Dissecting Inchoatives and Causatives: English get constructions

Abstract

In this paper, we present data from English get-constructions and from Northern Iroquoian to challenge the recent consensus that in no languages are causatives built on inchoatives. Our data suggest the need for distinct functional projections for the causative and inchoative. We argue that while they are bundled in other situations, the functional heads for the causative and inchoative can be split as described in the present paper. This line of research follows recent trends in investigating the fine structure of the vP layer (Alexiadou et al. 2015, Harley 2013, Kim 2011, Marantz 2013, Pylkkanen 2008, Ramchand 2008, Legate 2014). We propose a syntactic mechanism for bundling and, in doing so, account for differences in the range of possible meanings with adverbs between canonical causatives and get-causatives. Briefly, get-causatives have unbundled causative and inchoative heads and have a wider ranger of adverbial meanings due to the projection of independent CausP and InchP. Canonical causatives have a bundled Caus-Inch head, projecting a single Caus/InchP, which leads to fewer sites for adverbs to adjoin and accordingly to a narrower range of adverbial meanings. (Sogang University)