expl: expletive
The expl relation is used in UD Greek for cases of clitic doubling and in certain Verbal Multiword Expressions (VMWE):
- Clitic doubling.
As a rule of thumb, clitics are assigned the expl dependency when a coreferring core argument of the verb (object, indirect object, ccomp) exists, otherwise clitics are assigned the core dependencies obj and iobj.
Της τον έδωσε της Καίτης τον αναπτήρα.
expl(έδωσε, Της-1)
iobj(έδωσε, Καίτης)
expl(έδωσε, τον-2)
dobj(έδωσε, αναπτήρα)
Κι εγώ το προτιμώ που είμαστε όλοι μαζί:
ccomp(προτιμώ, μαζί)
expl(προτιμώ, το)
mark(μαζί, που)
Της τον έδωσε.
iobj(έδωσε, Της)
obj(έδωσε, τον)
Modern Greek has the so-called Dative Genitive that also allows for clitic doubling. Dative Genitives are assigned the dependency obl. Similarly to the case of core arguments of verbs, when a coreferring dative genitive NP exists, it is assigned the obl dependency and the clitic the exlp one, otherwise the clitic is assigned the dependency obl.
Της Ελένης της βάφτισε το παιδί.
expl(βάφτισε, της-3)
obl(έδωσε, Eλένης)
det(Ελένης, Της-1)
obj(βάφτισε, παιδί)
Της βάφτισε το παιδί.
obl(βάφτισε, της)
obj(βάφτισε, παιδί)
An exlp dependency is also used when the coreferring core argument is dislocated, i.e., it does not appear close to the head on which it depends. In such cases, the head of the dislocated phrase depends with the dislocated relation on a suitable head, while the coreferential clitic depends with the relation expl on the head that requires the dislocated phrase as an argument. For example, in Αυτήν την ερώτηση δυσκολεύομαι να την απαντήσω “This question, I find it difficult to answer”, Αυτήν την ερώτηση is a dislocated direct object and the coreferential clitic την is assigned the relation expl.
Αυτήν την ερώτηση δυσκολεύομαι να την απαντήσω.
det(ερώτηση, Αυτήν)
det(ερώτηση, την-2)
dislocated(δυσκολεύομαι, ερώτηση)
xcomp(δυσκολεύομαι, απαντήσω)
mark(απαντήσω, να)
expl(απαντήσω, την-6)
- VMWE
There are many Modern Greek VMWE where a clitic with no reference at all is a lexicalised word, i.e., a necessary constituent of the MWE. In the example below Κι εγώ την άκουσα, μέθυσαν τα γραπτά μου. ‘And I it heard, got-drunk my writings’ “Αnd I was tripping, even my writings got drunk.” the clitic την, which is assigned the relation expl, is necessary to obtain the meaning of the VMWE, which is “I am tripping” (notice that the structure is ambiguous and the compositional meaning “I heard her” is also possible here.)
Κι εγώ την άκουσα, μέθυσαν τα γραπτά μου.
expl(άκουσα, την-3)
nsubj((άκουσα, εγώ-2)
parataxis((άκουσα, μέθυσαν-6)
expl in other languages: [bg] [de] [el] [en] [fr] [fro] [gsw] [hbo] [it] [naq] [no] [pt] [qpm] [ro] [ru] [sl] [sv] [u] [yue]