On the Argument Structure of Certain Haitian Predicates - Rete, To Remain', Posib 'Possible'

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Systematic Description ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Subject Raising

The paper presents a systematic description of rete and posib, including some patterns which have not been discussed before in the literature. The account confirms that these predicates do not provide examples of subject-to-subject raising constructions. A lexical subject with rete or posib is always assigned a theta-role by that predicate. The analysis provides a unified lexical representation of each predicate without resort to double lexical entries to represent different syntactic patterns which are phonolog-ically and semantically identical. The syntactic properties of these predicates are essentially parallel, with the basic exception of the distinction that rete is a Case assigner, but posib is not. Additionally, it is argued that rete requires an overt specification of the location or time of the event which it describes, but posib has no such requirement.

scholarly journals THE FORMATION OF RAISING VERB ARGUMENT STRUCTURE IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

2018 ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
M. Polkhovska ◽  
A. Ochkovska
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
English Language ◽  
Transitive Verb ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Verb Argument Structure ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Subject Raising

The paper is focused on studying the formation process of the argument structure of the raising verbs and, as a consequence, the establishment of the subject raising construction in the Early Modern English language. The emergence of studied verbs in the history of English is associated with the process of grammaticalization, when a verb with a full argument structure turns into a raising one-argument non-transitive verb that has no external argument and does not assign any theta-role to its internal argument; and subjectification, during which we observe the transition from the concrete semantic meaning of the verb to the abstract one. Restructuring of the argument environment of the raising verb is caused by the semantic bleaching of its meaning; as a result the Agent and the Cause are combined at the semantic structure level in the process of detransitivation. The Early Modern raising verb is a semantic and syntactic nucleus of the subject raising construction, which determines its main peculiarities.

Niuean

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Massam
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Noun Incorporation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure

This book presents a detailed descriptive and theoretical examination of predicate-argument structure in Niuean, a Polynesian language within the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family, spoken mainly on the Pacific island of Niue and in New Zealand. Niuean has VSO word order and an ergative case-marking system, both of which raise questions for a subject-predicate view of sentence structure. Working within a broadly Minimalist framework, this volume develops an analysis in which syntactic arguments are not merged locally to their thematic sources, but instead are merged high, above an inverted extended predicate which serves syntactically as the Niuean verb, later undergoing movement into the left periphery of the clause. The thematically lowest argument merges as an absolutive inner subject, with higher arguments merging as applicatives. The proposal relates Niuean word order and ergativity to its isolating morphology, by equating the absence of inflection with the absence of IP in Niuean, which impacts many aspects of its grammar. As well as developing a novel analysis of clause and argument structure, word order, ergative case, and theta role assignment, the volume argues for an expanded understanding of subjecthood. Throughout the volume, many other topics are also treated, such as noun incorporation, word formation, the parallel internal structure of predicates and arguments, null arguments, displacement typology, the role of determiners, and the structure of the left periphery.

scholarly journals Syntactic categories informing variationist analysis: The case of English copy-raising

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Alana Brook
Keyword(s):  
Large City ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Finite Structures ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Copy Raising ◽  
As If ◽  
Subject Raising

<p>This paper re-examines variation between the comparative complementizers (AS IF, AS THOUGH, LIKE, THAT, and Ø) that follow verbs denoting ostensibility (SEEM, APPEAR, LOOK, SOUND, and FEEL) in the large city of Toronto, Canada. Given that younger speakers appear to be using more of these structures in the first place, I evaluate the hypothesis that there is a trade-off in apparent time between these finite structures and the non-finite construction of Subject-to-Subject raising. Focusing on the verb SEEM, I find that the non-finite structures are losing ground in apparent time to the finite ones. I subsequently address the issue of how best to divide up the finite tokens as co-variants opposite the finite constructions, and find that a split according to syntactic properties – whether or not the copy-raising transformation is permitted – tidily accounts for the patterning and reveals a straightforward change in progress. The results reaffirm the value of using variationist methodology to test competing claims, and also establish that variation can behave in a classic way even among whole syntactic categories.</p>

Where are thematic roles?

2020 ◽  
pp. 277-308
Author(s):  
Tom Roeper
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Control Behavior ◽  
Implicit Arguments ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
And Control ◽  
Syntactic Binding

In ‘Where are thematic roles? Building the micro-syntax of implicit arguments in nominalizations’, Roeper attempts an approach to capture implicit arguments in a fashion that is closely linked to the projection of verbs. Roeper argues for clitic-like projections that accompany the verb, particularly evident in nominalizations: These separate the lexical Argument-theta projections of the verb from the conditions for projecting Maximal Projections which enter into syntactic operations, while the larger pattern of subject, object, and control behavior remains consistent across the syntax and the lexicon. Roeper argues that bare nominalizations (e.g. a look, a glance, a comment) all carry argument structure capable of motivating syntactic binding. Moreover, argument projections into the Possessive of nominalizations show predictable sensitivity to passive morphemes (-ed, -able) buried inside nominalizations. They allow only an object projection in nominalized Possessives precisely as they do in verbal structures. The theory of Theta-role projection must allow projection of an AGENT to Subject in little v, Subject in TP, and Subject in Possessives, and if acquisition is efficient, it should all follow automatically from UG. Roeper then argues that impersonal passives that appear in a subset of languages call for both special syntax and a special vision of possible integration into discourse structure. <206>

Nominalizing verbal passive

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-138
Author(s):  
Hagit Borer
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Extended Projection ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Syntactic Properties

In her chapter ‘Nominalizing verbal passives: PROs and cons’, Borer argues that nominalization, and by extension many other morphological processes, must be syntactic. Borer focuses on so-called short argument structure nominals (SASNs), i.e. ASNs which are missing an overt logical (external) subject, and which do not obligatorily take a by-phrase. Borer provides evidence that SASNs embed a passive structure, with the latter showing most of the syntactic properties of clausal verbal passive, including the promotion of the internal argument. Nominalization is thus an operation which can combine a passivized verbal extended projection with a higher nominal head. Long ASNs, in turn, are nominalizations which bring together a nominalizer with an active Verbal Extended Projection, ExP[V], complete with all its arguments, including the external. ASNs (de-verbal/de-adjectival), according to Borer, therefore must contain a verbal/adjectival ExP, and the argument array in ASNs is that which is associated with the embedded ExP[V] and ExP[A] respectively, and not with the noun. This in turn means that the operation Nominalization, which brings together a verbal/adjectival stem with a nominalizing affix, must be allowed to apply to the output of syntactic operations which involve complex syntactic phrases, including passive and movement.

Arabic synthetic compounds

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-60
Author(s):  
Abdullah S. Al-Dobaian
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Analysis ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Synthetic Compounds ◽  
Morphology Model ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Syntactic Properties

Abstract This paper discusses some data of Arabic synthetic compounds in which regular plural inflection is included inside compounds. These data pose problems to Kiparsky’s (1982) level-ordering lexical morphology model and Li’s (1990) generalization on verb incorporation. I argue that such compounds are lexically formed based on some pieces of evidence. To support the analysis, I compare the compounds and the construct state constructions in Arabic and Hebrew. Then I show that the lexical analysis explains the morphological, syntactic properties, and the semantics of Arabic synthetic compounds. More specifically, I explain how the lexical analysis applies to theta-role assignment inside the compound and then discuss the number specification of the non-head in the compound of Arabic and English.

scholarly journals Co-Indexation in Predicate Argument Structure: The Characteristics of Quechua Ku

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-97
Author(s):  
Simon Van de Kerke
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Lexical Conceptual Structure ◽  
External Position ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure

AbstractThe aim of this article is to give an account of the characteristics of the Quechua verbal affixku. It addresses the question of whether constructions that are reputed to be cases of syntactic NP-movement in other languages can be analyzed in the same way in Quechua. It is claimed that Quechua does not allow the external position to remain without a theta-role in Predicate Argument Structure, in that way excluding syntactic NP-movement. The effect ofkucan be described as: co-index an internal argument with the external position in the mapping from Lexical Conceptual Structure to Predicate Argument Structure. In that way the projection of verbs, that in other languages subcategorize for an empty external position, is licensed.

scholarly journals SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THETA ROLES OF VERBS IN THE MAH MERI LANGUAGE

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Maisarah Maisarah ◽  
Kais Amir Kadhim ◽  
Zahid Ali Veesar
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Thematic Relations ◽  
Theta Role

The Mah Meri language, one of the severely endangered languages of Malaysia, is facing the threat of extinction. In order to save valuable information of this language, this paper focuses on one of its aspects, the Theta Roles in relation to the verbs. Using Radford’s (1997 & 2009) theory of Theta Roles, this study analyzes and explores the verb phrase of Mah Meri. The main objective of this study is to establish the Theta Roles in relation to verbs in the Mah Meri language. In order to fully understand the verb structures, the morphological entities of affixes such as prefixes and suffixes are studied. Moreover, the word order of the sentential constructions are also analyzed according to active and passive forms. These are done in tandem with analyzing the pronouns in relation to the placement of verbs in a Mah Meri sentential construction. It is found that Theta Roles are present in the data except for the Theta Role Recipient. However, this is not due to the lack of the Theta Role of Recipient in the Mah Meri language; rather it is due to the limitation of the scope in this study as data is analyzed based on the interviews only. On the other hand, the Theta Role of Agent is clearly evident in the Mah Meri language.Keywords: Mah Meri Language, Argument Structure, Theta Roles, Thematic Relations

scholarly journals Korean and Spanish psych-verbs: Interaction of case, theta-roles, linearization, and event structure in HPSG

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Machicao y Priemer ◽  
Paola Fritz-Huechante
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Inheritance Hierarchy ◽  
Lexical Rules ◽  
Type Hierarchy

In this paper, we argue that by making a more detailed distinction of theta-roles, while at the same time investigating the correlation of case marking, theta-role assignment, and eventuality types, we can describe different psych-verb subclasses and explain their alignment patterns in Spanish and Korean. We propose a neo-Davidsonian treatment of psych-verbs in HPSG that allows us to account for the underspecification of theta-roles which are modeled in an inheritance hierarchy for semantic relations. By assuming linking properties modeled lexically, we can constrain the properties for psych-verbs which shows the mapping of semantic arguments (i.e. experiencer, stimulus-causer, subject matter and target) to the elements in the argument structure. The type hierarchy and lexical rules proposed here capture the alternation in case marking not only of the experiencer (as traditionally assumed in the literature), but also of the stimulus. This analysis leads us to a new fourfold classification of psych-verbs for both languages.

Theoretical Approaches to Morphology

2019 ◽  
pp. 221-239
Author(s):  
Andrew Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Distributed Morphology ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Light Verbs ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Construction Morphology ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Network Morphology

The chapter contrasts the still popular traditional approach to morphology, based on the classical morpheme concept, with contemporary approaches which significantly modify that concept (Distributed Morphology, Construction Morphology) or reject it altogether (Paradigm Function Morphology, Network Morphology). I extend the scope of the latter, ‘lexeme-and-paradigm’, models by introducing types of morphology intermediate between inflection and derivation: argument-structure alternations and transpositions (such as deverbal participles), together with other problematic phenomena such as clitics, light verbs, periphrasis. The chapter ends with a discussion of derivational morphology as a subtype of lexemic relatedness, briefly outlining the principal theoretical issues facing approaches to lexemic relatedness and lexical representation: ‘blocking’, semantic primitives, lexical semantics, and derivation.

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