External Argument Research Articles

Pluractional Motion Verbs in Turkish

In this paper, we examine a small set of motion verbs in Turkish bearing the so-called ‘reciprocal’ suffix -(I)ş: kaç-ış- ‘flee in all directions’ (cf. kaç- ‘flee’), koş-uş- ‘run helter-skelter’ (cf. koş- ‘run’), uç-uş- ‘fly helter-skelter’ (cf. uç- ‘fly’). It has previously been claimed that these are collective or sociative verbs entailing a low elaboration of events and/or plural participants. We show that these -(I)ş-marked verbs, in fact, require a higher degree of individuation of events than do their unmarked counterparts. Furthermore, we show that a stipulation directly associating the suffix with a requirement for a plural subject is both unnecessary and inadequate. Instead, we propose that the pluractional under investigation manipulates the denoted events’ spatial and temporal properties in such a way that the predicate can only be felicitously used if it combines with a plural external argument.

Causative Construction in Hail Arabic: A Minimalist Account

Natural language marks causation by variable means which fall into three categories: (i) periphrastic, (ii) lexical, and (iii) morphological. In this study, the researcher utilizes Minimalist Program (MP) to analyze causative construction in Hail Arabic (HA), a spoken dialect in Saudi Arabia. According to our findings, HA exhibits the three types of causation: morphological, lexical, and periphrastic. I propose that causative constructions project a CAUSE head below the tense node (T), which gives rise to a causative meaning. Also, I assume that the CAUSE head is not always overtly realized in HA due to the various strategies for forming causative. In lexical causative, for instance, I assume that there is a null causative feature on the CAUSE, the head of the Cause Phrase (CauseP), which provides the sentence with a causative interpretation. On the other hand, in periphrastic and morphological causatives, I show that the CAUSE head is filled with the causative particle xalla ‘made’ or with a causal affix. I demonstrate that the three types of causation require an additional argument (i.e., a causer) in addition to an internal argument (a causee). I claim that there is a Voice Phrase (VoiceP) beneath the CauseP that is responsible for introducing the internal argument (the causee). Additionally, I assume that the external argument (i.e., the causer) is base generated in the specifier (Spec) position of the Cause Phrase (Spec, CauseP) before it raises to Spec, TP to satisfy the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) feature.

Prepositional Verbs and the Individual-/Stage-Level distinction

Drawing on Catalan, we show how the aspectual classification of intransitive prepositional verbs is, partially, a predictor of their argument structure properties. Prepositional verbs qualifying as Stage-Level form a heterogeneous class, comprising both unergative and unaccusative verbs. By contrast, those prepositional verbs that qualify as Individual-Level predicates are homogenous as regards argument structure: their prepositional complement is robustly obligatory and their subject is not an external argument, suggesting that they involve a predicative configuration whose predicate is the prepositional complement. This result supports the more general Property Verbalization Constraint hypothesis (Acedo-Matellán 2019), which states that Individual-Level property predicates cannot be encoded as unergative verbs.

Verbal classifiers from a crosslinguistic and cross-modal point of view

Abstract: Whether spoken language verbal classifiers and sign language classifier handshapes are comparable enough to be treated similarly is a subject of debate in the literature. In this article, I first show that both spoken language verbal classifiers and sign language classifier handshapes cross-reference the internal argument in intransitive and transitive clauses. Despite differences in the modality of expression (visual-gestural vs. auditory-oral), verbal classifiers end up accomplishing this same kind of work in the grammar, which falls under absolutive alignment. From a morphosyntactic point of view, however, there is more to the story, as data from body-part classifiers reveal. I show that Turkish Sign Language (TİD) is similar to Manam, Diegueño, and Cherokee with regard to classifiers cross-referencing the external or internal argument’s body part. While some of this falls outside of absolutive alignment because cross-reference is to the external argument, I show that the syntactic distributions of clauses with body-part classifiers in both modalities can be accounted for with a few modifications to recent morphosyntactic proposals originally offered for sign languages. This supports the conclusion that verbal classifiers are comparable across modalities. Along the way, I refine Benedicto and Brentari’s (2004) account and propose that there are building blocks (selected fingers and hand-parts) in the morphophonology of TİD that combine to yield the range of classifiers that researchers hitherto have tended to describe with holistic labels. Namely, all classifier types in sign languages (whole entity, handling, and body part) employ selected fingers that cross-reference the internal argument in some way, similarly to how many spoken language verbal classifiers cross-reference internal arguments. Furthermore, handling and body-part classifiers make use of hand-parts that can cross-reference the body part of the external argument. Similarities between the spoken languages Manam, Diegueño, and Cherokee and the sign language TİD in cross-referencing the body part of an argument in syntax become clear, and the morphophonological patterns of hand-parts also reveal handling and body-part classifiers in sign languages to be more similar than previously thought.

Deriving Ewe (Tongugbe)nyá-constructions

AbstractEwe (Kwa, Niger-Congo) has a construction known in the literature as thenyá-construction (Ameka 1991,2005a;Collins 1993;Duthie 1996;Adjei 2014). The logical internal argument of the construction occurs in subject position and the logical external argument is either absent on the surface or represented in the construction as afor-PP. In this paper, I consider the syntax of the Ewenyá-construction, exploring data from the Tongugbe dialect. I show that thenyá-construction shares properties with English middles. I demonstrate that the agent or experiencerfor-PP that may occur in thenyá-construction is its external argument, projected in Spec vP. Further, I argue that even if thefor-PP is not overtly realized, it is syntactically projected in Spec vP, contrary to theories likeBruening 2013. The analysis I put forward provides support for the Theta-Criterion, which forces all arguments to be syntactically projected.

Involvee causatives in Turkish

In this study, we investigate a morphologically but not semantically causative construction in Turkish, which we label ‘involvee causative’ (InvC). In contrast to regular causative, the external argument in InvCs is not interpreted as an agent or causer but as merely being involved in or experiencing the event. Additionally, InvCs also differ from regular causatives in not licensing agent-oriented adverbs, instrument phrases and passivization. In previous research, failure of these diagnostics to apply has been taken as evidence for an unaccusative structure. However, we argue against such an analysis for InvCs and show that the latter contain a thematic Voice head. The above diagnostics, we conclude, are sensitive not only to the syntactic status of the external argument but also to its semantic properties, and are licensed only if the argument receives an agentive interpretation.

Subject nominalizations in Setswana

Agent nominalizations of an object-bearing transitive predicate require of-insertion in many languages, including English (e.g., driver *(of ) a truck). Note that the same transitive predicate is not associated with of-insertion in the clausal syntax (e.g., drive (*of ) a truck). This work provides empirical evidence from Setswana (Bantu) and suggests that of-insertion is not necessary in Setswana agent nominalizations and subject nominalizations, more broadly construed. As long as the syntactic licensing requirements are satisfied, they need not resort to of-insertion. Additionally, I add weight to the claim that an external argument can be represented inside subject nominalizations (Baker & Vinokurova 2009). Adopting the Phrasal Layering approach (Alexiadou & Schäfer 2010, among others), I argue that parallels can be drawn between the nominal domain and the clausal domain in Setswana.

Interpreting causee in a ‘permissive’ causative: A case study on Teochew

The verbal domain has been long argued to be a strong phase, of which the origin can be traced back to the discussions on theta role assignment in Chomsky (2000). This study contributes to the phasehood issue at the understudied LF by exploring the argument thematic interpretation in the verbal domain. I argue that in Teochew permissive bun-causative, the interpretation of causee as an understudied external argument is not listed as syntactic primitives, but rather as post-syntactic derivatives derived from syntactically-oriented causal event structure. Such a causal event structure is first affected by the eventuality of the embedded predicate and then influenced by two modalities sublexically encoded in the embedding causative verb, namely a volitional modality in the at-issue meaning and a deontic modality in the presupposition. Such a two-step contextualization mechanism constrains the final interpretation of causee, and, for the first time, sheds light on discussions on the domain sensitivity at LF.

Hybrid subjects in Spanish and Catalan: Halfway between Agents and Patients

We analyze an intransitive construction involving verbs like Spanish matarse ‘kill’ whose subjects appear to have both internal and external argument properties. Examples include Juan se mató en un accidente de coche ‘Juan got himself killed in a car accident’, in which the subject’s referent shows hybrid behavior between agent and patient as it needs to be engaged in an action leading to its accidental death. We propose that the subject’s internal and external argument properties can be accounted for if subjects can bear two semantic roles by virtue of being associated with more than one distinct head in the syntax (Pineda & Berro 2020). We argue that such intransitive uses involve a distinct argument structure from transitive reflexives despite sharing the same surface form, cf., El sospechoso del homicidio se mató al estar rodeado por la policía ‘The suspect killed himself when he was surrounded by the police’. The present account provides evidence that agents and external arguments do not always correlate since some verb classes can have identical surface form, despite involving underlyingly distinct argument alignment.

Passive without morphology

Abstract This paper examines the syntax of a novel construction I call Passive without Morphology (PwM) constructions in Bùlì and the question of whether they have projected external arguments. The main proposal that I argue for is that PwM constructions in all their occurrences possess projected implicit external arguments. The discussions presented in the paper provide empirical as well as theoretical support for the classification of passives (Keenan and Dryer 2007) and a theory of passives and implicit arguments (Collins 2021). This paper argues that the internal argument moves to Spec,TP in two steps: first, the VP moves into Spec, VoiceP and from there the internal argument raises to Spec,TP (Collins 2005, 2021).

Dispositional middle constructions with accusative objects in Slovenian

This paper provides a study of an impersonal type of dispositional middle construction that appears in Slovenian. This impersonal construction atypically contains an undemoted thematic external argument in syntax, but nevertheless ascribes a disposition to the internal one in semantics, which goes against previous assumptions about the way in which syntax and semantics interact in middles. On the basis of this Slovenian construction, the paper develops a new syntactic and semantic analysis of the modal phrase whose head contributes the dispositional interpretation and assigns it to the internal argument. The paper shows how such an analysis accounts for both non-canonical Slovenian middles with syntactically realised external arguments as well as the more prototypical middles without external arguments both in Slovenian and English. Finally, the paper proposes why the external argument in the Slovenian impersonal middle is – exceptionally – not an intervener for the dispositional assignment.

Control in Romanian and Se constructions

In this paper, we account for different patterns found in complement clauses of se constructions in Romanian and Spanish. In Romanian, a se construction cannot host an infinitival complement, an apparently controlled clause, whereas in Spanish a se construction can. However, when an additional se is added to the complement clause (a “double se construction”), the Romanian structure becomes grammatical, while the Spanish equivalent becomes ungrammatical. The Romanian patterns have been previously argued in Giurgea & Cotfas (2021) to be cases of control, with a failed agreement relation forcing the obligatory presence of se in the complement. We propose an alternative based on two major differences found in Romanian and Spanish. First, in se constructions, Spec, Voice is saturated by the external argument in Spanish, but it is unsaturated in Romanian. We argue that this prevents the external argument in Romanian from acting as a controller. Second, Romanian infinitival clauses appear to share properties with finite clauses, in contrast to Spanish. We argue that the grammatical Romanian double se construction is not an instance of control and suggest that it is the finite nature of the infinitival complement that allows for a double se construction.

Introducing agents by binding indices: Implications for subjectless presuppositions and agent entailments.

(Bale 2007) argues, on the basis of the differential availability of subjectless repetitive presuppositions with again with certain verb classes, that the agent argument of eventive transitive verbs is introduced VP-externally (Kratzer 1996), but that the agent argument of intranstive and stative transitive verbs must be taken as a true argument by the verb. We challenge Bale’s claim from two directions. First, we observe that two classes of eventive transitive verbs, resist subjectless presuppositions with again. Second, we show that the unavailability of subjectless presuppositions with these and other verb classes is not an ironclad argument against severing agents from their verbs generally, and, develop a semantic analysis, inspired by an analysis of stative transitive verbs due to Hale & Keyser (2002), on which the relevant classes of verbs inherently make reference to the agent of their event argument in the form of an anaphoric index. This index is subsequently bound by a functional head that introduces the agent argument. The facts and analysis proposed here have wider theoretical implications for the way agents qua external arguments are introduced in general, suggesting that verbs of certain classes and VP-external functional heads may both play crucial roles in the syntactic introduction of the agent argument and its interaction with sublexical modifiers like again.

Argument structure hierarchies and alternations in causative and double object constructions

Many varieties of Arabic display a causative construction that adds a causer to the argument structure of the underlying verb. When this verb is transitive, the causative derivative is ditransitive. In the Arabic varieties, these ditransitive causative verbs display a double object alternation fully parallel to the alternation that change of possession verbs like give display. I claim that two current analyses of the double object alternation do not extend naturally to Arabic causative constructions. Rather, the parallels between causative and change of possession ditransitives in Arabic implicate an analysis of change of possession verbs in which the recipient argument (parallel to the external argument of the underlying verb in causative ditransitives) is base generated syntactically superordinate to the theme (parallel to the internal argument of the underlying verb in causative ditransitives). The unifying analysis I propose draws on certain elements of the ‘VP-shell’ analysis of Larson (1988) as well as the ‘neo-constructionist’ approach of Ramchand (2008; 2018) regarding the syntactic instantiation of argument structure. The Arabic variety I take as an exemplar of the Arabic causative construction is Syrian.

The -eci Syncretism in Korean: Implications for the Theory of v and Voice

Abstract This paper investigates the syncretism exhibited by the Korean verbal suffix -eci. In addition to its widely known appearance in the passive construction, -eci can also be used to derive verbs expressing potentiality. In this paper, I show that two independently motivated theoretical tools — (i) the articulated verbal structure with root, verbalizer, and Voice; and (ii) the assumption that morphological identity signifies the morpheme's realization of an identical syntactic head — accurately explain the passive-potential syncretism in Korean. Specifically, I argue that -eci realizes a syntactic head that the passive and potential structures have in common: vGO, the verbalizer marking the eventuality of ‘change’. I attribute the systematic morpho-syntactic and semantic contrasts between passives and potentials to the (non)existence of VoicePASS, the projection introducing an implicit external argument. The analysis successfully captures the properties of the other constructions formed upon -eci — namely, derived change-of-state and lexical inchoative predicates.

Alternating arguments of Polish psych verbs

This paper focuses on the Experiencer Object (EO)/Experiencer Subject (ES) alternation in Polish. This alternation is viewed here as distinct from the causative/anticausative alternation, because eventive EO verbs do not pattern like change of state (COS) verbs, and their reflexive ES alternants are unergative, not unaccusative. Eventive EO verbs share a common base with their ES counterparts, which corresponds to an unergative vP, with the experiencer merged in a low external argument position, viz. Spec, vP (Tollan 2018), not in Spec, VoiceP. The difference between causative EO verbs and their ES cognates lies in the Voice layer; in the former, the causer argument occupies the specifier of thematic VoiceP, while in the latter the Voice is expletive, filled with the reflexivemarker się. Despite sharing the common base, eventive EO verbs and their reflexive ES variantsare not derivationally related by a syntactic rule, as neither of the two structures can be treated as the basic one. The same reflexive marker with the same function and structural position is foundin Polish anticausatives, which also share a common base with their causative counterparts. The common base, this time, however, corresponds to an unaccusative, not unergative, vP.

On Realizing External Arguments: A Syntactic and Implicature Theory of the Disjointness Effect for Passives in Adult and Child Grammar

We present an account of why disjoint reference effects obtain in verbal but not in adjectival passives. Passives in child language are independently argued to always be adjectival, which allows us to use a natural experiment in child grammar that is not available in the adult grammar: predicting the lack of a disjoint reference effect in even those passives that prima facie seem verbal. We conduct our discussion against the background of the difference between adjectival and verbal passives in general. Our account is based on (grammatical) Implicature Theory. Since the initiator in the semantic representation of adjectival passives stays at a kind level, it cannot introduce a discourse referent, hence cannot trigger a disjointness implicature, unlike the initiator in verbal passives (Gehrke 2013, 2015). We show in two experiments that children’s passives do not exhibit disjoint reference, unlike adults’ verbal passives, even though children have no trouble computing disjointness implicatures elsewhere. Our contribution thus confirms with a novel kind of evidence the syntactic nature of young children’s difficulty with verbal passives. It offers a new perspective on the external argument difference between verbal and adjectival passives based on Reinhart’s (2016) Theta System, while also offering additional evidence for a grammatical, rather than general pragmatic, theory of implicatures.

Noticed and appreciated? The role of argument diversity in enhancing news credibility and reader satisfaction

Although viewpoint diversity is a key value for audiences, journalism and media policy, not much is known about how audiences process and evaluate it. This is critical because any positive effect we might expect from a broad range of views (e.g., on opinion formation) requires that recipients recognize and appreciate it as a part of news content. The current study examines how news readers process and evaluate argument diversity as a specific aspect of viewpoint diversity. In a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject experiment, 1363 subjects were exposed to news reports containing a diverse or homogenous set of arguments in the context of two currently debated issues (artificial intelligence and immigration). Reports were either published by a single or multiple media outlets to determine potential differences between internal and external argument diversity. We find that readers not only recognize the presence of argument diversity, but that it leads to an increase in overall news satisfaction. This increase can be attributed to a higher credibility of news reports with diverse arguments.

MENTAL STATE, VOLITION AND ARGUMENT REALIZATION

We explore argument realization in the resultative V-de construction under the framework of the Theta System. We find that the theta grids of the resultative V- de construction are of two types, i.e., ([+c-m], [-c]) and ([+cm], [-m]), depending on the (a-)thematic relation between the verb and second/internal argument. Crucially, the external argument always has a /- m feature (the minus value of the mental state), regardless of its animacy, leading to a non-volitional Agent reading (animate) and a Cause reading (inanimate). It is due to this [+c-m] feature cluster that the construction yields an unintended result reading, which captures its preference for the occurrence of dou ‘unexpectedly’ in the construction. In this sense, the resultative V- de construction can be considered as a non-volitional counterpart to its de -less counterpart. This contrast signals the grammatical/morphological coding of volition, with the assistance of de , in Mandarin Chinese. As for the internal argument, it can be either [-c] or [-m], and their syntactic and semantic differences lend credence to the distinction between “outer objects” and “outermost objects”. The syntactic distribution of [-c] is sensitive to animacy, with animate [-c] being allowed to in both [NP1 V- de NP2 XP] and [NP1 ba-NP2 V-de XP], and inanimate [-c] in [NP1 ba -NP2 V- de XP] only, due to the interactions between animacy and case. As for [-m], it occurs in [NP1 V- de NP2 XP], in which NP2 is not thematically related to V and ba -introduction is barred. This study enriches the Theta System with Chinese data, in special regard to how animacy, mental state, and volition may affect argument realization.

Case and agreement puzzle in the Moksha debitive

Abstract This paper is dedicated to the debitive construction in Moksha Mordvin, which exhibits patterns unusual for a dative-infinitive construction (DIC). The non-finite verb can agree with its internal argument but not with the external one. The internal argument can bear both the definite nominative case, which is otherwise restricted to subjects of finite clauses, and the definite genitive case, which can mark both direct objects and definite possessors. Personal agreement is mandatory in the former case but prohibited in the latter. I propose that the Moksha debitive construction includes a null modal verb that assigns dative to the external argument of the infinitive. The case marking on the internal argument is determined by its structural position, in accordance with Dependent Case Theory. The case of Moksha demonstrates that the dative case in DICs can be inherent (contra what has been argued on the basis of Russian DICs) and that an argument for biclausality can be constructed based on case and agreement patterns.