When Nouns Surface as Verbs

Abstract

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Valence Creation and the German Applicative: the Inherent Semantics of Linking Patterns

“…The question that arises here is precisely how we capture the crucial felicity condition identified by Clark and Clark (1979) upon the use of denominal verbs: the source or 'parent' word must denote one thematic role in the situation, while the remaining surface arguments of the denominal denote other roles in that situation. How do we ensure, for example, that the parent noun of the verb beschildern, Schild, is taken to be the theme of the coverage event?…”

Level-ordering in lexical development

“…What is more, many of these constraints appear to be motivated purely in terms of the geometry of the system rather than by semantic considerationsalthough certainly semantic considerations are important in word formation itself (see Clark & Clark, 1979;Kiparsky, 1983). But, to take our example, there seems to be no semantic reason why mice-infested should be acceptable but not *ruts-infested.…”

Accounting for the Alternating Behaviour of Location Arguments from the Perspective of Role and Reference Grammar

“…The locative alternation is related to certain verbs of putting and some verbs of removing and is further subdivided into different subtypes: the spray/load alternation, the clear alternation, the wipe alternation and the swarm alternation. In these alternations, it is common to find two types of argument that relate to the surface that is affected by the event and to the entity that is moved, which have been termed the "location argument" and the "locatum argument," respectively, by Eve Clark and Herbert Clark (1979). Thus, in the pair of sentences exemplified in (1) and (2) below, the location and locatum arguments alternate in such a way that in the kernel structure (1) 3 the location argument is realized as an oblique argument introduced by the preposition into and the locatum argument is realized as the direct object.…”