The Spray/Load Alternation

Abstract

Abstract In the English spray/load diathesis alternation (also sometimes known as the “locative alternation”) causative verbs with meanings in which some locatum is moved into or onto some location allow either non‐causer argument to be realized as the object, with the other argument realized as an oblique (e.g., John sprayed the paint on the wall vs. John sprayed the wall with the paint ). For several decades this alternation has been a significant, cross‐linguistically attested phenomenon that has served as a major testing ground for theories of the nature of argument realization and the relationship of syntax to lexical semantics. This chapter offers a comprehensive empirical overview of the phenomenon, focusing on the variable realization of the non‐subject arguments of verbs that show the alternation, the corresponding semantics whereby whichever argument of the verb is the object receives a “holistic” interpretation, and the connection to related alternations in English and other languages. Various analyses are discussed that have used this alternation to argue for particular views of the syntax of argument realization and the syntax–lexical semantics link, including purely syntactic alternations that take the derivation to be transformational in nature, and approaches that have argued for particular views of the nature of lexical meanings and the mapping to syntax, including traditional thematic role, event structural, lexical aspectual, and lexical entailment‐based approaches. Theories that have argued that the relevant aspects of lexical meaning are encoded syntactically rather than lexically are also discussed, as are theories that have looked at the more fine‐grained microvariation in which verbs show the alternation and why. The ultimate conclusion is that lexical variation in which verbs show the alternation and their properties when they do is one of the largest unanswered questions regarding this phenomenon and will require more detailed work on how lexical idiosyncrasy figures into argument realization.