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>

scholarly journals Lexical Distributivity and Implicit Arguments

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lasersohn
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Implicit Argument ◽  
Implicit Arguments ◽  
Atomic Event ◽  
Thematic Relation ◽  
Meaning Postulates ◽  
Logical Representation

Popular assumptions about distributive predicates and implicit arguments interact to predict incorrect truth conditions for sentences in which a predi­cate takes both an implicit argument and an overt distributive argument. This paper argues that the conflict provides evidence for a particular approach to argument structure and in particular to the semantics of implicit arguments: namely, a "neo-Davidsonian" approach, in which thematic roles are analyzed as relations between events and individuals, and existentially interpreted implicit arguments do not appear in the syntax or in logical representation at all. The effect of implicit arguments is produced through the use of meaning postulates guaranteeing that any atomic event of a given type must bear the appropriate thematic relation to some individual.

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.

A SysML-Based Modeling Language for Mechatronic System Architecture

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruirui Chen ◽  
Yusheng Liu ◽  
Yue Cao ◽  
Jing Xu
Keyword(s):  
Systems Engineering ◽  
System Architecture ◽  
Modeling Language ◽  
Mechatronic Systems ◽  
Geometric Information ◽  
Automatic Reasoning ◽  
Control Behavior ◽  
Reasoning System ◽  
And Control ◽  
Model Based Systems Engineering

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is the mainstream methodology for the design of complex mechatronic systems. It emphasizes the application of the system architecture, which highly depends on a formalized modeling language. However, such modeling language is less researched in previous studies. This paper proposes a general modeling language for representing the system architecture, aiming for representing function, physical effect, geometric information and control behavior which the system should satisfy. It facilitates the communication of designers from different technological domains and supports a series of applications such as automatic reasoning, system simulation, etc. The language is illustrated and verified with a practical mechatronic device finally.

Investigation of flowability of the green sand mould by remote control of portable flowability sensor

2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-76
Author(s):  
D. Abdulamer
Keyword(s):  
Remote Control ◽  
Wireless Transmission ◽  
Green Sand ◽  
Compaction Process ◽  
Moulding Process ◽  
Control Behavior ◽  
Sand Mould ◽  
System 1 ◽  
And Control ◽  
Non Destructive

Purpose: The useful data and information during the sand compaction process steps should be collected. Direct measurement methods of the sand mould properties during the actual moulding process are not adopted yet. Design/methodology/approach: In this work, a remote control system [1] have been integrated into a new flowability sensor [2]. Findings: To overcome the complexity of the tools and equipment that existed in laboratory, and in foundry. Research limitations/implications: In order to investigate, and control behavior of the moulding process of bentonite-bonded green sand process, the sensors have been equipped with the Bluetooth technology for a wireless transmission of the measured data to computers. Originality/value: This technique contributes to improve of the compaction process based on the non-destructive tests, enhances prediction of the optimum parameter conditions, and reduced the energy, and the compaction time consumed for the green sand moulding process.

scholarly journals Syntax or nothing: Some theoretical and empirical remarks on implicit arguments

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres Saab
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Satisfactory Solution ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Repair Strategy ◽  
Implicit Arguments ◽  
Syntactic Representation

<p>I show that core implicit subjects in Spanish (i.e., the ones that occur with analytical passives, impersonal <em>se</em>, and causatives) can be derived from a theory under which absence of <em>Merge</em> in external subject position is a possible syntactic output. Core implicit arguments then have no syntactic representation (<em>pace</em> Landau 2010). Absence of <em>Merge</em> can make to arise two different scenarios: (i) a conflict at the interfaces, which requires the implementation of some repair strategy, (ii) no conflict at the interfaces; i.e., a legitimate object at the interfaces. The first scenario is illustrated with reference to the so-called impersonal <em>se</em> in Spanish, and the second one with reference to analytical passives. The proposed system is able to capture a set of very intricate facts that does not have a satisfactory solution hitherto. Crucially, this particular view on implicit arguments, together with a purely syntactic theory of argument structure, derives the full distribution of impersonals and reflexives in <em>hacer</em> ‘to make’ causative contexts. Finally, it is shown that the arbitrary readings that the two scenarios above described display have a different source: whereas impersonal <em>se</em> requires (costly) default computation at the interface, arbitrary interpretations in analytical passives are calculated at the <em>v</em>P level.   </p>

Building and Interpreting Possession Sentences

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Myler
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Surface Structures ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Regular Pattern ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Transitive Verb ◽  
Broad Agreement ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
The One

A major question for linguistic theory concerns how the structure of sentences relates to their meaning. There is broad agreement in the field that there is some regularity in the way that lexical semantics and syntax are related, so that thematic roles are predictably associated with particular syntactic positions. This book examines the syntax and semantics of possession sentences, which are infamous for appearing to diverge dramatically from this broadly regular pattern. On the one hand, possession sentences have too many meanings: in a given language, the construction used to express archetypal possessive meanings (such as personal ownership) is also often used to express other apparently unrelated notions (body parts, kinship relations, and many others). On the other hand, possession sentences have too many surface structures: languages differ markedly in the argument structures used to convey the same possessive meanings, with some employing a transitive verb HAVE, and others using a variety of constructions based around an intransitive verb BE. Examining and synthesizing ideas from the literature and drawing on data from many languages (including some understudied Quechua dialects), this book presents a novel way to understand the apparent irregularity of possession sentences while preserving existing explanations for the general cross-linguistic regularities we observe in argument structure.

Dynamic and control behavior of multicomponent distillation columns

SIMULATION ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.S. Yiu ◽  
G.A. Carling ◽  
R.K. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Distillation Columns ◽  
Control Behavior ◽  
Multicomponent Distillation ◽  
And Control
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