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16 - Argument Structure and Argument Realization

from Part Four - Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2022

By
Víctor Acedo-Matellán ,
Jaume Mateu  and
Anna Pineda
Edited by
Adam Ledgeway  and
Martin Maiden
Adam Ledgeway
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Martin Maiden
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

This chapter provides a critical survey of some of the most significant phenomena that show how the study of Romance languages can make a strong contribution to our current theoretical understanding of the principles and empirical generalizations relevant to argument structure and its realization. After defining the notion of argument structure, two different current theoretical approaches to the lexicon–syntax interface are briefly presented: the projectionist one, which is typically adopted in lexicalist frameworks, and the constructivist/neo-constructionist one, which is assumed in non-lexicalist frameworks. The selection of empirical phenomena made in this chapter includes a discussion of the well-known distinction among intransitive verbal predicates (unaccusatives vs unergatives) in the context of Romance linguistics, a review of the crucial role of the Romance clitic se in argument structure and argument realization, a survey of some relevant explorations of events of transferal based on the grammar of dative clitics as well as other aspects of dative-marked arguments in Romance languages, and, finally, a discussion of the prominent place that these languages occupy in the huge literature on Talmy’s lexicalization patterns together with an overview of several refinements made to his initial typology of motion events.

Keywords

argument structureargument realizationargument structure alternationsevent structureunaccusativityclitic SE alternationsdative argumentslexicalization patterns
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics , pp. 491 - 518
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Selected References

Acedo-Matellán, V. and Mateu, J. (2013). ‘Satellite-framed Latin vs verb-framed Romance: a syntactic approach’, Probus 25: 227–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acedo-Matellán, V. and Pineda, A. (2019). ‘Light verb constructions in Basque and Romance’. In Ortiz de Urbina, J., Fernández, B., and Berro, A. (eds), Basque and Romance. Aligning Grammars. Leiden: Brill, 176–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belletti, A., and Rizzi, L. (1988). ‘Psych-verbs and θ-theory’, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 6: 291–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borer, H. (2005). Structuring Sense, Vol. 2: the Normal Course of Events. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263929.001.0001.Google Scholar
Hale, K. and Keyser, S. (2002). Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Levin, B. and Rappaport Hovav, M. (2005). Argument Realization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mateu, J. and Rigau, G. (2010). ‘Verb-particle constructions in Romance: a lexical-syntactic account’, Probus 22: 241–69.Google Scholar
Pineda, A. (2016). Les fronteres de la (in)transitivitat. Estudi dels aplicatius en llengües romàniques i basc. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Món Juïc.Google Scholar
Real-Puigdollers, C. (2013). Lexicalization by Phase: The Role of Prepositions in Argument Structure and Its Cross-linguistic Variation. PhD dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Rigau, G. (1997). ‘Locative sentences and related constructions in Catalan: ésser/haver alternation’. In Mendikoetxea, A. and Uribe-Etxebarria, M. (eds), Theoretical Issues at the Morphology–Syntax Interface. Bilbao/Donosti/San Sebastián: Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Gipuzkoa Foru Aldundia, 395–421.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2004). ‘Gradience at the lexicon–syntax interface: evidence from auxiliary selection and implications for unaccusativity’. In Alexiadou, A. Anagnostopoulou, E., and Everaert, M., (eds), The Unaccusativity Puzzle. Explorations of the Syntax–Lexicon Interface. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 243–68.Google Scholar
Talmy, L. (2000). Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Vol. 2: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

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