Argument Structure and Syntax

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Argument Structure and Syntax

Spring 2003

Course Highlights

One highlight of this course is the various recent analyses of "object." We will look at objects in a variety of constructions in English, the internal arguments of distransitive verbs in Japanese, and so forth. See Miyagawa and Tsujioka in the readings for discussion related to Japanese.

Course Description

This course is a detailed investigation of the major issues and problems in the study of lexical argument structure and how it determines syntactic structure. Its empirical scope is along three dimensions: typology, lexical class, and theoretical framework. The range of linguistic types include English, Japanese, Navajo, and Warlpiri. Lexical classes include those of Levin's English Verb Classes and others producing emerging work on diverse languages. The theoretical emphasis of this course is on structural relations among elements of argument structure.

Syllabus

Assignments: From each set of readings, two (in most weeks) will be highlighted for presentation by students, either alone or in pairs (depending on enrollment). In addition, each student will write a research paper connected to the issues discussed in class and present his/her research during the final weeks of class.

Lecture 1: Approaches to Argument Structure: Projection vs. Construction

Lecture 2: Theta Roles, Decomposition, the External Argument, and the Object

Dowty, D. R. "Aspectual Classes of Verbs." Chap. 2 in Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979, pp. 37-132.

Hale, K., and S. J. Keyser. "On Argument Structure and the Lexical Expression of Syntactic Relations." In The View from Building 20. Edited by K. Hale and S. J. Keyser. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1993, pp. 53-109.

Jackendoff, R. Semantic Structures. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990, pp. 44-83.

Kratzer, A. "Severing the External Argument from its Verb." In Phrase Structure and the Lexicon. Edited by J. Rooryck and L. Zaring. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 109-137.

Levin, B. "Objecthood: An event structure perspective." CLS 35, vol. 1. (1999).

Parsons, T. Events in the Semantics of English: A Study in Subatomic Semantics. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990, pp. 68-126.

Lecture 3: Applicatives I - High and Low Applicatives, Possessor Dative, and the Japanese Passive

Pylkkänen, L. Introducing Arguments. 2002, chap. 2.

Student presentations:

Kubo, M. "Working Papers of the Department of Languages & Cultures." (University of Hokkaido). Japanese passives 23 (1992).

Landau, I. "Possessor Raising and the Structure of VP." Lingua 107 (1999): 1-37.

Optional reading:

Koizumi, M. "Secondary predicates." Journal of East Asian Linguistics 3 (1994): 25-79.

Lecture 4: Applicative Constructions/Double Objects II

Student presentations:

Marantz, A. "Implications of Asymmetries in Double Object Constructions." In Theoretical Aspects of Bantu Grammar 1. Edited by Sam. A. Mchombo. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1993, pp. 113-151.

Richards, Norvin. "An Idiomatic Argument for Lexical Decomposition." Linguistic Inquiry.

Optional readings:

Cuervo, Cristina. "Structural Asymmetries but Same Word Order: The Dative Alternation in Spanish." In Asymmetry in Grammar. Edited by A. M. di Sciullo. Amsterdam: Benjamins. (to appear)

McGinnis, Martha. "Object Asymmetries in a Phase Theory of Syntax." In Proceedings of the 2001 CLA Annual Conference. Edited by John T. Jensen and Gerard van Herk. Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa: Cahiers Linguistiques d'Ottawa, 2002, pp. 133-144.

Lecture 5: Causatives I Syntactic Causative and the Role of the Causee

Pylkkänen. 2002, Chap. 3.

Student Presentation:

Alsina, A. "On the Argument Structure of Causatives." Linguistic Inquiry 23, 4 (1992): 517-557.

Miyagawa, S. "Causatives." In Handbook of Japanese Linguistics. Edited by N. Tsujiumra. Blackwell, 1999.

Optional Reading:

Ippolito, Michela. "Remarks on the Argument Structure of Romance Causatives." 2001. MIT ms.

Lecture 7: Causatives II Syntactic and Lexical Causatives

Pylkkänen. Chap. 3 (continued).

Student Presentations:

Fodor, J. "Three Reasons for Not Deriving 'Kill' from 'Cause to Die'." Linguistic Inquiry 1 (1970): 429-438.

Dubinsky, S., M. Lloret, and P. Newman. "Lexical and syntactic causatives in Oromo." Language 64 (1988).

Optional Reading:

Miyagawa, S. "(S)Ase as an Elsewhere Causative and the Syntactic Nature of Words." Journal of Japanese Linguistics 16 (1998).

Lecture 8: Roots and Alternations

Levin, Beth. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Part One, 1993.

Student Presentations:

Arad, M. "Locality constraints on the interpretation of roots: the case of Hebrew denominal verbs." 2001. Ms.

Folli, Raffaella, and Heidi Harley. "Consuming Results in Italian & English: Flavors of v ." In Aspect. Edited by P. Kemchinsky and R. Slabakova. Kluwer. (to appear)

Lecture 9: Nominalizations

Marantz, A. "No Escape from Syntax: Don't Try Morphological Analysis in the Privacy of Your Own Lexicon." Edited by A. Dimitriadis, L. Siegel, et. al. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4.2 (1997): 201-225. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium.

Alexiadou, Artemis. Functional Structure in Nominals: Nominalization and Ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001, chap. 1-3.

Fu, J. T. Roeper, and H. Borer. "The VP Within Nominalizations: Evidence from Adverbs and the VP Anaphor Do-So." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19, 3 (2001): 549-582.

Student Presentation:

Harley, H., and R. Noyer. "Mixed Nominalizations, Short Verb Movement and Object Shift in English." Proceedings of NELS 28. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, GLSA, 1998.

Hazout, Ilan. "Action Nominalizations and the Lexicalist Hypothesis." NLLT, 13 (1995): 355-04.

Lecture 10: Statives vs. Passives

Embick, David. "Remarks on the Structure of Resultative Participles in English." 2002. Upenn ms.

Kratzer, Angelika. "All Kinds of Passive Participles." 1998.

Student Presentation:

Dubinsky, Stanley, and Sylvester Ron Simango. "Passive and Stative in Chichewa: Evidence for Modular Distinctions in Grammar." Language 72 (1996): 749-81.

Levin, B., and M. Rappaport. "The Formation of Adjectival Passives." Linguistic Inquiry 17 (1986): 623-661.

Background:

Pesetsky, David. Zero Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995, chap. 2.

Between lectures 10 and 11: Slippage and Student Presentations

Calendar

LEC #	READINGS	HANDOUTS
1	Introduction
2	Levin, B. "Objecthood: An Event Structure Perspective." CLS 35, The Main Session 1 (1999). Kratzer, A. "Severing the External Argument from its Verb." In Phrase Structure and the Lexicon. Edited by J. Rooryck and L. Zaring. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 109-137. Dowty, D. R. "Aspectual Classes of Verbs." Chap. 2 in Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979, pp. 37-132. Jackendoff, R. "Overview of Conceptual Semantics" (Chap. 1, pp. 7-41), "Argument Structure and Thematic Roles" (Chap. 2, pp. 42-58), "Multiple Thematic Roles for a Single NP" (Chap. 3, pp. 59-70), and "Unifying Lexical Entries." (Chap. 4, pp. 71-83) in Semantic Structures. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990. Hale, K., and S. J. Keyser. "On Argument Structure and the Lexical Expression of Syntactic Relations." Chap. 2 in The View from Building 20. Edited by K. Hale and S. J. Keyser. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1993, pp. 53-109. Parsons, T. "Thematic Roles" (Chap. 5, pp. 68-104), and "Causatives and Inchoatives." (Chap. 6, pp. 105-126) In Events in the Semantics of English: A Study in Subatomic Semantics. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990.	Notes
3	Landau, I. "Possessor raising and the structure of VP." Lingua 107 (1999): 1-37. Kubo, M. "Working Papers of the Department of Languages & Cultures." (University of Hokkaido). Japanese passives 23 (1992). Marantz, A. "Implications of Asymmetries in Double Object Constructions." Chap. 4 in Theoretical Aspects of Bantu Grammar 1. Edited by Sam A. Mchombo. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1993, pp. 113-151. Pesetsky, David. "Double Object Constructions and the Zero Morpheme G." Chap. 5 in Zero Syntax. U.S.A.: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1995, pp. 123-317.	Ruixi Ai Handout
4	McGinnis, Martha. "Object Asymmetries in a Phase Theory of Syntax." In Proceedings of the 2001 CLA Annual Conference. Edited by John T. Jensen and Gerardvan Herk. Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa: Cahiers Linguistiques d'Ottawa, 2002, pp. 133-144. Richards, Norvin. "An Idiomatic Argument for Lexical Decomposition." Linguistic Inquiry. Pp. 182-192. Cuervo, Maria Cristina. "Structural Asymmetries but Same Word Order: The Dative Alternation in Spanish." In Asymmetry in Grammar . Edited by A. M. DiSciullo. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (to appear) Bruening, Benjamin. "QR Obeys Superiority: Frozen Scope and ACD." Linguistic Inquiry 32, 2 (Spring 2001): 233-273.
5	Alsina, A. "On the Argument Structure of Causatives." Linguistic Inquiry 23, 4 (Fall 1992): 517-557. Miyagawa, S. "Causatives." Chap. 8 in The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics. Edited by N. Tsujiumra. Blackwell, 1999, pp. 236-268. Ippolito, Michela. "Remarks on the Argument Structure of Romance Causatives." 2001. MIT ms.
6	Huang, C.-T. James. "Chinese Passives in Comparative Perspective." (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan). Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 3 (Fall 1999). Huang, C.-T. James. "Passives East and West." 1999. (Paper presented at The 2nd GLOW of Asia Conference, Nanzan University. Nagoya, Japan)	Applicative Lecture
7	Miyagawa, S. "(S)Ase As an Elsewhere Causative and the Syntactic Nature of Words." Journal of Japanese Linguistics 16 (1998): 67-110. Dubinsky, S., M. Lloret, and P. Newman. "Lexical and Syntactic Causatives in Oromo." Language 64, 3 (1988): 485-500. Fodor, J. A. "Three Reasons for Not Deriving 'Kill' from 'Cause to Die'." Linguistic inquiry 1 (1970): 429-438.
8	Arad, M. "Locality constraints on the interpretation of roots: the case of Hebrew denominal verbs." 2001. Ms. Folli, Raffaella, and Heidi Harley. "Consuming Results in Italian & English: Flavors of v." In Aspect. Edited by P. Kempchinsky and R. Slabakova. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 1-26. (to appear) Levin, Beth. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, Part One, 1993. Anagnostopoulou, Elena. "On Clitics, Feature Movement and Double Object Alternations." Edited by Pius Tamanji, Masako Hirotani, and Nancy Hall. NELS 29 (1999): 41-55.
9	Marantz, A. "No Escape from Syntax: Don't Try Morphological Analysis in the Privacy of Your Own Lexicon." Edited by A. Dimitriadis, L. Siegel, et. al. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4.2 (1997): 201-225. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium. Fu, J. T. Roeper, and H. Borer. "The VP Within Nominalizations: Evidence from Adverbs and the VP Anaphor Do-So." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19, 3 (2001): 549-582. Harley, H., and R. Noyer. "Mixed Nominalizations, Short Verb Movement and Object Shift in English." Edited by Pius N. Tamanji and Kiyomi Kusumoto. Proceedings of NELS 28. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, GLSA, 1998. Alexiadou, Artemis. "Introduction" (Chap. 1, pp. 1-25), "The Functional Architecture of Nominalizations" (Chap. 2, pp. 27-75), and "Intransitivity in Nominalization." (Chap. 3, pp. 77-125) in Functional Structure in Nominals: Nominalization and Ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001. Hazout, Ilan. "Action Nominalizations and the Lexicalist Hypothesis." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 13 (1995): 355-404.
10	Embick, David. "Remarks on the Structure of Resultative Participles in English." Fall 2002. Upenn ms. Kratzer, Angelika. "All Kinds of Passive Participles." 1998. Dubinsky, Stanley, and Sylvester Ron Simango. "Passive and Stative in Chichewa: Evidence for Modular Distinctions in Grammar." Language 72, 4 (1996): 749-781. Levin, B., and M. Rappaport. "The Formation of Adjectival Passives." Linguistic Inquiry 17, 4 (Fall 1986): 623-661. Pesetsky, David. "Linking Problems with Experiencer Predicates." Chap. 2 in Zero Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995, pp. 11-53.
11	Miyagawa, Shigeru, and Takae Tsujioka. "Argument Structure and Ditransitive Verbs in Japanese." (May 2003).	Argument Structure and Ditransitive Verbs in Japanese -- Miyagawa Double Object -- Miyagawa

Readings

Miyagawa, Shigeru, and Takae Tsujioka. "Argument Structure and Ditransitive Verbs in Japanese." (May 2003).

Levin, B. "Objecthood: An Event Structure Perspective." CLS 35, The Main Session 1 (1999).

Kratzer, A. "Severing the External Argument from its Verb." In Phrase Structure and the Lexicon. Edited by J. Rooryck and L. Zaring. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 109-137.

Dowty, D. R. "Aspectual Classes of Verbs." Chap. 2 in Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979, pp. 37-132.

Jackendoff, R. "Overview of Conceptual Semantics" (Chap. 1, pp. 7-41), "Argument Structure and Thematic Roles" (Chap. 2, pp. 42-58), "Multiple Thematic Roles for a Single NP" (Chap. 3, pp. 59-70), and "Unifying Lexical Entries." (Chap. 4, pp. 71-83) in Semantic Structures. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990.

Hale, K., and S. J. Keyser. "On Argument Structure and the Lexical Expression of Syntactic Relations." Chap. 2 in The View from Building 20. Edited by K. Hale and S. J. Keyser. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1993, pp. 53-109.

Parsons, T. "Thematic Roles" (Chap. 5, pp. 68-104), and "Causatives and Inchoatives." (Chap. 6, pp. 105-126) in Events in the Semantics of English: A Study in Subatomic Semantics. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990.

Landau, I. "Possessor raising and the structure of VP." Lingua 107 (1999): 1-37.

Kubo, M. "Working Papers of the Department of Languages & Cultures." (University of Hokkaido). Japanese passives 23 (1992).

Marantz, A. "Implications of Asymmetries in Double Object Constructions." Chap. 4 in Theoretical Aspects of Bantu Grammar 1. Edited by Sam A. Mchombo. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1993, pp. 113-151.

Pesetsky, David. "Double Object Constructions and the Zero Morpheme G." Chap. 5 in Zero Syntax. U.S.A.: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1995, pp. 123-317.

McGinnis, Martha. "Object Asymmetries in a Phase Theory of Syntax." In Proceedings of the 2001 CLA Annual Conference. Edited by John T. Jensen and Gerardvan Herk. Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa: Cahiers Linguistiques d'Ottawa, 2002, pp. 133-144.

Richards, Norvin. "An Idiomatic Argument for Lexical Decomposition." Linguistic Inquiry. Pp. 182-192.

Cuervo, Maria Cristina. "Structural Asymmetries but Same Word Order: The Dative Alternation in Spanish." In Asymmetry in Grammar. Edited by A. M. DiSciullo. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (to appear)

Bruening, Benjamin. "QR Obeys Superiority: Frozen Scope and ACD." Linguistic Inquiry 32, 2 (Spring 2001): 233-273.

Alsina, A. "On the Argument Structure of Causatives." Linguistic Inquiry 23, 4 (Fall 1992): 517-557.

Miyagawa, S. "Causatives." Chap. 8 in The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics. Edited by N. Tsujiumra. Blackwell, 1999, pp. 236-268.

Ippolito, Michela. "Remarks on the Argument Structure of Romance Causatives." 2001. MIT ms.

Huang, C.-T. James. "Chinese Passives in Comparative Perspective." (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan). Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 3 (Fall 1999).

Huang, C.-T. James. "Passives East and West." 1999. (Paper presented at The 2nd GLOW of Asia Conference, Nanzan University. Nagoya, Japan)

Miyagawa, S. "(S)Ase As an Elsewhere Causative and the Syntactic Nature of Words." Journal of Japanese Linguistics 16 (1998): 67-110.

Dubinsky, S., M. Lloret, and P. Newman. "Lexical and Syntactic Causatives in Oromo." Language 64, 3 (1988): 485-500.

Fodor, J. A. "Three Reasons for Not Deriving 'Kill' from 'Cause to Die'." Linguistic inquiry 1 (1970): 429-438.

Arad, M. "Locality constraints on the interpretation of roots: the case of Hebrew denominal verbs." 2001. Ms.

Folli, Raffaella, and Heidi Harley. "Consuming Results in Italian & English: Flavors of v." In Aspect. Edited by P. Kempchinsky and R. Slabakova. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 1-26. (to appear)

Levin, Beth. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, Part One, 1993.

Anagnostopoulou, Elena. "On Clitics, Feature Movement and Double Object Alternations." Edited by Pius Tamanji, Masako Hirotani, and Nancy Hall. NELS 29 (1999): 41-55.

Marantz, A. "No Escape from Syntax: Don't Try Morphological Analysis in the Privacy of Your Own Lexicon." Edited by A. Dimitriadis, L. Siegel, et. al. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4.2 (1997): 201-225. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium.

Fu, J. T. Roeper, and H. Borer. "The VP Within Nominalizations: Evidence from Adverbs and the VP Anaphor Do-So." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19, 3 (2001): 549-582.

Harley, H., and R. Noyer. "Mixed Nominalizations, Short Verb Movement and Object Shift in English." Edited by Pius N. Tamanji and Kiyomi Kusumoto. Proceedings of NELS 28. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, GLSA, 1998.

Alexiadou, Artemis. "Introduction" (Chap. 1, pp. 1-25), "The Functional Architecture of Nominalizations" (Chap. 2, pp. 27-75), and "Intransitivity in Nominalization." (Chap. 3, pp. 77-125) in Functional Structure in Nominals: Nominalization and Ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001.

Hazout, Ilan. "Action Nominalizations and the Lexicalist Hypothesis." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 13 (1995): 355-404.

Embick, David. "Remarks on the Structure of Resultative Participles in English." Fall 2002. Upenn ms.

Kratzer, Angelika. "All Kinds of Passive Participles." 1998.

Dubinsky, Stanley, and Sylvester Ron Simango. "Passive and Stative in Chichewa: Evidence for Modular Distinctions in Grammar." Language 72, 4 (1996): 749-781.

Levin, B., and M. Rappaport. "The Formation of Adjectival Passives." Linguistic Inquiry 17, 4 (Fall 1986): 623-661.

Pesetsky, David. "Linking Problems with Experiencer Predicates." Chap. 2 in Zero Syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995, pp. 11-53.