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.