The paradoxes of Mẽbengokre’s analytic causative

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres Pablo Salanova
Keyword(s):  
Typical Case ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Causative Construction

Mẽbengokre exhibits a causative construction that is constructed as an applicative, introducing a low argument without displacing the external argument from its subject function. In the typical case, this causative could be seen as an instance of the so-called sociative causative, whereby the causee is accompanied in the action by the causer, rather than being simply induced to action by the causer. These causatives can be straightforwardly analysed as comitative applicatives. However, Mẽbengokre displays the peculiarity that causatives of most verbs that involve a change of state decidedly do not get a sociative interpretation. This chapter addresses the puzzle of how a true causative semantics can arise in such cases, claiming that the applicative morpheme in these causatives has a grammatical use not unlike that of subject-reintroducing ‘by’ in English passives, and that this grammatical function is tied with a null causative morpheme that attaches only to certain verbal stems.

scholarly journals Argument-Structure-Reducing Operations in Standard Arabic: An Exploratory Comparative Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Abdellatif ED-DARRAJI
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Change Of State

This paper attempts to examine some argument-structure-reducing operations in Standard Arabic (SA for short). It is proposed here that some affixes (viz. prefixes and infixes) can decrease the argument structure (or valence) of the subclass of change-of-state (COS for short) verbs in the language under study. More specifically, these affixes function as unaccusativizers or decausativizers in that they can derive unaccusative COS verbs from causative COS verbs by suppressing the external argument of the latter verbs and syntactically promoting the direct object to subject position. Crucially, the ability of these affixes to affect the argument structure and the morphosyntactic realization of arguments is not limited to SA, but it has been attested in some other languages, such as Italian, Russian, Chichewa, Spanish, French, Eastern Armenian, West Greenlandic, and Tzutujil, among others.            

Agent prominence in symmetrical voice languages

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Riesberg ◽  
Beatrice Primus
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Reflexive Pronouns ◽  
Syntactic Prominence ◽  
Causative Construction ◽  
And Control ◽  
Symmetrical Voice

AbstractIt has been argued in the literature that morpho-syntactically agents are universally more prominent than patients. At first sight, this claim seems to be challenged by so called symmetrical voice languages because these languages show no preference for agents to be the privileged syntactic argument (PSA). They do thus not display an obvious syntactic prominence of agents. However, this paper will argue that even symmetrical voice languages show instances of agent prominence. These instances are not reflected in a default linking of agents to PSA function, but rather in a slightly more subtle manner: First, agents always function as binders to reflexive pronouns, regardless of position or grammatical function. Second, agent properties like volitionality, ability and control are reflected in verbal morphology, even in undergoer voice construction in which the agent is not the PSA. This is the case in potentive, stative, and causative construction.

Reanalyzing Mandarin V1-V2 resultative constructions—A force-theoretic approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Peng (Benjamin) Han
Keyword(s):  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Result State ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Event Based

Abstract This study takes a force-theoretic approach to Mandarin V1-V2 resultative constructions. Unlike event-based analyses that hold a causing event accountable for a result state, this study attributes a result state to a specific entity involved in the relevant causing event. In this way, V1-V2 resultative construction (RC) sentences have the interpretation that through a causing action, one entity relevant to the action caused a change of state to another entity; this causal influence is reconceptualized as a force from the former entity, characterizing the situation change concerning the latter entity. Following Copley and Harley (2015), this conceptual reanalysis is represented structurally, successfully deriving V1-V2 RC sentences. V2 and the internal argument DP specify the property of a resultant situation and its holder, defining the force; the external argument DP tells about this force's source; V1 modifies this force, indicating the causing action through which this force is realized.

scholarly journals Semantics-oriented resultatives: Evidence from valency alternation verbs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsuneko Nakazawa ◽  
Rui Cao
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Locative Alternation ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Predication Relation

Resultative phrases are generally believed to conform to the Direct Object Restriction: that is, they describe the direct object if verbs are transitive. However, some exceptions have occasionally been reported, and this paper investigates the problem by focusing on resultative phrases that occur with the valency alternation verbs in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Verbs that license the locative alternation and locatum-subject alternation describe events that involve two arguments, the location and the locatum, which are perceived to concurrently undergo a change of state. It will be shown that resultative phrases with a valency alternation verb can be predicated of either argument regardless of whether it is expressed as direct object. Furthermore, resultative verbal suffixes in Mandarin, interpreted as description of either the location or the locatum, give rise to the locative alternation while their interpretation remains the same. Thus, it is claimed that in Japanese and Mandarin, the predication relation of resultative phrases is not determined by the grammatical function of arguments as generally believed, but rather by the lexical semantics of the verbs.

scholarly journals The categorial, argument structural and aspectual indeterminacy of past participles: A holistic approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Wegner
Keyword(s):  
Common Core ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Structural Effect ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Event Structures ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Simple Event ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
The One

Abstract The present paper argues that all kinds of verbal and adjectival instantiations of past participles have a common core: a participial head associated with an argument structural effect, on the one hand, and an aspectual contribution, on the other. The former amounts to the suppression of an external argument (if present), which existentially binds the semantic role associated with this argument, and the latter renders simple event structures with change-of-state semantics (and only those) perfective. Based on these ingredients (and the contribution of the auxiliary have, if present), it is not just possible to account for how past participles elicit periphrastic passive as well as perfect configurations, but crucially also for their bare (i. e. auxiliaryless) occurrences in a range of distributions: stative passives, stative perfects, absolute clauses, pre- and postnominal occurrences, and adverbial clauses. These, in turn, differ in their properties on the basis of (a) the presence of a stativising PredP, (b) the availability of an adjectival head that triggers λ-abstraction of an internal argument, and (c) the complexity of the underlying verbal structure in terms of the availability of vP. This eventually allows for a ‘holistic’ approach to the flexibility of past participles that delineates a common core supplemented by distinct functional surroundings.

How are Lexical-Semantic Differences Represented in L2 Syntax? A Study of the Unaccusative/Unergative Distinction in L2 Chinese

1996 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 201-215
Author(s):  
Boping Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Single Argument ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

It has been proposed that intransitive verbs can be divided into two subgroups, unaccusative verbs, such as break and arrive, and unergative verbs, such as laugh and swim. The former type has an internal argument, but no external one, whereas the latter type has an external argument but no internal one. Unaccusative verbs are verbs of change of state or location, while unergative verbs are a set of agentive monadic verbs including verbs of manner of motion. In English, the internal argument of the unaccusative verb has to move to subject position to be Case-marked. In Chinese, however, the internal argument can remain in object position and get inherent partitive Case as long as it is an indefinite NP. External arguments of unergative verbs in both English and Chinese are in preverbal position whether they are definite or indefinite. The study reported in this paper was aimed at finding out whether the lexical-semantic distinction between the unaccusative verb and the unergative verb could be properly represented in English-speaking learners' L2 syntax of Chinese and whether the learner would only allow the single argument of the unaccusative verb but disallow that of the unergative verb to be in object position. The results indicate that the unaccusative/unergative distinction is acquired very late by English-speaking learners, and that the acquisition does not proceed in a linear fashion.

scholarly journals Stativity in the Causative Alternation? New Questions and a New Variant

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-259
Author(s):  
Maria Eugenia Mangialavori Rasia
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Present Discussion ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Causative Alternation ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
New Variant

AbstractThis paper discusses whether capacity to license an internal argument and eventivity are default properties of so-called change-of-state verbs.I draw attention to the claim that, in certain languages, the causative-inchoative alternation extends to a third, external-argument-only variant with stative behavior. Productivity and systematicity raise a host of problems for current generalizations on the Causative Alternation and change-of-state verbs for various reasons, starting from the long-held claim that unique arguments of change-of-state verbs are by default internal. Insofar as the causative component is independently realized in a noneventive, nonepisodic frame, this variant challenges (a) a widely agreed rule of event composition, whereby cause, if present, causally implicates process; (b) the claim that cause(r) interpretation of the external argument is a byproduct of transitivization. The present discussion: (a) brings out a crosslanguage contrast bearing on default (cause/undergoer) interpretation of unique arguments in equipollent alternations; (b) provides new empirical data supporting the stativity of the (causative) outer v head; (c) substantiates important predictions in the literature (e.g. that verbs of causation should have stative readings; that external-argument-only variants of Object-Experiencer verbs should be found); (d) captures further verb classes allowing the alternation; and (e) shows crucial contrasts with other transitive-(in/a)transitive alternations involving null/arb objects. Aspect and determination of different (a)atransitivity alternations are central throughout.

Zero Marking of Past Tense in Child African American English

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Lee ◽  
Janna B. Oetting
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Grammatical Function

Zero marking of the simple past is often listed as a common feature of child African American English (AAE). In the current paper, we review the literature and present new data to help clinicians better understand zero marking of the simple past in child AAE. Specifically, we provide information to support the following statements: (a) By six years of age, the simple past is infrequently zero marked by typically developing AAE-speaking children; (b) There are important differences between the simple past and participle morphemes that affect AAE-speaking children's marking options; and (c) In addition to a verb's grammatical function, its phonetic properties help determine whether an AAE-speaking child will produce a zero marked form.

Obligations of the Translators of the Qur'an Towards the Qur'anic Readings

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-147
Author(s):  
S. K. Tabatabaee
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Syntactical Structure ◽  
The Way

It is historically established that the readers of the Qur'an read certain Qur'anic phrases or words in various ways. Some of these different readings affect the pronunciation of certain words without changing their meanings, e.g. ‘kufuwan aḥad’ where two readings exist: ‘kufuwan aḥad’ with fā' madmūma and wāw maftūha without hamza and ‘kufu'an aḥad’ with hamz and fā' maḍmūma. Other readings, however, may affect the function of a word in a sentence in terms of the syntactical structure of the sentence and the grammatical function of the word, and the way it is to be parsed. This can be observed in ‘mālik yawn al-dīn’ (Q.1:4) where three readings exist: ‘māliki yawmi'l-dīn’, ‘maliki yawmi'l-dīn’ and ‘malaka yawma'l-dīn’, turning mālik into a past tense verb and rendering the word yawm in the nasb mood. Another example can be found in the Qur'anic phrase ‘bi-mā kānū yakdhibūn’ (Q.2:10) where two readings exist: ‘yakdhibūn’ with yā' maftūḥa and single dhāl, and ‘yukadhdhibūn’ with yā' maḍmūma and doubled dhal. This article will focus on the obligations to be undertaken by the translators of the Qur'an in relation to the latter type of Qur'anic readings.

Change of state of generalized trusses

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 215-224
Author(s):  
Zsolt Gáspár
Keyword(s):  
Change Of State
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