Inner Aspect: The Articulation of VP (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory Book 80)

This monograph probes the structure of the verb phrase through a cross-linguistic investigation of the syntax and morphology of relevant constructions. In particular, the author provides evidence for two event-related non-lexical projections called "inner aspect" and "event". The former is found within the verb phrase and encodes information on the endpoint of an event. The latter is found at the edge of the verb phrase and demarcates the boundary of a particular domain of syntax, L-syntax. Although languages vary in their use of these projections and in the way they encode the endpoints of events, the author argues that the comparison of a number of languages and the analysis of a range of constructions results in the emergence of a consistent picture. While much of the discussion involves Austronesian languages such as Malagasy and Tagalog, other languages such as French, Spanish, Swedish, Scots Gaelic, Chinese, Japanese, Navajo, Slave, and Kalagan are discussed. Syntactic and morphological data from these languages are used to illuminate the details of the phrase structure of the verbal predicate. These data also aid in understanding how phrase structure is used to express certain facets of language, such as event structure, aspectual verb classes, productive and lexical causatives, derived objects, agents and causes, and coerced structures. INNER ASPECT 2 Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 3 Preface 8 Contents 10 Introduction 14 1.1 Aspect and Syntax 15 1.1.1 Outer Aspect and Syntax 15 1.1.2 Inner Aspect and Syntax 16 1.2 Inner Aspect 17 1.2.1 Derived Objects 19 1.2.2 Aspectual Morphology 20 1.2.3 Computation of Aktionsart 22 1.3 Other Claims 24 1.3.1 Lexical and Functional Categories 24 1.3.2 The Role of the Lexicon 25 1.4 Some Consequences 27 1.4.1 The Structure of Achievements 27 1.5 Coercion 28 1.6 A Note on Methodology 29 Inner Derived Objects 31 2.1 Introduction 31 2.2 Background 31 2.3 Early Proposals 33 2.3.1 Mahajan (1990) 34 2.3.2 Johnson (1991) 35 2.3.3 Sportiche (1990/1998) 36 2.3.4 Koizumi (1993, 1995) 36 2.3.5 Chomsky (1993, 1995) 38 2.4 Two Object Positions 39 2.4.1 One Object: EITHER/OR 39 2.4.1.1 Chinese 41 2.4.1.2 Scots Gaelic 42 2.4.2 Two Objects: both 44 2.5 Objects within the VP 46 2.5.1 Chinese 47 2.5.2 Swedish 49 2.5.3 Nominative Third (N3) Languages 51 2.5.4 Movement Vs. Base-Generation 56 2.6 Conclusion 62 Inner Aspect and Event 63 3.1 Introduction 63 3.2 Arguing for Inner Aspect 63 3.2.1 Tagalog Reduplication 65 3.2.2 Mirror Principle Violations in Navajo 74 3.2.3 Agreement in Tagalog 83 3.2.4 Summary 86 3.3 Arguing for the Existence of Event 87 3.3.1 Characteristics 89 3.3.1.1 Tense-Related Characteristics 89 3.3.1.2 Reference-Related Characteristics 92 3.3.2 The Function of F 97 3.3.2.1 Previous Characterizations 98 3.3.3 F Binds Event ‘‘Theta-Role’’ 98 3.4 Partial A-Movement 100 3.5 Conclusion 103 Event Structure and Phrase Structure 104 4.1 Introduction 104 4.2 Preparing the Ground 105 4.2.1 Semantic Decomposition 105 4.2.2 Syntactic Articulation 108 4.2.2.1 VP-Internal Subjects 108 4.2.2.2 VP Shells 110 4.2.2.3 Lexical Semantics in Syntax 112 4.3 Semantics in the Syntax 113 4.3.1 Theta-Roles and the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH) 113 4.3.2 Predicates and LCS 114 4.4 The Syntax of Event Structure 114 4.4.1 The Precursor: Generative Semantics 115 4.4.2 Aspectual Predicate Classes 118 4.4.3 Event Structure Representation 121 4.4.4 Phrase Structure Representation 126 4.4.5 The Position of Aspect 132 4.4.6 The Power of Aspect 133 4.5 Language Variation 134 4.5.1 Japanese 135 4.5.2 Chinese 139 4.5.3 Tagalog and Malagasy 139 4.5.4 The Telicity Parameter 140 4.6 Conclusion 141 Interaction of Objects and Aspect 143 5.1 The Interaction of Case and Aspect 143 5.1.1 Objects and Viewpoint Aspect 143 5.1.2 Objects and Situation Aspect 145 5.2 The Position of Incremental Themes 153 5.2.1 German VP-Internal Objects 154 5.2.2 Turkish and Malagasy Objects 158 5.2.2.1 Turkish Objects 158 5.2.2.2 Malagasy Objects 162 5.2.2.3 Turkish Objects Revisited 165 5.3 Conclusion 165 L-Syntax and S-Syntax 167 6.1 Background 168 6.2 Causatives 170 6.2.1 English 170 6.2.2 Tagalog and Malagasy 172 6.3 Empty Anaphors in Tagalog 178 6.3.1 S-Syntax Anaphoric pro 178 6.3.2 L-Syntax Anaphoric pro 181 6.4 Where and What is L-syntax? 189 6.4.1 Syntax in the Lexicon 189 6.4.2 Lexical Entries in Syntax 191 6.4.3 Pag- as an Anti-EPP Morpheme 195 6.5 L-Syntax and the Lexicon 196 6.6 Summary 199 6.7 Discontinuous Lexical Items 203 6.7.1 Serial Verb Constructions 204 6.7.2 Inherent Complement Verbs 208 6.8 The Lexicon and Lexical Categories 211 6.8.1 Lexical Entries 211 6.8.2 M-Words 212 6.9 Conclusion 213 The Syntax of Achievements 215 7.1 Introduction 215 7.2 The Semantic Problem 216 7.2.1 Achievements as a Class 216 7.2.2 Achievements Not Linguistically Relevant 217 7.2.3 Achievements in Nontelic Languages 220 7.2.4 Achievements in Malagasy 223 7.3 The Shape of Achievements 229 7.3.1 The External Argument 230 7.3.2 ka- Deletion in Tagalog 236 7.3.3 Tense Realization in Malagasy 238 7.3.4 The Argument Structure of Cognition Verbs in Tagalog 240 7.3.5 Achievements as Pure Results 243 7.4 External Arguments and LCS 245 7.5 Conclusion 248 Bounds and Coercion 250 8.1 Introduction 250 8.2 Endpoints 250 8.2.1 Telicity in X 254 8.2.2 Telicity in V1 256 8.2.3 Telicity in Asp 259 8.2.4 Telicity in X and V1 262 8.2.5 An Aside: Different Types of Beginnings 266 8.3 Null Telic Morphemes and Lexical Entries 269 8.3.1 Zero Morphemes in X 270 8.3.2 Zero Morphemes in V1 271 8.3.3 Zero Morphemes in Asp 272 8.4 Coercion and Selection 273 8.5 Viewpoint vs. Situation Aspect 278 8.6 Conclusion 283 Conclusion 284 9.1 Introduction 284 9.2 Lexical vs. Functional 284 9.3 Lexical Entries and Idioms 286 9.4 Theta Roles and Aspectual Roles 289 9.4.1 Aspectual Theta-Roles in Double-Object Constructions 289 9.4.2 Aspectual Theta-Roles in Unaccusative Constructions 290 9.5 The Nature of Coercion 291 9.6 Further Questions 292 References 294 Author Index 308 Language Index 312 Subject Index 314 Finishing this book was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. It took far too long from original idea to page proofs and suffered from being relegated to small corners of my life. It was very rarely on the front burner. Since I started working on this topic in 1991, there has been a lot of interesting work done on the areas of the articulation of VP, phrase structure mirroring event structure, the use of functional categories to represent Aktionsart, and many other areas that the research presented here touches on. The hardest thing about doing a project of this size is to accept that not everyone’s ideas can be addressed and not all new research can be incorporated. The only way that I have found it possible to let this book go to press is to reread the Preface to Events in the Semantics of English by Terence Parsons where he writes, ‘‘The goal of this book is neither completeness nor complete accuracy; it is to get some interesting proposals into the public arena for others to criticize, develop, and build on. ’’ My aim in this book is to make connections between various accounts of various constructions in various languages at the risk of treating each of these too lightly. I am grateful to too many people to thank them individually. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-17 Inner Derived Objects....Pages 19-50 Inner Aspect and Event....Pages 51-91 Event Structure and Phrase Structure....Pages 93-131 Interaction of Objects and Aspect....Pages 133-156 L-Syntax and S-Syntax....Pages 157-204 The Syntax of Achievements....Pages 205-239 Bounds and Coercion....Pages 241-274 Conclusion....Pages 275-284 Back Matter....Pages 285-308