Ditransitive Verbs With Two Phrasal Structures

A small set of English verbs can be followed by two objects. One is the direct object and the other the indirect object. These verbs are called ditransitive because the verb phrase consists of two objects.

In many cases two phrasal structures are possible. One consists of two noun phrases with an indirect object and direct object, the double object construction, and the other is a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase in which the noun phrase is the direct object. This is known as the oblique dative. For example, the verb give allows both structures. We can say I gave Mary the chocolate and also I gave the chocolate to Mary. However, with certain verbs only one phrasal structure is possible.

A number of verbs only allow the double object construction. Here are examples:

I wished her luck.
Peter spared Paul the details.
The boss denied him a raise.
The government will charge businesses a new tax.
The judge granted him a retrial.

Another group of verbs only allows the oblique dative, which consists of a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase. Here are examples:

Barbara whispered the answer to Richard.
Lisa returned the bicycle to Grace.
The billionaire donated one million dollars to the museum.
The robber surrendered the gun to the police.
The shop delivered the earrings to my wife.

The reason for the variation in phrasal structures can be explained by history. In Old English, indirect object pronouns always preceded the direct object and indirect object nouns usually did. In 1066, the Norman French invaded England, and the linguistic contact affected the use of the ditransitive verb.

French expresses the indirect object with a prepositional phrase. Most of the verbs that only accept indirect objects with a prepositional phrase entered the English language after the Normal invasion. The include verbs such as donate, explain and report. However, most of the verbs that can occur with two noun phrases date back to Old English such as give, send and write. An exception is the verb say. Though it dates back to Old English, it has always required a prepositional phrase, i.e., I said bye to Henry. 

Most ditransitive verbs in English can occur in two phrasal structures. Most verbs which date back to Old English allow the double object construction and the oblique dative, but a few only allow one. Those verbs which only allow the double object construction have a structure which was common in Old English, and those which require the prepositional phrase have the same structure as in French. However, most English verbs allow both phrasal structures.

Compensatory Lengthening Before Historical Post-vocalic /r/ in English

Compensatory lengthening refers to the lengthening of a vowel sound because of the loss of a consonant. The consonant is often in the syllable coda. In non-rhotic varieties of English, compensatory lengthening occurs before the loss of historical post-vocalic /r/.

The following words have compensatory lengthening in non-rhotic varieties of English:

bird
car
fork
four 
girl
north
park
star
world
your

In words with the mid front, high front and high back vowels, many non-rhotic varieties have a schwa following the vowel. The combination of the vowel and schwa can be analyzed as a diphthong. Here are examples:

beer
care
here
there
tour

The schwa also occurs following diphthongs. This is also common in rhotic varieties of English. However, an alternative analysis is that a syllabic /r/ follows the diphthong in rhotic varieties. The schwa occurs in the following words:

choir
fire
hour 
tire
tower

An example of compensatory lengthening in English is long vowels before the loss of historical post-vocalic /r/. Before mid and high front vowels and high back vowels, many non-rhotic varieties also have a schwa. This is also true before diphthongs. Though long vowels occur before the loss of historical post-vocalic /r/, they are not phonemic. They never contrast with short vowels in the same environment.

Distribution of Alveopalatal and Palatovelar Fricatives of Swedish

Swedish has a fricative which is unique among the languages of the world. It has many realizations, but it has a postalveolar articulation and is usually labialized. One articulatory description of the sound is palatovelar fricative. Many speakers also have another fricative which can be a retroflex alveopalatal fricative, alveopalatal fricative or palatal fricative. For those speakers who have two sounds, one can be classified as front and the other as back.

Many Swedish speakers use both the front and back fricatives. The front fricative is used at the end of a word and before a consonant. Here are examples:

schnitzel (schnitzel)
Schweiz (Switzerland)

dusch (shower)
garage (garage)

The back fricative is used at the beginning of a syllable. Here are examples:

sked (spoon)
position (position)

With words that have the front fricative in word-final position, the same fricative is used in words with inflectional morphemes. For examples, the words duschar (showers) and garagen (the garage) maintain the front fricative.

In the southernmost part of Sweden, only the back fricative is used in all words. However, in other areas such as northern Sweden, parts of western Sweden and Finland, only the front fricative is used. The majority of Swedes, however, use both the front and back fricatives.

The front fricative used to be the most common fricative in Swedish. It is still the only one used in Finland. However, the back fricative is now more common in Swedish. This is an example of language change in progress.

Intervocalic Geminate Voicing in Danish

Danish has intervocalic geminate voicing. Though voicing does not occur in careful speech, it is common for many speakers. Intervocalic geminate voicing occurs in the following words:

ikke (not)
katte (cats)
loppe (flea)
otte (eight)
sukker (sugar)
suppe (soup)

Intervocalic geminate voicing is the result of two rules: degemination and voicing. The rules do not need to be ordered. Voicing can precede degemination. With alveolar plosives, flapping is optional. Here is the phonological analysis of ikke, suppe and otte:

UR /Ik:ɘ/
degemination Ikɘ
voicing Igɘ
PR [Igɘ]

UR /sup:ɘ/
degemination supɘ
voicing subɘ
PR [subɘ]

UR /ot:ɘ/
degemination otɘ
voicing odɘ
PR [odɘ]
(flapping oɾɘ)
(PR [oɾɘ] )

Intervocalic geminate voicing distinguishes Danish from the other Germanic languages. In Norwegian, the geminates of words such as ikke, sukker and suppe do not voice. Danish intervocalic voicing can be analyzed as lenition.

Nasal Vowels in Portuguese

One of the phonological characteristics of Portuguese is nasal vowels. Another language which shares this feature is French. Spanish, however, does not have nasal vowels. Here is a list of Portuguese words with nasal vowels on the left and the Spanish equivalents on the right:

ação acción (action)
ações acciones (actions)
mão mano (hand)
mundo mundo (world)
ponte puente (bridge)
razão razón (reason)
sim sí (yes)
som sonido (sound)
tempo tiempo (time)
um uno (one)

Portuguese has nasal vowels. This is a feature of Portuguese which makes it distinct from Spanish.  The nasals /m/ and /n/ are deleted in the syllable coda and assimilated to the preceding vowel. This can also be analyzed as coalescence.

American/British Food Terms

American and British food terms are often quite different. In certain cases the same word can have different meanings. Here is a list with the American word on the left and the British on the right:

all-purpose flour plain flour
beet beetroot
corn maize
cornstarch corn flour
cupcake fairycake
dessert pudding
eggplant aubergine
fish sticks fish fingers
golden raisin sultana
ground minced (ground beef/minced beef)
heavy cream double cream
jello jelly
light cream single cream
molasses treacle
powdered sugar icing sugar
self-raising flour self-rising flour
popsicle ice lolly
skim milk skimmed milk
wholewheat wholemeal
zucchini courgette

The word pudding refers not only to a type of dessert but also to dessert in British English. The words aubergine and courgette are from French. As the list illustrates, American English and British English have many different words for food.

Vowel Shortening and Lengthening in Hungarian

Many Hungarian words exhibit vowel shortening and lengthening. This is especially common with inflected nouns and adjectives. Here is a list of Hungarian nouns in the singular and plural to illustrate:

Vowel Shortening

fiú fiuk (boy/boys)
híd hidak (bridge/bridges)
kéz kezek (hand/hands)
nyúl nyulak (rabbit/rabbits)
tehén tehenek (cow/cows)

Vowel Lengthening

alma almák (apple/apples)
cseresznye cseresznyék (cherry/cherries)
fa fák (tree/trees)
körte körték (pear/pears)
macska macskák (cat/cats)

Vowel shortening and lengthening are common processes in Hungarian. However, no rule can adequately predict which nouns will exhibit vowel shortening and lengthening. In many cases, the vowel is the same as in szék/székek (chair/chairs) and busz/buszok (bus/buses). As a result, speakers simply need to know which words undergo the rules of vowel shortening and lengthening.

Analysis of English Phrases With Contractions

English uses many contractions. They are especially common in informal speech. The contraction 's can mean both is and has. Let us analyze two phrases with this contraction.

The sentence My wife's cooking is short for My wife is cooking. Here is the phonological analysis of the sentence:

UR /waIf Iz/
Vowel Deletion waif + z
Devoicing waif + s
PR [waifs]   

Another sentence with the contraction wife's is My wife's bought a new purse. Here is the phonological analysis of the sentence:

UR /waif hæz/
Consonant Deletion waif + æz
Vowel Weakening waif + əz
Vowel Deletion waif + z
Devoicing waif + s
PR [waifs]

The phonetic representations are identical in both cases, but to derive the contracted form which means wife is, two rules are needed. However, to derive the contracted form which means wife has, four rules are needed. Vowel deletion must precede devoicing. The reason is that vowel deletion creates the environment for devoicing. This is an example of a feeding order.

The English contract 's is a contraction of the verbs is and has. Phonological rules are needed to explain the sound changes which occur as a result of contraction. The rules which apply in both cases are vowel deletion and devoicing.

Variable Vowel Height Harmony in Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese has a variable vowel height harmony rule. The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ can be raised to /i/ and /u/ in pretonic syllables. This occurs when the tonic syllable has the vowel /i/ or /u/. Vowel raising is optional.

The following words have pretonic vowels which can be raised in Brazilian Portuguese:

/o/ --> /u/

bonito (nice}
coruja (owl)
costume (custom)
formiga (ant)
melodia (melody)

/e/ --> /i/ 

menino (boy)
pedido (request)
pepino (cucumber)
preciso (precise)
seguro (safe)

Post-tonic vowels are raised by many speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. For them the rule is categorical. In the case of pretonic syllables, however, vowel raising is variable.

Coda Consonant Deletion in Andalusian Spanish

Coda consonant deletion is common in Andalusian Spanish. The process is especially common in informal situations. Two consonants which are especially prone to coda consonant deletion are the alveolar fricative and the alveolar trill.

In the following words coda consonant deletion is often realized:

carne (meat)
costa (coast)
fresco (fresh)
gobierno (government)
horno (oven)
isla (island)
perla (pearl)
puentes (bridges)
puerta (door)
seis (six)

The alveolar fricative of words such as fresco and seis can also be realized as a glottal fricative. This process is known as glottalization. Though the word isla may appear to consist of a complex onset in the second syllable, this analysis does not apply to Spanish because the consonant sequence /sl/ never occurs word-initially in Spanish. For example, the word slogan is eslogan in Spanish. Furthermore, if this consonant sequence were in the onset, deletion and glottalization of the alveolar fricative would not be applicable.

One of the characteristics of Andalusian Spanish is consonant coda deletion. The coda is the least perceptually salient part of the syllable and thus the likeliest to undergo deletion. The feature of consonant coda deletion occurs not only in Andalusian Spanish but also in other varieties.

Alternations with Voiced and Voiceless Fricatives in English

Many English pairs of words have an alternation of voiced and voiceless fricatives. In many cases the words have the same form but belong to different categories. The words with voiceless fricatives are nouns, and those with voiced fricatives are verbs. Here are examples:

advice advise
bath bathe
choice choose
excuse excuse
grief grieve
house house
mouth mouth
relief relieve
strife strive
use use

In the examples the fricatives are the alveolar, the interdental and the labiodental. Two pairs exhibit a vowel alternation: bath/bathe and choice/choose. The vowel before the voiced fricative has a longer duration than the vowel before the voiceless one.

A number of English words can be grouped into pairs with voiced and voiceless fricatives. The fricatives are +anterior. The words with voiced fricatives are the result of stem-final fricative voicing.

Morphophonological Rules

Morphophonogical rules combine morphological and phonolgical processes. They focus primarily on the sound processes which take place in morphemes to form words. In morphophonological rule notation double slashes, //, are used.

The underlying form of the English plural suffix is /z/. This is the morphophoneme in words such as beds, days and tables. The other two allomorphs are /s/ as in cats and /əz/  as in roses. However, in many varieties of English such as Received Pronunciation, the plural suffix of roses is in fact /Iz/. The allomorph /z/ is considered underlying on the basis of wider distribution. It follows vowels and voiced consonants with the exception of sibilants. The allomorph /s/ follows voiceless consonants with the exception of sibilants and the allomorph /əz / only follows sibilants.

The plural boots can be represented with phonetic, phonological and morphophonological representations. They are as follows:

[buts] phonetic representation
/buts/ phonemic representation
//butz// morphophonological representation

With /z/ selected as the morphophoneme of the plural suffix, two other rules are needed to derive the other forms. They are an epenthesis rule and a devoicing rule. Here we can observe the interaction of the two rules with the plurals beds, boots and wishes:

UR /bɛd+z/

epenthesis --
devoicing --
PR [bɛdz]

UR /but+z/

epenthesis --
devoicing  buts
PR [buts]

UR /wIʃ+z/

epenthesis wIʃəz
devoicing --
PR [wIʃəz]

Epenthesis only applies between two sibilants and is thus blocked in [buts]. Devoicing only applies between a voiced and a voiceless consonant and is thus blocked in [wIʃəz]. The rules of ephenthesis and devoicing must be ordered. The reason is that if devoicing were the first rule, the plural suffix would devoice. Thus the phonetic realization of [wIʃəz] would end with the suffix variant of [buts].

Plural forms such as knives and leaves are unique because they have two voiced fricatives. This is not the case in the form cats, which has two voiceless fricatives. The phonetic representation is derived from the underlying representation with progressive devoicing: the voiceless plosive of cat devoices the underlying plural suffix /z/.

In forms such as knives and leaves, though, progressive devoicing does not take place. Here the final consonant of knife and leaf becomes voiced when it is combined with the plural allomorph /z/. An additional rule can be created, stem-final fricative voicing, to account for these forms. This only applies to morphemes which end with a voiceless labiodental fricative. Here is the analysis of leaves:

UR lif+z

epenthesis --
devoicing --
stem-final fricative voicing //livz//
PR [livz]

The double slashes indicate that this is a morphophonological rule and not a categorical one. It does not apply to forms such cliffs and chiefs nor to leaf's as in The leaf's changing colour. In certain cases, stem-final fricative voicing is optional as in roof/rooves and wharfs/wharves.

The interaction of morphological and phonological processes can be captured with morphophonological rules. In English these can be illustrated with rules for plural suffixation and  stem-final fricative devoicing. Morphophonological rules are distinct from phonological rules because they apply specifically to morphemes.