Assignment 4.5:	More on Spanish Tense and Agreement

(For discussion on Tuesday January 29.  Not to be written up.)

First, review Assignment 3.5, especially Part II.  This time we are going to
get serious about subject-verb agreement and tense.  Here's part II again,
and a bit more:

II. Some simple sentences

[NOTE: Spanish has several Modals, two of which are deber 'must' and poder
'can'; their tense and agreement forms are a little bit irregular.  Spanish
also has two verbs that correspond to English 'be': ser and estar.  Their
uses are different.  Estar can always be distinguished, because in all of its
forms it always starts with est-; ser is more variable.  Finally, Spanish has
an auxliary verb corresponding to English have1: its infinitive is haber.]

In the examples with multiple verbs, no other order of verbs is possible.
Assume that no ('not') cannot appear in any other place in these examples.

Aside from various forms that show tense and agreement, verbs in Spanish have
the following (mostly predictable) forms:

	gloss	infinitive	past participle	present participle

	be	ser		sido		siendo
	be	estar		estado		estando
	love	amar		amado		amando
	run	correr		corrido		corriendo
	have	tener		tenido		teniendo
	talk	hablar		hablado		hablando

There are basically three kinds of Verbs, plus a lot of irregular ones.
Here are three regular ones, conjugated in the present indicative:

	sg		pl		inf		gloss

1	hablo		hablamos	hablar		speak
2	hablas		habla'is
3	habla		hablan

1	como		comemos		comer		eat
2	comes		come'is
3	come		comen

1	resisto		resistimos	resistir	resist
2	resistes	resisti's
3	resiste		resisten

Do you want to speculate about the basic difference between these verbs?

Here are examples of the 'hablar' forms, with their pronouns:

1	yo hablo	nosotros/nosotras hablamos
2	tu' hablas	vosotros/vosotras habla'is
3	e'l/ella habla	ellos/ellas hablan
        MASC/FEM        MASC/FEM

Here are the sentences:

A.

(1)   La gallina loca tiene una cinta azul.
      "The crazy chicken has a blue ribbon."

(2)   Mis monos azules no comen carne.
      "My blue monkeys don't eat meat."

(3)   Las vacas locas corren en el llano extenso.
      "The crazy cows run in the broad plain."

(4)   La carne de las vacas locas no es buena para los nin~os.
      "The meat of the crazy cows is not good for children."

(5)  Mi vaca loca corre.	(5')  Mis vacas corren en el llano.
     "My crazy cow runs"	     "My cows run in the plain"

(6)  Tu vaca corrio'.		(6')  Nuestras vacas locas corrieron como diablos.
     "Your cow ran"		     "Our crazy cows ran like devils"

(7)  El coronel grita.		(7')  Muchos coroneles gritan.
     "The colonel yells"	     "Many colonels yell"

(8)  El coronel loco grito' en su cocina.
     "The crazy colonel yelled in his kitchen"

(9)  Ambos coroneles les gritaron a los soldados.
     "Both colonels yelled at the soldiers"

(10)  Tus monos gordos comieron sus bananas.
     "Your fat monkeys ate their bananas"

(11)  Los monos comieron las bananas gigantes.
      "The monkeys ate the giant bananas"

(12)  La muchacha tiene una cara bastante bella.
      "The girl has a quite pretty face"

(13)  Las muchachas tienen rosas en las manos.
      "The girls have roses in the hands"

(14)  El mono gordo le dio el pla'tano muy caro a la muchacha bella.
      "The fat monkey gave the very expensive banana to the beautiful girl"

(15)  Los gallinazos horribles con alas amplias comieron el cuerpo del mono
      muerto.
      "The horrible buzzards with wide wings ate the body of the dead monkey"

(16)  El mono rompio' las ventanas.
      "The monkey broke the windows"

(17)  La muchacha habla de la paz.	(17')  La muchacha le habla al mono.
      "The girl speaks of peace"	      "The girl talks to the monkey"

(18)  La muchacha hablo' del tema	      [al = a el (a contraction)]
      "The girl spoke about the subject"      [del = de el (ditto)      ]

Based on the above, what can you say at this point about Spanish syntax?

B.  Extend your grammar to account for the following:

(19)  Roberto puede comer las papas.
      "Roberto can eat the potatoes"

(20)  El coronel no grito' a los soldados.
      "The colonel did not yell at the soldiers"

(21)  El gato esta' comiendo la trucha.
      "The cat is eating the trout"

(22)  El gato no esta' comiendo la trucha.
      "The cat is not eating the trout"

(23)  La vaca (no) esta' corriendo.
      "The cow is (not) running"

(24)  El mono (no) ha comido el pla'tano.
      "The monkey has (not) eaten the banana"

(25)  El mono (no) ha estado comiendo los pla'tanos.
      "The monkey has (not) been eating the bananas"

(26)  El mono no debe estar comiendo los pla'tanos.
      "The monkey should not be eating the bananas"

(27)  El mono no puede estar comiendo los pla'tanos.
      "The monkey can't be eating the bananas"

(28)  El mono no puede haber estado comiendo los pla'tanos.
      "The monkey can't have been eating the bananas"

(29) *El mono (no) es comiendo la trucha.

Say what you have to say about phrase structure, selection, and
any relevant transformations to account for these facts.  Particularly,
what do you have to say about verb forms?

III.  Now a bit more about subject-verb agreement and tense:

(1)  No hablo espan~ol.			I don't speak Spanish.
(2)  Amas al gato?			Do you love the cat?
(3)  Le grite' al mono.			I yelled at the monkey.
(4)  Comi' un pla'tano.			I ate a banana.
(5)  Comiste un pla'tano?		Did you eat a banana?
(6)  Hablaste con el coronel?		Did you speak with the colonel?
(7)  Hable' con e'l.			I spoke with him.
(8)  El coronel salio' de la casa.	The colonel went out of the house.
(9)  Saliste de la casa?		Did you leave the house?
(10) No sali' de la casa.		I didn't leave the house.

What can you say about what determines the endings that are found on the verbs?
In class on Tuesday we'll try to work out a theory about how the verbs acquire
all the nedessary features.