diving head first

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EmmanuelSoriano

Linguistics10|Dr.Sumitomo

MidtermPaper

October31,2012

DivingHead-First:

AnExplorationoftheHeadPositioninAmericanEnglishandTagalog

AmericanEnglishandthenationallanguageofthePhilippines,Tagalog,aretwocompletely

unrelated languages.Theysharenosimilarities other than the fewwords theyhaveborrowed

fromeachother,suchas boondocks, yo-yo,andcootiesfromTagalog,andkompyuter,biyolin,and

telebisyonfromEnglish,buteventheseborrowedwordsandspelledandpronounceddifferently.

Thisprojectwilltakeacloserlookatoneofthemostdistinguishablelinguisticfeaturesbetween

thesetwolanguages:theheadposition.

The headofaphrase istheoneword thatestablishesthe syntactic categoryof the same

specificphrase.For instance,theverbinaverbphraseistheheadofthephrase,thenounina

nounphrase, the preposition inan prepositionalphrase and soon. A languagecan either bea

head-firstlanguage,ahead-lastlanguage,oritmayevenbeexpressedinbothmanners,thatisto

saythattheheadofaphrasecaneitherbelocatedatthebeginningofthephrasebeforeallofthe

wordsthatmodifyit,orafter.Inthisanalysis,wewillexploreandcompareAmericanEnglish,a

head-first language (in most cases), with Tagalog, a language that could be expressed inboth

head-firstandhead-lastorganizations,usingdifferenttypesofphrasesandsentences.



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As a mainly head-first language, the head of a noun phrase in English always take the

leftmostposition.InEnglish,anounphraseisexpressedasfollows:

NP

specifier N'

N(head) complement

Inthe following example,thatshebought isa complementizerphrasecomplement tothe

noun bread . It is clearly demonstrated in this example that the head (bread ) comes first in a

phrase.

NP

Det N'

the N CP

bread thatshebought



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Incontrast,Tagalogcanbeexpressedinbothhead-firstandhead-finalphrasesandclauses.

Theheadcan takeeither the leftmostor rightmostpositioninaphrase (alsonotethatTagalog

uses gender-neutral pronouns (niya, siya) as opposed to American English's masculine and

femininepronouns(he/she,him/her ):

Head-FirstOrganization:

NP

Det N'

ang N CP

(the)

tinapay nabiniliniya

(bread) (thatboughts/he)

Head-LastOrganization:

NP

Det N'

ang CP N

(the)

biniliniyang tinapay

(boughts/he) (bread)



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AmericanEnglishandTagalogalsosharethesamehead-positioningqualitieswhenitcomes

toverbphrases:

AmericanEnglish Tagalog

Head-First: Head-First: Head-Last:

VP VP VP

V NP V NP NP V

ate Det. N kinain Det. N N Det.kinain

(ate) (ate)

the bread ang tinapay tinapayang

(the) (bread) (bread)(the)

When itcomes toadjective phrases,AmericanEnglishusually takesahead-last position,

whileTagalog,asusual,cantakeeitherhead-firstorhead-lastpositions:

AmericanEnglish Tagalog

Head-Last: Head-First: Head-Last:

AdjP AdjP AdjP

Adv Adj Adv Adj Adj Adv

truly beautiful tunaynamaganda magandangtunay

(truly) (beautiful) (beautiful)(truly)



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While there is flexibilitydemonstrated inTagalog as far as the placement ofahead ina

phrase,theretendstobeaslightshiftinpragmaticsbetweenthetwoorders.Whenthephraseis

expressedinahead-firstorder,theheadissomehowexpressedwithmorefocusandemphasis,as

opposed to when it is expressed in a head-last order, where the head slightly becomes a

background featureandlosesemphasis(i.e. "thebread thatshebought "versus"thebreadthat

shebought ").

Just asAmericanEnglish has a special exception with its head-last organization when it

comestoadjectivephrases,sodoesTagalogwhenitcomestoprepositionalphrases.Inthiscase,

bothlanguagesbothstrictlytakeahead-firstposition.

CommonPPheadpositionorganizationinbothAmericanEnglishandTagalog:

PP

P NP

(head)

Det. N

AmericanEnglishPP TagalogPP

underthetable sailalimngmesa

onthetable saibabawngmesa

besidethetable satabingmesa

behindthetable salikodngmesa

infront ofthetable saharapngmesa



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Ofcourse,thedifferenceinheadplacementbetweenAmericanEnglishandTagalogcanalso

beveryexpressivelyseeninwholesentences,regardlessofwhattypeofsentencetheyare:

DeclarativeSentence:

Sheatesomebread. Siyaaykumainngtinapay.

Kumainsiyangtinapay.

Thedoghid underthetable. Angasoaynagtagosailalimngmesa.

Nagtagoangasosailalimngmesa.

InterrogativeSentence:

Did youanswerthequestionyet? Sinagot monabayungtanong?

Iyongsinagotnabayungtanong?

Did youeatalready? Kumainkanaba?

Ikawba'ykumainna?

ExclamatorySentence:

Thehouseisburning! Angbahayaynasusunog!

Nasusunogangbahay!

Mystomachhurts! Angtiyanko'ysumasakit!

Sumasakit angtiyanko!

ImperativeSentence:

Youeat theapple! Iyongkaininangmansanas!

Kaininmoangmansanas!

Eat ! Kain!



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Tagalogwasprimarilyandformallyahead-firstlanguage,butthroughthecenturiesofits

existence,theuseofhead-lastphraseshavebeenmorecommonandwidelyaccepted.Thismay

possiblyalsobeduetotheverylaid-back,casual,andrelaxingpersonalityoftheFilipinopeople.It

isnotuncommontoseeandhearnativeTagalogspeakersswitchbetweenEnglishandTagalog

duringtheirordinaryconversations.Theyoftenswitchlanguageswithintheirverysentencesto

conveytheirmeaningmoreeffectively,whichperhapsisalsohowthehead-lastorderalsocameto

development,sothatthefocusandemphasisinthestatementcanbeplacedwhereitisdesired

moreeasily.



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Bibliography

Aldridge,Edith."RemnantMovementinTagalogRelativeClauseFormation."Linguistic

Inquiry34.4.Fall2003:631-40.ProjectMuse.Web.15October2012.

Bird,Sonya,LaurelFais,andJanetWerker."ThePhoneticRhythm/SyntaxHeadedness

Connection:EvidencefromTagalog." AcousticalSocietyofAmericaJournal 117.4.

2005:2457.TheSAO/NASAAstrophysicsDataSystem.Web.15October2012.

DeVos,FrederikandFionaDeVos."TagalogVerbAffixes."LearningTagalog.UKCopyright

Service,2009.n.d.Web.15October2012.

Fromkin,Victoria,RobertRodman,andNinaHyams.IntroductiontoLanguage .Boston:

Wadsworth,2011.

Soriano,Emmanuel.Personalsource(self).27October2012.

Trualfa."EnglishPrefixesandCombiningForms."IndoDic.n.p.n.d.Web.15October2012.

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