105 Learning Journal #3

[Noelle Garcia]

Tagalog has a predicate-argument structure, and is a verb initial, free word order language. This type of grammatical structure is found in many austronesian languages. Tagalog uses the following case markers: ang, ng, and sa. These words prepose phrasal arguments of a given verb. Sa is used in sentences describing goals, recipients, locations, and definite objects. Ng is used to indicate possessors, actors, instruments, and indefinite objects. Ang is used with Tagalog's voice-marking system. This system comprises of voice types: Actor Voice, Patient/Object Voice, Dative/Locative Voice, Instrumental Voice and Benefactive Voice. As you can see, Tagalog's grammatical structure is quite complicated. The information above comes from an article entitled "Recognising the Predicate-Argument Structure of Tagalog" published by researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia. I think I can learn more about the structure by finding more information online, which is a fast, efficient and resourceful medium for language learning. A reference grammar would definitely help me learn the grammatical structure of the language, but ultimately, my goal is to be able to read complex Filipino works and literature. Since I can speak and understand Tagalog fairly well already, learning its grammatical structure would not be necessary but still interesting and informative.