Event Semantics of Verb Frame Alternations

Event Semantics of Verb Frame Alternations PDF Author: Angeliek Van Hout
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135670749
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Book Description
Using both theoretical and language acquisition arguments, this study proposes a new model of the lexicon-syntax interface defined in terms of checking event-semantic features. The research is based on Dutch verbs and their possible verb frames (intransitive, transitive, etc.) and two studies of children's Dutch. The model developed from these cases represents more generally the way in which Universal Grammar organizes the lexicon of a language and the mapping system that associates a verb's lexical features with its syntactic projection.

In Name Only

In Name Only PDF Author: Hagit Borer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199263906
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
'Structuring Sense' explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate that the explanation of linguistic competence should be shifted from lexical entry to syntactic structure, from memory of words to manipulation of rules.

The Normal Course of Events

The Normal Course of Events PDF Author: Hagit Borer
Publisher: Oxford Linguistics
ISBN: 9780199263912
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
'Structuring Sense' explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate that the explanation of linguistic competence should be shifted from lexical entry to syntactic structure, from memory of words to manipulation of rules--Résumé de l'éditeur.

Structuring Sense: Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events

Structuring Sense: Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events PDF Author: Hagit Borer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191532568
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
Structuring Sense explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate over three volumes, of which this is the second, that the explanation of linguistic competence should be shifted from lexical entry to syntactic structure, from memory of words to manipulation of rules. Its reformulation of how grammar and lexicon interact has profound implications for linguistic, philosophical, and psychological theories about human mind and language. Hagit Borer departs from both language specific constructional approaches and lexicalist approaches to argue that universal hierarchical structures determine interpretation, and that language variation emerges from the morphological and phonological properties of inflectional material. The Normal Course of Events applies this radical approach to event structure. Integrating research results in syntax, semantics, and morphology, the author shows that argument structure is based on the syntactic realization of semantic event units. The topics she addresses include the structure of internal arguments and of telic and atelic interpretations, accusative and partitive case, perfective and imperfective marking, the unaccusative-unergative distinction, existential interpretation and post-verbal subjects, and resultative constructions. The languages discussed include English, Catalan, Finnish, Hebrew, Czech, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

The End of Argument Structure?

The End of Argument Structure? PDF Author: Maria Cristina Cuervo
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1780523769
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Book Description
Includes papers that explore the issues and re-assess generally accepted premises on the relationship between lexical meaning and the morphosyntax of sentences by confronting two competing approaches to this issue.

Concepts, Syntax, and Their Interface

Concepts, Syntax, and Their Interface PDF Author: Tanya Reinhart
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026233318X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
A systematic exposition of Reinhart's Theta System, with extensive annotations and essays that capture subsequent developments. One of Tanya Reinhart's major contributions to linguistic theory is the development of the Theta System (TS), a theory of the interface between the system of concepts and the linguistic computational system. Reinhart introduced her theory in a seminal paper, “The Theta System: Syntactic Realization of Verbal Concepts” (2000) and subsequently published other papers with further theoretical development. Although Reinhart continued to work on the Theta System, she had not completed a planned Linguistic Inquiry volume on the topic before her untimely death in 2007. This book, then, is the first to offer a systematic exposition of Reinhart's Theta System. The core of the book is Reinhart's 2000 paper, accompanied by substantial endnotes with clarifications, summaries, and links to subsequent modifications of the theory, some in Reinhart's unpublished work. An appendix by Marijana Marelj discusses the domain of Case, based on an LSA course she taught with Reinhart in 2005. Two additional essays by Reinhart's linguistic colleagues discuss the division of labor between the lexicon and syntax and the apparent conflict between the Theta System and Distributed Morphology.

The Structure of Stative Verbs

The Structure of Stative Verbs PDF Author: Antonia Rothmayr
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027289468
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Book Description
This book explores the nature of stative verbs, their eventuality structure, and the patterns of argument realization. The study shows that there is no single class of stative verbs. Rather, several distinct groups of verbs are found: Verbs that undergo a systematic stative/eventive ambiguity; verbs that allow for a stative reading only; and verbs that seem to have an intermediate status (verbs of position and verbs of internal causation). The study concludes that there is a discrete boundary between stative and eventive verbs, excluding any intermediate status. Stativity arises because the aspectual operators DO and BECOME are absent in the lexical-semantic structure. Eventivity arises if one of these is present. A minimalist view on argument realization and event structure completes the book: Theta features on the arguments are checked against the aspectual heads within the verb phrase.

On the Compositional Nature of States

On the Compositional Nature of States PDF Author: E. Matthew Husband
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027255717
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 187

Book Description
This monograph pursues a structural analogy between the availability of an existential interpretation in states and the telicity of events. Focusing on evidence from both verbal and adjectival predicates, it argues that quantization forms the basis of a unified theory of aktionsart and provides a theory in which the availability of an existential interpretation in states is, like the telicity of events, determined compositionally by the predicate and the quantization of its internal argument. Quantization is further argued to reflect the internal temporal constitution of the stages of an individual which is tied to the generation of an existential interpretation. This monograph will be of interest to syntacticians and semanticists who are specifically concerned with compositional approaches to eventualities, and to those who have a more general interest in the role linguistic theory can play in determining core properties of the mind.

Enriched Composition and Inference in the Argument Structure of Chinese

Enriched Composition and Inference in the Argument Structure of Chinese PDF Author: Ren Zhang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135876428
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Book Description
As with many other languages, Mandarin Chinese exhibits a rich variety of ways in expressing the arguments of the predicator in a sentence. Unlike other languages, such variation is typically devoid of any formal marking. Previous attempts in explaining such phenomena usually focus on the syntax as an explanatory tool. This book argues that a large majority of such argument structure phenomena are better accounted for by recourse to enriched representations in lexical semantics. Drawing insights from conceptual semantics, cognitive semantics, Generative Lexicon, construction grammar and formal syntax, this book constitutes the first attempt at a comprehensive account of lexical semantic issues in Mandarin Chinese.

Aspectual Inquiries

Aspectual Inquiries PDF Author: Paula Kempchinsky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402030339
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Book Description
The study of the linguistic reflexes of aspect has been an active field of research in various sub-disciplines of linguistics, such as syntax, semantics (including discourse theory) and acquisition studies. However, communication and dissemination of results across these various subfields has often been indirect. The different angles brought together give us a comprehensive picture of the representation of aspect in the mind/brain of the speaker. The papers in this volume represent the results of a workshop on the syntax, semantics and acquisition of aspect held in 2002 whose purpose was to foment active cross-disciplinary communication. A number of the papers examine the syntactic representation of lexical or situation aspect, while others focus on the syntactic interaction of lexical aspect with grammatical aspect, and of grammatical aspect and tense. Other papers examine the role of aspect in discourse representations, while a third group of papers reports on results of empirical studies on the acquisition of aspect in both first and second language acquisition, and patterns of loss of morphosyntactic reflexes of aspect in language attrition.