Toward a force‐dynamic theory of argument realization

Abstract

Chapter 5, “Toward a force-dynamic theory of argument realization”, provides a critical survey of theories of the role of event structure in argument realization, concluding with the causal chain (force dynamic) model. Many prior theories have proposed a number of syntactic or semantic constructs in addition to causal-aspectual event structure in order to account for a wide range of argument realization patterns. These additional constructs can be replaced by using two properties of event structure: the causal transmission of force between participants, and the profiling of part of the causal chain (leaving the remainder as part of the causal semantic frame of the event). The chapter concludes by introducing the integration of the two geometric dimensions of the aspectual representation from chapters 2-4 and the causal chain. This is achieved by assigning each participant in the event its own aspectual subevent; the subevents are causally related to one another in the causal chain.