Complex Predicate Formation Research Articles

PrevDistro: An open-access dataset of Hungarian preverb constructions

AbstractHungarian has a prolific system of complex predicate formation combining a separable preverb and a verb. These combinations can enter a wide range of constructions, with the preverb preserving its separability to some extent, depending on the construction in question. The primary concern of this paper is to advance the investigation of these phenomena by presenting PrevDistro (Preverb Distributions), an open-access dataset containing more than 41.5 million corpus occurrences of 49 preverb construction types. The paper gives a detailed introduction to PrevDistro, including design considerations, methodology and the resulting dataset's main characteristics.

Heads and layers in agglutination: A case in deadjectival psych verbs with-garuin Japanese

AbstractUsing deadjectival psych verbs with-garuin Japanese, this study shows that agglutinative complex predicate formation is done by recursive application of Merge to roots and functional heads. This process creates a layered syntactic structure, with each layer providing the computational system with (i) specific semantic features, (ii) arguments, and (iii) phonetic form (PF) exponents at conceptual–intentional (CI)/sensory motor (SM) Interfaces. The whole amalgam of the root and the functional heads is interpreted as a “word” at PF. Following the general architecture of Distributed Morphology, I will show that the morpheme that derives deadjectival verbs-garuis underlyingly-k-ar-u(k-Copula-T), wherekis “little” v that originates in the verbal rootk-o“come” andar-is a copula. They are now grammaticalized functional heads that extend adjectival roots. Crucially, thiskis homophonous with “little” a, which makes-garuand the adjective-deriving morpheme-karu(k-Copula-T) parallel.kis voiced in-garudue to a structurally conditioned assimilation rule (Embick 2013). This analysis reveals the mechanisms of agglutinative predicate formation in a precise and detailed manner. Similarly, it gives natural solutions to some of the long-standing problems including how adjectives modify N such asutukusii dansaa“beautiful dancer,” which is ambiguous between attributive modification and a relative clause.

Reflexive Predicates and Reflexivity -The Case of Inalienable Possession Constructions-

Languages like Korean show that certain predicates with a body part noun function as reflexive predicates. Thus, an analysis employing null SE with complex predicate formation was proposed. However, this null SE analysis turns out to be unsatisfactory and an alternative analysis is proposed in this paper. Observing that the possessor of body part noun requires a c-commanding antecedent in the binding domain. Assuming that PRO occupies the specifier position of body part nouns, the presence of the two distinctive possessor interpretations is accounted for, since PRO is ambiguous between anaphoric and pronominal. This paper further demonstrates that predicates with a body part noun denoting self-action undergo the revised lexical reflexivization operation which turns PRO into an unsaturated argument, and thus become inherently reflexive predicates.

Internally and externally headed relative clauses in Tagalog

Head nominals in Tagalog relative clauses can surface in three distinct positions: preceding the clause, immediately following the embedded verb, and in argument position within the clause. This paper accounts for these possibilities by positing that the head nominal is base generated within the clause as a property-denoting NP rather than a full DP and identifying the gap position by means of complex predicate formation between this NP and the rest of the clause. If the head NP raises to [Spec, CP], it forms a complex predicate with the embedded TP in that position and is spelled out preceding the clause. If the head NP does not raise to [Spec, CP], it either remains in its base position in the embedded clause and undergoes complex predicate formation with the embedded verb in situ, or it undergoes head movement and forms a complex predicate with the embedded verb via incorporation. I also account for the distribution of linkers in Tagalog relative clauses by proposing that all unsaturated categories within a Tagalog DP are headed by linkers. Consequently, both the relative clause and the head nominal are preceded by a linker, accounting for the fact that a linker always appears between the clause and head NP, regardless of their relative order. Finally, analyzing the head nominal as an NP rather than a DP also accounts for the locality restriction in Tagalog relativization such that genitive DPs are ineligible for movement. This is prevented on my analysis by ensuring that the head NP is not merged in a position which would be assigned inherent case.This article is part of the special collection: Internally-Headed Relative Clauses

Complex predicates: an LFG+glue analysis

In this paper I discuss weaknesses in the traditional LFG account of complex predicates and in the XLE implementation of the same. I argue that the concept of predicate composition in general, and the mechanisms required to achieve it, are problematic, but that the most problematic element is the concept of argument fusion. I show that a semantically-integrated account of complex predicate formation is possible within LFG+glue, an account which provides a simple and effective formalization of argument fusion, and which does not suffer from the weaknesses of traditional approaches.

Pseudo noun incorporation in Hocąk

This paper provides evidence from Hocąk (Siouan) that Baker's (2014) analysis cannot account for all cases of pseudo noun incorporation (PNI). Baker (2014) argues that PNI is best analyzed as complex predicate formation derived via head movement of the object NP's head noun into the verb. Baker contends that the resulting structure cannot be linearized at PF if any material intervenes between the two copies of the noun, and thus that this movement must be string-vacuous. Here, I present data from Hocąk PNI that are problematic for Baker's theory. First, I show that internal arguments that are not base-generated in a position linearly adjacent to the verb can nonetheless be incorporated. Second, NP-internal modifiers can surface between the incorporated noun and the verb, which is also not compatible with Baker's theory. Instead, this paper demonstrates that Massam's (2001) analysis of PNI in Niuean (Oceanic) is able to account for the Hocąk data. Massam proposes that PNIed objects are NPs that are base-generated in object position. Thus, while Baker's head movement theory may be the right analysis for PNI in other languages, I argue that the data from Hocąk demonstrate that it cannot be the only possible mechanism.

Tough류 형용사와 Essential류 형용사의 보문구조에 관한 최소주의적 연구

Kang, Sunok. 2011. A Minimalist Study of the Structures of the Complement Clauses of Toough-type and Essential-type Adjectives. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 11-3, 773-786. In English when tough-type adjectives have infinitival clauses as their complements, the object of the infinitival complement clauses can appear in the matrix subject position. However, this is not possible with essential-type adjectives. The object of the infinitival complement of essential-type adjectives are not allowed to appear in the matrix subject position. In this paper I explain why the two types of adjectives are different this way by analyzing the structures of their complement clauses in terms of selectional features and the possibility of complex predicate formation in the framework of Chomsky's (2000, 2001b, 2008) minimalist approach. I propose that the tough-type selects CP the head of which has a [+operator] feature, whereas the essential-type selects CP the head of which has a [-operator] feature. I argue that this difference in the selectional features between these two types of adjectives plays a crucial role in accounting for their syntactic difference.

On romance syntactic complex predicates: why Brazilian Portuguese is different

I analyze clitic climbing as the effect of Romance syntactic complex predicate formation: the non-finite verb phrase moves to the specifier of the upper V. This movement forms a complex predicate so as to allow for a configuration where clitics can climb. Crucial for this movement is the presence of a defective C-T. The lack of clitic climbing in Brazilian Portuguese is but one consequence of a non-defective C-T system in these structures. As a consequence, we have the possibility for certain constructions to occur in the language; in fact, they are presented as additional evidence for the proposal.KEYWORDS: Clitic climbing. Syntactic complex predicates. ECM. Inflected infinitives. Brazilian Portuguese. Principles & Parameters Theory.

The typological implications of Bardi complex predicates

Diverse evidence from Bardi and other Australian languages is used here to argue for a multifunctional view of complex predication, one which includes event classification but is not limited to it. These data bear directly on the question of whether complex predicate formation involves the transfer of arguments from the light verb to the preverb, or whether complex predicates are better analysed as a unification of preverb and light verb. The multifunctionality of the construction, as well as the syntax of Bardi and other languages, provides arguments against the argument transfer analysis.

On predication

This paper discusses copula constructions in English, German, and Danish and argues that a uniform analysis of all copula constructions is inappropriate. I provide evidence from German that there should be a raising variant of the copula in addition to an identificational copula. A unary schema is provided that maps referential NPs that can be used as arguments onto predicational NPs. Data from Danish shows that predicational NPs can be subjects in specificational structures. An account for such specificational structures is provided and the different behaviour of predicational and specificational structures with regard to question tags is explained. A similar contrast can be found in German left dislocation structures, which follows from the assumptions made in this paper. A modified treatment of complex predicate formation allows for a reduction of selectional features (that is abolishing of xcomp or vcomp) and for a uniform treatment of predicational phrases in copula constructions and resultative secondary predicates. This yields an account for constituent order variants that remained unexplained by earlier analyses.

Mismatches between morphology and syntax in Japanese complex predicates

In this paper, we propose a lexicalist account of constructions which initially appear to be nominalisations of phrasal structures. We argue that lexical nominalisation of verbs preserves their form-selectional properties, creating nouns which select for dependents in exactly the way that the source verbs do. These properties hold in the ‘sub-phrasal’ syntax – essentially a domain of complex predicate formation – but do not hold in the regular phrasal syntax, where the form-selectional properties of verbs and nouns are disjoint. The overall view of grammar is one in which all morphological derivation and inflection is in the lexicon, interacting with a syntax in which there is a crucial distinction between words – items from the lexicon which do not project phrases, but create sub-phrasal constituents – and phrases, which are standardly projected from words.

Finite and nonfinite from a typological perspective

The differentiation between finite and nonfinite forms is among the most complex domains of grammatical description. This is probably the reason why this category plays only a marginal role in typology. Clarification is further handicapped by the tradition of school grammar, which simply copies its categories from specific languages. In order not to be trapped by this tradition, a distinction between semantic and morphological finiteness is proposed, one which makes it possible to clarify notoriously complex cases as, for example, movable predicate affixes in Amerindian and Munda languages, the 'finite infinitive' in Portuguese, etc. Two areas are investigated: complex predicate formation, where auxiliary formation is distinguished from multiple finite coverbal modification; and complex sentence formation with degrees of finiteness in secondary predicates (masdar, participial and converbal constructions). The problem is placed at the intersection of several quite fundamental questions of grammatical theory: the definition of the word as an independent level of description, word classes (noun-verb distinction), sentence patterns (nominal vs. verbal sentences), etc. These topics can only be touched upon so as to isolate the question of finiteness. As these questions are highly theory-bound, the argumentation in the article is informal, not committed to a special grammatical framework.

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

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.

Mixed categories and argument transfer in Korean light verb constructions

The Korean Light Verb Construction (LVC) contains a Sino-Korean main predicate (tayhwa-lul), a Light Verb (ha-ta), and semantic arguments of the main predicate (John-i, Tom-kwa): John-i Tom-kwa tayhwa-lul ha-yess-ta. John-Nom Tom-with talk-Acc do-Pst-Dc 'John talked with Tom.' We defend a three-part analysis: (i) The subject of the main predicate is thematically controlled by the LV's subject. Evidence: Korean verbs assigning Accusative take an external argument (Wechsler/Lee 1996; Burzio's Generalization). Since the main predicate is Accusative, ha-ta must theta-mark its subject. Moreover ha-ta selects a non-stative Verbal Noun (VN) (cp. *kyumson-ul ha-ta 'humble-Acc do-Dc'); non-stative theta-structures typically take an external argument (Kang 1986). This control arises through complex predicate formation. (ii) Oblique arguments (PPs) are optionally transferred (cp. Grimshaw/Mester 1988) — but Accusative NPs are not. Evidence comes from relativization and pronoun replacement. (iii) Accusative is assigned by a mixed category Verbal Noun. This can be supported by adverbial clauses with VN's assigning Accusative without LV's. We review cross-linguistic evidence for both argument transfer (German; Hinrichs & Nakazawa; i.a.) and mixed categories (many languages, Malouf; i.a.) and show that Korean LVCs provide the right environment for both to occur.

Crossing Boundaries (review)

Reviewed by: Crossing boundaries ed. by István Kenesei Catherine Rudin Crossing boundaries. Ed. by István Kenesei. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1999. Pp. 301. The last decade has been an exciting period for generative work on Eastern European languages as Eastern European linguists have gained easier access to western linguistic theories and western theorists have gained easier access to Eastern European data. This crossing of boundaries—geographical, political, theoretical, and even syntactic—is the foundation for this book, a collection of selected proceedings from the first Conference on Linguistic Theory in Eastern European Languages (Hungary, 1998). The volume is unusually coherent and well-organized for a conference collection. All of the papers treat syntactic issues in some Eastern European language, within a more-or-less minimalist framework. Kenesei’s excellent introduction outlines the papers, pointing out common themes and differences among them and explaining their division into three groups, ‘Clitic, head, and phrasal movement’, with six papers; ‘DP structure’, with three papers; and ‘Clausal structure’, with two papers. The range of languages discussed makes the volume broadly representative of Eastern Europe: Three papers concentrate primarily on Hungarian, two on Bulgarian, and one each on Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Romanian, and Albanian. Olga Tomic, ‘Cliticization and clitichood’, distinguishes two types of clausal clitics, ‘inflection’ and ‘operator’, and argues that some clitics are not inherently directional. Ljiljana Progovac, ‘Eventive TO and the placement of clitics in Serbo-Croatian’, provides evidence that second-position clitic placement in Serbo-Croatian is syntactic, not phonological, and suggests that it is a reflection of (covert) V2. David Willis, ‘The structure of Old Russian periphrastic verbal construction’, argues that participle movement in Old Russian is adjunction to I, not long head movement, and includes fascinating data on the historical reanalysis of conditional Aux as a particle. María Luisa Rivero, ‘Stylistic verb movement in yes-no questions in Bulgarian and Breton’, argues that stylistic verb movement in several languages is a ‘hybrid’ rule between syntax and phonology. Katalin É Kiss, ‘Strategies of complex predicate formation and the Hungarian verbal complex’, analyzes complex predicates in Hungarian as strings of light verbs subject to both syntactic and phonological constraints. She argues that verb modifier climbing is head movement, triggered by a restriction against light verbs in VP-initial stressed position. Hilda Koopman and Anna Szabolcsi, ‘Hungarian complex verbs and XP-movement’, address exactly the same data as É Kiss but argue for an XP movement analysis and come to different conclusions about the factors which trigger movement within the complex verb construction. Marcel den Dikken, ‘On the structural representation of possession and agreement’, analyzes patterns of case and agreement within two types of possessive constructions in three different dialects of Hungarian, arguing against an earlier analysis by Szabolcsi. Ewa Willim, ‘On the syntax of the genitive in nominals: The case of Polish’, uses comparative data from a dozen languages [End Page 198] to argue that differences in how many genitive arguments are allowed within a nominal phrase are due to differences in availability of a D head and strength of genitive case features of N and/or D. Polish has only one genitive argument per NP because it lacks D. Alexandra Cornilescu, ‘Aspect and nominalizations: The case of Romanian’, claims that event nominals have the same argument structure as their corresponding verbs and that which arguments are projected depends crucially on aspect. Iliyana Krapova, ‘Subjunctive complements, null subjects and case checking in Bulgarian’, distinguishes two types of subjunctive clauses in Bulgarian, with pro vs. PRO subjects. The two differ in the morphological content of subjunctive tense, resulting in different case checking properties. Dalina Kallulli, ‘Non-active morphology in Albanian and event (de)composition’, derives the several readings of ‘nonactive’ constructions through the interaction of various semantic and morphological factors. Most of the papers are well-written, clearly argued, and interesting, and the volume as a whole testifies to the liveliness and sophistication of Eastern European linguistics in the post-communist era. Catherine Rudin Wayne State College Copyright © 2002 Linguistic Society of America