Argument tructure论元结构.docVIP

Argument Structure What are arguments? distinction between arguments and “adjuncts” or event modifiers distinction between internal and external arguments Applicative constructions allow adjuncts to be expressed grammatically in the same way as external arguments and internal arguments. Causative constructions appear to allow external arguments to be expressed grammatically in the same way as internal arguments. Possibly: no categorical distinctions relating semantics of arguments (loosely described in terms of semantic or thematic roles) to status as external vs. internal arguments vs. adjuncts. Thematic hierarchies, matching between semantic and syntactic embeddings, non-categorical generalizations… these could account for apparent generalizations such as, given a verb with an agent and a theme, the agent must be the subject. () crucial break is argument vs. adjunct; distinction among arguments not “semantic” in the structural semantics sense (agent, theme, goal) () all “participants” in the event are more or less the same semantically; essentially argument/adjunct distinction is a question of argument linking () all “participants” in the event are really arguments; adjunct Pps are added to the argument structure of verbs in a way similar to that of applicative arguments. () one or two internal arguments are internal to the event semantics and help construct the event. External arguments and adjuncts are essentially event modifiers. One can relate an individual to an event with a head that puts the individual in the specifier position, creating an “external argument” in the classic sense, or one can relate the individual to an event with the event in specifier position, creating a class Prepositional Phrase containing the individual. Dowty verb classes: NOTE: States have names; they don’t represent a primitive predicate. Activity DO, inchoative BECOME, and causative CAUSE are primitive predicates. A verb “name” can be the name of a state. For verbs tha