1. GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION
1. Subject
Think of a staff meeting, for example. There are different kinds of people, different ages,
sexes, qualifications, etc and partly because of these differences; each person plays a different
role in the meeting. Likewise words in a sentence: there are different kinds of words – nouns,
verbs, adjectives and so on, and they each play a different role in the sentence. Each role gives
contributions to the sentence's meaning. For example, Pat likes beans, the subject Pat contributes
the `like-er' (subject) and the object beans contributes the `like-ee' (object). If we do not know
about the rule, surely we do not know about the meaning of the sentence.
In learning grammatical function, there will have a set of terms of grammatical
description. The terms are subject, object, oblique object, indirect object, complement and
adjunct. In terms of subject, a distinction is frequently drawn between grammatical subject,
logical subject, and thematic or psychological subject.
Grammatical subject is the grammatical forms that can function as the subject. For
example, in English grammar, the grammatical subjects are noun phrases, prepositional phrases,
verb phrases, and noun clauses. Sometimes, the subject of a sentence can be a nominalzed
sentence or sentence like constituent, as in:
- That Edinburgh’s New Town is magnificent is undeniable
- For you to run off with Mary would be madness.
When no such constituent is available to act as subject a ‘dummy’ subject is supplied; this is the
case with ‘weather’ expressions. E.g. It is raining. Where a nominalized sentence is extraposed,
it will become: - That Edinburgh’s New Town is magnificent is undeniable
- It is undeniable that Edinburgh’s New Town
Another item that operates like a dummy subject is there. Existential asserts the existence of
something. Eg. There are glasses in the drinks cupboard. Deictic point to something. Eg. There
is the glass. There are differences between deictic and existential. In deictic, pronounced with
non-reduced form.E.g. there is /ðɛəriz/, there are /ðɛəra/; There need not be a subject (For
instance, The glass is there); There can be questioned (Where is the glass?); Definite NP means
there typically restricted to sentences with definite NP ( the) .
In existential, pronounced with reduced form. Eg. there is /ðəz/, there are /ðəra/; There must
1
2. Derived from
be a subject (For example: There is a glass); There can’t be questioned (where are the glasses in
the drinks cupboard?); Indefinite NP means there typically restricted to sentences with indefinite
NP ( a and an) E.g. A glass is on the table.
Subject in the grammar of English can be derived from transformational approach to
description. In this approach, we distinguish an underlying from a surface level of description.
Suppose the sentence: Everyone believes that Charlie is handsome
Everyone believes (Charlie is handsome) → Underlying structure
Derived from
Everyone believes Charlie to be handsome → Alternative realization
Logical subject is usually related to sentences involving an (agent) participant. Agent is
the "doer" who or what that causes the action.
For instance: William invaded England in 1066.
G L
England was invaded by William in 1066.
G L
There are many typical roles for the subject in logical subject. First, agentive subject
performs the action as in John beat the dog. Second, instrumental subject is used to carry out the
action as in The axe smashed the door. Third, dative subject as in Harry knows that his wife is
unfaithful. Fourth, goal subject where the action is directed towards/from as in Harry received a
gold medallion from the Royal Society. Fifth, source subject is where the action originated as in
The Royal Society presented a gold medallion to Harry. Sixth, locative place subject where the
action occurs as in Edinburgh is cold, wet and windy. Seventh, patient subject undergoes the
action and changes its state as in The butter is melting. Last, neutral subject mindlessly performs
the action as in Mary is very tired.
Thematic subject is characterized by textual considerations – this is what the sentence is
about. For example;
3. 1. John (G,L,T) took the largest kitten
2. The largest kitten (G,T) was taken by John (L)
3. The largest kitten (T), we (G,L) gave away.
2. Object
In active declarative sentence with unmarked word order, these four grammatical features
characterize the object:
1. Directly follows the verb
2. Not in construction with a preposition
3. Can become the subject of the corresponding passive sentence
4. An obligatory constituent with transitive verbs
One kind of objects is object of result and it is also called an ‘effected’ or ‘factitive’ object.
e.g.
• Maggie move the table
• The workmen are cleaning the horse cages
It can become the subject of a passive sentence, and there are no paraphrases involving
preposition.
Meanwhile, the other object is ‘cognate object’. The relevant NP in this object usually contains a
noun morphologically derived from (and hence cognate with) the verb stem.
e.g.
• Mother sewn a sewing
• She draw a beautiful drawing
The other object is called ‘object of concern’. They are clearly neither affected (direct) nor
affected (resultant) objects.
e.g.
• Nunung is sipping his coffee
• Nindi is watching Troy
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4. There is a hierarchy of ‘objecthood’. The considerable example is the Direct Object (DO).
The characteristics are:
• Has a particularly close tie to the main verb
• Is an obligatory sentence constituent
• Immediately follows the main verb
• Will not occur in a paraphrase involving a preposition
• Can be the subject of the corresponding passive sentence
Study this example:
1a America supplied tanks to the Israelis
1b America supplied the Israelis with tanks
In 1a, tanks is a DO (direct object) while Israelis is an (OO) oblique object. On the other hand, in
1b, tanks is an OO while Israelis is a DO.
Since those sentences are close in meaning –both of them describe events of supplying tanks- we
can see them as containing the same roles (agent, patient, neutral). They differs only to which
role is chosen as direct object and so that presented as more central, because more closely related
to the verb.
Note that they cannot occur with a preposition in this position, instead of they could become
the subject of the corresponding passive:
2a *America supplied with tanks to the Israelis
2b *America supplied to the Israelis with tanks
2c Tanks were supplied to the Israelis by America
2d The Israelis were supplied with tanks by America
Then,
2e *America supplied with tanks
But when the PP is omissible, they will become:
2f America supplied tanks
5. 2g America supplied the Israelis
The NP in the PP is an OO because the NP in the PP might, as it were, have become the object,
had the other NP not done so. The OO is omissible, as we have observed, and cannot generally
become the subject of a passive sentence:
2h *The Israeli were supplied tanks to by America
The effect of becoming an object is important. The syntactic effect has been discussed; but there
is also a semantic effect, which varies from cases like number 2.
3. Indirect Object
a) Exist when a verb is followed by two NPs, neither of which is associated with a
preposition. See this sentence:
3 Yucha gives Nindy (IO) a candy (DO)
b) May occur as an OO (Oblique Object), and can usually be omitted without affecting the
grammaticality of the sentence, whereas the DO cannot be omitted [see the example on
page 326-328]
Below are the passive formation cases on DO and IO:
4a Nunung lent that map (DO) to Yuni (OO)
4b That map was given to Yuni by Nunung
While,
4c Nunung lent Yuni (IO) that map (DO)
4d Yuni was lent that map by Nunung
But not always like those, because we can see these sentences:
5a Nindy asked Yucha a help
5b ?Yucha was asked a help by Nindy
And also study these:
6a Sister played me Dakon
6b *I was played Dakon by sister
5
6. The NP that immediately follow the verb has a privileged status, both syntactically and
semantically. When only one NP is available for this role (that is, in two-place propositions)
there would seem to be a hierarchy of ‘objecthood’. When two NPs are available for the role in
three-place propositions, the situation is more complex.
4. Complement
These sentences below are Attributive complement because they describe the class membership
of the subject noun, or ascribe an attribute to it:
7a Cinderella was pretty
7b Cinderella was a princess
Those can also be called ‘subject complement’ cause it relate back to the subject noun. Then, in
7b the noun ‘a princess’ is a ‘nominal complement’. Those complements are ‘state
complements’ since they are found in stative sentences and describe states.
Those sentences below are the type of ‘result complements’:
8a The mangoes are turning yellow
8b Yucha became a bachelor of english department
The complement cannot become the subject of a passive sentence.
Meanwhile, the identify complement can be shown in:
9a Nunung is the man with a bunch of dollar in his wallet.
The NP is always a definite NP. That sentence can be reversed:
9b The man with a bunch of dollar in his wallet is Nunung.
Let us study this:
9c Nunung is (to be identified as) the man with a bunch of dollar in his wallet.
The locative complement can be shown in:
10 Yuni is in her study room
Locative complement is usually a prepositional phrase. Sometimes it is used as a place adverb.
Corresponding on that, we can also recognize a ‘directional complement’ in sentences, like:
11 Nindy hid under the table
7. 12 Yucha walked across the hospital
Directional complements only occur in nonstate sentences.
The italicized constituents in the sentences in 12 are also often called complements:
12a Nunung comes back home safe
12b Yuni talked the issue honest
12c Nindy always buys her spinach fresh
12d Yucha coloured her book green
12 a and 12 b are intensive to the subject, then others to the object. In some cases, they can be
substituted by adverbs. We can also make paraphrase constructions like:
12 e Nindy always buys her spinach in fresh condition
12 f Yuni was honest when she talked the issue, etc.
5. Adjuncts
Adjuncts are usually adverbials, whether they are adverb phrases, PP, adverbs, or subordinate
clauses of time, place, manner, and so on, that distributionally function like adverbials.
Adjuncts are clearly a rather ‘mixed bag’, in that syntactically there are numerous subclasses
which have different and overlapping distribution, and they fill a variety of semantic roles.
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8. Morphological mapping of grammatical functions
Introduction
How are gramatical functions mapped onto morphological representatios?
We will begin with a preliminary discussion intended to provide the necessery background
for understanding the key syntactic and semantic concepts that are involved. First introduce
the notions of thematic roles, grammatical relations and the teory of case assigment, next
explore the morphological effects of syntatic rules that change the canonical pairing of
thematic roles with grammatical function. And the final part of the chapter will take the
discussion further afield through an investigation of the phonomenon of incorporation
whereby the syntax requiresthe inclutionof one word within onother.
Predicates, arguments and lexical entries
Normaly, sentences are contructed in such a way that some constituents identify particular
individuals or things (or more abstract entities like ideas) and other contituents which
indicate individuals or entities are called referring expreesions, while those wich attribute to
them properties, processes, actions, relations or states are called predicates.
e.g : a. my sister cried
b. she will go
c The car crashed
the sentence a refers to an individual and predecates the property crying of that individual at
some time in the past. In sentence b the property of going is predicated of the individual she.
Finnaly, sentenses c the property of crash is attribute to an entity. Predicates take referring
expressions as their arguments (my sister, she, the car).
1. Theta-roles and lexical entries
Language use syntax and inflectional morphologi to encode some of the sematic relations
which obtain in sentence between a prdicate and its arguments. We will use the term theta-
roles (0-rules) for these sematic relations. (they are also called (abstract) case relations or
thematic relations in the leterature.)
9. Recognition of 0-rules is essentially based on the intuition which is widely shared among
linguists that there is a relatively small number of syntactically relevant sematic properties
that play a role in the transitiveity systems of language.
Gruber (1965,1976) and Fillmore (1968) define of Theta-roles:
Agent is the case of the individual (usually animate) that instigates the action identified by
the verb. e.g., (d) Mamat killed the chicken
Instrumental is the case of the inanimate instrument used to bring about the state of affairs
described by the verb. e.g., (e) mother whashed with a brush
Patient is the case of the entity or individual that undergoes the process or action described
by the verb. e.g., (f) Toni punched the board
Benefactive is the case of the individual who gains from the action or prosess described by
the verb.e.g., (g) Kai gave his girlfriend letter.
Theme is semantically the most neutral case. e.g., (h) Hari gave Mia new hand phone.
Locative is the case that indicates the location, direction or sparial orientation of the event, state
or action identified by the verb e.g., (i) tommorow I will go to beijing.
Theta-roles are essentially used to characterise transitivity. They specity the parts palyed by
the arguments representing different participants is the action, state or process indicated by
the verb.
Intransitive verbs are one-place predicates.they occur in frames with one argument. e.g., (j)
Agung slept.
Transitive verb are two-place pridicates.e.g., (k) Mamat killed the duck.
Ditransitive verbs are three place predicates. e.g., (l) Mother put the ice cream in the freezer
In order to ensure that a verb appears in the right syntactic frames, the lexicon must specify
the 0-roles which it requires.
The lexical entries for the verbs in e.g. (j) must contain the following information.
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10. e.g.,
(k) slep V (agent)
kill V (agent patient)
put V (agent goal theme )
.0-rules are associated directly with NPs by phrase structure rules, as shown in
e.g.
a. Sà NPVP
(agent)
b. VP à V NP
<patient>
c. NP à Det N
d.N à Nsg, Npl
e. Det -à the
f. V à Vtrns (i.e. transitive verb)
The tree should look like this
S
NP VP
(agent)
V NP
<patient>
Det N[sg] V[trns] Det N[pl]
The clown tickled the children
11. We will require each lexical entry for a verb to include the 0-roles which that verb assigns
to its arguments.To this and, a wellformedness principle called the Theta-Critorion will be
incorporated in the grammar and given the task of ensuring that: a verb is only used in
frames where the requisite arguments are present, and those arguments all have the
prescribed 0-roles.
Symbols X and Y are used as variables to represent any entity or individual that can function
as arguments of these predicates with the 0-rules af agent, patient, theme etc.
The entry for a verb in the lexicon will include a subcategorisation template showing its
argument stucture requerenments.
a. tickle V
#TICKLE (X? Y?)
e.g., The clown ticled the children
b. wash: V
# WASH 1 (X?)
e.g., This curtain washes well
# WASH2 (X? Y?)
e.g., peter washed the curtains
the lexical entries in tell us which senses of wash and tickle require two arguments, and
which particular 0-roles hold between those arguments in a particular sense of the verb. To
solve this problem we need to add a further dimension to the model of grammatical analysis,
namely that of grammatical relations.
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12. 2. Grammatical relations
Syntactic categories like noun phrase and verb phrase specify the syntactic type of particular
constituents.the syntactic type of a constituent is determined by the category og the head of
that constituent.A noun phrase is a constituent whose head is a noun while a verb phrase is a
constituent whose head is a verb, and so on.
o-roles, specify a sematic relationship between a predicate ad its arguments
grammatical relations indicate the grammatical relationship that holds between two syntactic
constituents in a sentence.they are determined, not by semantic considerations, but by the
syntactic position of the particular contituent. The grammatical relations that we shall use are
verb phrase, subject, object, second object and oblique. They are defined in tuen below
The easient grammatical relation to recognise is verb phrase (VP). The term VP is commonly
used ambigously by generative grammarians to refer both to a syntactic category, and to a
grramatical realation as we are doing here. The grammatical relation VP has a verb as its
syntactic head e.g., Andi came. Andi is S and ame is VP
All declarative sentences en English must have a subject (S).the subject is the topic about
which the rest of the sentence says nothing, the subject is the NP the has the 0-role og agent,
if that role is present, the subject is the NP that precedes the VP, and with which the verb
agrees in number.
In reality, however, many subject do not hava all these properties, ae we shall soon see.The
NP that immediately follow the verb is the object and the NP that comes after that object NP
is called the second object. e.g., Andi send Ani latter.
Grammatical relations is surronded by a degree of theoretical controversy, there is
widespread agreement about the purpose which the serve.
Once the need for grammatical relations is regognised, grammars must perform the two
tasks:
1. they must state how 0-roles are mapped on to grammar of a particular language. For
example, English mapping principles may take this form:
13. 0-role correspondens grammatical function
agent subject
patient object of verb
locative oblique NP
2. they must state how grammatical functions are maked on the surface, e.g. by word order,
prepositions or case inflection.
Various syntavtic rules which may mask the grammatical function of a particular NP. Much
of the morphological camplexityfound in languages aries from the making og such masked
grammatical function.
Grammatical Function Changing Rules
Grammatical functions are hierarchically ordered across languages. The hierarchy
depends on the relative likelihood of NPs associated with particular grammatical functions being
affected by certain syntactic rules. Keenan and Comrie (1977, 1979) have established this
hierarchy:
Subject > direct object > non-direct object > possessor
Such rules mask the relationship between the surface manifestation of grammatical
function (GF), which is often marked case or word order, and the semantic role of an argument.
GF changing rule tend to have significant morphological repercussions which typically affect
verbs more than other word-classes. these are some repercussion:
1. Passive
Often sentences expressing the same proposition can be realised in a variety of ways,
depending on how grammatical relations are encoded using the syntax and morphology.
Normaly, where such choice exist, one way of expressing a propositions is marked and
another is unmarked.
13
14. a. Active voice Patient/ object
accusative
Agent/ subject Esmeralda
examined Her
Nominative
examined
The Vet
Agent
She Oblique NP
was examined by the Vet
b. Passive voice was examinedbalait-ABSthe by her The sentence above,
Patient/ subject man cut the tree with an with the subject as agent
axe'Antipassivebayihe- preceding the verb and the
Nominative ABSthe man cut the tree object, who is patient,
with an axe'Andrew gave following the verb, are
Esmeralda AgentSubjectAndrew gave unmarked. The agent who is
AgentSubjectUmwaana also the subject, receives
She a.b.a.b.a. b.a.
Childthe child has thrown nominative case and the
b.a.b.The order of affixes
the book in to the patient, who is object
reflects the order in which
water'Umwaana Childthe receives accusative case.
the associated syntactic
child has thrown the book Passive can be semi-
‘operations’ apply.
into the watera-li- formally stated as in:
menyas/he-fut-breaks/he will Subject à oblique (or null)
Morphological derivations
break Kapare's lega-li- Object à subject
must directly reflect syntactic
menyas/he-fut-breaks/he will
derivation and the syntactic
break Kapare's Antipassive
derivation must directly
legAbalenziBoysthe boys will The antipassive is the
reflect morphological
cook potatoes'kaparea-li- process used in ergative
derivationNameCausativeAp
fumb-is-aboys SP-future- languages to turn a
plicativeReciprocalPassive3T
cook-BVSKapere will make transitive verb into an
ransitive4StativeReversiveNa
the boys cook potatoes.' intransitive verb. It causes
meCausativeApplicativeReci
The evidence of Mirror the object NP to be realised
procalPassive3Transitive4St
Principle as an oblique NP, or to be
ativeReversiveCausativeAppl
deleted. The effect of the
icativeReciprocalPassive
Mirror Principle was antipassive is comparable to
applied in Luganda’s major that of the passive. Just as
language, Bantu. the passive demotes the
Verbal extensions in original subject to an
Luganda oblique NP in a nominative
accusative language, the
Shape/-is-//-ir-//-agan-//- antipassive demotes the
ibu-//-i-//-ik-//- original object of a
15. ulul-/Shape*/-keun-//gebug- transitive sentence to an
gebugan//-kena-/Causative- oblique NP and the
underlying agent NP
argument which should
otherwise be in the ergative
is put in the absolutive.
This can be seen in the
example of Eskimo
languages below:
yugubaɳ gul yara-ɳ gu tree-
ABShe-ERGman-ERGcut-
PASTyaragunba-l-ɳ a-
nyubaguyugu-
gubaɳ gubarri-ɳ guman-
ABScut-ANTIPAST-
PASTit-DATtree-DATit-
INSTaxe-INSTABS =
absolute; ANTIPAST =
antipassive; ERG =
ergative; INST =
instrumental; DAT = dative
Applicative
The applicative is another
common GF-changing rule
with significant
morphological
consequences. It
characterizes using this
schema:
Oblique
Indirect object
à object; object à 2nd
object
Null
(or
oblique)
Some of applicative
are:
Benefactive: a NP in the
benefactive case that has the
GF of second object can be
realised as a direct object
when the applicative rule
applies. For example:
the flowersto
15
16. Helenthemebenefactiveobje
ctoblique NPHelenthe
flowersbenefactivetheme
object2nd objectLocative:
in many languages the
applicative can be used with
locative meaning which is
expressed in English using
propositions like in, on, at,
etc. This is the example
from Kinyarwanda
languages.
y-a-taa-yeigitabomu
maaziSP-past-throw-
ASPbookin watery-a-taa-
ye-moamaaziigitaboSP-
past-throw-ASP-APPL
(in)waterbook
Possessor: when possessor
raising take takes place, an
NP which function as the
‘possessor’ modifying the
head of a possessive noun
phrase is turned into the
object of the verb. The
original object is shunted
into a new slot and becomes
the second object. Possessor
raising is shown below:
NP possessor in possessive NP à object
of verb
Object of verb à 2nd object
This is example from Bantu
Language:
okugulukw-
aKaperelegofKapereKapere
okuguluKapereleg
Causative
The changes in grammatical
function caused by the
causative GF process can be
stated in this way:
Null à subject
Subject à object
Object à 2nd object
17. This is the example from
Luganda language
ba-li-fumb-alumondeSP-
futore-cook-
BVSpotatoesabalenzilumon
deboyspotatoesSP = subject
prefix; BVS = basic verbal
suffix
From the example above,
the causative introduces a
new agentive NP as subject
in [b]. The original subject
becomes the object and the
original object becomes a
second object. Equally
important, the verb receives
the causative suffix –is-.
Miror Principle
Introduction
The traditional view on
morphology is that word-
formation takes place in the
lexicon, and that
morphological rules are
different in nature and
operate on different
primitive elements than
syntactic rules: morphology
operates on stems and
morphemes to produce
words, while syntax
operates on words to
produce phrases and
sentences. In other words,
the essential property of
morphology is, it is
concerned with the
structure of words; the
essential property of syntax
is, it is concerned with the
structure of sentences.
The Mirror Principle
The idea of Mirror
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18. Principle was proposed by
Baker (1985). His argument
is that derivation of words
and their relationship in a
sentence and in meaning
couldn’t be based only on
functional matter.
Reviewing that the
morphological derivations
must directly reflect
syntactic derivation and the
syntactic derivation must
directly reflect
morphological derivation.
In other words, syntactic
and morphological
orderings stand in a
symmetrical relation.
Unfortunately, Baker does
not specify according to
which general principles are
affixes merged into
syntactic structure. He
argued that the Mirror
Principle is the result of the
strict locality of head
movement (of cyclic head
movement) through
incorporation of a lexical
root to a morpheme. It this
condition syntax operates
on both words and
morphemes, and a complex
word can be formed by
syntactic rules, and more
specifically head movement.
In short, if the
morphological structure of
a complex word is derived
through head-movement of
the lexical root to the heads
where the morphemes are
base-generated, the MP
follows straightforwardly:
“the order of morphemes in
a complex word reflects the
19. natural syntactic
embedding of the heads that
correspond to those
morphemes”
The rule of Mirror Principle
(Baker 1985):
ExampleGlossn-a-mu-zin-
is-a‘I made him dance’a-n-
zin-ir-a‘he is dancing for
me’ba-a-kub-agan-a‘they
hit each other’n-a-kub-ibw-
a‘I was beaten’y-a-ba-kaab-
y-a‘she made them cry’ga-
nyw-ek-a‘it (water) is
drinkable’oku-pang-ulul-
a‘to unstuck (take things off
a pile)’
The data above is analyzed
with : Causative Applicative
Reciprocal Passive (CARP),
where the affixation can be
classified.
As in Luganda language,
the changing of affixation
can be clearly recognize
even there are some
inconsistent form. Compare
with the sample below, the
changing of affixation in
Sundanese, Mirror
principle cannot be applied
perfectly.
ExampleGlossAbdi
merintahkeun maneha gerua
gebug eta‘I made him
hit’Maneha gebug keur
abdi‘he is hitting
something’Sadayana gebug-
gebukan‘they hit each
other’Abdi kena gebug‘I was
hitManeha merintahkeun
sadaya gerua gebug eta‘she
made them hit’Cai eta tiasa
19
20. dile’leut‘it (water) is
drinkable’Jalma eta
mindahakeun cai‘she move
the drink.’
Analysis using C A R P
(Causative Applicative
Reciprocal Passive)
ApplicativeReciprocal
Passive---
a. Causative-Applicative
combination
b. Causative-Reciprocal
c. Causative-Passive
d. Applicative-Causative
e. Applicative-
Reciprocal
1. The counter arguments
against Mirror Principle
However, as Baker has
lacking explanation of his
idea on mirror principle, it
raises some counter
arguments.
Federico Damonte (1998)
claims:
that argument
structure changing
affixes in Pular are
merged in a fixed
hierarchy of theta-
related functional
heads and that the
complements they
introduce are
21. merged in the
specifiers of these
functional
projections.
Von Stechow (2002) and
Zeijlstra (20007):
the position of
affixes does not
correspond to the
position where
they take scope
from.
Sadock (1985):
propose a theory
of auto lexical
syntax that
overview the
autonomous of
morphology and
syntax although
they are held
together.
Hyman and Katamba
(1992):
morphological
position and
phonological
position infer the
changing order of
morpheme in
words.
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22. 2. Conclusion
It seems that mirror
principle seems to be
essentially correct, but
languages may show
variation in the way
which they set their
own parameter. As
seen from the
examples above,
comparing Luganda
and Sundanese
language, the
affixation which is
essential in Luganda
in changing grammar
doesn’t appear in
Sundanese. It is an
evident that mirror
principle can be
applied in certain
languages. Moreover,
the grammars of many
languages provide
alternative ways of
expressing the same
kind of proportional
meaning.