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Word-based morphology–syntax interdependencies: Thai passives1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2015

LESLIE LEE  and
FARRELL ACKERMAN
LESLIE LEE*
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
FARRELL ACKERMAN*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
*
Author’s address: Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore, AS5, 7 Arts Link, Singapore 117570, Singapore[email protected]
Author’s address: Department of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0108, USA[email protected]
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Abstract

In this article, we argue that insights concerning the word-based nature of morphology, especially the hypothesis that periphrastic expressions are cross-linguistically common exponents of lexical relations, permit a novel lexical constructional analysis of periphrastic predicates that preserves the restriction of morphosyntactic mapping operations, such as passive, to the lexicon. We do this in the context of the periphrastic Thai thuuk passive, justifying in detail the monoclausal status of the construction, its flat phrase structure, the semantics of affectedness associated with it, and its paradigmatic opposition with other passive constructions in the language. Building on the proposal of Bonami & Webelhuth (2013) and Bonami (2015) that a periphrase relies on a form of the main verb that selects collocationally for an auxiliary element, we develop an analysis of Thai periphrastic passives in which the surface syntax of these predicates is mediated by appropriate lexical representations. Crucially, the rearrangement of arguments in the passive is done lexically, via lexical rule, rather than in the syntax. The resulting analysis is consistent with the classical tradition of Word and Paradigm morphology, which posits periphrastic expression as one of several encoding strategies for the realization of morphosyntactic information within words.

Keywords

lexicalismmorphology–syntax interfaceperiphrasisWord and ParadigmThai
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , 01 April 2017 , pp. 359 - 406
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

[1] We are grateful to the Journal of Linguistics editor and four anonymous reviewers for their patient help throughout the review process. Among other things, reviewer A pointed out several technical problems with our previous analysis and suggested improvements; reviewer B engaged us in stimulating and clarifying discussion; reviewer D identified many ways to improve the contextualization of the paper. We also thank Olivier Bonami and Gert Webelhuth for useful discussion during various stages of the writing of this paper. Needless to say, we remain responsible for any remaining inadequacies.

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