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The Lexicon–Syntax Interface: Perspectives from South Asian languages
Edited by Pritha Chandra and Richa Srishti
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 209] 2014
► pp. 101–126

Lexical semantics of transitivizer light verbs in Telugu

| EFL University, Hyderabad

This chapter examines the kind of meanings that are uniformly present in constructions involving a certain variety of light verbs in Telugu – transitivizer light verbs. The meanings that are inalienably constant in both the verbal and the nominal complex predicates that these light verbs form are the inceptual meanings- emphasizing inception or beginning, continuation or progression, and completion or end-point. These meanings can be directly linked, and are further evidence for the structural decomposition of the verbal domain into 3 subparts or projections (First Phase Syntax, Ramchand 2008) – initP (introduces causation), procP (specifies the process), and resP (gives the result state). The semantics of this structure is what I claim gives rise to the inceptual meanings.

Keywords: argument structure, complex predicates, Dravidian, first phase syntax, inceptual meaning
Published online: 25 March 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.209.05bal
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