Unaccusatives and unergatives: Evidence from Croatian

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Božana Knežević ◽  
Irena Brdar
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

Abstract We argue that the unaccusativity phenomenon occurs in Croatian, as in many other languages. We demonstrate that unaccusative predicates not only have to meet specific (morpho)syntactic diagnostic criteria, but also that semantic criteria are involved. We show that it is possible to characterize Croatian intransitive verbs as unaccusatives using the following diagnostics: 1. past participle derivation by suffixation of -l; 2. participial adjective formation; 3. -ač (-er) nominals; 4. prefixation by the preverbs po-, do- and u-; 5. the perfective aspect; 6. resultative constructions; and 7. the possessive dative. In order to demonstrate a number of relevant semantic diagnostics, three classes of verbs are isolated, defined in terms of their lexical semantic representation and their morphosyntactic configuration: verbs of change of state, verbs of appearance and verbs of inherently directed motion

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 On inchoative states. Evidence from modification of Polish perfective psych verbs by degree quantifiers

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Ewa Willim
Keyword(s):  
Event Structure ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Measure Function ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThe special properties that psych(ological) verbs manifest cross-linguistically have given rise to on-going debates in syntactic and semantic theorizing. Regarding their lexical aspect classification, while verbal psych predicates with the Experiencer argument mapped onto the subject (SE psych predicates) have generally been analyzed as stative, there is little agreement on what kinds of eventualities object Experiencer (OE) psych predicates describe. On the stative reading, OE psych predicates have been classified as atelic causative states. On the (non-agentive) eventive reading, they have been widely analyzed as telic change of state predicates and classified as achievements or as accomplishments. Based on Polish, Rozwadowska (2003, 2012) argues that nonagentive eventive OE psych predicates in the perfective aspect denote an onset of a state and that they are atelic rather than telic. This paper offers further support for the view that Polish perfective psych verbs do not denote a change of state, i.e., a transition from α to ¬α. The evidence is drawn from verbal comparison and the distribution of the comparative degree quantifier jeszcze bardziej ‘even more’ in perfective psych predicates. It is argued here that in contexts including jeszcze bardziej ‘even more’, the perfective predication denotes an onset of a state whose degree of intensity exceeds the comparative standard. While a degree quantifier attached to the VP in the syntax contributes a differential measure function that returns a (vague) value representing the degree to which the intensity of the Experiencer’s state exceeds the comparative standard in the event, it does not affect the event structure of the perfective verb and it does not provide the VP denotation it modifies with a final endpoint. As the perfective picks the onset of an upper open state, perfective psych predicates typically give rise to an atelic interpretation.

CHANGE- OF -STATE PREDICATES: THE ACQUISITION OF THE ENGLISH RESULTATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS BY SPANISH SPEAKERS

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Bautista-Maldonado ◽  
Yazmin del Carmen Perez-Nares ◽  
Zenaida Rodriguez-Cordova ◽  
Santa del Carmen Herrera-Sanchez ◽  
Marla Perez-Barriga
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Change Of State

The verbal system

2019 ◽  
pp. 176-231
Author(s):  
D. Gary Miller
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
System P ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Third Person ◽  
Weak Verbs

Verbs in Gothic are thematic, athematic, or preterite present. Several classes, including modals, are discussed. Strong verbs have seven classes, weak verbs four. Inflectional categories are first, second, and third person, singular, dual (except in the third person), and plural number. Tenses are nonpast and past/preterite. There are two inflected moods, indicative and optative, and two voices (active, passive). The passive is synthetic in the nonpast indicative and optative. The past system features two periphrastic passives, one stative-eventive with wisan (be), the other inchoative and change of state with wairþan (become). Middle functions are mostly represented by simple reflexive structures and -nan verbs. Nonfinite categories include one voice-underspecified infinitive, a nonpast and past participle, and a present active imperative. The third person imperative is normally expressed by an optative.

A Property Level Analysis of Lexical Semantic Representation in Alzheimer′s Disease

1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Smith ◽  
M. Faust ◽  
M. Beeman ◽  
L. Kennedy ◽  
D. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Level Analysis

Lexical semantic constraints on noun roots and noun borrowability

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 683-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kind ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Artifact Type

While nouns are thought to be more easily borrowed than verbs, this investigation demonstrates that there may be limitations on noun borrowing into certain languages. The case of Zuni is examined, in which conditions of contact similar to that of neighboring languages nevertheless result in a different treatment of the noun lexicon. The possibility of borrowing natural kind nouns into Zuni exists alongside a tendency against borrowing nouns of the artifact type. It is argued that the source of this tendency against artifact noun borrowing in Zuni is the grammatical complexity of the lexical semantic representation for these nouns: grammatical complexity in Zuni noun roots appears to be dispreferred. These findings belie the claim of Thomason and Kaufman (1988) that “any linguistic feature can be transferred to any other language” given an appropriate degree of contact.

scholarly journals Quantizing scalar change

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Robert Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Close Connection ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Change Of State

This paper provides a new analysis of N-BY-N adverbials that captures their previously unrecognized close connection to verbs of scalar change. After providing a series of arguments that N-BY-N modification requires the VP to provide a scalar interval it can measure, we use this as novel evidence that incremental theme verbs, as well as inherently directed motion and change of state verbs, must make reference to scales. The analysis thus supports a unified scalar account of verbs of variable telicity (e.g., Hay, Kennedy & Levin 1999; Kennedy & Levin 2008; Kennedy 2012). Finally, we show that our analysis avoids empirical problems for previous approaches to these adverbials in both English (Beck & von Stechow 2007; Brasoveanu & Henderson 2009) and Russian (Braginsky & Rothstein 2008).

scholarly journals A formação de construções resultativas no português brasileiro

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núbia Rech
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Small Clause ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Causative Alternation ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Motion Constructions ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Germanic Languages

This paper aims mainly at investigating if there is the formation of resultative constructions with simple adjective in Brazilian Portuguese, since researchers disagree on the existence of these constructions in Romance Languages. To start this discussion, first I make a distinction between resultative, depictive and circumstantial constructions. Then, I relate some of their main characteristics, testing how they appear in sentences written in Brazilian Portuguese. Afterwards, I propose an extension of Folli and Ramchand (2001)’s analysis on the Portuguese. These authors use a structure of verb phrase that consists of three different projections, each one consisting in a subpart of the event: Cause, Process and Result. My hypothesis about the Brazilian Portuguese is that the verbs of causative alternation – as they imply change of state – are the head of Result projection and have as their complement an adjective small clause (SC), whose predicate indicates the telic aspect of event, forming a resultative construction. Following this perspective of analysis, I study the possibility of formation of adjective resultatives with atelic and telic verbs that admit causative alternation. I also approach – although briefly – other types of constructions that express results, whose secondary predicates are, respectively, a complex adjective phrase, a PP or a DP. In this paper, only the constructions resulting from verbal actions are considered. Thus, goal of motion constructions – in which prepositions indicate the following of movement and its ending – and resultative constructions with causative verbs are not considered. The results show that there are not resultative constructions in the Brazilian Portuguese equivalent to those found in Germanic Languages, in which an atelic verb becomes a telic verb by adding a resultative secondary predicate to the sentence.

scholarly journals ASPEKTUALITAS DALAM NOVEL THE GREAT GATSBY OLEH F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Eka Susylowati
Keyword(s):  
Past Participle ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Progressive Aspect ◽  
Great Gatsby ◽  
The Great Gatsby

<p><em>This research aims to reveal the form and marker of aspectuality in The Great Gatsby novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The data in this study are written data in the form of words, clauses, and sentences in the novel The Great Gatsby. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald  consists of three forms of aspectuality namely perfective / completed, progressive, and repetitive / habitual. The aspect that is often used is perfective / completed aspiration. Aspectuality markers used including perfective aspect characterized by past verb or had + past participle verb, while progressive aspect are marked to be + verb ing, and repetitive / habitual are marked with past verb or infinitive forms.</em></p>

Delimiting durative events with manner

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu-Ren Huang ◽  
Siaw-Fong Chung
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Text ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Original Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Limited Availability ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Temporal Concepts ◽  
Generative Lexicon ◽  
Activity Verb

Abstract Durative events by default are atelic. However, temporal targets are typically required for durative verbs with a rushing manner, such as ‘We are catching the 3:30 flight’ and ‘The farmer rushed to harvest before the storm’. Why and how does manner introduce delimiting temporal concepts to durative verbs? This puzzle is addressed by our current study of two near-synonymous Mandarin durative verbs describing events carried out in a rushing manner: 赶 gǎn and 抢 qiǎng. Our event-base account will examine both their compositional meanings and their constructional patterns. We will show that 赶 gǎn and 抢 qiǎng not only coerce eventive readings from their nominal objects, but also require certain delineating temporal targets. The verb 赶 gǎn requires an understood deadline, while the verb 抢 qiǎng requires the presupposition of the limited availability of the object. As neither temporal targets mark the time of the actual activities, these are exceptional cases of aktionsart. We will show that the different ways to delineate event meanings of the constructions [gǎn/qiǎng+ noun] can be predicted from the lexical meaning of the two verbs and can in turn predict the event types represented by the object with the MARVS theory. Based on this lexical semantic representation, we further show that the Generative Lexicon theory predicts the coercions of the rushing meaning from the original activity verb senses, and that the Construction Grammar theory accounts for their sharing of the same syntactic configuration.

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