On the Event Structural Properties of the English Get-Passive

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-74
Author(s):  
Alison Biggs ◽  
David Embick

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.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghao You ◽  
Ebru Ger ◽  
Moritz M. Daum ◽  
Sabine Stoll

Children use causative verbs in language to express causality. The learning of causatives relies on cues in children's interaction with caregivers. Argument structure has been widely posited as a facilitative cue for learning causatives. However, it may lack reliability due to ellipsis allowed in many languages, thus affecting children's acquisition of causatives. In this study, we investigate the role of object ellipsis in the learning of two prevalent types of causatives, namely lexical and morphological causatives. We take Turkish as a test case, which employs both types of causatives. The results show that the ellipsis in child-directed speech is pervasive in both causatives, with morphological causatives exhibiting a substantially lower proportion of ellipsis. However, by examining children's developmental trajectory, we show that lexical causatives develop with a pattern strikingly similar to the general development of verbs, whereas morphological causatives develop more slowly, despite less object ellipsis and explicit morphological marking. The findings suggest that argument structure may not play a major role in the learning of causatives. Our general conclusion is that children acquire causatives despite the challenge posed by pervasive ellipsis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-410
Author(s):  
Dimitris Michelioudakis ◽  
Nikos Angelopoulos

Abstract We investigate how saturation of different theta-roles by the non-head constituent correlates with derivational suffixes and, in turn, with the event structures compatible with those suffixes. We also investigate XP realisations of themes, causers and instruments in deverbal nominal and participial constructions and which ±agentive and/or ±process/episodic sub-readings allow which type of argument. It turns out that for each theta-role, the contexts that allow an XP realisation are exactly the complement of the contexts that would allow compounding of that same theta-role. We take this complementarity to be an indirect argument in favour of (i) divorcing argument licensing from argument selection and (ii) dissociating argument introduction from event-structure-related heads, which then potentially reaffirms the role of roots in (first phase) syntax.


Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Mitchell Browne

Warlpiri and Warlmanpa (Ngumpin-Yapa languages of Australia) exhibit a complex predicate construction in which a class of preverbs introduces a single argument that is not shared by the argument structure of the inflecting verb, nor is there necessarily any shared event structure. This is problematic for many theories of linking structures of complex predicates, since no arguments or events are shared between the predicative elements of the complex predicate. The same grammatical relation is instantiated by a beneficiary adjunct. In light of new research in event and argument structure, I propose a lexical rule which introduces an applicative argument to account for the beneficiary construction; and that the preverbs take another predicate as one of their arguments to account for the complex predicates. The applicative rule and the preverbs both introduce an argument of the same grammatical relation, leading to interesting interactions, given that two grammatical relations of the same type are not expected to co-occur within a single clause.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Peđa Kovačević

The goal of this paper is to account for the observation that some Serbian object experiencer anticausatives take instrumental NPs as expressions of the causer participant whereas others take od(‘from’)- PPs. Following a number of authors (Alexiadou et al. 2013, Doron 2014, Anagnostopoulou & Samioti 2014, a. o.), I assume that differences in the licensing of expressions introducing event participants point in the direction of structural differences in terms of presence/absence of certain layers of verbal structure. The observed difference is accounted for by assuming that instrumental NPs are syntactically licensed by VoiceP while od(‘from’)-PPs are rejected by VoiceP owing to a semantic clash. Consequently, full VoiceP structure is present with psych verb anticausatives that license instrumental NPs and absent with psych verb anticauatives that license od(‘from’)-PPs. The analysis presented in the paper has implications for the syntactic and semantic status of SE as well. It is suggested that Chierchia’s (2004) reflexive approach to anticausatives can be extended to psych verb anticausatives which license instrumental NPs whereas the standard approach (Schäfer & Vivanco 2016) should be retained for typical anticausatives with inanimate internal arguments and object experiencers that license od (‘from’)-PPs. Such a “middle-ground” solution follows from the syntactic structures I propose for these two different sets of psych verb anticausatives.


Author(s):  
Ekaterina Turakulovna Shirinova

This article discusses information on the study of terminology in Uzbek and world linguistics. Thematic grouping of banking and financial terms, which play an important role in Uzbek language vocabulary, is considered. The author gives the criteria for the distribution of terms into thematic groups, their peculiar properties examples to substantiate the hypothesis. The paradigmatic relations between the terms of this sphere are indicated. A structural analysis of the banking and financial terms of the Uzbek language is carried out.  On the basis of the anthropocentric approach, the role of the human factor in the banking and financial terminology of the Uzbek language is studied. Cognitive metaphors that exist in the terminology are considered.


Author(s):  
Diane Massam

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (3) ◽  
pp. 4290-4304
Author(s):  
Enrico Vesperini ◽  
Jongsuk Hong ◽  
Mirek Giersz ◽  
Arkadiusz Hypki

ABSTRACT We have carried out a set of Monte Carlo simulations to study a number of fundamental aspects of the dynamical evolution of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters with different initial masses, fractions of second generation (2G) stars, and structural properties. Our simulations explore and elucidate: (1) the role of early and long-term dynamical processes and stellar escape in the evolution of the fraction of 2G stars and the link between the evolution of the fraction of 2G stars and various dynamical parameters; (2) the link between the fraction of 2G stars inside the cluster and in the population of escaping stars during a cluster’s dynamical evolution; (3) the dynamics of the spatial mixing of the first-generation (1G) and 2G stars and the details of the structural properties of the two populations as they evolve toward mixing; (4) the implications of the initial differences between the spatial distribution of 1G and 2G stars for the evolution of the anisotropy in the velocity distribution and the expected radial profile of the 1G and 2G anisotropy for clusters at different stages of their dynamical history; and (5) the variation of the degree of energy equipartition of the 1G and the 2G populations as a function of the distance from the cluster’s centre and the cluster’s evolutionary phase.


Gels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Ana M. Herrero ◽  
Claudia Ruiz-Capillas

Considerable attention has been paid to emulsion gels (EGs) in recent years due to their interesting applications in food. The aim of this work is to shed light on the role played by chia oil in the technological and structural properties of EGs made from soy protein isolates (SPI) and alginate. Two systems were studied: oil-free SPI gels (SPI/G) and the corresponding SPI EGs (SPI/EG) that contain chia oil. The proximate composition, technological properties (syneresis, pH, color and texture) and structural properties using Raman spectroscopy were determined for SPI/G and SPI/EG. No noticeable (p > 0.05) syneresis was observed in either sample. The pH values were similar (p > 0.05) for SPI/G and SPI/EG, but their texture and color differed significantly depending on the presence of chia oil. SPI/EG featured significantly lower redness and more lightness and yellowness and exhibited greater puncture and gel strengths than SPI/G. Raman spectroscopy revealed significant changes in the protein secondary structure, i.e., higher (p < 0.05) α-helix and lower (p < 0.05) β-sheet, turn and unordered structures, after the incorporation of chia oil to form the corresponding SPI/EG. Apparently, there is a correlation between these structural changes and the textural modifications observed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S351) ◽  
pp. 524-527
Author(s):  
Maria A. Tiongco ◽  
Enrico Vesperini ◽  
Anna Lisa Varri

AbstractWe present several results of the study of the evolution of globular clusters’ internal kinematics, as driven by two-body relaxation and the interplay between internal angular momentum and the external Galactic tidal field. Via a large suite of N-body simulations, we explored the three-dimensional velocity space of tidally perturbed clusters, by characterizing their degree of velocity dispersion anisotropy and their rotational properties. These studies have shown that a cluster’s kinematical properties contain distinct imprints of the cluster’s initial structural properties, dynamical history, and tidal environment. Building on this fundamental understanding, we then studied the dynamics of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters, with attention to the largely unexplored role of angular momentum.


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