Unaccusative Syntax and Verbal Alternations

Abstract

Syntactic and lexico-semantic properties are both implicated in the study of unaccusativity. Accordingly, a persistent question in the discussion of unaccusativity as a theoretical notion has been whether or not a reduction is possible in either direction. Typically, the question has been whether the verbs that behave syntactically as unaccusatives do so as a result of their lexical semantics. In broader terms, this is part of the larger question of whether or not the syntactic behaviour of a verb is (uniquely) determinable from its semantic properties.  e association of arguments of a predicate to syntactic positions is referred to as the question of 'Linking' in theories of the interface between syntax and the lexicon; Pesetsky () and Levin and Rappaport Hovav () provide overviews of this and related issues. Similar questions apply to verbs that enter into verbal alternations, concerning whether the verbs that do and those that do not enter certain alternations are distinguishable by semantic criteria.  e focus in this chapter is not on these types of lexico-semantic question, but is instead For helpful discussion I would like to thank Artemis Alexiadou, Elena Anagnostopoulou, Karlos Arregi, Rajesh Bhatt, Rolf Noyer, and Alexander Williams. I would also like to thank the audience at the ZAS/ LOT Workshop on Unaccusativity for comments.

Some Causative Alternations in K'iche', and a Unified Syntactic Derivation

“…Thus, we could reduce the descriptive generalization to "-isa spells out the head that introduces the external argument whenever spec-vP is filled". This proposal would actually make the morphological operation here fall more in line with Embick (2004)'s proposal for Greek. He argues that non-active verbal morphology appears whenever there is "unaccusative syntax", which for him is whenever spec-vP is empty.…”

“…The implication is that -isa does not mark causativity per se, rather its appearance reflects a specific syntactic configuration. The analysis here is in the spirit of Embick (2004), who argues that valency morphology is sensitive to syntactic configuration.…”

Agreement in Italian Impersonal Si Constructions: A Derivational Analysis

“…In a model that doesn't make use of these levels of representation, most of the arguments necessarily disappear. For further discussion see Manzini & Savoia (2000), Embick (2000), McGinnis (1997McGinnis ( , 1999, and Raposo & Uriagereka (1990), among others.…”

La reciprocidad discontinua en español

“…Esta propuesta busca demostrar que no hay nada extraño en estas construcciones que no se siga del comportamiento general de esta preposición y de la aparición del clítico se como indicador de la ausencia del argumento externo (Embick 2004, Pujalte & Saab 2012.…”