The Locative Alternation in German
Its structure and acquisition
This monograph deals with the locative alternation in German, a change in the argument structure of verbs like spray and load. Like most argument structure changes, the alternation is both productive and constrained: new forms may be derived, but not from all candidate verbs. This raises a learnability problem: how can children determine, in the absence of negative evidence, which verbs participate in the alternation? The Locative Alternation in German tries to answer this question by providing an in-depth analysis of the conditions that verbs must meet in order to participate in the alternation. Most importantly, transitive verbs must allow speakers to presuppose the existence of their theme argument. This condition requires the theme to be incremental so that it can be conceived of as nonindividuated (or unbounded) when the verb is used in the alternative syntactic frame. The Nonindividuation Hypothesis splits locative verbs into two types, mass verbs (like spray) and count verbs (like load), and it predicts that children acquire the alternation first for mass verbs, whose theme must be a substance and so is nonindividuated by default. Support for this hypothesis is provided in the empirical part of the book, which also provides evidence against claims in the literature that children acquire the alternation by drawing on an innate Affectness Linking Rule.
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 15] 1997. x, 289 pp.
Publishing status:
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Argument Structure Alternations and the No Negative Evidence Problem | p. 1
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Theories of the Acquisition of Argument Structure Alternations | p. 17
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The Structure of the Locative Alternation | p. 75
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The Nonindividuation Hypothesis | p. 103
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The Production Experiment: Testing the Nonindividuation | p. 131
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Restrictions on be- Prefixation | p. 181
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The Comprehension Experiment: Testing Children’s Interpretation of be- Verbs | p. 211
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Summary and Conclusions | p. 245
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Appendices | p. 255
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Auhtor Index | p. 283
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Subject Index | p. 287
Cited by (11)
Cited by 11 other publications
Pedersen, Johan
2023. Chapter 8. Danish verb prefixes and the schematizing transitive prefix construction. In Constructional Approaches to Nordic Languages [Constructional Approaches to Language, 37], ► pp. 212 ff.
Los, Bettelou
2018. Chapter 1. “Permissive” subjects and the decline of adverbial linking in the history of English. In Explorations in English Historical Syntax [Studies in Language Companion Series, 198], ► pp. 23 ff.
Beavers, John
Mateu, Jaume
2017. Two types of locative alternation. In Verb Valency Changes [Typological Studies in Language, 120], ► pp. 52 ff.
Bidgood, Amy, Ben Ambridge, Julian M. Pine, Caroline F. Rowland & Mark Aronoff
Lewandowski, Wojciech
2014. The locative alternation in verb-framed vs. satellite-framed languages. Studies in Language 38:4 ► pp. 864 ff.
McIntyre, Andew
Kemmerer, David
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General