Unaccusativity at the syntax-lexical semantics interface pdf file

It was an absolute disgrace that, in gb and in minimalist circles, some were now using the term ergativity to refer to what relational grammarians such as david perlmutter had been call ing unaccusativity. Standing at the intersection between syntax, lexical and clausal semantics and morphology, it has been the subject of intense research since the late 1970s and has played a role in several. Meaning, metaphor, and argument structure journal of. The unaccusative hypothesis, first formulated in 1978, claimed that there are two classes of intransitive verbs. Semantically bend verbs are divided into verbs denoting the bending of body parts, e. Structured argument structure, and the distinction between the primary and the secondary unaccusativity in hpsg byongrae ryu dept. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure oxford studies in theoretical. Dec 01, 2014 read how verbs and nonverbal categories navigate the syntaxsemantics interface. Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development.

Lexical analysis syntax analysis scanner parser syntax. Welcome to econtent platform of john benjamins publishing company. This paper discusses the absence of the causative alternation with psych predicates in english from a comparative perspective. The unaccusativity puzzle explorations of the syntaxlexicon interface. A view to the middle several recent theories of causativeinchoativealternations have proposed an anticausativize analysis wherein inchoatives are derived from their corresponding causatives via some operation that eliminates the causer argument from a verbs argument structure, provided the causer is semanti. Lexical semantics 4 free download as powerpoint presentation. Lexical analysis scanner syntax analysis parser characters tokens abstract syntax tree.

Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure malka. Zalerts allow you to be notified by email about the availability of new books according to your search query. The relationship between verbs and their arguments is a widely debated topic in linguistics. Besides providing extensive support for david perlmutters hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, this monograph contributes significantly to the development of a theory of lexical. Pdf a semantic and syntactic analysis of break and bend. At the syntaxlexical semantics interface linguistic inquiry monographs beth levin on. This is a simple illustration of how issues of interface arise and why they are so important. As i proceed with this work, i am going to explain concrete theoretic devices i will introduce for the purpose of investigating the syntax semantics interface where aspectual composition takes place. Since wasow, the differences between adjectival and verbal passives in english have been taken to motivate a division between lexical and syntactic wordformation processes. At the syntaxlexical semantics interface beth levin and malka rappaport hovav 1994 besides providing extensive support for david perlmutters hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, this monograph contributes significantly to the development of a theory of lexical semantic representation and to.

Bonsall professor in the humanities at stanford university. The existence of two classes of intransitive verbs which differ from one another on any grounds cf. Hehassince taught at the university of massachusetts and at princeton university. Since transitive verbs necessarily have objects, a challenge for theories of transitivity is how to deal with the justmentioned problems involving the semantic correlates of objecthood. Argument realization research surveys in linguistics.

Concentrating on the lexical semantics of a verb and the. Insights from cognitive neuropsychology, cognition on deepdyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. It was an absolute disgrace that, in gb and in minimalist circles, some were now using the term ergativity to refer to what relational grammarians such as david perlmutter had been call ing unaccusativity, and that, subsequently. Prolegomenon to a theory of argument structure linguistic. Reviewed by edwin williams, princeton university the most ambitious goal of work of this kind would be a linguistic theory in which different verb argument deployments would be fully predictable from. Introduction lexical and syntax analysis are the first two phases of compilation as shown below. Do sentences with unaccusative verbs involve syntactic. Besides providing extensive support for david perlmutters hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, this monograph contributes significantly to the development of a theory of lexical semantic representation and to the elucidation of the mapping from lexical semantics to syntax. Edwin williams received his phdinlinguisticsatmit in1974. Idiom storage and the lexicon 1 journal of linguistics.

The subject of this study is break and bend verbs in isizulu, which can be classified as verbs of change of state. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. While all languages can achieve the same basic communicative ends, they each use different means to achieve them, partic. Chapter 1 in unaccusativity at the syntaxlexical semantics interface. Our study is, thus, based on the following hypothesis. Auxiliary selection and the semantics of unaccusativity. Unaccusativity, semantic alignment and the lexiconmorphosyntax interface. Coreference processing and levels of analysis in objectrelative constructions. In other words, it does not actively initiate, or is not actively responsible for, the action of the verb. At the syntaxlexical semantics interface by beth levin and malka rappaport hovav besides providing extensive support for david perlmutters hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, this monograph contributes significantly to the development of a theory of lexical semantic representation and to the elucidation of the mapping from lexical semantics to syntax.

The interface hypothesis ih was put forward by sorace and colleagues as an attempt to account for patterns of nonconvergence and residual optionality found at very advanced stages of adult second l2acquisition. Extraction out of adjectival secondary predicates in english. This comprehensive survey provides an overview of this important research area, exploring theories of how a verbs semantics can determine the morphosyntactic realization of its arguments. The relation between the meaning and the syntax of lexical items is among the more frustrating issues in linguistics. Argument realization research surveys in linguistics beth. Levin, beth and rappaport hovav, malka, unaccusativity. It will also appeal to researchers in philosophy, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition interested in the syntax and semantics of adjectives and adverbs. Here you can find all of our electronic books and journals, for purchase and download or subscriber access. Surprisingly nothing is said about how this interface might work before a sentence is generated if we want to. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read.

Her research investigates the lexical semantics of verbs, particularly the representation of events and the kind of morphosyntactic devices that english and other languages use to express events and their participants. Available formats pdf please select a format to send. According to the dual coding theory, differences in the ease of retrieval between concrete and abstract words are related to the exclusive dependence of abstract semantics on linguistic information. Mcgilvry 2, 214 so we can say that the lexical items are clearly bolstering the argument to form sentences with the help of semantic and syntax interface. How well can we predict unaccusativity from lexical semantics. Sathikulameen interpreters assumptions, expectations, beliefs and presuppositions. The lexical semantics of unaccusativity and argument realization unaccusativity. Unaccusativity begins by isolating the semantic factors that determine whether a verb will be unaccusative or unergative through a careful examination of the behaviour of intransitive verbs from a range of semantic classes in diverse syntactic constructions. A semantics for unaccusatives and its syntactic consequences. Exploring the syntaxsemantics interface language is a system of communication in which grammatical structures function to express meaning in context. Syntaxsemantics interface linguistics stack exchange. A minimalist view of the syntaxlexical semantics interface citeseerx. Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them.

This paper shows with data from corpora that many accepted facts about adjectival passives are incorrect. Scalarity and unaccusativity at the lexiconsyntax interface. Argument structure can be considered a measure of the complexity of the linguistic contexts that accompany a verb. Hyogo university of teacher education unaccusativity. For example, consider the resultative, depictive, and small clause constructions in. It argues that english lacks the psych causative alternation due to a combination of factors that have been pointed out independently in the literature, but not discussed in the context of the literature on the causative alternation in the nonpsych domain. I propose an analysis of npi licensing in which three components of grammar interface. The role of lexical semantics in unaccusativeunergative distinction in turkish deniz zeyrek middle east technical university, ankara one of the approaches to understanding argument structure, lexical semantics, and verbal alternations is to presume that verbs belong to distinct classes. The work is aimed at scholars and advanced students of syntax, semantics, formal pragmatics, and discourse. Find materials for this course in the pages linked along the left. This introduction to and overview of the glue approach is the first book to bring together the research of the major contributors to the field. Unaccusativity is an extended investigation into a set of linguistic phenomena that have received much attention over the last fifteen years. The paper degree expressions at the syntax semantics interface by jens fleischhauer is concerned with verb gradation.

Unaccusativity at the syntaxlexical semantics interface. Explorations of the syntaxlexicon interface oxford studies in theoretical linguistics, 5 artemis alexiadou, elena anagnostopoulou, martin everaert the phenomenon of unaccusativity is a central focus for the study of the complex properties of verb classes. He has published the semantics of locative prepositional phrases in english 1995, nary quantifiers and the. The book brings together authors working in different linguistic fields semantics, syntax, and language acquisition, who explore new findings as well as more established data, but then from new theoretical perspectives.

One of the problems that has to be dealt with by theorists of early language acquisition theory is the mismatch between semantic constructs, like agent, and syntactic ones, like subject. The editors have provided an excellent introduction pp. An individual user may print out a pdf of a single chapter of a monograph in oso for personal use. The phenomenon of unaccusativity is a central focus for the study of the complex properties of verb classes. At the syntaxlexical semantics interface 1995 and the coeditor with edit doron and ivy sichel of syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure 2010. In modern linguistics, an unaccusative verb is an intransitive verb whose grammatical subject is not a semantic agent. Unaccusativity the division of intransitive verbs into unaccusative and unergative.

Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure malka rappaport hovav, edit doron, ivy sichel this book focuses on the linguistic representation of temporality in the verbal domain and its interaction with the syntax and semantics of verbs, arguments, and modifiers. Investigations of the syntaxsemanticspragmatics interface. Examination of the full range of rules proposed shows that carpenters 1991 postulated upper. Unaccusatives in dutch and the syntaxsemantics interface, csli report 123. Journal of linguistics has as its goal to publish articles that make a clear contribution to current debate in all branches of theoretical linguistics. At the syntax lexical semantics interface beth levin, malka rappaport hovav this text presents an extended investigation into a set of linguistic phenomena that have received much attention over the last 15 years. We can also identify the semantic interpretation with the help. At the syntaxlexical semantics interface, linguistic inquiry monograph 26, mit press, cambridge, ma. Rigorous theoretical analyses are combined with empirical work on specific aspects of argument structure. Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure oxford studies in theoretical linguistics book 27 kindle edition by rappaport hovav, malka, doron, edit, sichel, ivy. Semantics defines the class of npi licensors, pragmatics forces quantificational closure of npis, and syntax executes the licensing via agree between a. Lexical rules have been used to cover a very diverse range of phenomena in constraintbased grammars.

Chapter 1 the aspectual network this chapter serves as a background for the whole dissertation. Unaccusativity is an extended investigation into a set of linguistic. Semantics and syntax in lexical functional grammar the mit. Unaccusativity, at the syntaxlexical semantics interface. Besides providing extensive support for david perlmutters hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined. Pinning down the concept of interface in bilingualism antonella sorace university of edinburgh and university of tromso. Introduction unaccusativity introduced, approaches to unaccusativity, deep versus surface unaccusativity, assumptions about lexical representations. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The papers represent a gamut of theoretical approaches, but the majority are couched in the chomskyan tradition. In books on generative syntax it is often said that lf itself becomes an input to the socalled syntax semantics interface to satisfy some conditions e. Pdf unaccusativity, semantic alignment and the lexicon. What is actually most likely is that agreement is ultimately a cluster of phenomena, whose optimal account will involve the interaction of both syntax and semantics see lapointe 1979. At the syntaxlexical semantics interface linguistic inquiry monographs by beth levin, malka rappaport hovav and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. The relation between the meaning and the syntax of lexical items is among the.

If the inline pdf is not rendering correctly, you can download the pdf file here. Unaccusative verbs in dutch and the syntaxsemantics interface. A search query can be a title of the book, a name of the author, isbn or anything else. In other words, it does not actively initiate or is not actively responsible for the action of the verb.

This study examines the semantic as well as the syntactic analysis of these verbs of change of state in zulu. The phenomenon of unaccusativity is a central focus for the study of the. The goal of the paper is to show that diuerent types of verb gradation degree gradation on the one hand and extent gradation on the other are realised in. Argument structure and the representation of abstract semantics. Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure oxford. A new, deductive approach to the syntax semantics interface integrates two mature and successful lines of research.