A view from clean: Manner and result

Levin, Beth; Hovav, Malka Rappaport

doi:10.1075/slcs.147.14lev

Part of

Language Description Informed by Theory
Edited by Rob Pensalfini, Myfany Turpin and Diana Guillemin
[Studies in Language Companion Series 147] 2014
► pp. 337–358

Manner and result

A view from clean

Beth Levin

Malka Rappaport Hovav

As a deadjectival verb, English clean should be a clear-cut result verb, yet it often shows hallmarks of a manner verb. This paper investigates this dual behavior in light of manner/result complementarity: the proposal that verbs lexicalize either manner or result meaning components, but not both. We demonstrate that once lexicalized and contextually determined meaning components are distinguished, clean conforms to manner/result complementarity. It can be a result verb, not entailing a particular manner. However, given its strong association with cleaning routines, some uses simply lexicalize manner. Crucially, in manner uses the result drops out, consistent with manner/result complementarity. The manner-only and result-only uses of clean, then, instantiate related senses, each conforming to manner/result complementarity.

Published online: 28 January 2014

https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.147.14lev

References

Arsenijević, Boban

. 2010. On the syntactic nature of manner-incorporation. Ms, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

Beavers, John

. 2008. Scalar complexity and the structure of events. In Event Structures in Linguistic Form and Interpretation , Johannes Dölling, Tatjana Heyde-Zybatow & Martin Schäfer (eds.), 245–265. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Brisson, Christine

. 1994. The licensing of unexpressed objects in English verbs. In Papers from the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society , 1: The Main Session , 90–102. Chicago IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Fillmore, Charles J.

1970. The grammar of hitting and breaking. In Readings in English Transformational Grammar , Roderick A. Jacobs & Peter S. Rosenbaum (eds), 120–133. Waltham MA: Ginn.

Goldberg, Adele E.

1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure . Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.

2001. Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: The role of information structure in argument distribution. Language Sciences 23: 503–534.

2005. Constructions, lexical semantics and the Correspondence Principle: Accounting for generalizations and subregularities in the realization of arguments. In The Syntax of Aspect , Nomi Erteschik-Shir & Tova Rapoport (eds), 215–236. Oxford: OUP.

Guerssel, Mohamed, Hale, Kenneth, Laughren, Mary, Levin, Beth & White Eagle, Josie

. 1985. A cross-linguistic study of transitivity alternations. In Papers from the Parasession on Causatives and Agentivity , 48–63. Chicago IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Hay, Jennifer, Kennedy, Christopher & Levin, Beth

. 1999. Scalar structure underlies telicity in ‘degree achievements’. In Proceedings of SALT 9 , Tanya Matthews & Devon Strolovitch (eds), 127–144. Ithaca NY: Cornell Linguistics Circle Publications.

Kearns, Kate

. 2007. Telic senses of deadjectival verbs. Lingua 117: 27–66.

Kennedy, Christopher

. 2001. Polar opposition and the ontology of ‘degrees’. Linguistics and Philosophy 24: 33–70.

Kennedy, Christopher & Levin, Beth

. 2008. Measure of change: The adjectival core of verbs of variable telicity. In Adjectives and Adverbs in Semantics and Discourse , Louise McNally & Christopher Kennedy (eds), 156–182. Oxford: OUP.

Kennedy, Christopher & McNally, Louise

. 2005. Scale structure, degree modification, and the semantic typology of gradable predicates. Language 81: 345–381.

Koontz-Garboden, Andrew & Beavers, John

. 2012. Manner and result in roots of verbal meaning. Linguistic Inquiry 43: 331–369.

Laughren, Mary

. 1988. Towards a lexical representation of Warlpiri verbs. In Thematic Relations [Syntax and Semantics 21], Wendy Wilkins (ed.), 215–242. New York NY: Academic Press.

Levin, Beth & Rappaport Hovav, Malka

. 1991. Wiping the slate clean: A lexical semantic exploration. Cognition 41: 123–151.

. 1992. The lexical semantics of verbs of motion: The perspective from unaccusativity. In Thematic Structure: Its Role in Grammar , Ignacio M. Roca (ed.), 247–269. Berlin: Foris.

. 1995. Unaccusativity: At the Syntax-lexical Semantics Interface . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.

. 2006. Constraints on the complexity of verb meaning and VP structure. In Between 40 and 60 Puzzles for Krifka , Hans-Martin Gärtner, Regine Eckardt, Renate Musan & Barbara Stiebels(eds.). <[URL]>

. 2013. Lexicalized meaning and manner/result complementarity. In The Subatomic Semantics of Event Predicates , Boban Arsenijevic, Berit Gehrke & Rafael Marín (eds), 49–70. Dordrecht: Springer.

Mateu, Jaume & Acedo-Matellán, Víctor

. 2012. The manner/result complementarity revisited: A syntactic approach. In The End of Argument Structure , María Cristina Cuervo & Yves Roberge (eds), 209–228. Bingley: Emerald.

Mittwoch, Anita

. 2005. Unspecified arguments in episodic and habitual sentences. In The Syntax of Aspect , Nomi Erteschik-Shir & Tova Rapoport (eds.), 237–254. Oxford: OUP.

Rappaport Hovav, Malka

. 2008. Lexicalized meaning and the internal temporal structure of events. In Crosslinguistic and Theoretical Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 110], Susan D. Rothstein (ed.), 13–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Rappaport Hovav, Malka & Levin, Beth

. 1998. Building verb meanings. In The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors , Miriam Butt & Wilhelm Geuder (eds), 97–134. Stanford CA: CSLI.

. 2005. Change of state verbs: Implications for theories of argument projection. In The Syntax of Aspect , Nomi Erteschik-Shir & Tova Rapoport (eds), 274–286. Oxford: OUP.

. 2010. Reflections on manner/result complementarity. In Syntax, Lexical Semantics, and Event Structure , Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav & Ivy Sichel (eds.), 21–38. Oxford: OUP.

. 2012. Lexicon uniformity and the causative alternation. In The Theta System: Argument Structure at the Interface , Martin Everaert, Marijana Marelj & Tal Siloni (eds.), 150–176. Oxford: OUP.

Rothstein, Susan

. 2004. Structuring Events: A Study in the Semantics of Aspect . Oxford: Blackwell.

Schalley, Andrea C.

2004. Cognitive Modeling and Verbal Semantics: A Representational Framework Based on UML . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Talmy, Leonard

. 2000. Towards a Cognitive Semantics , II: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.

Tenny, Carol L.

1994. Aspectual Roles and the Syntax-Semantics Interface . Dordrecht: Kluwer.

van der Leek, Frederike

. 1996. The English conative construction: A compositional account. In Papers from the 32nd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society , 1: The Main Session , 363–378. Chicago IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Cited by

Cited by 29 other publications

Order by:

Acedo–Matellán, Víctor & Jaume Mateu

2014. From syntax to roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 14 ff.

Acquaviva, Paolo

2014. The roots of nominality, the nominality of roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 33 ff.

Alexiadou, Artemis

2014. Roots in transitivity alternations. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 57 ff.

Artemis Alexiadou, Hagit Borer & Florian Schäfer

2014. Introduction. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 1 ff.

Artemis Alexiadou, Hagit Borer & Florian Schäfer

2014. The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax,

Anagnostopoulou, Elena & Yota Samioti

2014. Domains within words and their meanings. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 81 ff.

Borer, Hagit

2014. The category of roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 112 ff.

De Belder, Marijke, Noam Faust & Nicola Lampitelli

2014. On a low and a high diminutive. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 149 ff.

Doron, Edit

2014. The interaction of adjectival passive and Voice. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 164 ff.

Gallego, Ángel J.

2014. Roots and phases. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 192 ff.

GLASS, LELIA

2022. English verbs can omit their objects when they describe routines. English Language and Linguistics 26:1 ► pp. 49 ff.

Gärdenfors, Peter

2024. Event structure, force dynamics and verb semantics. Language Sciences 102 ► pp. 101610 ff.

Hovav, Malka Rappaport

2014. Building scalar changes. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 259 ff.

Kou, Xinyan & Jill Hohenstein

2024. Manner, result, and intention: implications for event typology from a cognitive account of verb semantics based on fulfilment types. Language and Cognition ► pp. 1 ff.

Levinson, Lisa

2014. The ontology of roots and verbs. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 208 ff.

Lin, Jingxia

2021. Typological shift in lexicalizing motion events: The case of Wenzhou . Linguistic Typology 25:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Lowenstamm, Jean

2014. Derivational affixes as roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 230 ff.

Menete, Sérgio N.

2022. Motion events in Changana spoken narrative. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 40:3 ► pp. 251 ff.

Menete, Sérgio N. & Guiying Jiang

2024. Another member out of the family: the description of manner of gait in Changana verbs of motion. Folia Linguistica 0:0

Pross, Tillmann

2020. Dispositions and the verbal description of their manifestations: a case study on Emission Verbs. Linguistics and Philosophy 43:2 ► pp. 149 ff.

Roßdeutscher, Antje

2014. When roots license and when they respect semantico‐syntactic structure in verbs. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 282 ff.

Spathas, Giorgos & Dimitris Michelioudakis

2021. States in the decomposition of verbal predicates. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 39:4 ► pp. 1253 ff.

van Gelderen, Elly

2019. Stability and Change in Intransitive Argument Structure. Open Linguistics 5:1 ► pp. 217 ff.

Wood, Jim

2023. Icelandic Nominalizations and Allosemy,

[no author supplied]

2014. General preface. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. vii ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. Copyright Page. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. iv ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. List of abbreviations. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. xi ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. Notes on contributors. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. viii ff.

[no author supplied]

2019. Encoding Motion Events in Mandarin Chinese [Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, 11],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. 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.