Welsh syntax
The syntax of the Welsh language has much in common with the syntax of other Insular Celtic languages. It is, for example, heavily right-branching, and the verb for be is crucial to constructing many different types of clauses. Any verb may be inflected for three tenses, and a range of additional tenses are constructed with auxiliary verbs and particles. Welsh lacks true subordinating conjunctions, and instead relies on special verb forms and preverbal particles to create subordinate clauses.
There are at least four registers or varieties of Welsh that the term Modern Welsh is used to describe. There is Biblical Welsh, which is archaic and not part of colloquial usage, although some educated Welsh speakers are familiar with it. Two more registers are Literary Welsh and Colloquial Welsh; this article primarily describes Colloquial Welsh, except where noted. Finally, there are also a number of other dialects which diverge from these three varieties of Welsh. These various dialects are understudied, with the exception of some research by.
Word order
VSO
Welsh is a language with verb-initial word order, the usual word order being verb–subject–object.In addition to a verb and a subject, which are obligatory in a canonical clause, Welsh typically organizes additional information as follows:
- Preverbal particle
- Verb
- Subject
- Direct object
- Adverbials
In favour of an underlying SVO analysis
The arguments that makes about Welsh syntax are largely based on data from the Literary Welsh dialect.The first step in the argument that makes for an underlying SVO analysis of Welsh word order is to argue that the subject moves out of the verb phrase to a position higher in the clause. This argument is made on the basis of data from passives, unaccusatives, and raising predicates in Welsh. The derived subjects in all three of these constructions behave like subjects of other predicates in Welsh in that they cannot be separated from the verb. That is, the subject must immediately follow the verb, as can be seen in —.
This suggests that the subjects in these three constructions are true subjects. On the assumption that all subjects in the language occupy the same position in the clause, this entails that the subject in Welsh must raise to a higher position in the clause than where it was base generated.
Another argument for movement of the subject in Welsh comes from reconstruction effects. noticed that there is an interpretive difference between and.
In, himself can be interpreted as either coreferential with John or Bill. However, in, it can only be interpreted as coreferential with Bill.
analyzes these English facts by adopting the VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis and assuming that the subject raises from the verb phrase to a position higher in the clause. That is to say, the structure of is what is given in.
The closest c-commanding element that binds the reflexive pronoun, himself, is the trace of Bill.
The facts in Welsh parallel the facts in English. Specifically, the reflexive in can be interpreted as coreferential with either John or Bill, whereas the reflexive in can only be interpreted as coreferential with Bill.
The most straightforward analysis of these facts is to adopt the same analysis that gives for English. That is to say, if one adopts the VP-internal subject hypothesis and assumes that the subject raises to a higher position in the clause, then an account of these facts is straightforward. Moreover, this suggests that the underlying word order is indeed SVO.
The second step in the argument that gives to motivate an analysis of Welsh word order in which the underlying structure of the clause is SVO and the verb has moved to a higher position in the clause is to observe that the verb appears in a higher position than the subject. If the subject has raised from a VP-internal position, then it follows that the verb must have also raised in order to be in a higher clausal position and to show up to the immediate left of the subject.
Against an underlying SVO analysis
On the other hand, has argued against an underlying SVO analysis with the surface word order derived by verb movement. One of the arguments that he gives against such an analysis is based on negation. In Welsh, the negative adverb ddim cannot be immediately followed by an object noun phrase, as the following examples show.claims that this means the Welsh grammar must have a constraint against ddim appearing next to an object noun phrase. He further argues that it would not be possible to state such a constraint since ddim is not underlyingly next to the object noun phrase if one adopts an underlyingly SVO analysis of Welsh.
Note that Borsley takes the ddim of a sentence like Welson ni ddim ci "We didn't see a dog" not to be this negative adverb, but a homophonous negative quantifier.
Focus
Welsh has a highly developed system of fronting constituents in focus in which parts of a sentence can be moved to the front for emphasis, rather than stressing them phonetically as English does. Most elements of a sentence can be moved to sentence-initial position.The subject of a verb causes a soft mutation.
Sentence elements following yn, such as verbnouns, lose the yn when moved initially:
Nominal syntax
precede the noun they modify, while adjectives generally follow it. A modifier that precedes its head noun often causes a mutation, and adjectives following a feminine noun are lenited. Thus:- dogfen
- y ddogfen
- hen ddogfen
- dogfen fer
Verbal syntax
Syntax with ''bod''
Bod "be" is used for a number of constructions, including equating two noun phrases, using adjectives predicatively, and forming a wide range of grammatical tenses.Noun and adjective complements
One way to equate noun phrases is to use what King calls "identification forms" of bod, with the word order NP1 – bod – NP2Alternatively, a verb-initial word order may be used, with the "affirmative forms" of bod and a particle yn which triggers the soft mutation: bod – NP1 – yn+SM – NP2. This construction has both interrogative and negative variations which utilize different verb-forms and require, in the case of the negative, the addition of ddim "not".
The predicative adjective construction uses this same verb-initial construction: bod – NP – yn+SM – adjective.
Verb complements
In addition to the inflected preterite, future, and conditional tense forms, Bod + subject + yn + verbnoun is used to express a range of other times:- Present:
- Imperfect:
- Future:
- Conditional:
- Subjunctive:
- form questions by leniting the verb, and
- form negative statements by adding ddim after the subject, and optionally leniting the verb.
- Mae Siân yn mynd – 'Siân is going'
- Mae Siân wedi mynd – 'Siân has gone'
- Mae Siân newydd fynd – 'Siân has just gone'
Syntax without ''bod''
Questions are formed the same way as with the future and conditional bod forms above, as are negative statements except when there is a specific noun phrase functioning as the direct object. A specific noun phrase is a pronoun, a definite noun, or a noun preceded by a definite adjective. In these cases, ddim is replaced by mo. Thus:
- Ffeindies i ddim potelau 'I didn't find any bottles', but Ffeindies i mo'r potelau 'I didn't find the bottles'
- Welodd hi mo Siôn 'She didn't see Siôn', but Welodd hi mohono fo 'She didn't see him'
For affirmative statements with inflected verbs, it is particularly common to attach mi or fe, preverbal particles which trigger the soft mutation:
The passive voice can be expressed with the verb cael 'get' followed by the verb noun modified by a possessive adjective. For example:
The agent is introduced with the preposition gan 'with, by'. A "static passive", expressing the result of an action, can be expressed with the verb bod 'to be' followed by the preposition wedi 'after' and, again, the verbal noun modified by possessive adjective. For example:
The prepositional phrase can also be used attributively:
The construction can be negated by replacing wedi with heb 'without'.
Subordination
Relative clauses
There are two relative pronouns in Welsh, a and y. A is used in "direct" relative clauses, i.e. those where the relativised element is the subject of its clause or the direct object of an inflected verb.A cannot coexist with mae. Instead, a special form, sydd or sy, is used:
In all other cases, known as "indirect" relative clauses - those where the relativised element is genitival or the object of a preposition -, y, the complementizer, is used.
Note that because the object of a verbal noun is genitival, all periphrastic constructions take y.
Complementization
Syntactic complementization
Welsh has a number of complementizers used under different circumstances. Y is used in all non-focused affirmative clauses other than the present periphrastic with bod:The present periphrastic with bod tends to use a construction with the verbnoun bod in a genitival construction with the subject of the subordinate clause:
Negative clauses can be made negative normally or by replacing y with na:
Focused clauses are complementized with mai or taw:
Focused clauses can be made negative with nad, or made negative normally :