Abstract

This paper compares a recent TAG-based analysis of complex predicates in Hindi/Urdu with its HPSG analog. It points out that TAG combines actual structure while HPSG (and Categorial Grammar and other valence-based frameworks) specify valence of lexical items and hence potential structure. This makes it possible to have light verbs decide which arguments of embedded heads get realized, something that is not possible in TAG. TAG has to retreat to disjunctions instead. While this allows straight-forward analyses of active/passive alternations based on the light verb in valence-based frameworks, such an option does not exist for TAG and it has to be assumed that preverbs come with different sets of arguments.

Highlights

  • While comparing current syntactic theories (Hagemann and Staffeldt, 2014, Müller, 2010a, 2018, Kertész et al, 2019), one may get the impression that the frameworks are rather similar and translatable into each other

  • It matters which formalism is chosen and some are able to express intuitions rather directly while others are not. This brief discussion note deals with the analysis of complex predicates consisting of a preverb and a light verb

  • The authors use feature-based TAG, which makes it possible to enforce obligatory adjunction: the elementary tree for tareef is specified in a way that makes it necessary to take the tree apart and insert nodes of another tree. This way it can be ensured that the preverb has to be augmented by a light verb

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Summary

Introduction

While comparing current syntactic theories (Hagemann and Staffeldt, 2014, Müller, 2010a, 2018, Kertész et al, 2019), one may get the impression that the frameworks are rather similar and translatable into each other. It matters which formalism is chosen and some are able to express intuitions rather directly while others are not This brief discussion note deals with the analysis of complex predicates consisting of a preverb and a light verb. Ashwini et al (2019) assume that the structures for the examples in (1) are composed of elementary trees for tareef ‘praise’ and the respective light verbs.

XPr logon
XPf VP

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