ON MOVEMENT TRANSFORMATIONS IN THAI.
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TextDescription: 176 pSubject(s): Language, Linguistics | 0290Dissertation note: Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980. Summary: This dissertation is an investigation of the class of movement transformations in Thai. The main objective is to find out whether or not there are any limitations on this class of transformations, and in case there are, to see how the class is limited. The next objective is to explain why the class of movement transformations in Thai is limited in such a way.Summary: The first objective is carried out by considering four constructions: the passive construction, the topic-comment construction, the quantifier-final construction, and the noun complement-final construction. I argue that the last two of these constructions have undergone movement transformations, Quantifier Floating and Noun Complement Extraposition, respectively. The other two are argued to be essentially base-generated instead of being derived by movement transformations, as claimed by some previous Thai Linguists (Chaiyaratana 1961, Bandhumedha 1976, for instance). In particular, I argue that the passive sentence in Thai is generated in the base with thuuk (or doon) 'to be affected by' as a main verb and with a clause embedded under thuuk (or doon). I also argue that the topic-comment sentence in Thai is generated in the base with the topic in the initial position.Summary: In the last chapter, other movement transformations that are likely to exist in Thai grammar are taken into consideration. It is found that none of these transformations involves movement of a whole NP. To achieve the second objective of this study, an explanation for such a limitation on the class of movement transformations in Thai is offered, with reference to the major characteristics of the language, namely, lack of the overt morphological marking on verbs and very little on noun phrases, and the pervasive use of zero anaphora. It is suggested for future research that other major characteristics of Thai, such as verb serialization, be considered in relation to limitation on movement transformations in the language.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-11, Section: A, page: 4701.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980.
This dissertation is an investigation of the class of movement transformations in Thai. The main objective is to find out whether or not there are any limitations on this class of transformations, and in case there are, to see how the class is limited. The next objective is to explain why the class of movement transformations in Thai is limited in such a way.
The first objective is carried out by considering four constructions: the passive construction, the topic-comment construction, the quantifier-final construction, and the noun complement-final construction. I argue that the last two of these constructions have undergone movement transformations, Quantifier Floating and Noun Complement Extraposition, respectively. The other two are argued to be essentially base-generated instead of being derived by movement transformations, as claimed by some previous Thai Linguists (Chaiyaratana 1961, Bandhumedha 1976, for instance). In particular, I argue that the passive sentence in Thai is generated in the base with thuuk (or doon) 'to be affected by' as a main verb and with a clause embedded under thuuk (or doon). I also argue that the topic-comment sentence in Thai is generated in the base with the topic in the initial position.
In the last chapter, other movement transformations that are likely to exist in Thai grammar are taken into consideration. It is found that none of these transformations involves movement of a whole NP. To achieve the second objective of this study, an explanation for such a limitation on the class of movement transformations in Thai is offered, with reference to the major characteristics of the language, namely, lack of the overt morphological marking on verbs and very little on noun phrases, and the pervasive use of zero anaphora. It is suggested for future research that other major characteristics of Thai, such as verb serialization, be considered in relation to limitation on movement transformations in the language.
School code: 0090.
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