Project Inleiding Taalkunde: Zweeds

Participants:

All Translations

1. The king found some books.
1. Kungen hittade några böcker.

2. He read the books to his son.
2. Han läsde boken för hans son.

3. The three soldiers stirred the soup.
3. Tre soldaterna rörde soppan.

4. They stirred it for three hours.
4. Dom rörde soppan i tre timmar.

5. The soldier was old and ugly.
5. Soldaten var gammal och ful.

6. The castle is on a hill near a lake.
6. Slottet ligger på en kulle nära en sjö.

7. Antonio lives in Venice.
7. Antonio bor i Venice.

8. Duncan arrived at the castle yesterday.
8. Duncan kom fram hos hans slott igår.

9. Prospero's book will arrive next week.
9. Prosperos bok skall kommer fram nästa vecka.

10. The kind man gave a book to his daughter.
10. Snälla mannen gav en bok till hans dotter.

11. She will put the book on a chair.
11. Hon skall läga boken på stolen.

12. Macbeth may find them in the forest (assume that them refers to people).
12. Macbeth må hitta dom i skogen.

13. Falstaff drank a glass of beer.
13. Falstaff drack ett glas öl.

14. Falstaff drank because he was thirsty.
14. Falstaff drack för att han var törstig.

15. Miranda knew that Prospero had many books.
15. Miranda viste att Prospero hade många böcker.

16. Hamlet said that his mother was disloyal.
16. Hamlet sa att hans moder var otrogen.

17. Portia told Shylock that he should be kind to Antonio.
17. Portia sa till Shylock att han skulle vara snäl mot Antonio.

18. Macbeth tried to kill the king.
18. Macbeth försökte mörda kungen.

19. Macbeth tried to meet a witch.
19. Macbeth försökte möta hexan.

20. Prospero has promised to give her the book.
20. Prospero har lovat att ge henne boken.

Q: For each sentence give a morpheme-by-morpheme gloss followed by an idiomatic gloss. Feel free to construct additional examples, especially if you have problems with these examples for an unforeseen reason.

The king found some book-s.
Kung-en hitta-de några böck-er.
Noun-Det Verb-Pastsimple Det Noun-Plural

He read the book-s to his son.
Han läs-de bok-en för hans son.
Pronoun(nom) Verb-Pastsimple Noun-Det Prep. Pronoun(poss) Noun

The three soldier-s stir-red the soup.
Tre soldat-erna rör-de soppa-n.
Det Noun-Plural Verb-Pastsimple Det Noun

They stir-red it for three hour-s.
Dom rör-de soppa-n i tre timma-r.
Pronoun(nom) Verb-PastSimple Noun-Det Prep. Det Noun-Plural

The soldier was old and ugly.
Soldat-en var gammal och ful.
Noun-Det Verb-Pastsimple Addjective Comp Addjective

The castle is (lies) on a hill near a lake.
Slott-et ligger på en kulle nära en sjö.
Noun-Det Verb-Presentsimple Prep. Det Noun Prep. Det Noun

Antonio live-s in Venice.
Antonio bo-r i Venice.
Name Verb-Presentsimple Prep. Name

Duncan arrive-d at the castle yester-day.
Duncan {kom fram} hos slott-et i-går.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Prep. Noun-Det Adverb

Prospero-'s book will arrive next week.
Prospero’s bok skall {komma fram} nästa vecka.
Name-Pronoun(poss) Noun Aux Verb-inf Adverb Noun

The kind man gave a book to his daughter.
Snäll-a man-nen gav en bok till hans dotter.
Addjective-Det(Singular definite) Verb-Pastsimple Det Noun Prep. Pronoun(poss) Noun

She will put the book on a chair.
Hon skall läg-a bok-en på stol-en.
Pronoun(nom) Aux Verb-Presentsimple Noun-Det Prep. Noun-Det

Macbeth may find them in the forest.
Macbeth må hitta dom i skog-en.
Name Aux Verb-Inf Pronoun(nom) Prep. Noun-Det

Falstaff drank a glass of beer.
Falstaff drack ett glas öl.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Det Noun Noun

Falstaff drank because he was thirst-y.
Falstaff drack för att han var törst-ig.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Prep. Comp. Pronoun(nom) Verb-Pastsimple Addjective

Miranda knew that Prospero had many book-s.
Miranda viss-te att Prospero ha-de många böck-er.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Comp. Name Verb-Pastsimple Det Noun-Det

Hamlet said that his mother was dis-loyal.
Hamlet sa att hans moder var o-trogen.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Comp. Pronoun(poss) Noun Verb-Pastsimple Addjective

Portia told Shylock that he should be kind to Antonio.
Portia sa till Shylock att han skulle vara snäl mot Antonio.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Prep. Name Comp. Pronoun(nom) Aux Verb-Presentsimple Addjective Prep. Name

Macbeth tried to kill the king.
Macbeth försök-te mörda kung-en.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Verb Noun-Det

Macbeth tried to meet a witch.
Macbeth försök-te möta häxa-n.
Name Verb-Pastsimple Verb Noun-Det

Prospero has promise-d to give her the book.
Prospero har lova-t att ge henne bok-en.
Name Aux Verb-Presentperfect Comp. Verb Pronoun(nom) Noun-Det

Q: Construct a lexicon based on the example sentences for language X, with a translation for each word. Organize the lexicon in terms of lexical category.

Nouns:
king = kung
book = bok
soldier = soldat
soup = soppa
hour = timme, timma
castle = slott
hill = kulle
lake = sjö
week = vecka
man = man
daughter = dotter
chair = stol
forest = skog
glass = glas
beer = öl
mother = moder
witch = häxa

Verbs
to find = hittar
to read = läser
to stir = rör
to lie = ligger
to live = bor
to arrive = kommer fram
to put (neerleggen) = lägger
to give = ger
to drink = dricker
to know = vet
to say/to tell = sager
to try = försöker
to kill = mördar
to meet = möter
to promise = lovar
to be = är

auxilary verbs
may = må
have = har
will/should = skall
to be = är

Prepositions:
to = för/till
for = i
in = i
at = hos
on = på
near = nära
against = mot

Determiners:
a = en
some = några
many = många
three = tre

Pronouns (nom):
he = han
she = hon
they = dom
her = henne

Pronouns (acc):
his = hans

Adjectives:
old = gammal
ugly = ful
kind = snäll
thirst-y = törst-ig
dis-loyal = o-trogen

Complementizers:
and = och
that = att
because = därför att

Adverbs:
yester-day = i-går
next = nesta

Q: If you believe that some of the words in your lexicon contain more than one morpheme, try to identify the meaning of each morpheme and formulate morphological rules for combining the morphemes to form words.

Nouns:
Singular indefinite articles = no suffix, no prefix (book = bok, “a book” = “en bok”).
Singular definitie articles = suffix –en of -et (king = kung, the king = kungen; castle = slott, “the castle” = slottet).
Plural indefinite articles = suffix –er (book = bok, “many books” = “många böcker”).
Plural definite articles = suffix –erna (soldier = soldaat, “the soldiers” = soldaterna)
(an exeption seems to be timme/timma = hour, while “three hours” = “tre timmar”, this might have to to with timme/timma ending on a vowel).
Vowels at the start of the suffix dissappear when the noun ends with a vowel (soup = soppa, “the soup” = soppan; hour = timma, “three hours” = “tre timmar”).

Addjectives:
negation = prefix o- (loyal/faithful = trogen, disloyal = otrogen).
turns a noun into an addjective = suffix -ig (thirst = törst, thirsty = törstig).
Singular definte articles = suffix –a (kind = snäll, “the kind man” = “snälla mannen”

Verbs:
the verbs in the lexicon are in present simple (cause thats the way our dictionary translated them.)
Infinitive = present simple minus the r on the end to (find (present simple) = hittar, "to find" (Inf) = hitta)
Past simple = infinitive + suffix –de (“to find” = hitta, found = hittade) except when the infinitive ends on an unstressed consonant like with the Dutch 't kofschip rule, then the suffix is -te.
There are some exceptions (strong verbs).
Present perfect = infinitive + suffix –t (“promise” = lova, “has promised” = “har lovat”). There are no exeptions on this rule.

Q: Does language X have pronouns? Can they be null? Can they be optional? Which function do they have?
A: The Swedish language has got pronouns, which can be null and are not optional. They can have the following functions: subject and object.

Q: Does language X have definite and/or indefinite articles?
A: Swedish has only got stand-alone words for indicating indefinite articles ("en" means "a"), definite articles are there though, they're indicated with a suffix behind the noun.

Q: Does language X allow for tensed sentences to occur as embedded clauses? If so, what changes, if any, do you observe between a main clause and an embedded clause, in terms of word order, complementizers, special suffixes, etc? Cite examples.
A: The Swedish language allows for tensed sentences to occur as embedded clauses. There are no changes in word order. Complementizers are used, but there are no special suffixes, or other changes. For example: Falstaff drack för att han var törstig.

Q: Does language X have any auxiliary verbs, or does it just use affixes on the main verb? Illustrate.
A: Swedish uses auxiliary verbs. Some examples:
• Hon skall läga boken på stolen.
• Falstaff drack för att han var törstig.
• Portia sa till Shylock att han skulle vara snäl mot Antonio.
• Prospero har lovat att ge henne boken.

Q: Does language X have any kind of case marking to indicate which DP is the subject, the object, the indirect object, etc? Explain, citing examples.
A: The Swedish language has not got any kind of case markings to indicate which DP is the subject, the object, the indirect object, etc. For example: Kungen hittade några böcker.

Q: Does language X exhibit any kind of subject-verb agreement? What about object agreement? Is there any kind of other agreement?
A: There is no subject-verb and object agreements in Swedish according to our native speaker, and internet confirms that. There are other kind of agreements though: gender, number and definiteness agreements in the noun-phrases.

Q: Try to identify the basic constituent order for language X, identifying the position of the subject, object, indirect object, verb, etc.
A: The basic constituent order for Swedish is: Subject, Verb, Object, Indirect Object.

Q: Try to formulate phrase structure rules for each type of phrase that occurs in these data. Illustrate each rule with an example drawn from your own data.
A:
TP/S -> DP, VP -> kungen hittade några böcker
DP -> (D), NP -> en bok
DP -> Spec, D, NP -> Prospero’s bok
DP -> Name -> Macbeth
DP -> Pronoun (Nominative) -> han
VP -> V, (DP), (VP/PP/CP) -> sa till Shylock att han skulle vara snäl mot Antonio
NP -> N, (PP) -> boken för hans son
NP -> A, NP -> snälla mannen
CP -> C, TP -> att Prospero hade många böcker
PP -> P, DP -> på en kulle
DP -> (DP), Possesive Pronoun, NP -> prosperos bok

Q: Draw tree diagrams for sentences 1, 2, 6, 9, 15 and 20
A:

Sentence 1:

Sentence 2:

Sentence 6:

Sentence 9:

Sentence 15:

Sentence 20:

Q: Identify the categorial selection and the semantic selection propertis of each verb in your lexicon for language X.
A:

Q: Does language X have determiners? If so, give five examples, and specify their truth conditions in terms of a relation between two sets.

Note: above answer is a screenshot due to the lack of logical symbols for truth conditions in HTML

Q: Give at least three examples of prepositional constructions in language X that involve a difference in preposition choice for language X and English/Dutch, and establish a comparison in semantic terms.
A:
• Han läsde boken för hans son.
He red the books to his son.
• Portia sa till Shylock att han skulle vara snäl mot Antonio.
Portia told Shylock that he should be kind to Antonio.
• Snälla mannen gav en bok till hans dotter.
The nice man gave a book to his daughter.

För = 'voor' is unequel to 'aan'
Mot = 'against' is unequel to 'to'
Till = 'naar' is unequel to 'aan'

Q: Establish whether language X has negative polarity expressions. If it does, give at least three examples of such expressions, and illustrate their negative polarity status with examples. Is the distribution of these expressions the same as in English/Dutch? Motivate your answer with examples.
A: Negative polarity doesn't exist in Swedish (The Swedes we spoke could not think of an example, except in some very old and archaic examples no one has used in hundreds of years). One of the reasons that causes this lack of negative polarity is that "some" and "any" both translate to "något" in Swedish. While in English the difference between "some" and "any" appears to be a major cause for negative polarity.

For example in English you can say:
"Tero has not had any sugar"
but it is grammatically incorrect to say:
"Tero has had any sugar"
(so there' s negative polarity, offcourse the correct way to say it is "Tero has had some sugar")

That means that the negative polarity is caused by the difference between "some" and "any". But because " some" and "any" translate to the same word in swedish you can say both, as shown by the following examples:
"Tero har inte haft något socker" (något = any)
and:
"Tero har haft något socker" (något = some)

So theres no negative polarity here, this is the case with even more deteminers that might cause negative polarity like "few", "many" and "much".

Sources which greatly helped our project:

The Swedish Grammer page
http://www.lysator.liu.se/language/Languages/Swedish/Grammar.html

The Swedisch Schoolnet: English - Swedish Dictionary:
http://lexikon.nada.kth.se/swe-eng.shtml

Babel Technologies Brightspeech:
http://babel.fpms.ac.be/BrightSpeech/BrightSpeech.php

And offcourse the friendly Swedes who were kind enough to assist us in translating the sentences and helping with a few of the more difficult questions.