scholarly journals Te lo tengo dicho muchas veces. Resultatives between coercion, relevance and reanalysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-279
Author(s):  
Ulrich Detges
Keyword(s):  
Past Participle ◽  
Repair Mechanism ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Conceptual Semantic ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Semantic Plausibility ◽  
Special Meaning

Abstract This paper deals with the question of how and why resultative constructions change into anteriors. This discussion will be based on synchronic data concerning tener + past participle, a resultative construction used in modern Spanish. One of the latter's most frequent is te lo tengo dicho 'I have (already) told you'. This is remarkable since decir 'to tell' is a non-transitional verb; te lo tengo dicho thus violates the requirement that resultatives should only combine with transitional verbs. In the literature, such mismatches between the semantics of a given construction and the meaning of its lexical filler have been claimed to normally trigger coercion, i.e. an inferential repair mechanism giving rise to special meaning effects. Thus, coercion - despite being conceived as a purely synchronic mechanism - is a prime candidate for an explanation of the change from resultative to anterior. In line with this hypothesis, occurrences of te lo tengo dicho are attested in my corpus where the latter is specified by quantifying adverbials such as muchas veces 'many times'. However, speaker judgements indiacte that even te lo tengo dicho muchas veces is not an iterative anterior construction, but still a resultative. Based on synchronic data taken from the CREA-corpus, it will be shown that in the vast majority of its occurrences, te lo tengo dicho is part of an dialogal discourse pattern where certain argumentative effects based on its resultative meaning are highly relevant. Crucially, therefore, in such "strong" uses a coercive shift towards an anterior meaning is excluded. On a more abstract level, it will be shown that coercion is controlled by pragmatic factors; in the case of te lo tengo dicho muchas veces, conceptual/semantic plausibility is systematically overridden by pragmatic relevance.

scholarly journals Basque Resultatives and Related Issues

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Marc Bavant
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Similar Series ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
The Voice ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACT Marc Bavant. Basque Resultatives and Related Issues. Lingua Posnaniensis, vol. LIV (2)/2012. The Poznań Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences. PL ISSN 0079-4740, ISBN 978-83-7654-252-2, pp. 7-22. Basque has an impressive number of resultative constructions for transitive verbs, not to mention dialectal variants. The purpose of this paper is to classify them according to Nedjalkov’s typology and compare Basque resultatives with similar periphrastic constructions in Classical Armenian. On the way, we meet the questions of Basque diatheses, of voice ambiguity of past participles, and of the affinity between possession and resultativity. The paper is based on material available in the literature and discussions with a native speaker or a specialist of the field. It appears that only “mediopassive”, a detransitivizing transformation, can be considered a diathesis, whereas the so-called “passive” and “antipassive” are respectively an objective and a subjective resultative. Also LAFITTE’S so-called “parfait” (1979) is a resultative, possessive in form and rather subjective in meaning. Classical Armenian displays a strikingly similar series of resultatives and the same kind of voice ambiguity for its past participle. It is hypothesized that the voice ambiguity may be related to the existence of a possessive resultative construction.

scholarly journals A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 517-546
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bigolin ◽  
Josep Ausensi
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Constructivist View ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Recent Claim

Abstract We respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g. Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte ‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PP to death. This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanish hasta la muerte and English to death constructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the English to death PP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the Spanish hasta PP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction with hasta la muerte fully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

Implicit Arguments in Japanese Potentials and Resultatives

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-440
Author(s):  
Wako Tawa ◽  
Mineharu Nakayama
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Implicit Arguments ◽  
Resultative Construction

AbstractMany, if not all, languages possess syntactic constructions in which covert arguments, often referred to as “implicit arguments”, are required. While the implicit arguments in Western languages have received considerable attention, the study of the same topic in non-Western languages such as Japanese has been neglected. In this article, the nature of the implicit arguments of the potential and resultative constructions in Japanese is investigated. A detailed examination reveals that the implicit AGENTs in these two constructions differ in terms of the specificity of their reference, which in turn suggests that the representations of the two types of implicit arguments reflect this difference. It is argued that the implicit AGENT of the potential construction should be analyzed as proarb while that of the resultative construction is realized as pro.

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 The Lithuanian Have-Resultative – A Typological Curiosum?

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Wiemer
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACT Björn Wiemer. The Lithuanian HAVE-resultative - A Typological Curiosum? Lingua Posnaniensis, vol. LIV (2)/2012. The Poznań Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences. PL ISSN 0079-4740, ISBN 978-83-7654-252-2, pp. 69-81. This article presents the Lithuanian possessive resultative construction with the verb turėti ‘have’ and discusses its place in a typology of forms of resultative constructions. While possessive resultatives with a past passive participle (as in Polish Kolację mamy już przygotowaną lit. ‘We have the dinner already prepared’) are found in areally related as well as other languages, Lithuanian stands out in using an active participle (more precisely: a participle always oriented toward the highest-ranking argument). The construction can be regarded as a rarum. However, it most probably did not develop in the way proposed by HARRIS (2010) as explanation for the emergence of rara. The rarity of the Lithuanian construction calls for an in-depth diachronic study, whose results may shed new light on the development of rare linguistic features.

scholarly journals Marked Causative Structures of Chinese Verb-Resultative Construction

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxia Pan ◽  
Limin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Complement 3 ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Causative Relation ◽  
Causative Structure ◽  
Resultative Complement

This paper aims to study the syntactic and semantic features of ‘marked VRC causative structures’, those special syntactic-semantic structures formed by verb-resultative constructions (VRCs) which violate both the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis and the Thematic Hierarchy. Their syntactic and semantic features are defined as follows: 1) VRC has a causative relation within itself; 2) the argument in the object position is the causee and the only argument of the resultative complement; 3) the causer in the subject position is any conceptual component from the cause event other than the agent of the predicate verb. This paper then attempts to propose an extended account to expound how they are formed syntactically and semantically. On this account, a marked VRC causative structure is re-causativization of a VRC when the VRC is self-causative; it enables other conceptual components of the cause event than the agent to become the causer when a VRC is not self-causative. There are some constraints on what becomes the causer of a marked VRC causative structure.

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

Causativity reduction in Singaporean English

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Ziegeler ◽  
Sarah Lee
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Active Voice ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Causative Construction

A common feature of Singaporean English, and found to a lesser extent in British and US English, is the “conventionalised scenario” (Goldberg 1995); i.e. a causative construction in which an intermediate causee is neither expressed nor necessarily recoverable from context and common ground, e.g. You cut your hair, in which the action is normally attributed to another, unexpressed participant. The present study provides written data on the use of conventionalised scenarios in Singapore English and explains their link with competing resultative constructions (e.g. You had/got your hair cut) in terms of an ACTION FOR RESULT grammatical metonymy. In this metonymy, the passival resultative construction is substituted with an active‑voice construction and the causer now stands for both the causer and causee together. Contact features in the Singaporean dialect, relating particularly to local Chinese languages and/or Malay, may influence the distributional extent of conventionalised scenarios, as may the overgeneralisation of the semantic constraints on its usage.

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bigolin ◽  
Josep Ausensi
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Constructivist View ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Recent Claim

Abstract We respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g. Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte ‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PP to death. This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanish hasta la muerte and English to death constructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the English to death PP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the Spanish hasta PP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction with hasta la muerte fully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

scholarly journals structures of depictive and resultative constructions in Chinese

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 191-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niina Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Locality Constraint ◽  
Specific Reading ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
The Right ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Occurrence Patterns ◽  
Secondary Predication

In this paper I firstly argue that secondary predicates are complement of v, and v is overtly realized by Merge or Move in secondary predication in Chinese. The former option derives the de-construction, whereas the latter option derives the V-V construction. Secondly, I argue that resultatives are hosted by complement vPs, whereas depictives are hosted by adjunct vPs. This complement-adjunct asymmetry accounts for a series of syntactic properties of secondary predication in Chinese: the position of a secondary predicate with respect to the verb of the primary predicate, the co-occurrence patterns of secondary predicates, the hierarchy of depictives, the control and ECM properties of resultative constructions, and the locality constraint on the integration of secondary predicates into the structure of primary predication. Thirdly, I argue that the surface position of de is derived by a PF operation which attaches de to the right of the leftmost verbal lexical head of the construction. Finally, I argue that in the V-V resultative construction, the assumed successive head-raising may account for the possible subject-oriented reading of the resultative predicate, and that the head raising out of the lower vP accounts for the possible non-specific reading of the subject of the resultative predicate.  

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