Article published in:
Studies in Language
Vol. 41:1 (2017) ► pp. 142–197

The macro-event property and the layered structure of the clause

| University at Buffalo - The State University of New York
| Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
We ask whether there is a “macro-event phrase,” a uniform level of syntax at which complex scenarios may be described as single events under the Macro-Event Property (MEP). The MEP is a form-meaning mapping property that constrains the compatibility of event descriptions with time-positional modifiers. An examination of English infinitival complements, Ewe serial verb constructions, and Japanese converb constructions suggests that the putative crosslinguistic “macro-event phrase” is the verbal core of the Layered Structure of the Clause theory of Role and Reference Grammar. Across languages, simple cores necessarily have the MEP, whereas complex cores have it if and only if they are integrated by ‘cosubordinate’ nexus, defined as a symmetric union of two cores that together behave like a single core. We furthermore argue that this connection between core cosubordinations and the MEP may help explain why cosubordinate cores seem to always share an argument through control.
Keywords: event representation, macro-event property, verbal core, layered structure of the clause, role and reference grammar, control, juncture, nexus, cosubordination, Ewe, Japanese, English, converb constructions, serial verb constructions, infinitival complements


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 01 June 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.41.1.05van

Full-text

The macro-event property and the layered structure of the clause
References

References

Ameka, Felix K.
1991 Ewe: Its grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices. Canberra: Australian National University PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
2005a Ewe serial verb constructions in their grammatical context. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds.), Serial verb constructions: A cross-linguistic typology, 124–143. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2005b Multiverb constructions on the West African littoral: Micro-variation and areal typology. In Mila Vulchanova & Tor A. Åfarli (eds.), Grammar and beyond: Essays in honor of Lars Hellan, 15–42. Oslo: Novus Press.Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix & James Essegbey
2001 Serialising languages: Satellite-framed, verb-framed or neither. 32nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Berkeley, March 2001.
In press. Serialising languages: Satellite-framed, verb- framed or neither? In Larry Hyman and Ian Maddieson (eds.) African comparative and historical linguistics. Proceedings of the 32nd annual conference on African Linguistics Lawrenceville, NJ Africa World Press
Ansre, Gilbert
1966 The grammatical units of Ewe: A study of their structure, classes and systems. London: University of London PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark C.
1989 Object sharing and projection in serial verb constructions. Linguistic Inquiry 20. 513–543.Google Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar
2010 Capturing particulars and universals in clause linkage: A multivariate analysis. In Isabelle Bril (eds.). 51–101.Google Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Jürgen
2003 The unique vector constraint. In Emile van der Zee & Jon Slack (eds.), Representing direction in language and space, 86–110. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009 Linking without grammatical relations in Yucatec: Alignment, extraction, and control. In Yoko Nishina, Yong-Min Shin, Stavros Skopeteas, Elisabeth Verhoeven, & Johannes Helmbrecht (eds.), Issues in functional-typological linguistics and language theory: A Festschrift for Christian Lehmann on the occasion of his 60th birthday, 185–214. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Jürgen, et al.
2007 Principles of event encoding: The case of motion events. Language 83(3). 495–532. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Jürgen, Nick J. Enfield, James Essegbey, & Sotaro Kita
2010 The Macro-Event Property: The segmentation of causal chains. In Jürgen Bohnemeyer & Eric Pederson (eds.), Event representation in language: Encoding events at the language-cognition interface, 43–67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bresnan, Joan 1980 Polyadicity. In Teun Hoekstra, Harry van der Hulst & Michael Moortgat (eds.), Lexical grammar, 97–121. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
1982 Polyadicity. In Joan Bresnan (ed.), The mental representation of grammatical relations, 149–172. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Casati, Roberto and Achille C. Varzi
1999 Parts and places: The structures of spatial representation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1981 Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Cutrer, Michelle
1993 Semantic and syntactic factors in control. In Robert D. Van ValinJr. (eds.), Advances in role and reference grammar, 167–195. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M. W.
2006 Serial verb constructions: Conspectus and coda. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds.), Serial verb constructions: A cross-linguistic typology, 338–350. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dowty, David R.
1979 Word meaning and Montague Grammar: The semantics of verbs and times in Generative Semantics and Montague’s PTQ. Dordrecht: Reidel. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J.
1968 The case for case. In Emmon Bach & Robert T. Harms (eds.), Universals of linguistic theory, 1–90. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J.
1972 Subjects, speakers and roles. In Donald Davidson & Gilbert Harman (eds.), Semantics of Natural Language, 1–24. Dordrecht: Reidel. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, Jerry
1970 Three reasons not to derive “kill” from “cause to die”. Linguistic Inquiry 1. 429–438.Google Scholar
Foley, William
2010 Clause linkage and nexus in Papuan languages. In Isabelle Bril ed.. 27–50.Google Scholar
Foley William A. & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr
1984 Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy
1980 The binding hierarchy and the typology of complements. Studies in Language 4. 333–378. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hansell, Mark
1993 Serial verbs and complement constructions in Mandarin: A clause linkage analysis. In Van Valin, Robert D. Jr. (ed.), Advances in role and reference grammar, 197–233. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hasegawa, Yoko
1996 A study of Japanese clause linkage: The connective TE in Japanese (Studies in Japanese Linguistics 5). Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin & Ekkehard König
(eds.) 1995 Converbs in cross-linguistic perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray
1990 Semantic structures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang
1994 Time in language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
1998 The origins of telicity. In S. Rothstein (ed.), Events and grammar, 197–235. Dordrecht: Kluwer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C.
1987 Pragmatics and the grammar of anaphora: A partial pragmatic reduction of binding and control phenomena. Journal of Linguistics 23. 379–434. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2000 Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicatures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. & Igor V. Nedjalkov
1987 On the typological characteristics of converbs. In Toomas Help (ed.), Symposium on language universals, 75–79. Tallinn: Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR.Google Scholar
Noonan, Michael
1985 Complementation. In T. Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Vol. II: Complex constructions, 42–140. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nunes, Mary L. 1993 Argument linking in English derived nominals. In Robert Van Valin, Jr. (ed.), Advances in role and reference grammar, 375–432. Amsterdam: Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Michael L.
1981 Barai clause junctures: Toward a functional theory of interclausal relations. Canberra: Australian National University PhD Dissertation.Google Scholar
Parsons, Terrence
1990 Events in the semantics of English. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sebba, Mark
1987 The syntax of serial verbs. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stiebels, Barbara
2010 Inhärente Kontrollprädikate im Deutschen. Linguistische Berichte 224. 391–440. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Talmy, Leonard
2000 Towards a cognitive semantics. Cambridge, MA: MIT PressGoogle Scholar
Van Valin, Robert D., Jr
2001 An introduction to syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2005 Exploring the syntax-semantics interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 Investigations of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009 Linguistics past and present: A view from the Rhine. In Zarina Estrada Fernández, Albert Álvarez González & María Belén Carpio (eds.), Ser lingüista: un oficio diverso y polifacético. Diez años de una Maestría en Lingüística [Being a linguist: A diverse and multifaceted profession. Ten years of a Masters program in Linguistics], 155–162. Hermosillo: Editorial Universidad de Sonora.Google Scholar
2015 Cosubordination. Paper presented at 2015 Role and Reference Grammar Conference to appear in the Proceedings.
Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. & Randy J. LaPolla
1997 Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Zeno
1957 Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review LXVI. 143–160. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Watters, James K.
1993 An investigation of Turkish clause linkage. In Robert D. Van Valin Jr. (ed.), Advances in role and reference grammar, 535–560. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna
1980 Lingua Mentalis. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan & Peerapat Yangklang
2004 A third way of travel: The place of Thai in motion-event typology. In Sven Strömqvist & Ludo Verhoeven (eds.) Relating events in narrative: Topological and contextual perspectives, 159–190. Mahwah, NJ: LEA Publishers.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Fan, Ying
2021. Argument structure representation: Formation of serial verb constructions in Standard Mandarin Chinese. Lingua 249 ► pp. 102962 ff. Crossref logo
Fan, Ying & Man Li
2019. The obligatory fronting of the undergoer argument in the Mandarin Excessive serial verb construction. Concentric. Studies in Linguistics 45:2 ► pp. 167 ff. Crossref logo
Matsumoto, Yo & Kazuhiro Kawachi
2020.  In Broader Perspectives on Motion Event Descriptions [Human Cognitive Processing, 69], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Takahashi, Kiyoko
2020.  In Broader Perspectives on Motion Event Descriptions [Human Cognitive Processing, 69], ► pp. 105 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 february 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.