Middle Construction Research Articles

The Semantic and Syntactic Constraints of Particle de and ni in Japanese middle construction

The Semantic and Syntactic Constraints of Particle de and ni in Japanese middle construction

On a post-syntactic account of the generic Middle Construction Markus Steinbach, Middle Voice: a comparative study in the syntax–semantics interface of German (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 50). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2002. Pp. xii+340.

A perennially challenging topic in generative syntax, the Middle Construction, has been the topic of several recent dissertations, including the book under review. Although not acknowledged as such in the published book, this is a moderately revised version of the Dr. Phil. (Promotion) dissertation, Middles in German: the syntax and semantics of transitive reflexive sentences, defended at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin in 1998. Steinbach's book is clearly the fullest treatment of the Middle Construction in German published in recent times. It presents an original and challenging analysis of this construction and offers a wealth of penetrating observations. As is natural for a review article, however, we will focus more on what we see as the problems and weaknesses of Steinbach's analysis than on the book's virtues.

What makes a good middle? The role of qualia in the interpretation and acceptability of middle expressions in English

Middle expressions (The car drives smoothly, The book doesn't sell, These chairs fold up) have long fascinated students of the English language. This article examines some of the factors which contribute to the acceptability of such expressions. Rejecting a lexicalist approach, which aims to identify a class of middle-forming verbs, we propose, instead, a global characterization of the construction, with specific focus on properties of the subject referent in association with the semantics of the predicate. The middle construction, we argue, presents a non-Agent participant as primarily responsible for the potential actualization of the process designated by the verb phrase. The subject referent, therefore, has to be able to be construed as possessing properties which significantly facilitate, enable (or, as the case may be, impede) the unfolding of the process in question, while, at the same time, the contribution of the Agent to the process is backgrounded. We explore this thesis with specific reference to the qualia structure of the subject nominal.

Non-agentive Deverbal -er Nominalization in English and Dutch

This paper deals with non-agentive deverbal -er nominals in English and Dutch. It attempts to provide a grammatico-semantic explanation for the extension of agentive to non-agentive -er, and argues that the profile of the -er suffix, irrespective of whether it is agentive or non-agentive, is comparable to that of the subject-Junction of a clausal structure. More particularly, some clausal structures are discussed which show a high number of structural and semantic correspondences with non-agentive -er nominals. Whereas in English, the most important clausal agnate turns out to be the middle construction (e.g. this book reads easily), Dutch non-agentive -er nominals are shown to agnate with various structures, notably middle formation: especially the occurrence of intransitive or 'circumstantial' middles (e.g. asfalt fietst prettiger dan grind 'asphalt cycles better than gravel'), and the frequent use of 'let'-constructions in contexts where English would use a middle (e.g. dat boek laat zich makkelijk lezen [that book lets itself easily read], i.e. that book reads easily) offer evidence of the Dutch potential to construe non-agentive entities as subjects. Throughout the discussion, the clauses and -er nominals under scrutiny are illustrated by extracts from the COBUILD corpus and the Dutch INL corpus.

Passive and Middle Constructions in Korean

In this paper, I have shown evidence that the potential Korean middle construction (K2) is a passive, adducing five pieces of evidence: (1) spontaneity, (2) the existence of an agent, (3) non-stative, (4) non-generic, and (5) no requirement of adverb modification. It will also be classified under a morphological passive, since it carries the same morpheme as the suffixal passive and has properties of the canonical passive.

The spread of the reflexive adjunct middle in the Limburg dialects

It is intriguing that in Standard Dutch, unlike other Germanic languages such as English and German, a special kind of a middle construction shows up, namely the so-called adjunct middle in (1).1 In general, it is assumed that the adjunct middle has the following characteristics: (i) the logical subject argument is syntactically absent but semantically present, (ii) the grammatical subject, such as deze zaal `this hall' in (1a), denotes a location and (iii) the adverb, such as gemakkelijk `easily', has to be present (if there is no focus intonation or negation) (cf. HoekstraR SD = Standard Dutch):

A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO THE ENGLISH MIDDLE CONSTRUCTION

This paper deals with the middle construction in English in the framework of cognitive grammar. Introducing fundamental aspects of our cognitive abilities gives rise to a finer-grained grammatical theory, which is capable of articulating the characteristics and accounting for the limited distribution of this construction in our usage. The analysis here utilizes the graphic representation of the action chain, one of the basic cognitive models. It reveals that the motivation for employing this construction for an expressive purpose principally resides in how we mentally construe and structure a conceived event. Suggested eventually is the significance of considering psychological factors for precise description of a grammatical phenomenon.

The middle construction and ergativity

Etude comparative, dans le cadre de la theorie du liage et du gouvernement, du phenomene de construction faussement reflexive dans une langue ergative (Dyirbal), et une langue accusative (Francais)

Culture Sequence at the Old Fort, Saline County, Missouri

AbstractThe Old Fort (23SA104), an earthwork enclosure and mound complex on a high ridge near the Missouri River in central Missouri, has long been considered a Middle Woodland or Hopewell construction. Excavations in 1970 cross-trenched prehistoric ditches and embankments on the north end of the enclosure. A well-developed soil profile containing predominantly Middle Woodland pottery was exposed, into which aboriginal ditches had been cut. Oneota pottery lay on the floors of these ditches, embedded in a thin laminated horizon of alluvium. Oneota and Middle Woodland pottery are mixed in ditch fills. Field data, although limited, thus support the identification of the enclosure as Oneota, aboriginally constructed on a Middle Woodland habitation site.