Putting the argument back into argument structure constructions

This paper shows that low-level generalisations in argument structure constructions are crucial to understanding the concept of alternation: low-level generalisations inform and constrain more schematic generalisations and thus constructional meaning. On the basis of an analysis of the causative alternation in English, and more specifically of the theme (i.e., the entity undergoing the event denoted by the verb), I show that each construction has its own schematic meaning. This analysis is conducted on a dataset composed of 11,554 instances of the intransitive non-causative construction and the transitive causative construction. The identification of lower-level generalisations feeds into the idea that language acquisition is organic and abstractions are formed only gradually (if at all) from exposure to input. So far, most of the literature on argument structure constructions has focused on the verb itself, and thus fails to capture these generalisations. I make up for this deficit through an in-depth analysis of the causative alternation.

On the Explanatory Power of the Hypothesis of Semantic Determination to Causative Alternation

According to the hypothesis of semantic determination, meaning is a key to verb behavior; verb fall into classes on the basis of shared components of meaning, and members in the same semantic class may share patterns of behavior. This paper aims to verify the validity of component analysis in predicting syntactic behavior. It first makes a brief introduction to causative alternation, then compares the meaning components and usage of three verbs, i.e., break, cut and bake. Finally, two contradictions are found in the alternation analysis of these verbs. Therefore, the component analysis cannot completely predict their alternation type. Consequently, the explanatory power of this hypothesis is very limited as far as causative alternation is concerned.

Stativity in the Causative Alternation? New Questions and a New Variant

This paper discusses whether capacity to license an internal argument and eventivity are default properties of so-called change-of-state verbs.I draw attention to the claim that, in certain languages, the causative-inchoative alternation extends to a third, external-argument-only variant with stative behavior. Productivity and systematicity raise a host of problems for current generalizations on the Causative Alternation and change-of-state verbs for various reasons, starting from the long-held claim that unique arguments of change-of-state verbs are by default internal. Insofar as the causative component is independently realized in a noneventive, nonepisodic frame, this variant challenges (a) a widely agreed rule of event composition, whereby cause, if present, causally implicates process; (b) the claim that cause(r) interpretation of the external argument is a byproduct of transitivization. The present discussion: (a) brings out a crosslanguage contrast bearing on default (cause/undergoer) interpretation of unique arguments in equipollent alternations; (b) provides new empirical data supporting the stativity of the (causative) outer v head; (c) substantiates important predictions in the literature (e.g. that verbs of causation should have stative readings; that external-argument-only variants of Object-Experiencer verbs should be found); (d) captures further verb classes allowing the alternation; and (e) shows crucial contrasts with other transitive-(in/a)transitive alternations involving null/arb objects. Aspect and determination of different (a)atransitivity alternations are central throughout.

Morphology and Argument Alternations

Theories of argument realization typically associate verbs with an argument structure and provide algorithms for the mapping of argument structure to morphosyntactic realization. A major challenge to such theories comes from the fact that most verbs have more than one option for argument realization. Sometimes a particular range of realization options for a verb is systematic in that it is consistently available to a relatively well-defined class of verbs; it is then considered to be one of a set of recognized argument alternations. Often—but not always—these argument alternations are associated morphological marking. An examination of cross-linguistic patterns of morphology associated with the causative alternation and the dative alternation reveals that the alternation is not directly encoded in the morphology. For both alternations, understanding the morphological patterns requires an understanding of the interaction between the semantics of the verb and the construction the verb is integrated into. Strikingly, similar interactions between the verb and the construction are found in languages that do not mark the alternations morphologically, and the patterns of morphological marking in morphologically rich languages can shed light on the appropriate analysis of the alternations in languages that do not mark the alternations morphologically.

The Unaccusative-Unergative Dichotomy of Predicates. Is There an Unaccusative Mismatch in English?

The paper addresses the issue of the unaccusative-unergative dichotomy of predicates, providing a special analysis of the class status of the verb “to die” in English. First, the article opens with a view of unaccusativity in the light of the Lexicon-Syntax Interface. Further, the verb “to die” is tested against the six syntactic unaccusativity diagnostics valid for English. The results obtain reveal the fact that the first three diagnostics (auxiliary selection, causative alternation and resultative constructions) do not work for the verb “to die”, while the last three diagnostics (adjectival participle, there-insertion, locative inversion) appear to have been satisfied. This would lead us to a conclusion that the verb “to die” should be considered as a real example of an Unaccusative Mismatch (Levin, 1986).

Event Structure and Syntax

This chapter examines the syntactic decompositional view of event structure. On this view, the event is composed of distinct syntactic heads that correspond to its meaning ingredients. The chapter critically reviews the various arguments presented in the literature for a decompositional analysis of pairs of verbs that differ roughly in that one of them has one more argument than the other. It focuses on the inchoative alternation, comparing it to the Japanese and Hungarian causative alternations. The chapter shows that these alternations differ from one another in important respects, and only the Japanese causative alternation deserves a syntactic decompositional treatment. The chapter thus contributes a critical evaluation of the scope and limitations of syntactic representations of lexical decomposition.

The probability of external causation: An empirical account of crosslinguistic variation in lexical causatives

This corpus-driven computational study addresses the question of why some verbs in some languages participate in the causative alternation while their counterparts in other languages do not. The results of this study suggest that the lexical property that underlies this variation is the probability of external causation. Alternating verbs are distributed on a scale of increasing probability for an external causer to occur. The probability of external causation can be empirically assessed in two ways, among others: first, by observing the typological distribution of causative and anticausative morphological markings across a wide range of languages; second, through the frequency distribution of causative and anticausative uses of the alternating verbs in a corpus of a single language. Our study reveals that these two measures are correlated. Moreover, we demonstrate that the corpus-based measure is applicable to a wide range of verbs. Extending the corpus-based investigation comparatively across two languages, English and German, we find that the frequencies of crosslinguistic realizations of lexical causatives are modulated by the probability of external causation, an underlying parameter assigned to verb types. Finally, we propose a probabilistic graphical model that clusters verbs based on the relation between the crosslinguistic distribution of their causative and anticausative realizations and the probability of external causation.