The Selectional Restrictions of French Past Tenses

2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Marie Labelle
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Tense Operators ◽  
Past Tenses

AbstractThis article argues against the idea that the Imparfait and the Passé Simple in French are aspectually sensitive tense operators. Both morphemes combine with any type of eventuality. It is not the case that a clause in the Imparfait denotes a state, or that a clause in the Passé Simple denotes an event. It is proposed that the Passé Simple is a true past tense, which introduces a past eventuality in the discourse with the condition that it be the maximal eventuality of the appropriate type. The Imparfait is analyzed as a dyadic morpheme, which selects an eventuality as internal argument and a past temporal referent of discourse as external argument, where the eventuality provides a condition on the temporal referent.

scholarly journals On the control/raising ambiguity with aspectual verbs: a structural account

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 159-195
Author(s):  
Shin Fukuda
Keyword(s):  
Basic Assumption ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Control Analysis ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Structural Account ◽  
Structural Ambiguity ◽  
Aspectual Verbs

In what follows, I first briefly review Perlmutter (1968, 1970), in which it is argued that aspectual verbs are ambiguous between control and raising. I suggest that while the argument for the raising analysis is solid, the arguments supporting the control analysis of aspectual verbs are less so. As an alternative hypothesis to consider, I introduce the structural ambiguity hypothesis. In Section 3, I review three recent analyses of control and raising. Although there are important differences among them, they all share the basic assumption that the control/raising distinction is due to differences in selectional restrictions that the lexical items impose. Under such an assumption, the lexical ambiguity hypothesis is the only available option. In Section 4, I present evidence for the structural ambiguity hypothesis from studies concerning aspectual verbs in languages from four distinct families, German (Wurmbrand 2001), Japanese (Fukuda 2006), Romance languages (Cinque 2003), and Basque (Arregi Molina-Azaola 2004). These data strongly suggest that across languages aspectual verbs can appear in two different syntactic positions, either below or above vP, or the projection with which an external argument is introduced (Kratzer 1994, 1996, Chomsky 1995). Given these findings, I argue that it is the aspectual verbs' position with respect to vP which creates the control/raising ambiguity. When an aspectual verb appears in a position that is lower than vP, an external argument takes scope over the aspectual verb. Thus, it is interpreted as control. When an aspectual verb appears in a position that is higher than vP, on the other hand, it is the aspectual verb that takes scope over an entire vP, including the external argument. Thus, it is interpreted as raising. In section 5, I extend the scope of this study to include a discussion of want-type verbs in Indonesian, as analyzed in Polinsky & Potsdam (2006). Polinsky & Potsdam argue that the Indonesian want-type verbs must be raising in at least certain cases where they allow a rather peculiar interpretation. Although they assume that there are also control counterparts of the want-type verbs, I argue that applying the proposed analysis to the want-type verbs does away with the need for stipulating two distinct lexical entries for these verbs. Section 6 concludes the paper.  

Building verbs in Chuj: Consequences for the nature of roots

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
JESSICA COON
Keyword(s):  
Strict Sense ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Combinatorial Properties ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Root Class

This paper offers an in-depth look at roots and verb stem morphology in Chuj (Mayan) in order to address a larger question: when it comes to the formation of verb stems, what information is contributed by the root, and what is contributed by the functional heads? I show first that roots in Chuj are not acategorical in the strict sense (cf. Borer 2005), but must be grouped into classes based on their stem-forming possibilities. Root class does not map directly to surface lexical category, but does determine which functional heads (i.e. valence morphology) may merge with the root. Second, I show that while the introduction of the external argument, along with clausal licensing and agreement generally, are all governed by higher functional heads, the presence or absence of aninternalargument is dictated by the root. Specifically, I show that transitive roots in Chuj always combine with an internal argument, whether it be (i) a full DP, (ii) a bare pseudo-incorporated NP, or (iii) an implicit object in an antipassive. In the spirit of work such as Levinson (2007, 2014), I connect this to the semantic type of the root; root class reflects semantic type, and semantic type affects the root’s combinatorial properties. This work also contributes to the discussion of how valence morphology operates. In line with works such as Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou & Schäfer (2006), I argue that valence morphology applies directly to roots, rather than to some ‘inherent valence’ of a verb.

De (on) Verklaarbaarheid Van Fossilisatie

1998 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 101-109
Author(s):  
Elisabeth van der Linden
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
The Past ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
Different Levels

In the literature about fossilization, several definitions have been given and several explanations have been suggested for this phenomenon. I see fossilization as a long-time stagnation in the T2 learning process, leading to errors based on transfer. Fossilization is caused by sociolinguistic, pyscholinguistic and purely linguistic factors. In this paper I concentrate on the acquisition of syntactic structures and on the role of input and instruction in that process. I argue that, although in the acquisition of some syntactic structures, UG plays an important role, this does not account for the whole learning process: learners have not only to reset parameters when acquiring T2 but have to proceduralize knowledge based on the surface structure of sentences. In the case of the use of past tenses in French, many of the Dutch advanced learners of three different levels of proficiency do not acquire native-like intuitions about the use of these tenses, although input as well as instruction are thorough on this point. I suggest that the past tense system is not UG-dependent and that the instruction does not allow proceduralization of the knowledge.

From indirect to direct object

Diachronica ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Troberg
Keyword(s):  
Direct Object ◽  
Small Class ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Obvious Change ◽  
Argument Realization

This article provides an account of the shift in the expression of the internal argument of a small class of dynamic two-place verbs best represented by aider “help” from ‘dative’, i.e., as an indirect object with the preposition à, to ‘accusative’, i.e., as a direct object with no preposition. This change is not correlated with a change in the meaning of the verbs or with any obvious change in the selectional restrictions imposed on the internal argument. One of the central results of this study is to demonstrate that the shift in argument realization was systematic and part of a broader change involving the loss of directionality as a property of prepositions in French, explaining its correlation with several other related changes in verbal complementation that also occurred in the 15th century.

How multiple past tenses divide the labor: The case of South Baffin Inuktitut

Linguistics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Midori Hayashi ◽  
David Y. Oshima
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Layered System ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
The Past ◽  
Linear Scheme ◽  
Temporal Specifications ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
Common Perception ◽  
Masculine Gender

AbstractIt is a common perception that in languages having multiple past tenses with different remoteness specifications, the past tenses cover the entire past without a gap or overlap. This paper demonstrates that this way of looking at multiple-past tense systems is not appropriate for the system in South Baffin Inuktitut (a variety of the Inuit language). The dialect has at least four past tenses: recent, hodiernal, pre-hodiernal, and distant. We argue that the relation between the four tenses cannot be represented by a simple linear scheme for two reasons. First, the pre-hodiernal past has a special status as the “conventionally designated alternative”, which is chosen in cases of remoteness indeterminacy, analogous to, for example, the Russian masculine gender being used in cases of gender indeterminacy. Second, there is overlap in their coverage. The pre-hodiernal and hodiernal past tenses collectively cover the entire past and thus any past situation can be described with one of them. The other two provide means to make more fine-grained and subjective temporal specifications. Comparison will be made between the system in South Baffin Inuktitut and those in some Bantoid languages which have been pointed out in the literature to have a comparable layered system of tenses.

Regional variation in the English verb qualifier system

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Regional Variation ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Redundant Data ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
English Verb

Nonstandard dialects often use the same form for the past tense and past participle of irregular verbs for which the standard language has distinct forms. One possible reason would be that some speakers have a nonstandard system of verb qualifiers (tense, mood, and aspect markers) in which the past tense/past participle distinction is functionally redundant. Data on spontaneous speech in Britain in the 1990s partly supports this by showing marked regional variation in the use of the Perfect construction. However, some nonstandard past tenses cannot be explained in terms of a nonstandard qualifier system.

Does French have a relative past tense?

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Salkie
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Full Account ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
Passe Compose

Some recent work on French tenses has proposed a new analysis of the difference between the imperfect and the passé simple/passé composé. The imperfect is said to be a relative or anaphoric tense, while the PS/PC are absolute or deictic tenses. A number of studies have argued against the more widely accepted analysis which sees the difference between these tenses in terms of aspect. This paper argues that the new analysis is fundamentally incorrect as an account of the meaning of the French past tenses, although it has brought to light a range of phenomena which need to be included in a full account of the behaviour of the tenses in discourse. I argue that an enriched version of the traditional analysis can account for all the relevant data.

scholarly journals Du verbe au nom et du nom au verbe: Syntaxe et sémantique des maṣdars en arabe standard

1970 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 19-57
Author(s):  
Fayssal Tayalati
Keyword(s):  
External Argument ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Decomposition Model ◽  
Lexical Decomposition ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Genitive Case

The article describes the properties of deverbal nouns (maṣdars) in Standard Arabic. Prior accounts identify the following type (qaṣfu l-ʿaduwwi li-l-madīnati), among others, but neglect the maṣdar that introduces its internal argument as a direct complement in the genitive case and its external argument as a prepositional adjunct (taḥrīru l-madīnati ʿalā yadi l-jayši ). We argue that these two types reflect two different conceptu-alizations of ‘events’: bound-events, which describe a change that has taken place in the nature of a sub-stance represented by the internal argument; and unbound-events, which describe a change in the relation-ship between the internal and external arguments.Within the lexical decomposition model, we propose a semantic basis for explaining constraints on direct transitive verbs according to (i) the type of maṣdars they form; (ii) the possibility of deriving a resul-tative passive participle (ism al-mafʿūl); and (iii) the alternation, for some verbs, between a causative and non-causative use without any morphological variation.Keywords: lexical decomposition, deverbal noun (maṣdars), (un)bound-event

scholarly journals THE ACQUISITION ORDER OF PAST TENSES: AN INTERLANGUAGE ANALYSIS

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ahkam Arifin ◽  
Suryani Jihad ◽  
Sri Mulyani ◽  
Hardiani Ardin ◽  
Nurwahida Nurwahida
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Partial Support ◽  
The Past ◽  
Acquisition Order ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
Universal Order

This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that there appears a systematic order of the acquisition of past tenses. It is claimed that irregular past tense verbs are acquired earlier than regular past tense verbs. In comparison to the acquisition of irregular and regular past verbs, the acquisition of the past copula be forms `was` and `were` is believed to take place much earlier. To test this hypothesis, the data were collected from forty-six students who were asked to write an essay with a minimum of 250 words to get data of the use of past tenses. The findings reveal partial support for the hypothesis, suggesting that the universal order of morpheme acquisition may not be a stable phenomenon.

Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual productions of the English past tense in Arabic heritage speakers of Australian English

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Mailhammer ◽  
Ronia Zeidan
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Morphological Property ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
Vowel Change

AbstractThis paper examines cross-linguistic influence in morphology among adult monolingual and heritage speakers (Arabic-English and Chinese-English). Participants performed a task requiring them to form past tenses for English nonce words. Arabic-English bilinguals produced significantly more vowel change past tenses than either English monolinguals or Chinese-English bilinguals. We attribute the preponderance of vowel change past tenses to cross-linguistic influence of Arabic, as vowel change is a dominant morphological property in Arabic but not in English or Chinese. These results support dynamic models of bilingualism with constantly active and interacting languages and contribute to the phenomenology of crosslinguistic interference.

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