Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Artemis Alexiadou ◽  
Hagit Borer
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Simple Event ◽  
Multiple Accounts ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Deverbal Nominals

The introduction to this book reviews detail the major claims put forth in RoN in 1970, and in particular, the claim that complex words, with deverbal nominals being the case at point, represent a formation that is neither predictable nor productive, and are hence lexically listed. This claim goes hand in hand, in RoN, with the claim that whatever similarities do hold between the deverbal nominal such as destruction and the verb destroy emerge from the existence of a category neutral listed form, DESTROY, which has a consistent subcategorization frame (an object in this case), which is realized identically in the syntax, in accordance with the X’-theory, and where the form DESTROY itself inherits its category from its categorial insertion context (N, V etc.). Since 1970, a rich body of studies has emerged which investigated the properties of lexical formations such as destruction and their relationship with the verb destroy, giving rise to multiple accounts of the emergence of complex words, as well as to the emergence of distinct argument structure combination in the context of nominalizations in particular, and word formation in general. Particularly influential was Grimshaw’s (1990) work, which introduced a typologically sound distinction between nominalizations with event structure (Complex Event Nominals, or Argument Structure Nominals) and nominals which lack event structure, and which may be result nominals or referential nominals or Simple Event Nominals, i.e. nouns which denote an event, but which do not have an event structure in the verbal sense (e.g. trip). More recently there has been the questioning of the partition between word formation and syntactic constituent building altogether, starting with Marantz (1997), and continuing with influential work by many of the contributors to this volume. This volume brings together a sample of contemporary approaches to nominalization, based on the historical record, but also branching into new grounds, both in terms of their syntactic approaches, and in terms of the range of languages considered.<320>

Simple Event nominals with Argument Structure? – Evidence from Irish deverbal nominalizations1

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-163
Author(s):  
Maria Bloch-Trojnar
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Synthetic Compounds ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Simple Event ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Irish Data ◽  
Deverbal Nominals

Abstract Deverbal nominals in Irish support Grimshaw’s (1990) tripartite division into complex event (CE-), simple event (SE-) and result nominals (R-nominals). Irish nominals are ambiguous only between the SE- and R-status. There are no CE-nominals containing the AspP layer in their structure. SE-nominals (also found in Light Verb Constructions) are number-neutral and incapable of pluralizing and are represented as [nP[vP[Root]]]. R-nominals are devoid of the vP layer and behave like ordinary nouns. The Irish data point to v as the layer introducing event implications and the vP or PPs as the functional heads introducing the internal argument (Alexiadou and Schäfer 2011). Event denoting nominals in Irish can license the internal argument but aspectual modification and external argument licensing are not possible (cf. synthetic compounds in Greek (Alexiadou 2017)), which means that, counter to Borer (2013), the licensing of Argument Structure need not follow from the presence of the AspP layer.

scholarly journals Deverbal Nominals in Toba Batak Language: A Generative Transformational Study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esron Ambarita
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
New Words ◽  
Observation Methods ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Toba Batak ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Deverbal Nominals ◽  
Modified Theory ◽  
Phonological Rules

This paper aims at exploring deverbal nominals in Toba Batak language from the view point of generative transformational study. The theory of generative morphology has predictive power to generate new words. Considering the particular rules of word formation in Toba Batak language, Halle’s theory is modified to be adjusted to Toba Batak morphological system. Two new integrated components, Orthographic and Phonological Rules are added between Halle’s Filter and Dictionary. Therefore, there are six components of sets of generative transformational rules as modified theory in this study, i.e. List of Morphemes, Word Formation Rules, Filter, Orthographic Rules, Phonological Rules, and Dictionary. Data analyses were done using modified theory but they refer to Halle’s model as the main theory. This research applied descriptive qualitative method. The data were obtained by using observation methods and their techniques and interlocution method and its techniques. The collected data are voice-recordings and writings. The research findings comprise that deverbal nominals in Toba Batak language are done by attaching: (1) prefix [par-], (2) prefix [paN-], (3) confix [ha-an], (4) confix [paN-an], (5) confix [paN -on], (6) confix [par-an], (7) affix combination [paηin-], and (8) affix combination [paηun-]. The processes of attaching those affixes generate complex words which have different grammatical and lexical meanings. Morphological processes found in the word formation are phoneme deletion, phoneme assimilation, and phoneme addition. The processes of attaching those affixes bring about semantic and phonological idiosyncrasies, therefore, such words must be processed in filter to generate acceptable words in Toba Batak language.

Categorization and nominalization in zero nominals

2020 ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Gianina Iordăchioaia
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Simple Event ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
Important Argument ◽  
Corpus Data

In ‘Categorization and nominalization in zero-derived nouns’ Iordăchioaia discusses a type of nominalization generally neglected in the generative literature after Chomsky (1970), namely zero-derived nouns (ZNs). While overtly suffixed nominals are taken to systematically nominalize verbal constructions with argument structure, ZNs are considered to represent quite lexicalized uses corresponding to Grimshaw’s (1990) result or simple event nominals. In current syntactic models of word formation like DM or XSM, the implication is that ZNs are simple categorizations of roots as nouns in specific syntactic contexts and cannot instantiate real nominalizations of verbal structure. One important argument that Borer (2013) brings in support of this hypothesis is the alleged inability of ZNs to realize verbal argument structure. Iordăchioaia shows that, depending on the ontological type of the root that the base verb is built on, ZNs may in fact realize argument structure and receive compositional deverbal readings of the kind that nominalizations with overt suffixes resent. Building on Beavers and Koontz-Garboden’s (2020) distinction between property concept and result roots, she argues that ZNs corresponding to verbs built on the two types of root exhibit a contrast in their potential to realize argument structure. She then compares ZNs derived from change of state verbs (which are built on result roots) with ZNs derived from psych verbs (which are built on property concept roots) and shows by means of corpus data that the former often instantiate inchoative or causative change of state readings with which they realize argument structure. By contrast, the apparent semantic arguments of psych ZNs are not structural, as they involve idiosyncratic prepositional realizations, similarly to underived psych nouns. <269>

scholarly journals Event structure and argument realization in English zero-derived nominals with particles

Nordlyd ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Gianina Iordachioaia
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Functional Structure ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Argument Realization

This paper is concerned with the morphosyntax of deverbal zero-derived nominals (e.g., to climb > a climb), which have received much less attention in the literature than suffix-based nominals (cf. the climb-ing, the examin-ation, the assign-ment). In the generative literature, in particular, after Grimshaw’s (1990) seminal work on suffix-based nominals and their possibility to inherit verbal event and argument structure, zero-derived nouns have been claimed to lack such properties: e.g., in syntax-based models of word formation, which take argument realization in deverbal nouns to indicate the inheritance of functional structure from the base verb, they have been analyzed as derived not from a verb but from an uncategorized root, as implemented in Borer (2013). Following Rappaport-Hovav and Levin’s (1998) theory of event structure and argument realization, I investigate zero-derived nouns built from verbs with preposed and postposed particles and show that they may realize argument structure on their event readings, which can only come about from the event structure of their base verbs.

Event Structure and Complex Predicates in Persian

2001 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 97-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karine Megerdoomian
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Persian Literature ◽  
Complex Predicate ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
Verbal Construction ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThis article investigates the syntactic and semantic properties of complex predicates in Persian in order to isolate the individual contributions of the verbal components. The event structure of causative alternation and unergative verbs is determined, based on a decomposition of the verbal construction into primitive syntactic elements consisting of lexical roots and functional heads, with the latter projecting all arguments of the verbal construction. An analysis is provided whereby the argument structure is not projected from the lexicon but is formed compositionally by the conjunction of the primitive components of the complex predicate in syntax. The dual behaviour of Persian complex predicates as lexical and syntactic elements, which has been attested in Persian literature on light verb constructions, follows naturally from the analysis proposed since there is no strict division between the level of word formation and the component manipulating phrasal constructs.

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.

On the Event Structural Properties of the English Get-Passive

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-74
Author(s):  
Alison Biggs ◽  
David Embick
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Structural Properties ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Event Structures ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Responsible Party

An important ongoing discussion in theories of argument structure concerns the explanatory division of labor between thematic properties and event structure. In this context, the English get-passive provides an interesting test case. Much previous work has analyzed get-passives as differing thematically from be-passives. Yet many get-passive properties remain poorly understood. We present an analysis of the get-passive centered on the proposal that it contains additional event structure (realized as get) relative to its be counterpart. We employ by-adjuncts to identify the event structures in passive types, and demonstrate that the behavior of this and other diagnostics support the conclusion that get- and be-passives differ systematically in ways that accord with our analysis. Further discussion considers the prominent proposal from previous studies that get-passives differ thematically from be-passives in (sometimes) assigning an Agent role to their surface subjects. We show that there is no evidence for such an analysis. Instead, intuitions about the interpretation of the get-passive surface subject arise from how an event’s Responsible Party is identified: contrasts between get and be on this dimension are a consequence of event structural differences between the two. The overall result is a unified analysis of the get-passive, one that has implications for the role of event structure in understanding the syntax and interpretation of arguments.

Changes in the argument and event structure of psych verbs in the history of Spanish

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-270
Author(s):  
Montserrat Batllori ◽  
Elisabeth Gibert-Sotelo ◽  
Isabel Pujol
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
History Of

This chapter offers a detailed study of changes affecting the argument structure of Spanish psych verbs that appear with a dative experiencer (EXP). After proposing a three-way classification of these verbs based on their etymological origin, the chapter traces two parallel, but interconnected, diachronic paths: the first one involves the development from transitive (or pronominal) to unaccusative constructions with a dative EXP, whereas the second one concerns the evolution from dynamic to stative events. The use and decrease of the passive in Classical Spanish is also shown to play a role in this change: to wit, passive and unaccusative structures with a dative EXP are structurally similar, as the prepositional agent phrase and the dative EXP originate in the same position.

Optimal spaces and hyphens

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-110
Author(s):  
Vilma Symanczyk Joppe
Keyword(s):  
Complex Compounds ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Intermediate Form ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Complex Words

Abstract The paper deals with the insertion of spaces and hyphens in German. It summarizes the existing optimality-theoretic approach and extends it to capture the use of hyphens. Hyphenation is often excluded in the literature on the writing of complex words, as forms with hyphens are thought to be mere variants of solid forms. The paper offers an alternative view in which hyphens are treated as an intermediate form between solid and open forms and are placed as a result of conflict between constraints which demand or forbid insertion of spaces. The analysis focuses on the products of nominal compounding, which is one of the most productive processes of word formation in German. Firstly, it is shown for which types of compounds hyphenation is optional and obligatory according to the official rules of orthography. Based on this, constraints are postulated, which do not only decide in which cases hyphenation is allowed but also in which positions the hyphens must be placed in the respective compound. Finally, the hyphenation of phrasal compounds and other complex compounds is modeled.

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