Satellite-framed Latin vs. verb-framed Romance: A syntactic approach

Probus ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Acedo-Matellán ◽  
Jaume Mateu
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Structure And Morphology ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Locative Alternation ◽  
Syntactic Approach ◽  
Motion Constructions ◽  
The One

Abstract In this paper we are interested in the relation between two facts accompanying the diachronic change from Latin to Romance within the domain of the morphological and argument-structural properties of the predicates expressing change. On the one hand, the element encoding the transition itself, which we call the Path, and the verb are realised as two distinct morphemes in Latin, but as one and the same morpheme in the daughter languages: in Talmy's (2000) terms, the former is a satellite-framed language and the latter are verb-framed languages. On the other hand, there is a whole range of argument-structural patterns which are found in Latin but not in Romance: unselected object contructions, complex directed motion constructions, productive locative alternation, etc. We show, within a syntactic view of argument structure and morphology, that both facts are intimately related. Furthermore, we provide data from Old Catalan showing an intermediate stage between the Latin satellite-framed system and the Romance verb-framed system.

Argument Structure and Morphology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Wood ◽  
Neil Myler
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Proper Treatment ◽  
Structure And Morphology ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The One ◽  
Theoretical Issues

The topic “argument structure and morphology” refers to the interaction between the number and nature of the arguments taken by a given predicate on the one hand, and the morphological makeup of that predicate on the other. This domain turns out to be crucial to the study of a number of theoretical issues, including the nature of thematic representations, the proper treatment of irregularity (both morphophonological and morphosemantic), and the very place of morphology in the architecture of the grammar. A recurring question within all existing theoretical approaches is whether word formation should be conceived of as split across two “places” in the grammar, or as taking place in only one.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuhui Hu
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Applicative Constructions ◽  
The One ◽  
Chinese And English

This chapter summarizes the major points developed throughout the book. The theoretical points of the syntax of events proposed in Chapter 2 are listed. The conclusions on the syntax of English and Chinese resultatives, applicative constructions in various languages, and Chinese non-canonical object and motion event constructions are presented, together with the implications for the verb/satellite-framed typology. The explanation of diachronic change and cross-linguistic variation is summarized, including both the historical development of Chinese resultatives, the variation of resultatives between Chinese and English on the one hand, and English and Romance on the other hand. The Synchronic Grammaticalisation Hypothesis is also summarized.

The Great Complement Shift and the role of understood subjects: The case of fearful

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Gentens ◽  
Juhani Rudanko
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Explanatory Factors ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Control Patterns ◽  
The One

Abstract This article reports on a corpus-based study of diachronic change and constructional competition in the system of English complementation, with a focus on variation in non-finite complements of the adjective fearful. Fearful occurs with prepositional (of -ing) subject-controlled gerunds and with to-infinitives, which can further be distinguished into subject extraposition, subject control, and tough-constructions. Recent decades show a drastic decline of the to-infinitival patterns, concomitant to the loss of one of the senses of fearful. We examine the diachronic distribution and competition of the two construction pairs that show functional overlap, i.e. tough-constructions and extraposition constructions on the one hand, and infinitival and gerundial subject-control patterns on the other. This allows us to show the import of the ‘Great Complement Shift’ in the face of constructional attrition and to investigate new principles motivating the choice for either the to-infinitival or the gerundial subject-control construction. More specifically, the study provides further evidence for the ‘Choice Principle’, which involves the (lack of) agentivity of the understood subject in the event described by the lower clause. In this way, the study adds new explanatory factors and descriptive insights to our knowledge of the broader diachronic change known as the Great Complement Shift.

scholarly journals A semantic typology of location, existence, possession and copular verbs: areal patterns of polysemy in Mainland East and Southeast Asia

Linguistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Chappell ◽  
Shanshan Lü
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Type I ◽  
Type Ii ◽  
Type Iii ◽  
Type Iv ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
The One ◽  
Semantic Typology

Abstract This study is based on a sample of 116 languages from the Mainland East and Southeast Asian linguistic area. Its first objective is to examine four distinct synchronic patterns of areal polysemy, created by the semantic domains of copular, locative, existential and possessive verbs and the constructions they form. As a consequence, its second objective is to model the diachronic change underlying four language types identified on this basis from the data. We argue that there are three grammaticalization pathways which motivate the four synchronic patterns: Type III languages are distinguished by the grammaticalization chain: (Postural verb) > (Dwell) > Locative > Existential > Possessive, while the other two types, Type II and Type IV, show an opposing pathway: (Grasp) > Possessive > Existential. Type I and Type II languages additionally reveal a recurrent polysemy between Locative and Copular verbs. On this basis, an implicational universal is adduced to the effect that no diachronic adjacency exists between locative and possessive constructions. Crucially, the intervening stage of an existential construction provides the necessary bridging context for possessive reanalysis in this first pathway, while possessive verbs are formally distinct from locatives in the second, bearing no diachronic relationship to them. The findings on the patterns of polysemy sharing reinforce the notion of a clear typological split between Tibeto-Burman languages on the one hand, and Sinitic, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and Austroasiatic on the other.

scholarly journals The Manner Result Complementarity and the Lexicalization Pattern of Chinese Motion Verbs

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1598
Author(s):  
Lei Qiu
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Complementarity Hypothesis ◽  
The One ◽  
Basic Motion

Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998, 2010) propose manner/result complementarity hypothesis (MRC), i.e. verbs can not lexicalize manner and result simultaneously at a time. As to the encoding of motion events, Levin et al. (2009) also claim that manner of motion verbs across languages simply lexicalize manner and no direction is entailed. However, three basic motion verbs in Chinese--zǒu ‘walk’, pǎo ‘run’ and fēi ‘fly’, which are regarded as prototypical manner of motion verbs but also seem to lexicalize directed motion when used in some constructions. Then questions arise: do these verbs lexicalize direction of motion and are they counterexamples of the MRC? Based on evidence gained from a series of linguistic tests, this study argues that on the one hand different from views of Levin et al. (2009), the three manner of motion verbs can indeed lexicalize directed motion, but on the other hand they never encode the manner and direction of motion simultaneously and thus they are not counterexamples of the MRC. The fact that manner of motion verbs exhibiting similar lexicalization pattern can also be found in other languages indicates that the prototypical manner encoded in these verbs may be the conceptual condition for the special lexicalization pattern.

Syntactic Identity in Sluicing: How Much and Why

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Chung
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Implicit Argument ◽  
Syntactic Identity ◽  
Abstract Case ◽  
The One ◽  
Semantic Identity ◽  
New Evidence

Research on sluicing has not yet reached consensus on whether the identity condition on this ellipsis construction is syntactic or semantic. Evidence from Chamorro and English is presented that over and above semantic identity, sluicing requires limited syntactic identity. The limited syntactic identity condition involves argument structure on the one hand and abstract Case on the other. This approach is shown to account for a range of novel and familiar sluicing patterns in the two languages. It also provides new evidence for the idea that the Chamorro antipassive is an implicit argument construction.

scholarly journals Tipos de MDO en los verbos psicológicos del español

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Bárbara Marqueta Gracia
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Semantic Value ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The One

<p>RESUMEN. En el presente artículo se pretende argumentar la necesidad de establecer una distinción entre diferentes instancias de Marcado Diferencial de Objeto (MDO) en los verbos psicológicos de sujeto experimentante en español. En algunos casos, la aparición de <em>a </em>es obligatoria independientemente de la estructura argumental del verbo implicado, y está vinculada a la presencia en la configuración de rasgos deícticos de persona. Dichos rasgos son inducidos tanto por la presencia de clíticos de dativo como de objetos que mantienen relaciones locativas y/o partitivas.</p><p>En otros casos, la distribución del MDO es opcional y sensible a la estructura argumental del verbo, alternando con la rección directa -sin preposición-. Esta distribución supone la proyección de un rasgo conceptual de causa, identificado en la posición de objeto/causa de la experiencia psicológica por parte de la preposición <em>a</em>.</p><p>ABSTRACT.  In this paper, we present empirical evidence showing that a different kind of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish “Psych” experiencer verbs can be distinguished. On the one hand, we found obligatory contexts of marking (regardless of the argument structure of the verb and the animacy/specifity of the object). These are connected with the presence of deictic person features, triggered by dative clitics or objects which bear a locative/partitive relationship.   </p><p>On the other hand, we can found optional marking, determined by the experiencer-subject/causer-object´s structure, which will be related to a default semantic value of causer in the object projection identified by the preposition. </p>

Nonpassive Verbal Periphrases in the Romance Languages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Laca
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Semantic Classification ◽  
The Status ◽  
Viewpoint Aspect ◽  
Relative Tense ◽  
The One ◽  
Nonfinite Clauses

Verbal periphrases combine two verbal forms that share their arguments. One of the forms, [V2], lexically determines most of the argument structure of the whole construction, whereas the other, [V1], contributes the sort of abstract meaning usually associated with functional categories in the realms of tense, aspect, and modality and is often classified as a (semi-)auxiliary. In most cases, [V2] appears in a fixed nonfinite form (infinitive, gerund, or participle), whereas the inflection on [V1] is variable; the periphrastic pattern may also include a preposition introducing the nonfinite form. Research on verbal periphrases has concentrated on the differences between periphrastic patterns and free patterns of complementation or adjunction involving nonfinite clauses, on the syntactic analysis of those patterns, and on their semantic classification. The renewed interest in the field in recent years has two sources. On the one hand, research on grammaticalization has emphasized the importance of periphrases for our understanding of the way in which exponents for grammatical meanings emerge diachronically from lexical constructions. On the other hand, work in generative syntax (in the so-called cartographic approach) has taken periphrases as evidence for the postulated existence of highly articulated functional layers above a core verb phrase headed by a lexical verb. The bulk of nonpassive verbal periphrases either modify Aktionsart or express viewpoint aspect or relative tense. Research has revealed considerable differences in their inventory and in the status of cognate periphrases across Romance, as well as some parallel or convergent developments.

Motion Verbs with Locational/Directional PPs in English and Japanese

2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 187-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunji Inagaki
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Relational Structure ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Syntactic Approach ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
The Difference

AbstractAccording to Talmy’s typology of “lexicalization patterns” for a motion event, English is the type of language that conflates Motion and Manner in the verb root, whereas Japanese is the type of language that conflates Motion and Path in the verb root. This article provides an explanation for why there is such a difference between English and Japanese within the framework of Hale and Keyser’s syntactic approach to argument structure. It extends Hale and Keyser’s approach to motion verbs and locational/directional Ps in English and Japanese and shows that given a “Lexical Relational Structure” of a motion event, the difference between English and Japanese derives from the fact that the former has a variety of directional Ps, allowing the insertion of a manner-of-motion verb into the Motion V, whereas the latter has a variety of directed motion verbs with the Path P incorporated into the Motion V. This suggests that Talmy’s lexicalization patterns are constrained by general syntactic principles.

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