The Internal Structure of Arguments And its Role in Complex Predicate Formation

Abstract

This paper investigates Italian complex predicates combining light verbs with deverbal nominalizations in -ata, where the nominalizations select distinct light verbs according to the number of arguments of their base. The arguments of the light verb are inherited from its non-light counterpart but interpreted with respect to the Lexical Conceptual Structure (LCS) of its complement. On the basis of this and other observations, this work proposes an explicit decomposition of arguments into (i) argument-variables, encoding argument properties but isolated from LCS and therefore void of interpretation, and (ii) thematic indices, linking argument-variables to LCS and thus enabling their interpretation. The proposed decomposition provides a deeper understanding of the operations affecting argument structures in complex predicates, recasting light verb formation, thematic transfer, and argument suppression, in terms of finer grained operations exclusively targeting either argument-variables or thematic indices.