Depictive Secondary Predicates Research Articles

Como-gerund clauses in European Portuguese

Previous literature on the typology of gerund clauses in Portuguese has overlooked a peculiar type of clauses which are always introduced by como (‘as’) and display an array of characteristics that set them apart from all other gerund clauses (and from other, somehow similar, constructions in different languages). In this paper, we provide an in-depth syntactic and semantic characterisation of these como-gerund clauses and the contexts in which they arise, highlighting their similarities and differences regarding other constructions, namely resultative and depictive secondary predicates. We put forward a proposal to deal with their syntactic configurations and the restrictions they exhibit. We also propose that como is obligatory in these clauses because it marks a type-shift operation, which gives como gerund clauses a predicative interpretation, usually found in the nominal domain.

Secondary depictive and resultative predication in and Chukchi's designative case

This study re-approaches the morphosyntax of the Chukchi designative case, a minor predicative case whose central function is the encoding of secondary depictive and resultative predicates. Although the designative case has been covered in Chukchi grammaticography (Bogoras 1922; Skorik 1961, 1977; Dunn 1999; Kämpfe & Volodin 1995), these accounts offer diverging and partly contradicting accounts concerning its compatibility with certain nominal parts of speech; of central relevance is the account of Inenlikej (1974) who went as far and denied the existence of a designative case altogether. A dedicated study of the syntax and semantics of the designative case has however, so far, not been attempted. Based on a manually glossed corpus of almost 13000 orthographic Chukchi words and additional electronically searchable Chukchi materials, this study covers the designative case from the perspective of participant-oriented adjuncts (Himmelmann & Schultze-Berndt 2005) and a recent questionnaire on secondary predication in Uralic Languages (Groot 2017). Since a number of Northern Eurasian languages have cases with a similar function e.g, Yukaghiric, Eskimo, several Uralic languages as well as Chukchi’s genetic relatives Koryak, Alutor and Itelmen, some cross-linguistic comparisons finalize this study.
 
 Keywords: Chukchi, designative case, depictive secondary predication, resultative secondary predication, participant-oriented adjuncts, Chukotko-Kamchadal languages, Yukaghir languages, Siberian Yupik Eskimo, Uralic languages

EXPLORING ADJECTIVAL FREE ADJUNCTS: A CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDY OF ENGLISH AND SERBIAN

The paper examines adjectival free adjuncts in English and Serbian using a double and bidirec- tional corpus consisting of novels and their translations in both languages. The objectives of this study are to describe the formal and semantic characteristics of adjectival free adjuncts and to compare these constructions in the two languages based on their translational equivalents. The analysis of adjectival free adjuncts in English and Serbian demonstrates that they can be considered formally and semantically equivalent constructions, as evidenced by nearly 85% of cases showing absolute alignment in translation. In the remaining cases, adjuncts are conveyed through other phrases and clauses. In the translation from English to Serbian, translators resort to non-finite and relative clauses when the adjective is accompanied by a longer complement in English. On the other hand, when rendered into Serbian, adjuncts may change position or be translated as full adverbial clauses with an explicit conjunction to avoid ambiguity. In a number of instances, the comma is omitted in translation, indicating the close relation between adjectival free adjuncts and depictive secondary predicates.

Depictive Secondary Predicates with Predicate Instrumental in Croatian

Rad problematizira među slavistima (v. Bailyn 2002; Richardson 2006; Markman 2008) raširenu pretpostavku da se u hrvatskome jeziku ne pojavljuju nesročni deskriptivni sekundarni predikati obilježeni instrumentalom. Na temelju konstrukcija X PRONALAZI Y U STANJU Z i X TRAJE U STANJU Y demonstrira se da deskriptivi u instrumentalu – iako relativno rijetki – nisu slučajna ili iznimna pojava u hrvatskome jeziku, već pojava čija se uporaba u određenoj mjeri može predvidjeti. Oslanjajući se na korpusnu analizu glagolskih i pridjevskih klasa u dvjema ciljanim konstrukcijama te slijedeći model konstrukcijske gramatike u radu se opisuju morfosintaktička i semantička obilježja koja motiviraju uporabu deskriptivnog instrumentala.

A Comparative Analysis of Depictive Secondary Predicates between English and Korean

A Comparative Analysis of Depictive Secondary Predicates between English and Korean

Focus affinity in Spanish. An experimental study

The notion focus affinity refers to the likelihood that a grammatical role (e.g., subject, object) is the narrow focus of a sentence. There is evidence that such differences exist at the level of distributional data. For example, subjects are less often focal and more often topical as compared to direct objects. However, it is not obvious whether focus affinity is genuinely related to grammatical roles. Focus affinity could be an epiphenomenon of various other linguistic and pragmatic processes or their interactions (e.g., direct objects are more often indefinite, less often animate, more often new than subjects). In our controlled experimental study, we investigate the focus affinity of three adjunct types (instruments, locatives, depictive secondary predicates) in Spanish and provide evidence that these grammatical roles indeed differ with respect to focus affinity. Depictives show the highest degree of focus affinity, followed by instruments and finally locatives. These effects are robust and stable even if we account for a number of possible alternative explanations. Thus, we suggest that focus affinity is a property sufficiently closely associated with grammatical roles to justify more attention both in theoretical linguistic and psycholinguistic literature.

A Hybrid Approach to Depictive Secondary Predicates in Korean

A Hybrid Approach to Depictive Secondary Predicates in Korean

Depictive secondary predicates in Turkish

This paper provides an overview of depictive secondary predicates within the Turkish language, particularly surrounding the small clause phenomenon. These constructions function as adjuncts in the matrix clause. However, it may be difficult to distinguish between depictives and adverbial adjuncts in Turkish because of their morphosyntactic shape. Primarily, I will address the distinction between depictives and adverbial adjuncts based on studies founded by Schultze-Berndt & Himmelmann (2004) and Himmelmann & Schultze-Berndt (2006) based on a description of the depictive secondary predicates in Turkish. Furthermore, I will specifically focus on the adjectivals as a depictive secondary predicate. These establish a predicative relationship with their controllers, which are the subject or object of the main clause. In this context, I will also analyze this predicative relationship at a semantical, syntactical and morphosyntactical level. I will then analyze the difficulties faced when referring to these structures as constituents in an analysis of the complex sentence as a whole.

Rethinking Depictive Secondary Predicates A Pair- Merge approach and the Adjunct Condition

In this article I will propose a new analysis of depictive secondary predication structures. Previous studies of these structures are framed within different approaches: C-command / categorial approaches (Williams 1980, Rothstein 1983, 2001, Demonte 1988, Mallén 1991, Bowers 1993, among others), C-command and Multiple Agree approaches (McNulty 1988, Irimia 2012), linearization after ‘Lateral Movement’ and attachment of identical eventive heads (Gallar 2017), or Parallel-Merge approaches (Irimia 2012, You 2016). Following Chomsky (2019) and Bošković (2020), among others, I will claim here, first, that adjunct depictive secondary predicates start as members of a Pair-MERGE(d) conjunction/ adjunction structure which is unlabeled. There are as many members of these pair merged phrases as modifiers in a sentence, and they are unbounded and unstructured. Pair merged structures are in principle opaque and non-sensible to syntactic operations. However, since they are semantically and syntactically conjoined phrases they have each a Link element. This Link merges at the edge of the phase at which the modifier is conjoined thus allowing extraction out of the opaque domain. I will suggest that perhaps Tagalog expresses overtly these links. I will previously present a detailed description of the properties of DPS in Spanish

Dom and datives in Basque

Abstract This paper analyzes the syntax of dom and causee, experiencer, goal and possessor datives in Basque. It presents novel criteria distinguishing their categorical status: the possibility (i) to license Depictive Secondary Predication (DSP) and (ii) to appear as non-agreeing in contexts affected by the Person Case Constraint (PCC). It argues that, contrary to the rest of the datives, goals are generated as PPs, since they are unable to license DSP, but able to occur as non-agreeing in PCC-affected contexts. Besides, despite exhibiting the same categorical status as causee, experiencer and possessor datives, it claims that dom objects are syntactically identical to canonical absolutives, as they show the same configurational as well as Case licensing pattern, which is based on v-Agree.

Конструкции с депиктивными второстепенными предикатами со своим собственным грамматическим субъектом в сибирских тюркских языках

Specific syntactic constructions of complex predicates that assign more than one predicate to their semantic subject are well known cross-linguistically. Examples of such constructions are structures such as He returned tired, lived alone, worked as a teacher, etc. They contain two semantic predicates – a main one expressed by a finite verb form, and a secondary one, often expressed by a nominal form or an infinite verb form. Our research has shown that depictive predicates have their structural and functional peculiarities in different South Siberian Turkic languages, compared between themselves and with depictives in Oguz and Kypchak languages. The article deals with South Siberian depictive secondary predicates and describes their semantic and structural types. A special attention is paid to depictive predicates having a subject, different from the subject of the main predicate.

Depictive Secondary Predicates and Small Clause Approaches to Argument Structure

Some syntactic approaches to argument structure posit small clause constituents to represent what they take to be the semantics of the constructions being analyzed. For example, this approach would analyze a resultative construction like Martha hammered the metal flat as containing a small clause [the metal flat]. In the small clause analysis, the NP the metal is only an argument of the result state denoted by the small clause, and its referent is not part of the causal hammering event. Depictive secondary predicates show that this analysis is incorrect; the NP referent must be part of the verbal causing event. I show this for several constructions that have been analyzed as small clauses: resultatives, caused-motion constructions, verb-particle constructions, and double object constructions, among others. I also revisit arguments that have been presented in favor of small clause analyses (e.g., the argument from adverbial modification) and show that they do not actually favor small clause analyses. Domains of anaphora, in contrast, converge with depictives as a reliable diagnostic for small clauses, as actual small clauses always constitute opaque domains for anaphora.

On Discourse Features Inheritance in the vP Information Structure: Evidence from Depictive Secondary Predication in Standard Arabic

AbstractIn this paper, I present an argument based on empirical data from depictive secondary predication in Standard Arabic (SA) for the assumption that the light v is merged with discourse features that V inherits at some point of derivation (Miyagawa 2010; Jimenez Fernandez & Spyropoulos 2013). The depictive structure in SA exhibits different word order permutations that correspond to the discourse properties of the structure. As such, SA manifests itself as a discourse‐agreement language with discourse and phi‐agreement features on the phase head (e.g., C or v) being transferred into relevant heads of phase complements (e.g., T or V). Such an environment triggers the different rearrangements of the depictive phrase within the vP under Last Resort. To enable movement out of the non‐subcategorized structure of the adjunct small clause, I employ a sideward movement strategy (Nunes 1995, 2001, 2004) to derive the pattern in question.1

Parallel Derivation of Spanish Depictive Secondary Predication

The depictive secondary predication construction has two subject-predicate relationships in one clause, providing two propositional interpretations. This article proposes that the primary predication, which consists of a main verb, and the secondary predication, made up of a secondary predicate, are simultaneously derived in separate derivational planes; this proposal reflects a property of the secondary predicate that is not included in the θ-grid of the primary predicate. The idea of using Parallel Merge to merge these two planes that share a common element allows us to understand the secondary predication construction in a novel way.

On the Affected Construction in Korean

This paper revisits the structure of the so-called “adversity” construction in Korean. The construction is formed by attaching the idiosyncratic -i/-hi/-li/-ki suffixes to some transitive roots, but differ from typical inchoative/passive constructions, which also involve the -i/-hi/-li/-ki allomorphy. I show that the peculiarities of the construction arise due to the selectional relationships among syntactic heads—active Voice, high applicative, verbalizer—as well as an implied PRO argument. I motivate the analysis with various pieces of evidence—the behaviors of depictive secondary predicates, properties of case marking and agent-oriented adverbs, as well as scope interpretation. I then show that a three-way distinction among the construction in question and two types of passives in Korean emerges due to two syntactic factors: the type of the Voice head and the syntactic position of the relevant verbal suffixes. Finally, some implications regarding the semantics of Voice and high applicative are discussed.

Circumstantial versus Depictive Secondary Predicates in Literary Hebrew—The Influence of Yiddish and Russian

This article discusses the development of circumstantial secondary predicates in late Enlightenment and early Modern literary Hebrew under the influence of adverbial participle constructions in substrate languages, primarily Yiddish and Russian. Circumstantial secondary predicates differ from depictive secondary predicates, which are well-attested in Classical Hebrew.

The semantics of depictive secondary predication in chiShona

This article describes chiShona verb meaning using the event-based semantics approach. The analysis adopted in this article is couched within the framework first introduced by Davidson and then developed by many other scholars including Parsons, Dowty, Rapoport, Landman and Rothstein. The main aim is to have an appreciation of secondary predication as one way of dealing with verb semantics. This outline will use chiShona to show what true depictives are and how they behave, as well as proving that certain features of depictives, highlighted in literature, are not found in other languages of the world. It will be argued that in the chiShona language the subject and object orientation of the depictives is influenced by the overt agreement marking system. While in other languages, like English, it is argued that object-oriented depictives of activity verbs are ungrammatical, chiShona provides evidence as one of the languages where both subject-oriented and object-oriented depictives are grammatical. The arguments raised here inform future work on chiShona semantics and event semantics in general.

Differential Object Marking and the nature of dative Case in Basque varieties*

This article analyzes the nature of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Basque varieties. It demonstrates that, despite their identical dative morphology, DOM objects display a different syntax to goal indirect objects. Based on the licensing of depictive secondary predication and on the absolutive marking of non-human and indefinite objects, it argues that DOM objects are generated in a direct rather than indirect object configuration. Moreover, given the tight relation between case and agreement in ditransitive constructions and the possibility to check Case in Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) contexts, it proposes that dative Case in DOM is structurally checked in an Agree relation against a functional head of the verbal agreement complex. The article thus identifies a different dative argument which has not been previously characterized in this manner: one that does not originate within an applicative or postpositional phrase and checks Case structurally.

English Depictive Secondary Predication: A Lexicalist Approach to Participant Orientation

English Depictive Secondary Predication: A Lexicalist Approach to Participant Orientation

The family of object-related depictives in English and Spanish: towards a usage-based constructionist analysis

Drawing on naturally-occurring data extracted from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA) in conjunction with data elicited from native speakers by means of questionnaires, this paper provides a bottom-up, usage-based analysis of instances of depictive secondary predicates involving mainly verba cogitandi (e.g. “considerar”/“consider”, “encontrar”/“find”, etc.) in English and Spanish. Building on Gonzálvez-García [Gonzálvez-García, F., 2006a. Passives without Actives: Evidence from Verbless Complement Constructions in Spanish. Constructions SV1-5/2006; Gonzálvez-García, F., 2003. Reconstructing object complements in English and Spanish. In: Martínez Vázquez, M. (Eds.), Gramática de Construcciones (Contrastes entre el Inglés y el Español). Grupo de Gramática Contrastiva, Huelva, pp. 17–58], these configurations are argued to be constructions in their own right, viz. the subjective–transitive construction. The main focus of this paper is on the investigation of the most salient semantico-pragmatic hallmarks of four lower-level configurations of the subjective–transitive construction in the light of coercion [Michaelis, L.A., 2003a. Word meaning, sentence meaning, and syntactic meaning. In: Cuyckens, H., Dirven, R., Taylor, J., (Eds.), Cognitive Approaches to Lexical Semantics. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin and New York, pp. 163–209; Michaelis, L.A., 2003b. Headless constructions and coercion by construction. In: Francis, E., Michaelis, L.A., (Eds.), Mismatch: Form-Function Incongruity and the Architecture of Grammar. CSLI, Stanford, pp. 259–310; Michaelis, L.A., 2004a. Type shifting in construction grammar: an integrated approach to aspectual coercion. Cognitive Linguistics 15 (1), 1–67; Michaelis, L.A., 2004b. Why we believe that syntax is construction-based. Unpublished plenary delivered at the Third International Conference on Construction Grammar(s), Université de Provence, Marseille, July 9, 2004.] via (i) obligatory reflexive pronouns in the object slot, (ii) a progressive verb form with an inherently stative situation/state of affairs, (iii) an imperative verb with a prima facie non-controllable situation/state of affairs, and (iv) an imperfect tense with a counterfactual interpretation. It is shown that while the first three types of coercion are observable in both English and Spanish, type (iv) points to an interesting asymmetry between these two languages, thus lending further credence to the assumption that argument structure is construction-specific as well as language-specific. Moreover, it is demonstrated that these configurations can be aptly regarded as a family of constructions and that a non-monotonic, default inheritance system of the type invoked in the cognitively-influenced strand of Construction Grammar [Goldberg, A.E., 1995. Constructions. A Construction Approach to Argument Structure. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London; Goldberg, A.E., 2006. Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford University Press, New York] can capture the commonalities and the idiosyncratic particulars of these conventional extensions in the construct-i-con.