219-7677
10
7500817
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Marketing Department / Karin Plijnaar, Pieter Lamers
onix@benjamins.nl
201705011132
ONIX title feed
eng
01
EUR
46016848
03
01
01
JB
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
JB code
LIS 33 Eb
15
9789027266255
06
10.1075/lis.33
13
2016057619
DG
002
02
01
LIS
02
0165-7569
Lingvisticæ Investigationes Supplementa
33
01
Atypical predicate-argument relations
01
lis.33
01
https://benjamins.com
02
https://benjamins.com/catalog/lis.33
1
B01
Thierry Ruchot
Ruchot, Thierry
Thierry
Ruchot
University of Caen, Normandy
2
B01
Pascale Van Praet
Van Praet, Pascale
Pascale
Van Praet
University of Caen, Normandy
01
eng
299
x
289
LAN009060
v.2006
CFK
2
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.MORPH
Morphology
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.SEMAN
Semantics
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.SYNTAX
Syntax
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.THEOR
Theoretical linguistics
06
01
This book deals with atypical predicate-argument relations. Although the relations between predicates, especially verbal, and their arguments have been long studied, most studies are concerned with typical telic verbs in the past tense, indicative mood, active voice, with all arguments expressed. Recently, linguists have become interested in other types of predicate-argument relations displaying atypical properties, be they morphological or syntactic, in one language or cross-linguistically. The articles in this book investigate some of these: argument marking with some special groups of verbs, arguments not foreseen in the verb valency and contributed by the construction, verbs in idiomatic constructions, valency-changing operations, arguments in thetic sentences or in participle constructions etc. The authors work within different theoretical frameworks and on various languages, from more current languages like English, Spanish, French or German, to Hebrew or lamaholot, an Austronesian language.
04
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/475/lis.33.png
04
03
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/475_jpg/9789027231437.jpg
04
03
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/475_tif/9789027231437.tif
06
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_front/lis.33.hb.png
07
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/125/lis.33.png
25
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_back/lis.33.hb.png
27
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/3d_web/lis.33.hb.png
10
01
JB code
lis.33.001int
vii
x
4
Miscellaneous
1
01
Introduction
1
A01
Thierry Ruchot
Ruchot, Thierry
Thierry
Ruchot
Université de Caen, Basse Normandie
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s1
Section header
2
01
Part 1. Atypical realization of the main arguments of the verb
10
01
JB code
lis.33.01van
3
26
24
Article
3
01
Verbs of pain and accusative subjects in Romanian
1
A01
Marleen Van Peteghem
Peteghem, Marleen Van
Marleen
Van
Peteghem
Ghent University x Contragram
01
Verbs of pain in Romanian such as durea ‘ache’, ustura ‘burn’, and furnica ‘itch’ assign the accusative to their experiencer arguments, unlike other Romance languages, where the experiencer is dative-marked. The use of the accusative raises interesting problems in that it gives rise to a mismatch between the hypothesis on the syntax of inalienability in Romance in Generative Grammar (Guéron 1985) on the one hand and Burzio’s (1986) Generalization on the other hand. This article shows that the inversed nominative NP denoting the body part does not show subject properties, and that the accusative experiencer in sentence initial position does not show object properties, but instead displays subject properties, just like the dative in similar constructions. However, the difference between accusative and dative subjects in this construction is that the accusative is assigned to verb arguments and is a lexical case, whereas the dative is assigned to external possessors and is an inherent case. Surprisingly, the argument status of the accusative experiencer makes it even more subject-like than the dative experiencer, which is an adjunct and is dependent on the presence of an internal argument triggering verb agreement, whereas the accusative subject can also occur without an internal argument or with a locative PP.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.02hal
27
60
34
Article
4
01
Non-canonical ‘existential-like‘ constructions in colloquial Modern Hebrew
1
A01
Rivka Halevy
Halevy, Rivka
Rivka
Halevy
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
01
The paper deals with the non-typical structure and coding properties of ‘existential-like’ constructions in Colloquial Modern Hebrew (CMH), with reference to parallels in some major Indo-European languages. The construction explored consists of an invariable (neuter) predicate incorporating an empty referential subject (S) morpheme, plus an explicit postverbal NP representing the logic-­semantic subject (S′) that is deficient in topicality and behaves like an O (though it is not a Patient argument). This construction exhibits inconsistency and instability in several aspects of its encoding.
Taking the structure-based approach as its starting point, the paper’s main argument is that the construction under investigation is a special impersonal construction displaying a split between the grammatical S and semantic S′. Typologically, it proposes a unified account of the construction in both synthetic inflectional languages like Hebrew, which do not require an expletive/dummy-­subject, and in analytic inflectional languages like Germanic languages and French that do require it. The paper disputes the assumption that the postverbal NP in this construction is an O or an S that became an O.
The underlying assumption of the paper is that a construction is a form-­meaning-function unit; accordingly, the construction at hand is examined not only from the structural and semantic viewpoint but also from the viewpoint of functional sentence perspective and the speaker’s perspectival choice with respect to the construal of the event.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.03nis
61
85
25
Article
5
01
IO realizations in Spanish reverse psych verb sentences
1
A01
Chiyo Nishida
Nishida, Chiyo
Chiyo
Nishida
University of Texas, Austin
01
This paper examines the little-known morphosyntactic variation involving Spanish psych verbs that take an experiencer IO and a stimulus subject. With these verbs, a dative clitic duplicating the IO is widely assumed to be obligatory in the canonical [IO-V-S] order (A la gente joven LE/*Ø gustan los deportes ‘Young people like sports’). However, naturally occurring data from corpora show that clitic doubling is not obligatory in the non canonical [S-V-IO] order, yielding two variant constructions (Los deportes LE/Ø gustan a la gente joven ‘Sports appeal to young people’). Using written corpus data from Peninsular Spanish, the paper investigates two issues: (a) what is the overall distribution of clitic doubling in [S-V-IO] psych verb sentences?; (b) are there any systematic distributional differences between the two variants? With respect to (a), we found that for none of the 10 psych verbs surveyed was clitic doubling obligatory. With respect to (b), we found the presence of a clitic tends to restrict the referential properties of the lexical IO in terms of animacy, pronominality, individuality, and number. The findings of this study indicate that dative clitics, which are commonly analyzed as IO-V agreement markers, actually make a substantive contribution to the semantics of psych verb sentences.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.04dom
87
112
26
Article
6
01
Non-human agents as subjects in English and Dutch
A corpus-based translation study
1
A01
Steven Doms
Doms, Steven
Steven
Doms
Ghent University
2
A01
Bernard De Clerck
De Clerck, Bernard
Bernard
De Clerck
Ghent University
3
A01
Sonia Vandepitte
Vandepitte, Sonia
Sonia
Vandepitte
Ghent University
01
In English sentences with a verb denoting an action like give, the subject usually plays the semantic role of agent. While in English non-human agents such as this manual in This manual gives instructions on the correct assembly occur quite frequently, Dutch seems to apply more restrictions, as illustrated in Dit handboek bevat voorschriften over de juiste montage in which the Dutch subject dit handboek is not an agent but rather a possessor (see e.g. Delsoir 2011; Vandepitte & Hartsuiker 2011).
This article investigates how a set of 154 English sentences from the Dutch Parallel Corpus with non-human agents as subjects of give are translated into Dutch. The lower number of Dutch non-human agents are discussed with regard to translation tactics and explained in terms of differences in verb meanings between English give and its Dutch cognate geven and the lexico-­semantics of the non-human agents . The lexical choices translators made lead to valency loss in Dutch.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s2
Section header
7
01
Part 2. Valency-changing devices and non-finite verb forms
10
01
JB code
lis.33.05gar
115
130
16
Article
8
01
The argument-structure configuration of English middle and related structures
The
argument-structure configuration of English middle and related structures
1
A01
Casilda Garcia de la Maza
Garcia de la Maza, Casilda
Casilda
Garcia de la Maza
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
01
This paper assesses the place of middle structures in relation to transitivity and intransitivity in English. Unlike some accounts that have questioned the grammatical status of middles as a self-standing category, this research justifies the recognition of middles as a structural category that constitutes an independent class of intransitive sentences. It does so through an analysis of the underlying thematic structure of middles themselves, as compared to structures which deviate from the middle prototype and other non-canonical structures. A discussion of these issues highlights the great fluidity shown by English verbs entering diathesis alternations, as well as the intransitivisation process exhibited by the English verbal paradigm. The paper concludes with some theoretical considerations regarding the notion of argument structure.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.06soa
131
160
30
Article
9
01
Non-categorical categories
Aspect, Voice, Pred and the category of Participles
1
A01
Elena Soare
Soare, Elena
Elena
Soare
Université de Paris 8 & CNRS UMR 7023 Structures Formelles du Langage
01
This paper aims at circumscribing the range of structures that underlie participial constructions, with a particular emphasis on Romanian data. Participial constructions exhibit high flexibility, e.g., the participial stem labeled “supine” in Romanian grammars, which can be used in both nominal and verbal environments:
(i) a. cărţi de citit b. cititul cărţilor c. am citit
books of read.Sup read.Sup.the books.Gen have read
books intended for reading the reading of books I have read
The challenge these data raise to linguistic theory is to find the key property that would allow distinguishing a natural class of participles inside the larger class of non-­finite verbal forms. It is assumed, in line with much recent work, that this common property should be their truncated character: participles are deprived of some verbal layers; they are lower verbal domains.
Taking this as a working definition, the term ‘participle’ is given a wider use; for instance, it is argued that a part of Romance infinitivals are participial constructions; apparently the same morphology can be used to cover different structures from language to language – defining morphology as the locus of variation. The main idea is that participles are truncated clauses of different heights, and not categories of a special kind. In the view that I propose, having a theory of lexical categories is not an interesting goal in itself (contra Baker 2003–2005). Rather, I show how the structural make-up of the different kinds of participles accounts for their overall behavior, making them behave like nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
I make a distinction between non-finite clauses which (i) include a subject layer and (ii) involve defective Tense, like infinitives and English Acc-Gerunds, and participial constructions that (i) do not include a subject layer (ii) do not involve Tense, even defective, but at most personal and agreement marking. I focus on reduced participial domains and refer to non-finite tensed domains and participial nominalizations for comparative matters. I base my study mainly on Romance data (with key data from Romanian), and punctually refer to English for comparison.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s3
Section header
10
01
Part 3. Variations in transitivity
10
01
JB code
lis.33.07lar
163
179
17
Article
11
01
The semantic motivation of non-canonical predicative relations
The
semantic motivation of non-canonical predicative relations
The French transitive construction
1
A01
Meri Larjavaara
Larjavaara, Meri
Meri
Larjavaara
Åbo Akademi University
01
The paper discusses the semantic motivation behind the non-standard transitive usage of verbs in contemporary French. An example would be the following: On m’a démissionné hier (‘they fired me yesterday’). In the normative language variety, démissionner is used only in the intransitive construction as in J’ai démissionné (‘I gave in my notice’). The non-canonicity of the predicative relations discussed is of a lexical nature: the verbs in question do not normally appear in the transitive construction. Nevertheless the transitive construction itself belongs to the constructions in frequent use in French, and the novel usage of the verbs can be easily understood.
Speakers use the verbs transitively despite the lack of canonicity of this usage, and the paper proposes a semantic explanation for this: the syntactic choice is semantically motivated. The transitive construction carries in itself – despite its frequency – a semantics that the speaker wants to make use of.
The study takes advantage of the Construction Grammar approach.
The paper starts by presenting definitions of semantic transitivity in a functional, typological perspective (G. Lazard 1994; S. Kittilä 2002; Å. Næss 2007). Then it goes through different cases where a pair of a transitive construction and a non-transitive (oblique) construction can be attested (penser (à), toucher (à), effected objects and others). Many of the examples are from the web where non-normative usage flourishes. The two constructions are compared and it is claimed that more transitive semantic features can be found in the transitive constructions.
Other factors possibly relevant here are also briefly discussed: iconic motivation, semantic generalization in a particular technolect.
The paper shows that the French transitive construction indeed has a semantics and that these novel usages can thus be semantically motivated.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.08gir
181
201
21
Article
12
01
Atypical argument structures in French
From metaphorical uses to atypical ones
1
A01
Geneviève Girard-Gillet
Girard-Gillet, Geneviève
Geneviève
Girard-Gillet
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 / EA 4398 PRISMES
01
The article analyses some atypical constructions of French intransitive verbs, such as ils ont suicidé le ministre (they suicided the minister), la crème a explosé les poux (the cream exploded the lice), and tries to account for their existence, as the construction is not always possible, and differs semantically from ils l’ont fait se suicider (they made him commit suicide), il a fait exploser la bombe (he triggered the bomb), where the FAIRE faire construction is compulsory. The hypothesis is that the atypical constructions can be explained within the domain of causative constructions, and more particularly with regard to the distinction between internal and external causation (Guéron, Talmy, Levin, McKoon and Macfarland). The atypical constructions are only possible when no internal causation is available, namely when the causee does not possess the internal characteristics enabling the change of state to occur: the minister was not the suicidal type and the interpretation is then that he was murdered. A change of state did occur, but not the one denoted by the lexical verb. The motivation for the structure is the wish to highlight an unexpected event.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.09gra
203
239
37
Article
13
01
Split intransitivity in Lamaholot (East Flores, Indonesia)
1
A01
Philippe Grangé
Grangé, Philippe
Philippe
Grangé
Université de la Rochelle
01
Split intransitivity has been identified in many languages, including some Eastern Indonesia languages, but the East Adonara Lamaholot (Eastern Indonesia) may be considered as uncommon by the fact it displays all kinds of Split Intransitivity features that have been separately described for a series of languages.
This language displays a complex split intransitivity, involving a Split-S (lexically fixed alignment) and a Fluid-S (fluid alignment) triggered by a series of contexts, which can accounted for by Proto-Roles properties as defined by Dowty (1991). The subject (S) is either seen as “agent-like” (SA), unmarked, or as “patient-­like” (SP), thus marked by verbal agreement. The Split-S involves verbs expressing feeling, sentience, biological functions or motion verbs, which must agree with their subject. The properties ‘± Control’ and ‘± Affected’ seem more crucial than ‘± Volition’ for Fluid-S. Aspect features can overlap this Split-S; for instance, motion verbs (excluding displacement) become telic when complemented by a locative prepositional phrase (PP). Perfect aspect is marked by the same verbal agreement as SP, on stative verbs, nouns used as a predicate, or displacement verbs.
It appears that in Lamaholot dialects westward from Adonara (Eastern tip of Flores) and eastward (on Lembata Island), the split intransitivity systems are highly eroded, and their remains became lexicalized.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s4
Section header
14
01
Part 4. Norm variation in predicate-arguments relations
10
01
JB code
lis.33.10van
243
264
22
Article
15
01
Geographic variation in a non-canonical infinitive structure with the modal verb <italic>brauchen</italic>
1
A01
Pascale Van Praet
Van Praet, Pascale
Pascale
Van Praet
Université de Normandie UNICAEN, CRISCO, EA 4255
2
A01
Gilbert Magnus
Magnus, Gilbert
Gilbert
Magnus
Lille 3, CeLiSo Paris-Sorbonne, EA 4084
01
The objective of the present paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to measure and situate an atypical construction. The focus will be on a “satellite” modal verb in modern German: the verb brauchen followed by an infinitive construction, and therefore marked or not marked as an infinitive complementation. Referring to descriptive grammars, the first part will summarize the typical construction of modal verbs in German and of the verb brauchen + infinitive and diverging opinions on the structure (nicht) brauchen + infinitive verb without any marker. The second part presents a corpus-based analysis of European newspapers in German-speaking regions over the last ten years areas. Observations and quantifications will show that there are important differences between Northern and Southern Germany, Southern Germany and Austria, Austria and Switzerland. The third part is a contextual study of non-marked infinitive constructions following brauchen which leads to syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyses of the occurrences. In the pragmatic study we will consider the context of the occurrences so that written and oral conception will be discussed. The pragmatic study will show some recurrent speech acts. The last part reflects upon the semantics of brauchen inside the modality as one of the means to express necessity, similarities and differences with müssen, and at least the geographic factors that could explain the phenomenon of variation.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.11sch
265
282
18
Article
16
01
Verbal constructions in spoken language deviating from the norm
Reflections on the concept of <italic>atypicality</italic>
1
A01
Günter Schmale
Schmale, Günter
Günter
Schmale
Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3
01
Starting out from the consideration that conclusions as to what is atypical regarding a linguistic feature have to be drawn on the basis of language norms, the paper discusses three types of norms: those defined in authoritative grammars or dictionaries, those apparent through judgements by native speakers, and those determined by corpus-based analyses of language use in large corpora. As grammars and dictionaries are generally based on – formal – written language productions (“folk belief” being strongly dependant on school grammar), the norms defined do not cover the phenomena of verbal constructions occurring in oral language production, especially in dialogical contexts. The study of naturally occurring conversations consequently reveals a great number of syntactic, semantic and conversational features a priori deviating from the “official” norm. The paper demonstrates that rather than being atypical these forms are specific for oral language production. What is more, atypicality cannot be defined on the basis of one specific type of speech exchange system, each different genre having its own typical properties. Atypicality is consequently what does not coincide with the forms of oral or written conceptuality applied by the majority of a community of language users in a given situation.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.12ind
283
285
3
Miscellaneous
17
01
Index of authors
10
01
JB code
lis.33.13ind
287
289
3
Miscellaneous
18
01
Index of subjects
02
JBENJAMINS
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
NL
04
20161208
2016
John Benjamins B.V.
02
WORLD
13
15
9789027231437
01
JB
3
John Benjamins e-Platform
03
jbe-platform.com
09
WORLD
21
01
00
105.00
EUR
R
01
00
88.00
GBP
Z
01
gen
00
158.00
USD
S
113016847
03
01
01
JB
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
JB code
LIS 33 Hb
15
9789027231437
13
2016034637
BB
01
LIS
02
0165-7569
Lingvisticæ Investigationes Supplementa
33
01
Atypical predicate-argument relations
01
lis.33
01
https://benjamins.com
02
https://benjamins.com/catalog/lis.33
1
B01
Thierry Ruchot
Ruchot, Thierry
Thierry
Ruchot
University of Caen, Normandy
2
B01
Pascale Van Praet
Van Praet, Pascale
Pascale
Van Praet
University of Caen, Normandy
01
eng
299
x
289
LAN009060
v.2006
CFK
2
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.MORPH
Morphology
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.SEMAN
Semantics
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.SYNTAX
Syntax
24
JB Subject Scheme
LIN.THEOR
Theoretical linguistics
06
01
This book deals with atypical predicate-argument relations. Although the relations between predicates, especially verbal, and their arguments have been long studied, most studies are concerned with typical telic verbs in the past tense, indicative mood, active voice, with all arguments expressed. Recently, linguists have become interested in other types of predicate-argument relations displaying atypical properties, be they morphological or syntactic, in one language or cross-linguistically. The articles in this book investigate some of these: argument marking with some special groups of verbs, arguments not foreseen in the verb valency and contributed by the construction, verbs in idiomatic constructions, valency-changing operations, arguments in thetic sentences or in participle constructions etc. The authors work within different theoretical frameworks and on various languages, from more current languages like English, Spanish, French or German, to Hebrew or lamaholot, an Austronesian language.
04
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/475/lis.33.png
04
03
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/475_jpg/9789027231437.jpg
04
03
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/475_tif/9789027231437.tif
06
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_front/lis.33.hb.png
07
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/125/lis.33.png
25
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_back/lis.33.hb.png
27
09
01
https://benjamins.com/covers/3d_web/lis.33.hb.png
10
01
JB code
lis.33.001int
vii
x
4
Miscellaneous
1
01
Introduction
1
A01
Thierry Ruchot
Ruchot, Thierry
Thierry
Ruchot
Université de Caen, Basse Normandie
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s1
Section header
2
01
Part 1. Atypical realization of the main arguments of the verb
10
01
JB code
lis.33.01van
3
26
24
Article
3
01
Verbs of pain and accusative subjects in Romanian
1
A01
Marleen Van Peteghem
Peteghem, Marleen Van
Marleen
Van
Peteghem
Ghent University x Contragram
01
Verbs of pain in Romanian such as durea ‘ache’, ustura ‘burn’, and furnica ‘itch’ assign the accusative to their experiencer arguments, unlike other Romance languages, where the experiencer is dative-marked. The use of the accusative raises interesting problems in that it gives rise to a mismatch between the hypothesis on the syntax of inalienability in Romance in Generative Grammar (Guéron 1985) on the one hand and Burzio’s (1986) Generalization on the other hand. This article shows that the inversed nominative NP denoting the body part does not show subject properties, and that the accusative experiencer in sentence initial position does not show object properties, but instead displays subject properties, just like the dative in similar constructions. However, the difference between accusative and dative subjects in this construction is that the accusative is assigned to verb arguments and is a lexical case, whereas the dative is assigned to external possessors and is an inherent case. Surprisingly, the argument status of the accusative experiencer makes it even more subject-like than the dative experiencer, which is an adjunct and is dependent on the presence of an internal argument triggering verb agreement, whereas the accusative subject can also occur without an internal argument or with a locative PP.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.02hal
27
60
34
Article
4
01
Non-canonical ‘existential-like‘ constructions in colloquial Modern Hebrew
1
A01
Rivka Halevy
Halevy, Rivka
Rivka
Halevy
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
01
The paper deals with the non-typical structure and coding properties of ‘existential-like’ constructions in Colloquial Modern Hebrew (CMH), with reference to parallels in some major Indo-European languages. The construction explored consists of an invariable (neuter) predicate incorporating an empty referential subject (S) morpheme, plus an explicit postverbal NP representing the logic-­semantic subject (S′) that is deficient in topicality and behaves like an O (though it is not a Patient argument). This construction exhibits inconsistency and instability in several aspects of its encoding.
Taking the structure-based approach as its starting point, the paper’s main argument is that the construction under investigation is a special impersonal construction displaying a split between the grammatical S and semantic S′. Typologically, it proposes a unified account of the construction in both synthetic inflectional languages like Hebrew, which do not require an expletive/dummy-­subject, and in analytic inflectional languages like Germanic languages and French that do require it. The paper disputes the assumption that the postverbal NP in this construction is an O or an S that became an O.
The underlying assumption of the paper is that a construction is a form-­meaning-function unit; accordingly, the construction at hand is examined not only from the structural and semantic viewpoint but also from the viewpoint of functional sentence perspective and the speaker’s perspectival choice with respect to the construal of the event.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.03nis
61
85
25
Article
5
01
IO realizations in Spanish reverse psych verb sentences
1
A01
Chiyo Nishida
Nishida, Chiyo
Chiyo
Nishida
University of Texas, Austin
01
This paper examines the little-known morphosyntactic variation involving Spanish psych verbs that take an experiencer IO and a stimulus subject. With these verbs, a dative clitic duplicating the IO is widely assumed to be obligatory in the canonical [IO-V-S] order (A la gente joven LE/*Ø gustan los deportes ‘Young people like sports’). However, naturally occurring data from corpora show that clitic doubling is not obligatory in the non canonical [S-V-IO] order, yielding two variant constructions (Los deportes LE/Ø gustan a la gente joven ‘Sports appeal to young people’). Using written corpus data from Peninsular Spanish, the paper investigates two issues: (a) what is the overall distribution of clitic doubling in [S-V-IO] psych verb sentences?; (b) are there any systematic distributional differences between the two variants? With respect to (a), we found that for none of the 10 psych verbs surveyed was clitic doubling obligatory. With respect to (b), we found the presence of a clitic tends to restrict the referential properties of the lexical IO in terms of animacy, pronominality, individuality, and number. The findings of this study indicate that dative clitics, which are commonly analyzed as IO-V agreement markers, actually make a substantive contribution to the semantics of psych verb sentences.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.04dom
87
112
26
Article
6
01
Non-human agents as subjects in English and Dutch
A corpus-based translation study
1
A01
Steven Doms
Doms, Steven
Steven
Doms
Ghent University
2
A01
Bernard De Clerck
De Clerck, Bernard
Bernard
De Clerck
Ghent University
3
A01
Sonia Vandepitte
Vandepitte, Sonia
Sonia
Vandepitte
Ghent University
01
In English sentences with a verb denoting an action like give, the subject usually plays the semantic role of agent. While in English non-human agents such as this manual in This manual gives instructions on the correct assembly occur quite frequently, Dutch seems to apply more restrictions, as illustrated in Dit handboek bevat voorschriften over de juiste montage in which the Dutch subject dit handboek is not an agent but rather a possessor (see e.g. Delsoir 2011; Vandepitte & Hartsuiker 2011).
This article investigates how a set of 154 English sentences from the Dutch Parallel Corpus with non-human agents as subjects of give are translated into Dutch. The lower number of Dutch non-human agents are discussed with regard to translation tactics and explained in terms of differences in verb meanings between English give and its Dutch cognate geven and the lexico-­semantics of the non-human agents . The lexical choices translators made lead to valency loss in Dutch.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s2
Section header
7
01
Part 2. Valency-changing devices and non-finite verb forms
10
01
JB code
lis.33.05gar
115
130
16
Article
8
01
The argument-structure configuration of English middle and related structures
The
argument-structure configuration of English middle and related structures
1
A01
Casilda Garcia de la Maza
Garcia de la Maza, Casilda
Casilda
Garcia de la Maza
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
01
This paper assesses the place of middle structures in relation to transitivity and intransitivity in English. Unlike some accounts that have questioned the grammatical status of middles as a self-standing category, this research justifies the recognition of middles as a structural category that constitutes an independent class of intransitive sentences. It does so through an analysis of the underlying thematic structure of middles themselves, as compared to structures which deviate from the middle prototype and other non-canonical structures. A discussion of these issues highlights the great fluidity shown by English verbs entering diathesis alternations, as well as the intransitivisation process exhibited by the English verbal paradigm. The paper concludes with some theoretical considerations regarding the notion of argument structure.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.06soa
131
160
30
Article
9
01
Non-categorical categories
Aspect, Voice, Pred and the category of Participles
1
A01
Elena Soare
Soare, Elena
Elena
Soare
Université de Paris 8 & CNRS UMR 7023 Structures Formelles du Langage
01
This paper aims at circumscribing the range of structures that underlie participial constructions, with a particular emphasis on Romanian data. Participial constructions exhibit high flexibility, e.g., the participial stem labeled “supine” in Romanian grammars, which can be used in both nominal and verbal environments:
(i) a. cărţi de citit b. cititul cărţilor c. am citit
books of read.Sup read.Sup.the books.Gen have read
books intended for reading the reading of books I have read
The challenge these data raise to linguistic theory is to find the key property that would allow distinguishing a natural class of participles inside the larger class of non-­finite verbal forms. It is assumed, in line with much recent work, that this common property should be their truncated character: participles are deprived of some verbal layers; they are lower verbal domains.
Taking this as a working definition, the term ‘participle’ is given a wider use; for instance, it is argued that a part of Romance infinitivals are participial constructions; apparently the same morphology can be used to cover different structures from language to language – defining morphology as the locus of variation. The main idea is that participles are truncated clauses of different heights, and not categories of a special kind. In the view that I propose, having a theory of lexical categories is not an interesting goal in itself (contra Baker 2003–2005). Rather, I show how the structural make-up of the different kinds of participles accounts for their overall behavior, making them behave like nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
I make a distinction between non-finite clauses which (i) include a subject layer and (ii) involve defective Tense, like infinitives and English Acc-Gerunds, and participial constructions that (i) do not include a subject layer (ii) do not involve Tense, even defective, but at most personal and agreement marking. I focus on reduced participial domains and refer to non-finite tensed domains and participial nominalizations for comparative matters. I base my study mainly on Romance data (with key data from Romanian), and punctually refer to English for comparison.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s3
Section header
10
01
Part 3. Variations in transitivity
10
01
JB code
lis.33.07lar
163
179
17
Article
11
01
The semantic motivation of non-canonical predicative relations
The
semantic motivation of non-canonical predicative relations
The French transitive construction
1
A01
Meri Larjavaara
Larjavaara, Meri
Meri
Larjavaara
Åbo Akademi University
01
The paper discusses the semantic motivation behind the non-standard transitive usage of verbs in contemporary French. An example would be the following: On m’a démissionné hier (‘they fired me yesterday’). In the normative language variety, démissionner is used only in the intransitive construction as in J’ai démissionné (‘I gave in my notice’). The non-canonicity of the predicative relations discussed is of a lexical nature: the verbs in question do not normally appear in the transitive construction. Nevertheless the transitive construction itself belongs to the constructions in frequent use in French, and the novel usage of the verbs can be easily understood.
Speakers use the verbs transitively despite the lack of canonicity of this usage, and the paper proposes a semantic explanation for this: the syntactic choice is semantically motivated. The transitive construction carries in itself – despite its frequency – a semantics that the speaker wants to make use of.
The study takes advantage of the Construction Grammar approach.
The paper starts by presenting definitions of semantic transitivity in a functional, typological perspective (G. Lazard 1994; S. Kittilä 2002; Å. Næss 2007). Then it goes through different cases where a pair of a transitive construction and a non-transitive (oblique) construction can be attested (penser (à), toucher (à), effected objects and others). Many of the examples are from the web where non-normative usage flourishes. The two constructions are compared and it is claimed that more transitive semantic features can be found in the transitive constructions.
Other factors possibly relevant here are also briefly discussed: iconic motivation, semantic generalization in a particular technolect.
The paper shows that the French transitive construction indeed has a semantics and that these novel usages can thus be semantically motivated.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.08gir
181
201
21
Article
12
01
Atypical argument structures in French
From metaphorical uses to atypical ones
1
A01
Geneviève Girard-Gillet
Girard-Gillet, Geneviève
Geneviève
Girard-Gillet
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 / EA 4398 PRISMES
01
The article analyses some atypical constructions of French intransitive verbs, such as ils ont suicidé le ministre (they suicided the minister), la crème a explosé les poux (the cream exploded the lice), and tries to account for their existence, as the construction is not always possible, and differs semantically from ils l’ont fait se suicider (they made him commit suicide), il a fait exploser la bombe (he triggered the bomb), where the FAIRE faire construction is compulsory. The hypothesis is that the atypical constructions can be explained within the domain of causative constructions, and more particularly with regard to the distinction between internal and external causation (Guéron, Talmy, Levin, McKoon and Macfarland). The atypical constructions are only possible when no internal causation is available, namely when the causee does not possess the internal characteristics enabling the change of state to occur: the minister was not the suicidal type and the interpretation is then that he was murdered. A change of state did occur, but not the one denoted by the lexical verb. The motivation for the structure is the wish to highlight an unexpected event.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.09gra
203
239
37
Article
13
01
Split intransitivity in Lamaholot (East Flores, Indonesia)
1
A01
Philippe Grangé
Grangé, Philippe
Philippe
Grangé
Université de la Rochelle
01
Split intransitivity has been identified in many languages, including some Eastern Indonesia languages, but the East Adonara Lamaholot (Eastern Indonesia) may be considered as uncommon by the fact it displays all kinds of Split Intransitivity features that have been separately described for a series of languages.
This language displays a complex split intransitivity, involving a Split-S (lexically fixed alignment) and a Fluid-S (fluid alignment) triggered by a series of contexts, which can accounted for by Proto-Roles properties as defined by Dowty (1991). The subject (S) is either seen as “agent-like” (SA), unmarked, or as “patient-­like” (SP), thus marked by verbal agreement. The Split-S involves verbs expressing feeling, sentience, biological functions or motion verbs, which must agree with their subject. The properties ‘± Control’ and ‘± Affected’ seem more crucial than ‘± Volition’ for Fluid-S. Aspect features can overlap this Split-S; for instance, motion verbs (excluding displacement) become telic when complemented by a locative prepositional phrase (PP). Perfect aspect is marked by the same verbal agreement as SP, on stative verbs, nouns used as a predicate, or displacement verbs.
It appears that in Lamaholot dialects westward from Adonara (Eastern tip of Flores) and eastward (on Lembata Island), the split intransitivity systems are highly eroded, and their remains became lexicalized.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.s4
Section header
14
01
Part 4. Norm variation in predicate-arguments relations
10
01
JB code
lis.33.10van
243
264
22
Article
15
01
Geographic variation in a non-canonical infinitive structure with the modal verb <italic>brauchen</italic>
1
A01
Pascale Van Praet
Van Praet, Pascale
Pascale
Van Praet
Université de Normandie UNICAEN, CRISCO, EA 4255
2
A01
Gilbert Magnus
Magnus, Gilbert
Gilbert
Magnus
Lille 3, CeLiSo Paris-Sorbonne, EA 4084
01
The objective of the present paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to measure and situate an atypical construction. The focus will be on a “satellite” modal verb in modern German: the verb brauchen followed by an infinitive construction, and therefore marked or not marked as an infinitive complementation. Referring to descriptive grammars, the first part will summarize the typical construction of modal verbs in German and of the verb brauchen + infinitive and diverging opinions on the structure (nicht) brauchen + infinitive verb without any marker. The second part presents a corpus-based analysis of European newspapers in German-speaking regions over the last ten years areas. Observations and quantifications will show that there are important differences between Northern and Southern Germany, Southern Germany and Austria, Austria and Switzerland. The third part is a contextual study of non-marked infinitive constructions following brauchen which leads to syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analyses of the occurrences. In the pragmatic study we will consider the context of the occurrences so that written and oral conception will be discussed. The pragmatic study will show some recurrent speech acts. The last part reflects upon the semantics of brauchen inside the modality as one of the means to express necessity, similarities and differences with müssen, and at least the geographic factors that could explain the phenomenon of variation.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.11sch
265
282
18
Article
16
01
Verbal constructions in spoken language deviating from the norm
Reflections on the concept of <italic>atypicality</italic>
1
A01
Günter Schmale
Schmale, Günter
Günter
Schmale
Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3
01
Starting out from the consideration that conclusions as to what is atypical regarding a linguistic feature have to be drawn on the basis of language norms, the paper discusses three types of norms: those defined in authoritative grammars or dictionaries, those apparent through judgements by native speakers, and those determined by corpus-based analyses of language use in large corpora. As grammars and dictionaries are generally based on – formal – written language productions (“folk belief” being strongly dependant on school grammar), the norms defined do not cover the phenomena of verbal constructions occurring in oral language production, especially in dialogical contexts. The study of naturally occurring conversations consequently reveals a great number of syntactic, semantic and conversational features a priori deviating from the “official” norm. The paper demonstrates that rather than being atypical these forms are specific for oral language production. What is more, atypicality cannot be defined on the basis of one specific type of speech exchange system, each different genre having its own typical properties. Atypicality is consequently what does not coincide with the forms of oral or written conceptuality applied by the majority of a community of language users in a given situation.
10
01
JB code
lis.33.12ind
283
285
3
Miscellaneous
17
01
Index of authors
10
01
JB code
lis.33.13ind
287
289
3
Miscellaneous
18
01
Index of subjects
02
JBENJAMINS
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
NL
04
20161208
2016
John Benjamins B.V.
02
WORLD
08
670
gr
01
JB
1
John Benjamins Publishing Company
+31 20 6304747
+31 20 6739773
bookorder@benjamins.nl
01
https://benjamins.com
01
WORLD
US CA MX
21
11
22
01
02
JB
1
00
105.00
EUR
R
02
02
JB
1
00
111.30
EUR
R
01
JB
10
bebc
+44 1202 712 934
+44 1202 712 913
sales@bebc.co.uk
03
GB
21
22
02
02
JB
1
00
88.00
GBP
Z
01
JB
2
John Benjamins North America
+1 800 562-5666
+1 703 661-1501
benjamins@presswarehouse.com
01
https://benjamins.com
01
US CA MX
21
1
22
01
gen
02
JB
1
00
158.00
USD