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Portee argumentale et marquage casuel dans les langues SOV et dans les langues ergatives
... Assume Agree-1: the v probe uF ［ACC］ is transmitted to V (feature inheritance) , and assume that the cancerous ［ACC］ (in boldface type) in the direct-passive morpheme 24) According to Anand and Nevins (2006) , the vP-internal ergative subject hypothesis was proposed by Nash (1995) and Woolford (1997) : ［erg］ is not a structural case assigned by T, but rather a lexical case due to thematic role, and Ura (2000) : ［erg］ is a structural case assigned in theta position. ...
... The subject of a transitive clause is marked by a special case (the ergative case). I take it to be uncontroversial that the ergative is an inherent case (see the discussion in Nash 1995, Woolford 1997, and Legate 2003). The ergative system is illustrated in (16), from Inuit: The question that interests us here is not so much why the subject has a special case, but why, when the subject has this special case, the object is realized in the unmarked case, rather than in the accusative case. ...
... This arrangement of categories generates the structure shown in In this structure, the only verb is xahu(tu) 'to destroy, to empty'; it assigns a theme theta role to the internal argument, gu 'us', and an agent theta-role to the external argument ezpatak eta goseak 'the sword and the hunger'. In an ergative system, this configuration necessarily yields ergative-marking for the agent and absolutive-marking for the theme, regardless of the particular proposal we subscribe to (Bobaljik (1992), Laka (1993), Bittner & Hale (1996), Nash (1995, Manning (1996), among others), because it constitutes an example of a canonical transitive structure. These monoclausal progressives, which belong to some of the eastern varieties of the language, are relatively recent according to Michelena (1987): " En el resto de los casos, ari con auxiliar trasitivo es, al parecer, un fenómeno moderno, que sólo podemos documentar desde la 2ª mitad del s. ...
... Otherwise it must be marked for ergative case, which identifies it as the natural starting-point" (ibid., 640). Nash (1995; is among early proponents of the encoding of person splits in terms of syntactic hierarchies. In analysing the person ergativity split in Georgian, she concludes that agents in ergative languages correspond to a predicate-internal position, although they are projected to the Spec of a higher category in non-ergative languages. ...
Ergativity splits between perfect and imperfective/progressive predicates are observed in languages with a specialized ergative case (Punjabi) and without it (Kurdish). Perfect predicates correspond to a VP projection; external arguments are introduced by means of an oblique case, namely an elementary part-whole predicate saying that the event is 'included by', 'located at' the argument. A more complex organization is found with imperfective/progressive predicates, where a head Asp projects a functional layer and introduces the external argument. Our proposal further yields the 1/2P vs. 3P Person split as a result of the intrinsic ability of 1/2P to serve as 'location-of-event'.
... Given the general account of nominative versus ergative grammars outlined in section 3, the data in (4) are easily accounted for: in ergative grammars absolutive case is the only available case in intransitive sentences, and thus the account predicts the assignment of absolutive in unaccusative predicates like (4a) and (4c), as it predicts the assignment of ergative case to the agent of a transitive predicate like (4b). So far, then, the data in (4) are uninformative as to the nature of case in Basque: the pattern that arises is the one predicted by most accounts of ergativity (Bobaljik 1992, Bittner and Hale 1996 Fernández 1998, Laka 2000, Nash 1995). ...
... Georgian is one of the few languages aligning focus to the left boundary of a Φ-phrase (seeSelkirk & Shen 1990for a possible application in Shanghai Chinese). In Georgian, the focused constituent is generally preverbal (Aronson 1982Aronson /1990Boeder 2005;Harris 2000;McGinnis 1997a,b;Nash 1995 andSkopeteas & Fanselow 2010a,b), although a postverbal focus is also grammatical. In all cases, focus is adjacent to the verb. ...
This article demonstrates that the most common prosodic realization of focus can be subsumed typologically under the notion of alignment: a focused constituent is preferably aligned prosodically with the right or left edge of a prosodic domain the size of either a prosodic phrase or an intonation phrase. Languages have different strategies to fulfill alignment, some of which are illustrated in this paper: syntactic movement, cleft constructions, insertion of a prosodic boundary, and enhancement of existing boundaries. Additionally, morpheme insertion and pitch accent plus deaccenting can also be understood as ways of achieving alignment. None of these strategies is obligatory in any language. For a focus to be aligned is just a preference, not a necessary property, and higher-ranked constraints often block the fulfillment of alignment. A stronger focus, like a contrastive one, is more prone to be aligned than a weaker one, like an informational focus. Prominence, which has often been claimed to be the universal prosodic property of focus (see Truckenbrodt 2005 and Büring 2010 among others), may co-occur with alignment, as in the case of a right-aligned nuclear stress, but crucially, alignment is not equivalent to prominence. Rather, alignment is understood as a mean to separate constituents with different information structural roles in different prosodic domains, to 'package' them individually (Chafe 1976).
Applicative constructions involve the addition of a non‐core, usually optional nominal argument to a clause. In some languages an applicative affix may be added to the verb, or an applied argument may have a characteristic case making. An applied argument can have one of several thematic roles, such as benefactive, instrumental, locative, source, recipient, or experiencer. Applicative constructions shed important light on a variety of theoretical issues. For example, they provide evidence that complex words are generated by the syntax, not in a presyntactic lexicon, and that locality in syntactic movement is relativized to syntactic features and subject to the possibility of equidistance.
The thesis is concerned with the correlation between aspects of verbs' meaning and aspects of verbs' syntax. This research domain is known as "The syntax-lexicon interface". Previous work has established a strong correlation between the two. In this thesis, I focus on some cases where the correlation between meaning and syntax is not as simple as with standard verbs. Chapter one introduces the basic approaches to the syntax-lexicon interface, and establishes the approach of the thesis, as a predicate-based, aspectual approach. Chapter two gives an overview of the structure of the VP, the domain in the syntax which interfaces with the lexicon. I give an account of the interaction of the structure of the VP with specific verbs' meanings, with special reference to verb alternations. The next three chapters are case studies of special problematic cases: Chapter three deals with the problem of agents (i.e. wilful actors) vs. causers, which, although structurally indistinct, behave differently with respect to some syntactic phenomena. Chapter four examines the structure of complex, causative verbs; special attention is given to Hebrew causative verbs, where causativization applies more freely than in English. Chapter five discusses psychological verbs (i.e. verbs describing psychological states, such as frighten, amuse), which are known to exhibit different syntactic properties from those of standard verbs. Based on the behaviour of such verbs across six languages, I suggest a structure for psychological verbs based on the analogy with ditransitive verbs (cf. insult X and give x an insult). Also, I show that these verbs have special properties only on their stative reading, and that on their non-stative reading they behave like standard verbs. This establishes the role of stativity vs. non-stativity, as well as aspectual properties in general, in determining a verb's behaviour.
The article proposes to describe agreement as a relation between sisters, i.e. as a function of the structure building operation Merge. Subject-verb agreement, then, is not mediated by a functional head in a specifier-head configuration, or triggered by a probe-goal mechanism, but the expression of a direct dependency relation between the subject and its sister. Supporting evidence is found in cases where agreement has multiple controllers, multiple targets, or finds alternative realizations within the predicate.
In this paper, we explore the possibility of dispensing with the MLC (Minimal Link Condition) in syntax within the current framework of the minimalist program. We propose the MMC (Maximal Matching Condition) and the Earliness principle, and claim that apparent“MLC Effects” are in fact epiphenomena of the proposed system. Evidence in favor of the proposed system comes from acceptable instances of long-distance DP-movement in English, Georgian, and Niuean. We also argue that in multiple wh-questions, any wh-movement is syntactically ruled in and that the (un)acceptability of the sentences is determined by the constraint for the functional interpretation of wh-phrases.
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