (2011) and O'Melia (1941), “A-not-A question” is highlighted in forming tag, copular and existential questions. It forms with the reduplication of the verb or adjective combining the negative marker of “唔” in the middle and “啲” is optional placing before “呀”, such as “遲唔遲 (啲) 呀?” referring to “late-not-late (some) SFP”, which means “Don’t you think it’s (a bit) late?” (Matthews & Yip, 2011, p. 361). Besides, the insertion of a conjunction “抑或” or “定” with an optional verb “係” between the choices in alternative questions is another grammatical rule (Matthews & Yip, 2011). For instance, they showed “你 要 粥 定 (係) 飯 呀?” referring to “you want congee or (be) rice SFP” lexically, which means “Would you like congee or rice?” (p. 373). Moreover, there are two types of wh-questions in movement with a wh-phrase which is a pronoun interrogative, like “點解” represents “why” and “幾時” represents “When”, placing “either at the beginning of the sentence or between the subject and the verb” (Matthews & Yip, 2011, p.
In the essay “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White, uses diction and syntax to reveal the main character’s attitude towards the lake in Maine. He has an uncertain attitude towards the lake throughout the essay because he is unsure of who he is between him and his son. On the ride there White, pondering, remembering old memories, keeps wondering if the lake is going to be the same warm place as it was when he was a kid. The lake is not just an ordinary lake to White, it’s a holy spot, a spot where he grew up every summer. “I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot-the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps” (29). White’s diction and syntax
Soyster uses one when he asks, “Why have I clung to this ritual, knowing it’s dangerous and futile”(Soyster 2). This sentence marks the climax of the essay. The destination the author is taking the reader to all along. Using an interrogative sentence makes the reader stop and reason about how they would answer said question themselves. It is a very effective writing strategy for Soyster to get the reader to slow down and think for a minute about his idea.
Many scholars, such as Russell Tomlin and Jae Jung Song, discussed the diverse word orders of languages. Yet the fact that many languages have distinct word orders could be explained through discovering
1. The committee submits its data this weekend, which it expects, will help its church.
Syntax was presented as the last part of the story that gave this selection its final touches to change the story. This can be proven because in paragraph 7, he says, “I got to my feet, stomach taut, mouth tired of chewing, and flung my Frisbee across the street, its shadow like the shadow of an angel fleeing bad deeds. I retrieved it, jogging slowly. I flung it again until I was bored and thirsty.” The way that the sentences are structured makes you think about how he felt after eating the pie that he stole. It also gives the story a sense of emphasis on what Soto did as a 6-year-old boy. He also states in the last paragraph, “I lay until I was cold and then crawled back to the light, rising from one knee, then another, to dust off my pants
In the story "Tepeyac" by Sandra Cisneros, Cisneros uses syntax and diction to make the reader well informed. Leaving your hometown that you love and coming back to the same town that is not recognizable would be really hard. In the story, the "grandchild, the one who will leave soon for that borrowed country" comes back to her town and everything has changed,
The use syntax disruption, which is a modernist convention, emphasizes how Olsen truly feels about capitalism. Olsen embraces modernist conventions through the use of syntax disruption in order to challenge the capitalist system of the Western culture. Paul Lauter, whose article notes the conventions of modernism, says that modernism is about willing “to disrupt syntax and form...in order to challenge the audience’s preconceived notion of value and order” (Lauter 887). As Olsen describes the classical beauty of the scene where women are suffering at the sight of the mine accident, she proceeds to mention that the companies have classified the mine accident as an “Unavoidable catastrophe…(O shrink, super’s nephew, fire boss that let the gas
In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien makes use of a very unique form of rhetorical syntax that keeps both the attention of the reader, and a constant pace throughout the novel. The form of syntax he uses, in both dialogue context as well as the content of the book itself follow a very similar pattern. Both sentence length and word order follow a consistent pattern that is very noticeable through the duration of the book. “She was quiet and steady” (O’Brien 93). This type of subject/verb/object sentence structure is a common occurrence in most of the sentences in the novel. The sentences themselves, with some exceptions, are usually fairly short in length as shown by the example. This isn’t to say that O’Brien doesn’t make any
The problem of substitutivity has always been a thorn in the side of the study of semantic logic. Why does it sometimes appear that terms that refer to identical objects cannot be replaced with each other in propositions without altering the truth value or meaning of said proposition? Leibniz's Law would seem to ensure that we could perform such an action without anything significant having changed, but this is clearly not so. I intend to look at the history, not only of this problem, but of the theories that have created an atmosphere in which these questions can be contemplated. Finally, I will offer some of my own insights and perceived problems.
Linguistics is the science of a language. Linguists depend on the use of certain aspects in order to analyse, describe and explain a human language; these aspects include semantics and pragmatics.
Syntactic inversion is the change in the style of a sentence. A proper sentence is subject followed by a verb and ended with an object. Syntactic inversion reverses this order and has the sentence be object followed by verb and ended with subject. The purpose of syntactic inversion might be to deliberately moving us from the ordinary world or to imitate latin syntax. An example of this in Paradise Lost is, “Of man’s first disobedience...sing Heavenly Muse.”
113-117. 151-195. The. English: A Linguistic Tool Kit, (2012), (U214, Worlds of English, DVD ROM), Milton Keynes, The Open University. English in the World, (2012), (U214, Worlds of English, DVD ROM), Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Center for Applied Linguistics. Why, How, When? N.p.: Center for Applied Linguistics, n.d. www.cal.org. US Department of Education. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
Syntax is the study of how words are combined to create phrases and causes in the sentences of a specific language (Freeman and Freeman, 2014). Syntax helps us to make clear sentences that “sound right,” where words, phrases, and clauses each serve their function and are correctly ordered to form and communicate a complete sentence with meaning. The rules of syntax combine words into phrases and phrases into sentences. Not only does it focus on the correct word order for a language, but it also helps show the relationship between the meaning of a group of words. Without proper syntax, a sentence can be meaningless. It is key to understand that while every language does have certain syntax, the syntax does vary from language to language. It
What this paper will do is to find effective methods that can help students comprehend Type 2 conditional sentence better. Firstly, there will be a critique of Miss Wong’s teaching approach, and then you will see a detailed design of a grammar activity. Following it, a discussion and its theoretical rationale will be presented. Finally, a summary about the effective ways will be made.