This thesis aims to examine some structural properties of what I call SVOC constructions and suggest pedagogical implications for teaching these constructions. The school grammar of English in Korea's secondary schools basically follows the classifica...
This thesis aims to examine some structural properties of what I call SVOC constructions and suggest pedagogical implications for teaching these constructions. The school grammar of English in Korea's secondary schools basically follows the classification of five predicate forms in Onions (1971). The fifth predicate form of Onions (1971), dubbed as a SVOC construction in this thesis, is shown to have the following structural problems from the perspective of generative linguistics (Chomsky, 1981).
First of all, SVOC constructions do not satisfy the argument structure of the verbal predicate. This is due to the fact that accusative-marked NPs are treated straightforwardly as the object of the matrix verb. These NPs are considered either as the object of the matrix verb or as the subject of the subordinate predicate. In the former, the theta role of the NPs is assigned from the matrix predicate, while in the latter it is assigned from the subordinate predicate. Second, if the NPs receive a theta role from the subordinate predicate, they should be treated as the subject from the subordinate predicate, not as the object of the matrix predicate, and be in a predication relation with it. If the NPs receive a theta role from the matrix predicate, however, they should be treated as the object of the matrix predicate, and an object-controlled PRO is posited in order that it is in a predication relation with the subordinate predicate, virtually satisfying the theta criterion in generative linguistics.
The survey for this thesis shows interesting results. The subjects are seen to perceive the accusative case-marked NPs in SVOC constructions either as the subject of the subordinate predicate or as the object of the matrix predicate. The former is found in constructions in which the matrix verb subcategorizes for a clause (S'), including a small clause in the sense of Stowell (1981). The latter, on the other hand, is found in constructions in which the matrix verb subcategorizes simply for an NP along with a PRO and its predicate in the form of S' or a small clause.
From the foregoing, the following pedagogical implications are in order. First, the teacher should understand that morphological case marking is not always in a one-to-one correspondence with the theta role assignment of the accusative case-marked NPs. The subject of the subordinate predicate, morphologically accusative case-marked, coincidently carries such case for a theory-internal reason in generative linguistics. Second, the teacher should be knowledgable about the notion of subcategorization by the verb. The matrix verb in SVOC constructions exhibits different subcategorization frames in their deep structure. In accordance, the accusative case-marked NPs in these constructions are perceived either as the subject of the subordinate predicate or as the object of the matrix predicate, as desired.