Nouns, V erbs, and Sentences 98-348: Lecture 2 Nouns, verbs and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nouns, V erbs, and Sentences

98-348: Lecture 2

Nouns, verbs and sentences

98-348: Lecture 2

Any questions about the homework?

Everyone read one word

• Þat var snimma í ǫndverða bygð goðanna, þá er goðin hǫfðu sett

Miðgarð ok gǫrt Valhǫ́ll, þá kom þar smiðr nǫkkurr ok bauð at gøra þeim borg á þrim misserum svá góða at trú ok ørugg væri fyrir bergrisum ok hrímþursum, þótt þeir kœmi inn um Miðgarð; en hann mælti sér þat til kaups, at hann skyldi eignask Freyju, ok hafa vildi hann sól ok mána.

How do we build sentences with words?

• English
• The king slays the serpent.
• The serpent slays the king.
• OI
• Konungr vegr
• rm.

king slays serpent (What does this mean?)

• Orm

vegr konugr. serpent slays king (What does this mean?)

How do we build sentences with words?

• English
• The king slays the serpent.
• The serpent slays the king.
• OI
• Konungr vegr
• rm.

king slays serpent ‘The king slays the serpent.’

• Orm

vegr konugr. serpent slays king ‘The king slays the serpent.’

They have the same meaning! But why?

• English uses word order:
• OI uses inflection:

Different strategies to mark subjects/objects

konung r

This noun is a subject!

konung

This noun is an object!

(whatever noun) (whatever noun) slays

This noun is a subject! This noun is a subject!

Inflection

• Words change their forms to encode information.
• This happens in a lot of languages!
• English:
• the kid
• ne kid
• the kids

more than one kid

• We say that English nouns inflect for number,

i.e. English nouns change forms based on what number they have.

• The suffix –s marks nouns as plural.
• What about other languages?

Inflection in OI

• Remember:
• konungr

with r ”king” as a subject konung no r ”king” as an object

• If we say English nouns inflect for number,

what do OI nouns inflect for?

Case

Property Weight Value 60kg Property Height Value 170cm

konungr

Property Number Value Singular Property Case Value Nominative

Forms of konungr ”king” in all 4 cases of OI

• Nominative case

konungr

• Dative case

konungi

• Genitive case

konungs

• Accusative case

konung

• r konung-∅
• The suffixes r, i, s and the empty suffix (∅) are case-markers
• The names of these cases are pretty arbitrary,

we could have called them Case 1, Case 2, …

What are these cases used for?

• Nominative: for subjects

Accusative: for objects

• Konungr

vegr

• rm.

king[NOM] slays serpent[ACC] ‘The king slays the serpent.’

• Which one is in the nominative? Accusative?
• Dative: for indirect objects
• Dvergr

gefr konungi brand dwarf[NOM] gives king[DAT] sword[ACC] ’The dwarf gives the sword to the king.’

• Translates roughly to English ”to …”

What are these cases used for?

• Genitive: indicate possession
• konungr

noregs king[NOM] Norway[GEN] ‘king of Norway’

• The possessor is in the genitive, not the possessee!

The beginner’s vocabulary list

• All of the listed nouns follow the same inflectional paradigm:
• Nominative

Stem + r hestr

• Genitive

Stem + s hests

• Dative

Stem + i hesti

• Accusative

Stem hest

• Also contains a few verbs

Practice!

Endings álfr “elf” hjálmr “helmet” knífr “knife” Nominative r Genitive s Dative i Accusative

Translate!

• 1. Draugr sér álf.
• 2. Hest á konungr.
• 3. Álfr gefr baug dvergi.
• 4. Ormr Sigurðs vegr hest Óláfs.
• 5. Hjálm Hauks á Tyrfingr.

Translate!

• a. The horse sees the wolf.
• b. The king takes the knife.
• c. The dwarf slays the ghost.
• d. The dwarf gives the sword to the elf.
• e. Tyrfing’s hawk kills Olaf’s serpent.

Inflection for number

• a king vs. kings
• konungr vs. konungar
• Our inflection paradigm is now a

combination of case and number

Singular Plural Nominative konungr konungar Genitive konungs konunga Dative konungi konungum Accusative konung konunga Singular Plural Nominative r ar Genitive s a Dative i um Accusative a

Practice!

Endings Singular Plural Nominative r ar Genitive s a Dative i um Accusative a dvergr “dwarf” Singular Plural Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative úlfr “wolf” Singular Plural Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative haukr “hawk” Singular Plural Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative

Translate!

• 1. brandar Sigurds
• 2. Hesta konunga sér draugr.
• 3. Tyrfingr gefr úlfum hjálma.
• a. the king’s rings
• b. The hawk takes the knife.
• c. Hauk gives swords to the

dwarves.

Inflection for definiteness

• a king vs. the king
• kings vs. the kings

Singular def Plural def Nominative rinn arnir Genitive sins ana Dative inum unum Accusative inn anna Singular def Plural def Nominative konungrinn konungarnir Genitive konungsins konungana Dative konunginum konungunum Accusative konunginn konunganna

konung-r

”king-NOM”

inn

”the[NOM]”

konung-rinn

”king-NOM;DEF”

One note about glosses

• Previously: 1st line = words, 2nd line = word-by-word translation:
• Konungrinn

vegr

• rminn.

the.king[NOM;DEF] slays the.serpent[ACC;DEF]

• When the word can be clearly broken apart into morphemes, i.e.

parts that each contribute a meaning/grammatical function (e.g. case, number, definiteness, etc.):

• Konung-rinn

vegr

• rm-inn.

king-NOM;DEF slays serpent-ACC;DEF

1st line = words separated by morphemes 2nd line = morpheme-by- morpheme translation

Marking definiteness: English vs. OI

• What’s the difference?

Marking definiteness: English vs. OI

• What’s the difference?
• English uses a separate word that indicates definiteness
• OI changes nouns to indicate definiteness
• English uses an analytical approach
• OI uses a synthetic approach

English is analytic when it comes to…

• Positional/temporal relations
• Prepositions:

I go to Carnegie Mellon. above the average What did you do during the summer?

• Finnish does this synthetically with case marking (talo “house”)
• Menen

hänen talo-on-sa. go his/her house-ILLATIVE-his/her ‘I’m going to his/her house.’

• viime

joulu-sta lähtien last Christmas-ELATIVE since ‘since last Christmas’

The illative case is used to indicate towardness. The elative case is used to indicate fromness.

English has an analytic/synthetic split for…

• Tense
• Past tense is synthetic:

I walked. She thought of something.

• Future tense is analytic:

John will be there. The train is going to be late.

• Inuktitut (spoken in Nunavut, Canada) is very synthetic
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Inuit_grammar#Modifiers_of_tense

We’ll avoid the debate about if English future is really a tense per se…

English is synthetic when it comes to…

• Plurals!
• book → books
• knife → knives
• sheep → sheep
• foot → feet
• child → children
• formula → formulae
• scheme → schemata
• cherub → cherubim
• …
• Mandarin Chinese is analytic:
• ren2

ren2 men person person PLURAL ‘a/the person’ ‘(the) people’

• tu4zi

tu4zi men rabbit rabbit PLURAL ‘a/the rabbit’ ‘(the) rabbits’

• gong1shi4

formula ‘a/the formula(e)’

No plural if the noun is inanimate

One problem

• How do we say:
• The king slays the orms.

?

• The kings slay the orm.

?

One problem

• How do we say:
• The king slays the orms.

Konugrinn vegr ormarna.

• The kings slay the orm.

Konungarinn vegr vegum orminn.

• Why?

Verbs inflect too!

• English:
• I/we/you/they/y’all think
• He/she/it thinks
• OI:
• veg ”(I) slay”
• vegr ”(you/he/she/it) slays”
• vegum ”(we) slay”
• vegið „(y‘all) slay“
• vega „(they) slay“
• Verbs inflect for person and number
• Your list has 3sg and 3pl forms

vega “slay” Singular Plural 1st person veg vegum 2nd person vegr vegið 3rd person vegr vega

Now we can make sentences!

• We just need to build our vocab and we can read anything…
• Really?

Not just one declension/conjugation pattern…

• Inflection of nouns is called declension
• Inflection of verbs is called conjugation
• These are just one among the many…
• There are about 4 declension and 11 conjugation patterns

Sg indef Pl indef Sg def Pl def Nominative r ar rinn arnir Genitive s a sins ana Dative i um inum unum Accusative a inn anna Sg Pl 1 um 2 r ið 3 r a

Thank you

Any questions?