Unaccusative Hypothesis Research Articles

<em>¿Va primero el verbo?</em> OR <em>¿El sujeto va primero?</em>: Subject-verb order in Latin American Spanish

This paper investigates subject-verb placement for unaccusative and unergative verbs in Spanish, focusing on syntactic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic factors that predict placement. The study aims to answer three questions: (1) Does the unergative/unaccusative divide influence SV/VS order acceptability?, (2) What are the dialectal differences in subject placement acceptability in Spanish?, and (3) Does sentence context affect subject placement preference? The study collected data from sixty-nine Spanish speakers from the Caribbean, Chile, and Mexico, who provided 1656 acceptability ratings on sentences with different subject-verb orders. The findings indicate that both verb type and pragmatic conditions predict word preferability, with VS order preferred when the verb is unaccusative, and SV order preferred overall. The study adds to the literature by establishing the connection between argument structure and information structure and supporting the Unaccusative Hypothesis.

Subjects are not all alike: Eye-tracking the agent preference in Spanish.

Experimental research on argument structure has reported mixed results regarding the processing of unaccusative and unergative predicates. Using eye tracking in the visual world paradigm, this study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by presenting new evidence of the processing distinction between agent and theme subjects. We considered two hypotheses. First, the Unaccusative Hypothesis states that unaccusative (theme) subjects involve a more complex syntactic representation than unergative (agent) subjects. It predicts a delayed reactivation of unaccusative subjects compared to unergatives after the presentation of the verb. Second, the Agent First Hypothesis states that the first ambiguous NP of a sentence will preferably be interpreted as an agent due to an attentional preference to agents over themes. It predicts a larger reactivation of agent subjects than themes. We monitored the time course of gaze fixations of 44 native speakers across a visual display while processing sentences with unaccusative, unergative and transitive verbs. One of the pictures in the visual display was semantically related to the sentential subject. We analyzed fixation patterns in three different time frames: the verb frame, the post-verb frame, and the global post-verbal frame. Results indicated that sentential subjects across the three conditions were significantly activated when participants heard the verb; this is compatible with observing a post-verbal reactivation effect. Time course and magnitude of the gaze-fixation patterns are fully compatible with the predictions made by the Agent First Hypothesis. Thus, we report new evidence for (a) a processing distinction between unaccusative and unergative predicates in sentence comprehension, and (b) an attentional preference towards agents over themes, reflected by a larger reactivation effect in agent subjects.

Defining Unaccusatives in Sudanese Arabic

This article explores the properties of unaccusatives in spoken Sudanese Arabic within the minimalist program. The overall aim is to testify the Unaccusative Hypothesis, in particular, the thematic and argument structure, locative inversion, there-insertion and passivization against the data from Sudanese Arabic. Grammatical judgment questionnaires were given to 10 native Sudanese speakers to test their intuition about unaccusatives. Parallel to the available literature, unaccusatives in Sudanese Arabic are defined by their semantic properties reflected syntactically in their thematic and argument structure. Unaccusatives can appear in locative inversion construction and in thereinsertion structures but cannot undergo passivization. This class of predicates takes a single argument, assigning the thematic role as Theme. Structurally, the single argument of unaccusative verbs moves from its canonical object position within VP to non-canonical surface subject position in [Spec, TP], making the structural derivation of unaccusative similar to that of passives, in that both lack external argument as well as both involve argument raising from lower position to higher position. The findings of this study manifest that languages of the world share some common properties even though they belong to different families. This in turn, provides rich information to comparative syntax, linguistic theories, and language typology.

Reactivation of unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin

Abstract Intransitives can be classified into two subclasses: unaccusative verbs and unergative verbs. According to the Unaccusative Hypothesis, the difference between unaccusatives and unergatives lies in where the single argument is generated in the underlying syntactic structure. Subjects of unaccusative verbs are base-generated in the object position and moved to the subject positions. Subjects of unergative verbs, however, are external and thus are not resulted from arguments moving from the object position. If the Unaccusative Hypothesis is correct, a trace is left at the original place for unaccusative verbs when movement occurs but no trace for unergative verbs. Friedmann et al. (2008) used the cross-modal lexical priming paradigm to examine the Unaccusative Hypothesis but their results could only lend limited support for the Unaccusative Hypothesis. Since the argument of Mandarin unaccusative verbs can occur preverbally and postverbally, it offers us a balanced testing ground to re-examine reactivation during sentence comprehension. Results of the current study lend support for the Unaccusative Hypothesis. When the argument occurred preverbally, a V-shaped line was observed. An inverted V-shaped line was observed when the argument occurred postverbally. For unergative verbs, the line showed a decay of reactivation.

Brain Regions Involved in Underlying Syntactic Processing of Mandarin Chinese Intransitive Verbs: An fMRI Study.

According to the Unaccusative Hypothesis, intransitive verbs are divided into unaccusative and unergative ones based on the distinction of their syntactic properties, which has been proved by previous theoretical and empirical evidence. However, debate has been raised regarding whether intransitive verbs in Mandarin Chinese can be split into unaccusative and unergative ones syntactically. To analyze this theoretical controversy, the present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural processing of deep unaccusative, unergative sentences, and passive sentences (derived structures undergoing a syntactic movement) in Mandarin Chinese. The results revealed no significant difference in the neural processing of deep unaccusative and unergative sentences, and the comparisons between passive sentences and the other sentence types revealed activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG) and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG). These findings indicate that the syntactic processing of unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese is highly similar but different from that of passive verbs, which suggests that deep unaccusative and unergative sentences in Mandarin Chinese are both base-generated structures and that there is no syntactic distinction between unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese.

A Critical Review of the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis: Theoretical, Conceptual and Empirical Issues

The Unaccusative Hypothesis (Perlmutter 1978; Burzio 1986) posits that intransitive verbs are not homogenous, but can be further divided into unaccusative verbs and unergative verbs. This distinction has ever since become a topic of heated discussion not only in the field of theoretical linguistics, but also in applied linguistics. Oshita (1997, 2001) proposes the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis to delineate the mental representation and developmental path of L2 acquisition of unaccusatives. This hypothesis suggests that unaccusatives are first misanalysed by L2 learners as unergatives and L2 learners have to undergo a three-stage process before they can truly acquire the distinction between unaccusatives and unergatives. This hypothesis also predicts a U-shaped pattern in the non-target passivization and avoidance of unaccusatives by L2 learners of different levels. This study is focused on the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis with L2 English as its main example. It first of all gives a lengthy account of this hypothesis by introducing its framework, foundations, content and predictions. Then it points out that the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis is theoretically innovative, but conceptually inadequate and empirically controversial. Finally, this study calls for more studies to test and improve the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis.

<i>Eppur non si muove</i>: Experimental evidence for the Unaccusative Hypothesis and distinct ɸ-feature processing in Basque

The Unaccusative Hypothesis (UH) has been extensively studied in linguistics, but, to date, it has not been tested by means of ERPs. The present study aimed to experimentally test the UH hypothesis in Basque and determine what the electrophysiological correlates are of the processing of unergative versus unaccusative predicates; it also aimed to investigate distinctness in phi-feature processing. We generated eight conditions to compare unergative and unaccusative predicate sentence processing involving phi-feature violations in grammatical and ungrammatical sentences. Participants responded faster to sentences containing unaccusative predicates compared to unergative predicates. All conditions elicited a N400-P600 interaction. Overall, the negativity elicited by person violations was larger than the negativity elicited by number violations in both types of predicates. Intransitives differed regarding the size of the positivity elicited by phi-feature violations: unaccusatives elicited a larger positivity for number than for person feature violations, but unergatives elicited a larger positivity for person than for number.

Dispositions and the verbal description of their manifestations: a case study on Emission Verbs

The present paper argues that when thematic roles are restricted to judgments about causal properties of events, it falls short of accounting for cases where thematic roles reflect judgments about dispositional properties of objects. I develop my argument with a case study on a class of verbs that have been called ‘Emission Verbs’ and which are difficult to bring in line with the unaccusativity hypothesis put forward by Perlmutter. Reviewing two diametrically opposed accounts of Emission Verbs in the literature, I show that the thematic-semantic relation between the events described by Emission Verbs and their single arguments cannot be characterized unambiguously in terms of causal properties of events but pertains to dispositional properties residing in the emitter argument. The paper develops a lexical-semantic analysis of Emission Verbs according to which the event described by an Emission Verb is the manifestation of the dispositional property of the emitter argument when appropriate external circumstances obtain. The paper concludes by outlining how the proposed dispositional analysis of Emission Verbs may inform the analysis of the causative alternation.

Waarom (ik denk dat) een deelzin slechts één voorzetselvoorwerp kan bevatten

Abstract Schermer-Vermeer (this volume) claims that grammatical models have played a decisive role in answering the question as to whether a simple clause may contain more than one prepositional object. Although I believe that theoretical considerations can be very useful in deciding among competing hypotheses, this reply article shows that Schermer-Vermeer is wrong in arguing that my earlier conclusion that there can be at most one PP-object in a clause is forced upon me by two hypotheses found in (certain versions of) the generative framework, namely (i) the unaccusativity hypothesis and (ii) the hypothesis that verbs can take at most two internal arguments.

From Corpora to Experiments: Methodological Triangulation in the Study of Word Order at the Interfaces in Adult Late Bilinguals (L2 learners).

This paper shows the need to triangulate different approaches in Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research to fully understand late bilinguals' interlanguage grammars. Methodologically, we show how experimental and corpus data can be (and should be) triangulated by reporting on a corpus study (Lozano and Mendikoetxea in Biling Lang Cognit 13(4):475-497, 2010) and a new follow-up offline experiment investigating Subject-Verb inversion (Subject-Verb/Verb-Subject order) in L1 Spanish-L2 English (n = 417). Theoretically, we follow a recent line in psycholinguistic approaches to Bilingualism and SLA research (Interface Hypothesis, Sorace in Linguist Approaches Biling 1(1):1-33, 2011). It focuses on the interface between syntax and language-external modules of the mind/brain (syntax-discourse [end-focus principle] and syntax-phonology [end-weight principle]) as well as a language-internal interface (lexicon-syntax [unaccusative hypothesis]). We argue that it is precisely this multi-faceted interface approach (corpus and experimental data, core syntax and the interfaces, representational and processing models) that provides a deeper understanding of (i) the factors that favour inversion in L2 acquisition in particular and (ii) interlanguage grammars in general.

Split intransitivity in Japanese is syntactic: Evidence for the Unaccusative Hypothesis from sentence acceptability and truth value judgment experiments

Split intransitivity (SI) is the generalization that intransitive verbs form two subclasses: the subjects of some intransitives behave like direct objects of transitive verbs, whereas the subjects of other intransitives behave like transitive subjects. The Unaccusative Hypothesis (UH) accounts for SI syntactically, arguing that the subjects of some intransitives (unaccusatives) are initially internal arguments, just like transitive objects, while the subjects of other intransitives (unergatives) are true subjects, just like transitive subjects. The UH has been enormously influential and inspired a rich and diverse literature on SI, including many recent experimental studies. Yet, no conclusive evidence for or against the UH has been put forward, largely because SI diagnostics (SIDs) – phenomena that motivate SI – are often amenable to both syntactic and non-syntactic analyses. In order to present unequivocal evidence for the UH, therefore, SIDs that make crucial reference to the UH must be carefully identified and studied. This study argues that two Japanese SIDs, quantifier scope and floating numeral quantifier licensing (FNQ-licensing), are such SIDs, as (i) they make crucial reference to the UH and the putative syntactic difference between unaccusative and unergative subjects, and (ii) they reliably classify Japanese intransitive verbs into two subclasses because of a syntactic difference. The evidence for this claim comes from the results of truth value judgment and sentence acceptability judgment experiments. The study argues that the results of these experiments show that Japanese intransitive verbs form two subclasses because of a syntactic difference, supporting the UH.

Passivisation of Polish Object Experiencer Verbs vs. the Unaccusativity Hypothesis (Part 2)

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest wyjaśnienie braku możliwości tworzenia strony biernej czynnościowej od polskich czasowników stanu z nosicielem stanu w pozycji dopełnienia. W poszukiwaniu wyjaśnienia tego ograniczenia w strukturze składniowej w niniejszym artykule zastosowano testy dotyczÄ ce hierarchii argumentów predykatów psychologicznych. Efekty wiÄ zania zaimków anaforycznych, zmiennych zaimkowych oraz wyrażeń referencyjnych (warunki A i C teorii rzÄ du i wiÄ zania) nie pozwalajÄ na uzyskanie jednoznacznej odpowiedzi, który z dwóch argumentów – nosiciel stanu czy argument T/SM – zajmuje wyższÄ pozycję w zdaniu. Przyjmuje się więc za Landauem (2010), że to nosiciel stanu jest generowany wyżej w strukturze niż argument T/SM. W wyniku przeprowadzonej analizy stwierdzono, że polskie czasowniki stanu z nosicielem stanu nie sÄ nieakuzatywne pod względem składniowym, a brak strony biernej czynnościowej dla tych czasowników jest pochodnÄ ich złożonej struktury ergatywnej, w której nie występuje argument zewnętrzny, a oba wybierane argumenty sÄ argumentami wewnętrznymi (Bennis 2004).

Passivisation of Polish Object Experiencer verbs vs. the unaccusativity hypothesis (Part 1)

Celem artykułu jest zweryfikowanie hipotezy Landaua (2010), że brak możliwości tworzenia strony biernej czynnościowej od polskich czasowników stanu z nosicielem stanu w pozycji dopełnienia wynika z nieakuzatywnej struktury tych czasowników. W pierwszej części artykułu, ze względu na polisemicznÄ naturę omawianych czasowników, do badań wykorzystano dane korpusowe, na podstawie których nie wykazano występowania strony biernej czynnościowej dla tych czasowników. W pracy postawiono jednak hipotezę, że niewystępowanie strony biernej czynnościowej nie jest wykładnikiem nieakuzatywnej natury omawianych predykatów. Hipotezę tę poparto następujÄ cymi obserwacjami: (i) w języku polskim, w odróżnieniu od języka angielskiego, czasowniki stanu z nosicielem stanu w pozycji dopełnienia nie występujÄ z pustym semantycznie elementem w pozycji podmiotu; (ii) biernik, w którym występuje nosiciel stanu, jest przypadkiem strukturalnym, ponieważ ulega zmianie na dopełniacz w zdaniach przeczÄ cych (dopełniacz negacji). Druga część artykułu (która ukaże się w kolejnym numerze czasopisma) jest poświęcona wzajemnej strukturze hierarchicznej obu argumentów: nosiciela stanu oraz argumentu T/SM. Efekty wiÄ zania zaimków anaforycznych, zmiennych zaimkowych oraz wyrażeń referencyjnych (warunki A i C teorii rzÄ du i wiÄ zania) nie pozwalajÄ na uzyskanie jednoznacznej odpowiedzi na to, który z dwóch argumentów – nosiciel stanu czy argument T/SM – zajmuje wyższÄ pozycję w zdaniu. Przyjmuje się więc za Landauem (2010), że to nosiciel stanu jest generowany wyżej w strukturze niż argument T/SM. W wyniku przeprowadzonej analizy stwierdzono, że polskie czasowniki stanu z nosicielem stanu nie sÄ nieakuzatywne pod względem składniowym, a brak strony biernej czynnościowej dla tych czasowników jest pochodnÄ ich złożonej struktury ergatywnej zaproponowanej przez Bennisa (2004), w której nie występuje argument zewnętrzny, a oba wybierane argumenty sÄ argumentami wewnętrznymi.

The unaccusative hypothesis and case selection of cognate complements in Latin

No AccessThe unaccusative hypothesis and case selection of cognate complements in LatinTodd ClaryTodd ClarySearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:Dec 2014https://doi.org/10.13109/glot.2014.90.14.87SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Download book coverVolume 90Issue 1-4July 2014 ISSN: 0017-1298eISSN: 2196-9043HistoryPublished online:December 2014 PDF download

To What Extent Does Split Intransitivity of the Adult Target Affect Children’s Emerging Verb Patterns?

The Unaccusative Hypothesis has produced several diagnoses for determining whether a given intransitive verb is unaccusative or unergative. While some are suggested to be language-specific, like ne in Italian or pleonastic “there” in English, others have a wider application, such as the distribution of BE and/or HAVE as the perfect auxiliary. The distinction, or not, of HAVE/BE auxiliaries in adult input would arguably have major implications for children acquiring their first language, particularly in terms of the acquisition of the notion of split intransitivity. Languages like Italian, Dutch, or French which make the auxiliary distinction would seem to provide greater transparency to children in terms of split intransitivity while others like English or Spanish would be less transparent because they utilize only HAVE, although earlier versions of these languages are attested to have also possessed at one time both auxiliaries. This study draws on four CHILDES data sets to compare the early emergence patterns of intransitive verbs in four monolingual children (two from each language) learning Spanish and Italian. Cross-linguistic observations of the data include: 1) an initial predominance of unaccusative verbs at the oneand two-word stages; and 2) particular morphology corresponding to early verb types, namely, initial preference for third-person, singular, past tense verb forms with unaccusatives and the singular imperative with unergatives. The study concludes that, despite an apparent lack of transparency in adult Spanish language input, monolingual children learning Spanish may demonstrate a comparable degree of early sensitivity to split intransitivity as their monolingual counterparts who are exposed to adult Italian, attributing the similarity to inherent structural differences between unaccusatives and unergatives and Universal Grammar.

The Unaccusative Hypothesis and Passive Constructions

The Unaccusative Hypothesis and Passive Constructions

Interface conditions on postverbal subjects: A corpus study of L2 English

This paper investigates how syntactic knowledge interfaces with other cognitive systems by analysing the production of postverbal subjects, V(erb)–S(ubject) order, in an L1 Spanish–L2 English corpus and a comparable English native corpus. VS order in both native and L2 English is shown to be constrained by properties operating at three interfaces: (i)lexicon–syntax: the verb is unaccusative (Unaccusative Hypothesis); (ii)syntax–discourse: the subject is focus (End-Focus Principle) and (iii)syntax–phonology: the subject is heavy (End-Weight Principle). We show that, since learners produce VS under the same interface conditions as native speakers, unaccusativity is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for VS production. However, learners overproduce VS and make persistent errors in their syntactic encoding. Our findings support recent proposals that these difficulties stem from problems at coordinating syntactic knowledge with knowledge from other external systems, but they suggest that the nature of such difficulties is not external to the syntax.

Passive, locative inversion in Ndebele and the unaccusative hypothesis

This article discusses the Ndebele passive derivation using the Lexical Mapping Theory (henceforth LMT). Using LMT the article discusses the syntactic properties of the passive sentence in Ndebele. The article demonstrates that the architecture of LMT is largely applicable to the Ndebele language. The article further demonstrates that Ndebele is unique by allowing active transitive verbs to undergo locative inversion. It is this uniqueness in the violation of the thematic hierarchy that persuades us to agree with Harford's (1990) proposal that locative inversion may be formulated without any contextual restriction at all. Blevins' (2003) argument is also tested, and it is our conclusion that Ndebele data presents a fresh challenge to the Unaccusative Hypothesis (henceforth UH) even after Blevins' (2003) attempt to sharpen the distinction between passives and impersonals. In brief, the article demonstrates that whereas LMT is a theory that is largely applicable to and can account for the syntactic properties of the passive sentence in Ndebele, Ndebele data presents complications for the theory due to the theory's restrictive nature.

Split auxiliary systems: A cross-linguistic perspective (review)

Reviewed by: Split auxiliary systems: A cross-linguistic perspective Annie Zaenen Split auxiliary systems: A cross-linguistic perspective. Ed. by Raúl Aranovich. (Typological studies in language 69.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007. Pp. 277. ISBN 9789027229816. $173 (Hb). This collection of papers about split auxiliary systems concentrates on the HAVE/BE alternation in Germanic and Romance, but it also contains an account of the use of BE as an irrealis marker in Romanian, a historical study of the HAVE perfect in Greek and Latin, and a couple of papers on other splits, namely particle selection in Korean auxiliary formation and auxiliary selection in Chinese. Perusing the volume, one is immediately struck by how much the outlook on the problem has changed in the thirty years since David Perlmutter (1978) formulated the unaccusativity hypothesis. At that time, the alternation of HAVE and BE as the auxiliary in the perfect tense was seen as a simple diagnostic for a classification of intransitive verbs that could be modeled in rather straightforward syntactic terms. Now the auxiliary split alone is shown to be conditioned by a complex number of semantic factors, and its relation to unaccusativity is not perceived as unproblematic. The choice of auxiliary has proven to be subject to variation within one and the same language, as well as across languages. This volume gives a good overview of the factors proposed as influencing the alternations and the more recent theoretical proposals to cope with the variation. The methodology used is changing from the traditional introspection and small-scale informant work, still the preferred tools of most researchers in this volume, to the use of questionnaires, experiments, and corpus studies. Unfortunately, most of the studies in this volume are not very explicit about the way the data was collected even when some rather extensive data collection must have taken place, so the reader's understanding of the data-analysis methods used remains impressionistic. Some of the papers discuss not only auxiliary selection but also other unaccusativity tests, but I do not go into the details of those discussions in this review. The most ambitious paper is GERALDINE LEGENDRE's 'Optimizing auxiliary selection in Romance'. It proposes an optimality-theoretic account of the auxiliary selection hierarchy (ASH) developed in Sorace 2000. The ASH subdivides the intransitive verbs into seven semantic categories. The closer a verb is to the head of this hierarchy, the more likely it is to select BE. At the tail end of the hierarchy one finds HAVE verbs. Legendre translates the ASH into a number of predicate features: telicity, direction, state, inherent displacement, internal motion, inherent homogeneity, and inherent volitionality. This leads to a subdivision of the ASH change-of-state verbs depending on the values they take for homogeneity, telicity, and direction. Homogeneity is a notion adapted from McClure 1995, and it differs from the notion 'incremental theme' (Dowty 1991) in that it proposes that telic events can be homogeneous. The test for homogeneity is whether one can qualify the event as having happened 'a bit': the fact that one can say 'The apple has rotted a bit' when the apple is rotting shows that 'to rot' is homogeneous whereas 'to die' for instance is not.1 Inherent volitionality is meant to distinguish verbs that refer to volitional processes by virtue of their meaning from verbs that are or are not volitional depending on their argument. Although Legendre makes a valiant effort to establish these categories independently, their vagueness, together with the lack of quality control on the grammaticality/acceptability judgments, remains a weak point of an overall impressive paper. A second substantial paper based on the ASH is 'Auxiliary selection and split intransitivity in Paduan' by MICHELA CENNAMO and ANTONELLA SORACE. This is a mainly descriptive paper based on a corpus of interviews with twenty-four native speakers. It is disappointing that the authors are rather cavalier in presenting the quantitative underpinnings of their extensive study. [End Page 682] They state that their sample included working-class and middle-class speakers as well as different age groups, but no further details about the breakdown are given. Auxiliary selection in Paduan is stable at...

The distribution of French intransitive predicates

This article investigates the distribution of intransitive predicates in French. It argues that within each individual construction, the constraints that govern predicate selection are determined by the necessary semantic compatibility between the participating predicates and the construction itself. This analysis based on the lexical semantics of specific verbs and constructions contrasts with most previous accounts that follow the Unaccusative Hypothesis' claim that predicate distribution follows the specific structure of two distinct classes of intransitives. The local analysis is shown to be preferable to its structural counterpart to describe the behavior of intransitives in three constructions, namely: active impersonals, object raising in the context of the faire 'make' construction, and croire union. Because object raising and croire union are traditionally considered unaccusative diagnostics, the results obtained in this article raise serious questions about the validity of the Unaccusative Hypothesis for French, and suggests a possible alternative methodology to investigate the syntactic behavior of intransitive predicates.