External Argument Research Articles

Content Externalism, Truth Conditions, and Truth Values

Yli-Vakkuri (2018) offers a deductive argument for Content Externalism that primarily appeals to two main principles he says should be adopted by all parties to the debate. Sawyer (2018) criticizes this argument on the grounds that there are internalist theories that are not consistent with the two principles he offers, although she takes no issue with the derivation itself. While Sawyer’s critique is insightful and largely correct, there is a more fundamental problem with the original argument. The formal proof given in the original paper begs the question. The informal argument is enthymematic, and all the possible valid reconstructions require assumptions that can be legitimately rejected by content internalists. This is significant to point out as someone might think that the internalist views that Sawyer says are not consistent with the two principles that drive Yli-Vakkuri’s argument can be successfully challenged and thereby the original argument defended.

Regular and copular fragments in Basaá

AbstractThe aim of this Article is to propose that fragment answers in Basaá (Bantu) derive from two different sources, namely, a regular source and a copular source. Regular fragments are those that are derived by movement of a Negative Polarity Item (NPI) or a CP complement to the left periphery of the clause followed by clausal ellipsis (Merchant 2004 and related work). Conversely, copular fragments involve a biclausal structure whereby the focalized fragment, no matter the syntactic function it fulfills in clause structure, finally ends up being the subject of the null verbal copula of the main clause. The fragment is initially selected as the external argument of the null verbal copula within the matrix VP along the lines of the VP-Internal Subject Hypothesis (Koopman and Sportiche 1991). From Spec-VP it raises to Spec-TP to satisfy the EPP requirements. The internal argument of the null copula is a headless relative in which a relative operator (covert/overt) moves to Spec-CP, a position above FocP the target of ellipsis. This gives rise to a structure whereby the fragment answer in the matrix clause and the relative operator in the embedded clause resist ellipsis. The analysis also provides semantic evidence that copular fragments are not clefts. The ellipsis approach is supported by a range of grammatical properties such as connectivity effects, locality constraints and subcategorization requirements. This paper is not only a contribution to Merchant’s (2004) ellipsis approach but it also provides new evidence for our understanding of the crosslinguistic variation of ellipsis.

Spanish participios activos are adjectival antipassives

Abstract In many languages a set of adjectives are characterized by their “past/passive” participial morphology. Lexicalist and syntactic approaches to word formation converge on the claim that such adjectives can be derived from verbal inputs with no external argument but never from verbal inputs with an external argument. That is, there are “adjectival passives” but no “adjectival antipassives” marked with the same morphology. I argue that a sub-class of adjectives marked with the “past/passive” participial morpheme –do in Spanish, labeled participios activos in descriptive grammars, should be treated as adjectival antipassives in precisely this sense. I propose that Spanish has an Asp head that (i) is spelled out with “past/passive” participial morphology and (ii) selects an unergative verbal input creating a state/property whose argument corresponds to the external argument of that verbal source. If on the right track, the proposal supports the existence of a typology of adjectivizing heads that are spelled out uniformly with “past/passive” participial morphology but must be distinguished in terms of selectional and semantic properties (Bruening 2014, Word formation is syntactic: Adjectival passives in English. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32. 363–422; Embick 2004, On the structure of resultative participles in English. Linguistic Inquiry 35. 355–392). It differs from previous approaches in claiming that such a typology must include root-derived adjectives, as well as ‘active (=unergative)’ and ‘passive’ deverbal adjectives.

Lexical Constraints on the Formation of -er Nominals Derived from Intransitive Verbs

The English suffix -er has long been considered as a morpho-syntactic diagnostic for split intransitivity since -er nominals are derived only from verbs that have external arguments. Therefore, the formation of an -er nominal derived from an intransitive verb should be based on an unergative verb (a verb that have an external argument) instead of an unaccusative one (a verb that have an internal argument). As split intransitivity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, the formation of -er nominals is actually semantically predictable. Two approaches in the literature, the projectionist and gradient approach, give a detailed explanation for the semantic constraints on determining a verb' argument as either external or internal. Compared with the projectionist approach, the gradient approach seems to offer a better account to predict some verbs are more consistent in forming an -er nominal while others exhibit variation.

On the -key toy-construction as Implicit Causatives

The -key toy-construction is sometimes analyzed as periphrastic passives. The passive analysis, however, faces empirical and theoryinternal problems, suggesting that it may not be passives. It is instead proposed that they are a kind of causatives whose causers are implicit. -key is a phonological substantiation of a functional head licensing a causee. Both -key ha- and -key toystructures share a common complement whose head is realized as -key. The shared complement denotes a caused event. The difference between the two periphrastic constructions resides in the nature of the causative verbs involved. The causative auxiliary verb -ha projects its external argument, the causer, while the other “causative” auxiliary verb -toy does not. This “unaccusative” causative verb suppresses the causer on a par with a passivization suppresses an external argument, which is sometimes realized as an adjunct. The -key toy-construction is a causative whose causer is not present while the periphrastic causative explicitly projects a causer.

Psychological verbs as a vulnerable syntactic domain: A comparative study of Latin and Italian

So-called psychological verbs such as Italian temere ‘fear’, preoccupare ‘worry’, and piacere ‘like’ denote a particular state that involves an Experiencer and a second role taker that causes, initiates or is related to the psychological state. They present an extremely varied argument structure across languages that arranges these two roles in apparently inverted hierarchies and assigns them different grammatical functions (subject, direct, indirect and prepositional objects). This paper aims to provide a descriptively adequate taxonomy of psych-verbs in Latin in a comparative perspective with Italian. We individuate seven classes of psych-verbs and show that they distribute across the transitive, unergative, unaccusative pattern with the possibility of externalising either argument, therefore creating three “direct” and three “inverted” classes. The seventh class is impersonal, with no external argument. We show that the diachronic variation and apparent idiosyncrasies displayed by some verbs can be explained by the proposal that the seven classes are potentially available to all psych-roots. For this reason, psych-verbs present a high degree of vulnerability in language contact and change which results in intra-language optionality and diachronic variation.

The properties of perfect(ive) and (eventive) passive participles: An identity approach

This paper sheds light on the properties of perfect(ive) and (eventive) passive participles on the basis of a discussion of the issue of past participial (non-)identity. In fact, as there is no evidence for the substantial non-identity of the two forms, a principled case is made for the identity of past participles in passive and perfect periphrases based on diachronic as well as synchronic considerations. While the historical predecessors of past participles boil down to deverbal adjectives that combine argument structural effects (the absence of an external argument) as well as aspectual properties (resultativity), synchronic data indicates that the contribution of the reanalysed eventive past participles is still two-fold: (i) the (syntactic) suppression of an external argument (if present), and (ii) aspectual properties that render a given situation perfective iff the underlying predicate denotes a simple change of state. This accounts for the interpretations of past participles when combined with semantically vacuous auxiliaries (be and become): passive properties arise if (i) applies and (ii) thus cannot impose perfectivity (the eventive passive), and perfect properties ensue if (ii) applies but (i) does not (the be-perfect in languages showing auxiliary alternation). The perfect auxiliary have, on the other hand, may overtly license an argument that would otherwise remain suppressed and contributes relevant perfect properties (posteriority) so that combinations with have elicit active perfect interpretations (where perfectivity may but need not come about via implication).

Raising to Ergative: Remarks on Applicatives of Unaccusatives

Applicatives of unaccusatives provide a crucial test case for the inherent-case view of ergativity. If ergative is assigned only to external arguments, in their θ-positions, there can be no “raising to ergative” in applicative unaccusatives; an internal argument subject can never receive ergative case. In this article, I present evidence from Nez Perce (Sahaptian) that this prediction is false. In Nez Perce applicative unaccusatives, the theme argument raises over the applicative argument and is accordingly marked with ergative case. Nez Perce thus demonstrates raising to ergative. Departing from Baker’s (2014) conclusions for similar phenomena in Shipibo (Panoan), I argue that apparently nonlocal movement of the theme in the raising-to-ergative pattern involves not a covert adpositional structure, but rather a response to independently motivated constraints on antilocal movement and remnant movement.

Asymmetry of Deletion within the Pied-Piping Fragment

Fragment answers may form complex phrases within which an answer to the wh-correlate is embedded. Such fragments are dubbed “pied-piping” fragments, and the previous research observed that there is an asymmetry in deletion within the pied-piping fragment with respect to its position. While deletion is possible when the pied-piping fragment appears in final position, it is impossible when the fragment appears in non-final positions. To account for the asymmetry, two important factors have been addressed in the current research. Departing from the standard focus projection rules, the research follows a revised version of focus projection rules (Buring 2006, Chung 2015), in that external arguments or adjuncts may project up to the phrase that dominates them. This explains that the pied-piping fragment can receive [F]-marking and undergo focus-movement. In addition, scattered deletions are argued to be prohibited; two independent instances of ellipsis cannot be licensed within a sentence (Park 2016). Assuming that scattered deletions are generally banned in ellipsis contexts, the asymmetry is reduced to the difference in the timing of focus clustering. In final position the pied-piping fragment forms focus cluster with a higher [F]-marked fragment within VPs, so that nothing prevents it from undergoing focus movement. On the other hand, in non-final positions, the fragments form focus cluster in SpecFocP and necessarily fall into LF-intervention effects.

Why Sir Philip Sidney Chose the Dutch National Anthem as the Tune for a Song

ABSTRACT This article provides internal arguments, based on a close reading of the poem, proving that the poem is an elegy, and external arguments based on historical reseach, which lead to a rejection of the traditonally supposed identity of the person who is the subject of the poem, and provides the real identity of that person.

VOICE° AND V° CAUSE: EVIDENCE OF NON-VOICE BUNDLING IN NYUNGWE

While Marantz (1984) was the first to present the idea supporting the assumption that external arguments are not true arguments of their verbs, it was Kratzer (1996) who first developed a theory about how Marantz’s (1984) proposal can be executed in syntax. Kratzer (1996) suggested that external arguments are introduced by Voice, which has VP as its complement. Therefore, in recent studies within the Minimalist Program, Pylkkänen (2008) suggested that vP Cause and VoiceP are two independent projections in the inventory of functional heads. The aim of the present paper is to discuss non-Voice bundling parameter as proposed by Pylkkänen (2008) using data from Nyungwe, a Bantu language spoken by 457.290 people in two Mozambican provinces, namely, Tete and Manica, (SITOE and NGUNGA, 2000; NGUNGA and FAQUIR, 2011). In Nyungwe Voice° and Cause° are two functional heads projected independently.

Parameterizing split ergativity in Mayan

The purpose of this paper is to explain the variation of Case alignment in the accusative side of the ergative split of Kaqchikel, Chol and Q’anjob’al (Mayan). In particular, I will address contrastive alignments found in their accusative side. In the accusative side of Kaqchikel, the intransitive subject and the transitive subject alike are cross-referenced by the absolutive morpheme (also known as the set B marker in Mayan linguistics). On the other hand, the object of a transitive verb is cross-referenced by the ergative morpheme (or the set A marker). In the accusative side of Chol and Q’anjob’al, by contrast, both the intransitive subject and the transitive subject are cross-referenced by the set A marker, while the set B marker cross-references the transitive object. This contrast is unexpected, given that these languages have a (nearly) identical biclausal structure for their accusative side, as I will claim building on Laka (2006) and Coon (2010a, 2013a): the aspectual predicate forms a biclausal structure with a nominalized clause. I will argue that the contrastive alignments found in Kaqchikel, Chol and Q’anjob’al follow from a parametric difference regarding the nominalization involved in the accusative side of these languages. It will be proposed that the Restriction on Nominalization (RON) holds for Kaqchikel, whereas it does not apply to Chol and Q’anjob’al: the nominalized verb must lack a syntactically projected external argument. The RON will be developed, based on a similar observation made for nominalizations in Greek and some Indo-European languages among others (Alexiadou 2001). As will be demonstrated, the presence or absence of the RON and the type of alignment patterns in the accusative side of the ergative split are causally connected.

Stativity in the Causative Alternation? New Questions and a New Variant

AbstractThis paper discusses whether capacity to license an internal argument and eventivity are default properties of so-called change-of-state verbs.I draw attention to the claim that, in certain languages, the causative-inchoative alternation extends to a third, external-argument-only variant with stative behavior. Productivity and systematicity raise a host of problems for current generalizations on the Causative Alternation and change-of-state verbs for various reasons, starting from the long-held claim that unique arguments of change-of-state verbs are by default internal. Insofar as the causative component is independently realized in a noneventive, nonepisodic frame, this variant challenges (a) a widely agreed rule of event composition, wherebycause, if present, causally implicatesprocess; (b) the claim that cause(r) interpretation of the external argument is a byproduct of transitivization. The present discussion: (a) brings out a crosslanguage contrast bearing on default (cause/undergoer) interpretation of unique arguments in equipollent alternations; (b) provides new empirical data supporting the stativity of the (causative) outer v head; (c) substantiates important predictions in the literature (e.g. that verbs of causation should have stative readings; that external-argument-only variants of Object-Experiencer verbs should be found); (d) captures further verb classes allowing the alternation; and (e) shows crucial contrasts with other transitive-(in/a)transitive alternations involving null/arb objects. Aspect and determination of different (a)atransitivity alternations are central throughout.

Broad properties of beliefs

Abstract Yli-Vakkuri (2018) argues that content externalism can be established without thought experiments, as the deductive consequence of a pair of uncontroversial principles about beliefs, contents and truth. I argue that the most dialectically plausible motivation for the first principle, that truth is a broad property or beliefs, undermines the second principle, that the truth-value of a belief goes hand-in-hand with that of its content, and that other motivations are likely to depend on externalist thought experiments the argument was meant to avoid. As it stands, the argument for externalism therefore fails.

Clause structure, case and agreement in Polish existential, possessive and locative sentences: A phase-based account

Abstract In this paper it will be argued that the difference between existential and locative sentences is primarily structurally encoded at the vP/VP level (at the first phase of a derivation). The crucial question is which argument of the verb BE (the Location or the nominal argument (“Theme”)) is projected as the “external argument”, i.e., which argument is the subject of inner predication. In the case of existential sentences it is the Location argument which is the subject of inner predication, and in the case of locative sentences it is the nominal argument. The subject of inner predication becomes by default also the subject of outer predication, i.e., the topic of the sentence. Hence, in the case of locative sentences the nominal argument is the subject of outer predication, i.e., the topic of the sentence, and in the case of existential sentences it is the Location which becomes the topic. (Or, alternatively, the actual topic (the subject of outer predication) might be the situational/ event variable, and the Location functions as a restriction on it.) However, the actual arrangement of constituents in the sentences under discussion, as in any other Polish sentence, is determined by the pragmatic/communicative principles. Given this, it is reasonable to think that the NOM/GEN case alternation in negated existential/locative sentences is primarily a matter of syntax, and not one of information structure or scope of negation. The analysis will be modeled in accordance with the phasal model of Chomsky (2000 et seq.).

How numerals support new cognitive capacities

Mathematical cognition has become an interesting case study for wider theories of cognition. Menary (Open MIND 25(T):1–20, 2015) argues that arithmetical cognition not only shows that internalist theories of cognition are wrong, but that it also shows that the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition is right. I examine this argument in more detail, to see if arithmetical cognition can support such conclusions. Specifically, I look at how the use of numerals extends our arithmetical abilities from quantity-related innate systems to systems that can deal with exact numbers of arbitrary size. I then argue that the system underlying our grasp of small numbers is an unhelpful case study for Menary; it doesn’t support an argument for externalism over internalism. The system for large numbers, on the other hand, clearly displays important interactions between public numeral systems and our cognitive processes. I argue that the large number system supports an argument against internalist theories of arithmetical cognition, but that one cannot conclude that the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition is correct. In other words, the large number case doesn’t decide (on the basis of an inference to the best explanation) between the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition and the Hypothesis of EMbedded Cognition.

Aspectos morfológicos dos verbos na língua Mehináku (Arawak)

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é apresentar uma análise inicial da morfologia dos verbos na língua Mehináku (Arawak). Os verbos, nesta língua, dividem-se transitivamente em dois tipos: (i) verbos transitivos, que requerem dois argumentos obrigatórios (um agente/sujeito como argumento externo e um objeto como argumento interno) e (ii) verbos intransitivos, que admitem apenas um argumento (um agente/sujeito como argumento externo). Do ponto de vista morfológico, os verbos são acompanhados por prefixos pronominais, que geralmente representam o argumento externo da construção, além de sufixos marcadores de tempo e aspecto. Os argumentos internos não são marcados no verbo, mas expressos sintaticamente.

Deslocamento para a esquerda de argumento interno nas línguas Guaikurú

Várias línguas indígenas da América do Sul contam com o deslocamento para a esquerda de um argumento interno. Este deslocamento ocorre com argumentos de primeira ou segunda pessoa ou quando há saliência focal do objeto. Abordo o fenômeno nas línguas Guaikurú, faladas ente o Brasil, Argentina e Paraguai, e defendo que o argumento deslocado é movido para um especificador de TP.

How impersonal does one get?

This paper focuses on overt impersonal pronouns such as English one and Dutch men in eight Germanic languages (English, Frisian, Icelandic, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian and Swedish). Cinque (Linguist Inq 19:521–581, 1988), Egerland (Work Pap Scand Syntax 71:75–102, 2003), a.o., argued that there are two types of impersonal pronouns: one type that can occur in multiple syntactic positions but can only have a generic reading and another type that can have generic and existential readings but can only occur as an external argument. I show, based on novel data from ECM constructions, passives and unaccusatives, that it is not the syntactic position which restricts the distribution of men-type pronouns, but that it is case. English-type pronouns can occur with multiple cases, but can only have a generic inclusive reading. All Dutch-type pronouns can only occur with nominative case and can have multiple impersonal readings. Moreover, I show that Dutch and Swedish allow an existential reading when the pronoun is a derived subject (contra Cinque 1988; Egerland 2003). I propose a direction for this correlation between the different readings and case by assuming different feature make-ups for the pronouns, following Egerland (2003), Hoekstra (J Comp Ger Linguist 13:31–59, 2010), Ackema and Neeleman (A grammar of person. Linguistic inquiry monographs, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2018): one has $$\phi $$ -features and, therefore, always needs to be obligatorily inclusive; men lacks this functional layer and, therefore, has no restriction on its readings. Furthermore, I propose that since men lacks a phi-layer, it is too deficient to project a KP, and thus can only occur with unmarked nominative case.

Non-aspectual Case and Duration/Frequency Adverbials in Korean

Across languages, certain types of adverbials, such as duration and frequency adverbials, have been identified as being accusative case-marked just like objects. As case is canonically assigned to nominal arguments such as objects, central questions have been whether the case on these adverbials is syntactic like that on objects, and how to characterize the realization of accusative case on adverbials. In addressing these questions, this paper proposes that accusative case on adverbials is syntactic. In particular, what this paper newly proposes is that accusative case is not aspectual, and thus not licensed by an aspectual functional head (e.g., Asp), unlike in some previous studies of Korean and other languages. This paper provides a minimalist syntactic analysis in which accusative case is the result of an Agree relation between an adverbial and a functional head that introduces an external argument. In the course of executing this analysis, the paper clarifies the contribution of animacy and agency to the realization of accusative case.