Catalan change-of-state verbs and the causative alternation: a syntactic proposal

Vol.39,No.1(2018)

Abstract
We deal with the participation of Catalan change-of-state verbs in the causative alternation. After revising some previous classifications, we finally discard them due to their theoretical and empirical insufficiency. We specially focus on internally caused change-of-state verbs, which have traditionally been said not to enter the causative alternation, and we also analyse the cases where these verbs enter the transitive construction even with an agentive external argument. We claim that a cognitive principle is needed, in addition to the Direct Causation Condition, in order to explain these cases. Our analysis, which also takes into account the licensing of agentive and causal adjuncts in alternant and passive constructions, leads us to propose, following the neoconstructionist perspective put forward by Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou & Schäfer (2015), five syntactic structures to explain their syntactic behaviour. In conclusion, we point out that it is only the difference between manner and result roots that is relevant to explain how roots participate in the causative alternation.

Keywords:
change-of-state verbs; causative alternation; syntactic argument structure; Catalan

Pages:
139–161
References

Abrines, B. (2016). Els verbs de canvi d'estat i l'alternança causativa en català. Tesi doctoral. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Acedo-Matellán, V.; & Mateu, J. (2014). From syntax to roots: A syntactic approach to root interpretation. In A. Alexiadou, H. Borer & F. Schäfer (Eds.), The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax (pp. 14–32). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexiadou, A. (2010). On the morpho-syntax of (anti-)causative verbs. In M. Rappaport Hovav, E. Doron & I. Sichel (Eds.), Lexical Semantics, Syntax, and Event Structure (pp. 177–203). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexiadou, A. (2014). The problem with internally caused change-of-state verbs. Linguistics, 52(4), 879–909. | DOI 10.1515/ling-2014-0011

Alexiadou, A.; Anagnostopoulou, E.; & Schäfer, F. (2006). The properties of anticausatives crosslinguistically. In M. Frascarelli (Ed.), Phases of Interpretation (pp. 187–211). Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter. | DOI 10.1515/9783110197723.4.187

Alexiadou, A.; Anagnostopoulou, E.; & Schäfer, F. (2015). External Arguments in Transitivity Alternations: A Layering Approach. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Arsenijević, B. (2010). Syntactic complexity and semantic opacity of manner in manner-expressing verbs. Manuscrit. Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Bartra Kaufmann, A. (2002). La passiva i les construccions que s' hi relacionen. In J. Solà, M. R. Lloret, J. Mascaró & M. Pérez Saldanya (Eds.), Gramàtica del català contemporani (pp. 2111–2179). Barcelona: Empúries.

Bartra Kaufmann, A. (2016). Els components de la passiva. Una perspectiva diacrònica. Caplletra, 61, 295–327.

Beavers, J.; & Koontz-Garboden, A. (2012). Manner and result in the roots of verbal meaning. Linguistic Inquiry, 43(3), 331–369. | DOI 10.1162/LING_a_00093

Borer, H. (2004). The grammar machine. In A. Alexiadou, E. Anagnostopoulou & M. Everaert (Eds.), The Unaccusativity Puzzle: Explorations of the Syntax-Lexicon Interface (pp. 288–331). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Borer, H. (2005). Structuring Sense. Volume II: The Normal Course of Events. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Bruening, B. (2013). By Phrases in Passives and Nominals. Syntax, 16(1), 1–41. | DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9612.2012.00171.x

Chierchia, G. (2004). A semantics for unaccusatives and its syntactic consequences. In A. Alexiadou, E. Anagnostopoulou & M. Everaert (Eds.), The Unaccusativity Puzzle. Explorations of the Syntax-Lexicon Interface (pp. 22–59). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Doron, E. (2003). Agency and voice: The semantics of the Semitic templates. Natural Language Semantics, 11(1), 1–67. | DOI 10.1023/A:1023021423453

Folli, R.; & Harley, H. (2005). Flavors of v. In P. Kempchinsky & R. Slabakova (Eds.), Aspectual Inquiries (pp. 95–120). Dordrecht: Springer-Verlag. | DOI 10.1007/1-4020-3033-9_5

Folli, R.; & Harley, H. (2007). Causation, obligation, and argument structure: On the nature of little v. Linguistic Inquiry, 38(2), 197–238. | DOI 10.1162/ling.2007.38.2.197

Gràcia i Solé, L. (1989). Els verbs ergatius en català. Ciutadella: Institut Menorquí d'Estudis.

Hale, K. L.; & Keyser, S. J. (1993). On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations. In K. L. Hale & S. J. Keyser (Eds.), The view from Building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger (pp. 53–109). Boston, MA: Massachussets Institute of Technology.

Hale, K. L.; & Keyser, S. J. (2002). Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Harley, H. (2013). External arguments and the Mirror Principle: On the distinctness of Voice and v. Lingua, 125, 34–57. | DOI 10.1016/j.lingua.2012.09.010

Harley, H.; & Noyer, R. (2000). Formal versus encyclopedic properties of vocabulary: Evidence from nominalizations. In B. Peeters (Ed.), The Lexicon-Encyclopedia Interface. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Härtl, H. (2003). Conceptual and grammatical characteristics of argument alternations: The case of decausative verbs. Linguistics, 41(5), 883–916. | DOI 10.1515/ling.2003.029

Haspelmath, M. (1993). More on the typology of inchoative/causative verb alternations. In B. Comrie & M. Polinsky (Eds.), Causatives and transitivity (pp. 87–121). Amsterdam-Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. | DOI 10.1075/slcs.23.05has

Haspelmath, M.; Calude, A.; Spagnol, M.; Narrog, H.; & Bamyaci, E. (2014). Coding causal–noncausal verb alternations: A form–frequency correspondence explanation. Journal of Linguistics, 50(3), 587–625. | DOI 10.1017/S0022226714000255

Heidinger, S. (2014). The persistence of labile verbs in the French causative-anticausative alternation. Linguistics, 52(4), 1003–1024. | DOI 10.1515/ling-2014-0014

Heidinger, S. (2015). Causalness and the encoding of the causative–anticausative alternation in French and Spanish. Journal of Linguistics, 51(3), 562–594. | DOI 10.1017/S0022226714000607

Horvath, J.; & Siloni, T. (2011). Causatives across components. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 29(3), 657–704. | DOI 10.1007/s11049-011-9135-3

[GIEC]: Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2016). Gramàtica de la llengua catalana. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

Koontz-Garboden, A. (2009). Anticausativization. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 27(1), 77–138. | DOI 10.1007/s11049-008-9058-9

Labelle, M.; & Doron, E. (2010). Anticausative derivations (and other valency alternations) in French. Probus, 22(2), 303–316. | DOI 10.1515/prbs.2010.011

Levin, B.; & Rappaport Hovav, M. (1995). Unaccusativity: At the Syntax-Lexical Semantics Interface. Cambridge, MA-London: The MIT Press.

Levin, B.; & Rappaport Hovav, M. (2008). Lexicalized manner and result are in complementary distribution. In Y. N. Falk (Ed.), Proceedings of the Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics 24 (pp. 1–16). The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Levin, B.; & Rappaport Hovav, M. (2013). Lexicalized meaning and manner/result complementarity. In B. Arsenijević, B. Gehrke & R. Marín (Eds.), Studies in the composition and decomposition of event predicates (pp. 49–70). Amsterdam: Springer.

Marantz, A. (1997). No escape from syntax: Don't try morphological analysis in the privacy of your own lexicon. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, 4(2), 201–225.

Marantz, A. (2001). Words. Treball presentat al 20th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. University of Southern California.

Marantz, A. (2005). Objects out of the lexicon! Argument-structure in the syntax. Treball presentat al Third Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research (Vol. 18). University of Cambridge.

Mateu, J.; & Acedo-Matellán, V. (2012). The manner/result complementarity revisited: a syntactic approach. In M. C. Cuervo & Y. Roberge (Eds.), The end of argument structure? (pp. 209–228). Bingley: Emerald.

McKoon, G.; & Macfarland, T. (2000). Externally and internally caused change of state verbs. Language, 76(4), 833–858. | DOI 10.2307/417201

Mendikoetxea, A. (1999). Construcciones inacusativas y pasivas. In V. Demonte & I. Bosque (Eds.), Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (pp. 1575–1630). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.

Neeleman, A.; & Van de Koot, H. (2012). The linguistic expression of causation. In M. Everaert, M. Marelj & T. Siloni (Eds.), The Theta System: Argument Structure at the Interface (pp. 20–51). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Piñón, C. (2001a). A finer look at the causative-inchoative alternation. In R. Hastings, B. Jackson & Z. Zvolenszky (Eds.), Proceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory (pp. 346–364). Ithaca: Cornell University.

Piñón, C. (2001b). Modelling the causative-inchoative alternation. Linguistische Arbeitsberichte, 76, 273–293.

Rákosi, G. (2012). In defence of the non-causative analysis of anticausatives. In M. Everaert, M. Marelj & T. Siloni (Eds.), The Theta System: Argument Structure at the Interface (pp. 177–199). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Ramchand, G. C. (2008). Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First Phase Syntax. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Rappaport Hovav, M. (2014). Lexical content and context: The causative alternation in English revisited. Lingua, 141, 8–29. | DOI 10.1016/j.lingua.2013.09.006

Rappaport Hovav, M.; & Levin, B. (1998). Building verb meanings. In M. Butt & W. Geuder (Eds.), The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors (pp. 97–134). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

Rappaport Hovav, M.; & Levin, B. (2010). Reflections on manner/result complementarity. In M. Rappaport Hovav, E. Doron & I. Sichel (Eds.), Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure (pp. 21–38). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Rappaport Hovav, M.; & Levin, B. (2012). Lexicon Uniformity and the Causative Alternation. In M. Everaert, M. Marelj & T. Siloni (Eds.), The Theta System: Argument Structure at the Interface (pp. 150–176). Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.

Reinhart, T. (2000). The theta system: Syntactic realization of verbal concepts. OTS Working Papers in Linguistics, (0–1), 1–70.

Reinhart, T. (2003). The theta system–an overview. Theoretical linguistics, 28(3), 229–290. | DOI 10.1515/thli.28.3.229

Reinhart, T. (2016). The theta system: Syntactic realization of verbal concepts. In M. Everaert, M. Marelj & E. Reuland (Eds.), Concepts, Syntax, and their Interface: The Theta System (pp. 1–113). Cambridge, MALondon: The MIT Press.

Rigau, G. (2002). Els complements adjunts. In J. Solà, M.-R. Lloret, J. Mascaró & M. Pérez Saldanya (Eds.), Gramàtica del català contemporani (pp. 2045–2110). Barcelona: Empúries.

Rodríguez, G. (2011). Why can't the sun bloom roses in Spanish?: On the nature of some internally-caused changes of state. Languages in Contrast, 11(2), 241–258. | DOI 10.1075/lic.11.2.05rod

Schäfer, F. (2008). The syntax of (anti-)causatives: external arguments in change-of-state contexts. Amsterdam-Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.

Schäfer, F. (2009). The Causative Alternation. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(2), 641–681. | DOI 10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00127.x

Wolff, P. (2003). Direct causation in the linguistic coding and individuation of causal events. Cognition, 88(1), 1–48. | DOI 10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00004-0

Wright, S. K. (2001). Internally caused and externally caused change of state verbs. Tesi doctoral. Northwestern University.

Wright, S. K. (2002). Transitivity and change of state verbs. In J. Larson & M. Paster (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (pp. 339–350). Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.

Metrics

0

Crossref logo

web of science logo


18

Views

0

PDF (Catalan) views