Browsing by Subject "Syntax"

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A grammar of Chácobo, a southern Pano language of the northern Bolivian Amazon
(2018-08) Tallman, Adam J.; Epps, Patience, 1973-; Guillaume, Antoine; Woodbury, Anthony C; Wechsler, Stephen; Bruile, Martine; Salanova, Andres P
This dissertation provides a description of the Chácobo language, a southern Pano language spoken by approximately 1200 people who live close to or on the Geneshuaya, Ivon, Benicito and Yata rivers in the northern Bolivian Amazon. The grammatical description emerges out of an ethnographically based documentation project of the language. Chapter 1 contains an overview of the cultural context in which the Chácobo language is embedded and a brief ethnohistory of the Chácobo people. I also discuss the general methodology of the dissertation touching specifically on issues related to data collection. Chapter 2 introduces the phonology of the language focusing on the categories necessary for its description. Chapter 3 provides a discussion of morphosyntactic structures and relations. This chapter provides a discussion of how head-dependent relations and the general distinction between morphology and syntax are understood throughout the dissertation. Parts of speech classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are also defined and motivated based on semantic and formal criteria. Chapter 4 describes predication and its relationship to clause-typing. Chapter 5 is concerned with constituency which refers to hierarchical structures motivated through distributional properties and relations and the relative degree of contiguity between linguistic categories. Chapter 6 provides an extensive discussion of morphophonology and its relation to constituency. Chapter 7 and 8 are concerned with the language’s alignment and valence-adjusting systems. The next five chapters provide a description of the functional domains relevant to the verbal domain including; Tense (Chapter 9); Temporal distance (Chapter 10); Aspect (Chapter 11); Associated Motion (Chapter 12); Perspective (Chapter 13). The last two Chapters focus on categories in the nominal domain. Chapter 14 provides a description of noun compounding, adjectives and possession. Chapter 15 provides a description of number, quantification and deixis inside and outside the nominal domain.
Arguments and adjuncts in O’dam : language-specific realization of a cross-linguistic distinction
(2023-12) Everdell, Michael, 1990-; Beavers, John (Associate professor of linguistics); Garcia Salido, Gabriela; Law, Danny; Harley, Heidi; Wechsler, Stephen
This dissertation examines the properties that distinguish argument and adjunct dependents in the O’dam language (Tepiman
"Cause" and affect : evaluative and emotive parameters of meaning among the periphrastic causative verb in English
(2016-08) Childers, Zachary Witter; Beavers, John T.; Wechsler, Stephen; Beaver, David I; Erk, Katrin E; Kamp, Johan A
This dissertation investigates the so-called periphrastic causative verbs in English – verbs such as cause, make, have, force, and let – and distinguishes them with respect to their selectional behavior and inferential properties. I suggest that these verbs are primarily differentiated in terms of the evaluative and affective dispositions of participants in the speech act and the caused eventuality. The empirical basis for this claim incorporates corpora as well as experimental elicitation and judgment tasks. Based on these findings, it is proposed that the selection of periphrastic causative verb in the expression of a directive causative event is governed by the evaluative stance of the patient of the causative verb. I argue that the English verb cause in particular is less general than has previously been assumed, that it has at least two different senses, and that its primary sense is restricted to cases of negative speaker sentiment.
Definiteness in the Arabic dialects
(2018-10-11) Turner, Michael Lee; Brustad, Kristen; Epps, Patience; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Russi, Cinzia
This dissertation proposes a model, based roughly on Dryer's (2014) REFERENCE HIERARCHY, that can systematically account for variation in the morphosyntactic strategies used to mark different degrees of definiteness and indefiniteness in the Arabic dialects. These primarily spoken varieties display a great deal of diversity in this domain, not only in the forms of the articles and affixes and that they use to mark referential status in noun phrases, but also in the semantic notions with which formal marking strategies can be associated. Although there is some information available in individual Arabic dialect grammars, many of which note the existence of any reference-marking strategies perceived as unique or significant, there has been relatively little comparative work on these strategies and only limited progress toward describing them using cross-linguistically applicable models for semantic typology. The present study fills this gap by providing a case study based, textually supported account of key points of grammatical variation and a preliminary typological classification system for dialects' treatment of definiteness. The goal of this approach is to clarify the discrete semantic parameters that govern the use of marking strategies across a diverse set of Arabic varieties, thereby opening the door for a more thorough comparative analysis of the corresponding forms' semantic properties and diachronic origins.
Definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic : contact, divergence, and semantic change
(2013-08) Turner, Michael Lee; Brustad, Kristen
The aim of the present study is to cast new light on the nature of definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic (MA). Previous work on the dialect group has described its definiteness system as similar to that of other Arabic varieties, where indefinite entities are unmarked and a "definite article" /l-/ modifies nouns to convey a definite meaning. Such descriptions, however, do not fully account for the behavior of MA nouns in spontaneous natural speech, as found in the small self-collected corpus that informs the study: on one hand, /l-/ can and regularly does co-occur with indefinite meanings; on the other, a number of nouns can exhibit definiteness even in the absence of /l-/. In response to these challenges, the study puts forth an alternate synchronic description the system, arguing that the historical definite article */l-/ has in fact lost its association with definiteness and has instead become lexicalized into an unmarked form of the noun that can appear in any number of semantic contexts. Relatedly, the study argues that the historically indefinite form *Ø has come under heavy syntactic constraints and can best be described as derived from the new unmarked form via a process of phonologically conditioned disfixation, represented {- /l/}. At the same time, MA has also apparently retained an older particle ši and developed an article waħəd, both of which can be used to express different types of indefinite meanings. To support the plausibility of this new description, the study turns to the linguistic history of definiteness in MA, describing how a combination of internal and external impetuses for change likely pushed the dialect toward article loss, a development upon which semantic reanalysis and syntactic restructuring of other forms then followed. If the claim that MA no longer overtly marks definiteness is indeed correct, the study could have a significant impact on work that used previous MA descriptions to make grammaticality judgments, as well as be of value to future work on processes of grammaticalization and language contact.
Evaluating morphosyntactic differences in narrative re-tell tasks between bilingual children with and without language impairment using computational methods
(2017-05) Dowd, Erin Adams; Bedore, Lisa M.
The diversity of linguistic backgrounds and second-language competencies of Spanish-English bilingual school-age children present challenges for accurately diagnosing and treating language impairment. Narrative re-tell samples from Peña, Gillam, & Bedore (2014) were analyzed in two groups of 21 matched language-impaired and typically developing children, aged 4-7 years old attending school in central Texas. Transcribed methods included a custom extension of the Natural Language Processing Toolkit in Python and the IPSYN analytical function in CLAN (MacWhinney, 2000). From these analyses, the complexity and linguistic diversity of nested –ing verb phrases and IPSYN scores were compared across groups. Language-impaired children made significantly more errors in auxiliary verb use, had less diverse vocabulary, and had lower syntactic complexity scores than their typically developing counterparts.
A frame-semantic analysis of five English verbs evoking the Theft frame
(2011-05) Dux, Ryan Joseph; Boas, Hans Christian, 1971-; Pierce, Marc
An important problem in lexical semantics is the explanation of how verbal meaning interacts with the syntactic realization of arguments. Levin (1993) recognizes the relation between syntax and semantics in her classification of English verbs, in which similar syntactic behavior among verbs is assumed to reflect shared meaning components. However, her classes do not accurately predict the verbs’ semantic and syntactic properties. Other researchers (Taylor 1996, Boas 2008) argue for the inclusion of detailed encyclopedic meaning in explanations of syntactic behavior. Frame Semantics provides the necessary tools for fine-grained analyses of the syntax-semantics interface because it offers a rigorous method for the description of meaning and documents syntactic information about argument realization from corpus data. This report uses concepts from Frame Semantics and data from its practical application, FrameNet (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu), to assess the importance of fine-grained verbal meaning for argument realization by comparing the verbs embezzle, pilfer, shoplift, snatch and steal. Each verb construes the general semantics of the Theft frame differently, emphasizing or specifying individual participants in the event (frame elements). They also exhibit subtle differences in whether and how these frame elements are syntactically realized. In linking their syntax to their semantics, I show that the verbs’ syntactic distribution may be influenced by aspects of meaning such as their degree of descriptivity, the detailed specification of certain frame elements, and their occurrence as LUs in different frames.
A grammar of Chol, a Mayan language
(2011-08) Vázquez Álvarez, Juan Jesús, 1971-; England, Nora C.; Zavala, Roberto; Epps, Patience L.; Woodbury, Anthony C.; Stuart, David S.
This dissertation consists of a description of the grammar of Tila Chol. Chol is one of the 30 Mayan languages spoken in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. This language is used by nearly 200,000 speakers, distributed in two main dialects: Tila Chol and Tumbalá Chol. The data for this thesis are mostly from Tila Chol. This dissertation includes aspects of phonology, morphology, and syntax from a contrastive and typological perspective. The grammar begins with general information about the speakers and the language (chapter one). Chapter two is a description of phonology, which includes the inventory of sounds, stress, syllabic patterns and phonological processes. Chapter three presents the properties of root/word classes, as well as affixes and particles. Chapter four is about the person and number markers. Chapter five provides the main features of word classes, such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, positionals, affect words, adverbs, minor classes and clitics. The next chapter (chapter six) deals with the elements that verbs can take, including incorporation of modifiers and noun incorporation. Chapter seven provides the main features of non-verbal predicates. In chapter eight, the structures of noun phrases, such as possessors, determiners and modifiers are presented. Chapter nine describes the structure of simple sentences in both verbal and non-verbal predicates. Chapter ten is devoted to the operations that changevalence, including passive, antipassive, reflexive/reciprocal, causative and applicative. Chapter eleven deals with information structure in the discourse, specifically topicalization and focus. Chapter twelve is a brief description of passive constructions as operations triggered by paradigmatic gaps related to obviation as documented in Algonquian languages. Chapter thirteen deals with complex predicate structures. Finally, in Chapter fourteen, the complex sentences are described, including complement clauses, relative clauses, adverbial clauses, conditional clauses and coordination. This grammar will provide useful information for current Chol projects related to strengthening and revitalization efforts, such as in the construction of pedagogical materials and will also be useful for the field of linguistics or other related areas.
A grammatical approach to topic and focus : a syntactic analysis with preliminary evidence from language acquisition
(2011-08) Lyu, Hee Young; Meier, Richard P.; Green, Lisa J.; Wechsler, Stephen M.; Beavers, John T.; Asher, Nicholas M.
The goal of this dissertation is to argue on the basis of the minimalist framework that the topichood of sentence topics and contrastive focus result from derivational and structural differences in the left periphery and to provide acquisition data from child language to support this claim, showing data from Korean, a free word-order and pro-drop language in which topics and contrastive foci are realized morphologically. In Korean, topic phrases merge in the left periphery and contrastive focus phrases undergo scrambling, one of the shared properties of free word-order languages. It is consistent in fixed word-order languages such as Italian and Hungarian and a free word-order language like Korean that topics merge and contrastive foci move to the left. Topics precede contrastive foci: topics merge in TopP, a higher functional projection than FocP, to which focus phrases move. In the process of language acquisition, the derivational and structural differences between topic phrases and contrastive focus phrases may have influences on the developmental order of grammar acquisition. In acquisition data from two-year-old Korean children, topics emerge earlier than contrastive foci, indicating that topic and contrastive focus are also acquisitionally different. This study is the first attempt to examine the structural differences and the influence on language acquisition of morphologically derived topic phrases and contrastive focus phrases in acquisition data from a free word-order and pro-drop language. This study shows the structural consistency of topic and contrastive focus between a free word-order language and fixed word-order languages. The syntactic and acquisitional distinction of topic merge and contrastive focus movement is compatible with the semantic and pragmatic approaches to topic and focus. This study provides evidence of the syntactic differences between topic and contrastive focus without dependence on phonetic features; therefore, this study is a base for drawing a map of the left periphery of human languages.
Negation in vernacular Brazilian Portuguese
(2013-05) Martínez, Cristina, active 2003; Hensey, Fritz; Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline, 1963-
As Haegeman and Zanuttini (1996:117) discuss, when two negative elements are present in a specific syntactic domain, two possible situations may arise: "(i) the two negative elements may cancel each other out, or (ii) the two elements may contribute, together, one single instance of negation". The former 'negation cancellation' is referred to as Double Negation and can be exemplified in the standard English sentence 'I didn't say nothing', meaning 'I said something'. In many languages, traditionally known as Negative Concord languages, we can find the second scenario, where two or more negative elements can co-occur in the same sentence without applying the 'negation cancellation' rule. The most common example of the Negative Concord phenomenon consists of a sentential negation (NEG) co-occurring with a negative word. This is shown in Spanish examples such as "Juan no llamó a nadie" (literally: 'Juan didn't call nobody') meaning 'John didn't call anybody'. Another less common type of exception occurs when two sentential negations (NEG+NEG) are phonologically realized in the same sentence. This phenomenon is traditionally known as Discontinuous Negation. The following example is from Bukusu (Bell, 2004): Peter SEalaba akula sitabu TA 'Peter will NOT be buying a book (NOT)'. The language I examined in this dissertation, Vernacular Brazilian Portuguese, can combine both types of Negative Concord cases in the same sentence, as we see in the example "Não ligou ninguém não (literally: 'Nobody didn't call not') meaning 'Nobody called'". Another unique characteristic of this variety that distinguishes it from the rest of the Romance languages is the optional deletion of the preverbal NEG. Though the post- verbal negative words require a preverbal negation, working as their licensor, the use of the post-sentential NEG makes the example "Ligou ningum não 'Nobody called'" grammatically correct. The main purpose of my dissertation is to present a different approach to what has been traditionally seen as the Negative Concord and Discontinuous Negation. These two complex negation phenomena stem from the same syntactic source, as they are two versions of the same syntactic derivation. Based on data from Vernacular Brazilian Portuguese, I demonstrate that there is no "concord" or "discontinuity" relationship between the negative elements in "Não ligou ninguém não", since there is only one negative item in the sentence: the pre-verbal NEG não.
Negative concord in Levantine Arabic
(2010-08) Hoyt, Frederick MacNeill; Baldridge, Jason; Beaver, David I.; Beavers, John; Abboud, Peter F.; Benmamoun, Abbas; Steedman, Mark J.
This dissertation is a study of negative concord in Levantine Arabic (Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria), where negative concord is the failure of an n-word to express negative meaning distinctly when in syntagm with another negative expression . A set of n-words is identified, including the never-words <ʔɛbadan> and "never, not once, not at all," the negative minimizers and "nothing," and the negative scalar focus particle "not (even) (one), not a (single)." Each can be used to express negation in sentence fragments and other constructions with elliptical interpretations, such as gapping and coordination. Beyond that, the three categories differ syntactically and semantically. I present analyses of these expressions that treat them as having different morphological and semantic properties. The data support an ambiguity analysis for wala-phrases, and a syntactic analysis of it with never-words, indicating that a single, uniform theory of negative concord should be rejected for Levantine Arabic. The dissertation is the first such work to explicitly identify negative concord in Levantine Arabic, and to provide a detailed survey and analysis of it. The description includes subtle points of variation between regional varieties of Levantine, as well as in depth analysis of the usage of n-words. It also adds a large new data set to the body of data that has been reported on negative concord, and have several implications for theories on the subject. The dissertation also makes a contribution to computational linguistics as applied to Arabic, because the analyses are couched in Combinatory Categorial Grammar, a formalism that is used both for linguisic theorizing as well as for a variety of practical applications, including text parsing and text generaration. The semantic generalizations reported here are also important for practical computational tasks, because they provide a way to correctly calculate the negative or positive polarity of utterances in a negative concord language, which is essential for computational tasks such as machine translation or sentiment analysis.
Null objects in Basque Spanish and the issue of language dominance
(2010-12) Zinkunegi Uzkudun, Iera; Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline, 1963-; Nishida, Chiyo
Referential null objects are attested in several varieties of Spanish that are in contact with other languages. Some of them coexist with languages with rich agreement system, e.g., Spanish in contact with Quechua and Basque (cf., e.g., Landa 1995; Franco 1993; Sánchez 1998). The availability of such null objects is thought to be due to some type of transfer from the contact language. As such, bilingualism and language dominance are relevant in determining whether or not a speaker drops objects. One objective of this work is to examine the Spanish language forms of Basque-Spanish speakers of disparate levels of Spanish and Basque abilities, with the aim of determining the role of dominance in the occurrence of null objects. Results obtained from naturalistic data contradict previous claims on dominance. Statistical analysis concludes that dominance is not a factor that determines the occurrence of null objects. Furthermore, closer analysis of the data suggests that these findings challenge previous hypotheses regarding the semantic nature that licenses null objects. Data conflicts with claims on animacy being the feature that allows object drop demonstrating that the picture is less clear than suggested in earlier proposals.
Oath formulas in the Poetic Edda
(2017-07-03) Reis, Jacob Robert; Pierce, Marc; Straubhaar, Sandra
This study examines oaths in the ON Poetic Edda primarily from a linguistic and rhetorical standpoint with the aim of deducing syntactic-rhetorical formulas for oath swearing. As J. Grimm (1816) said and Hibbitts (1992) reiterated, poetic formulations in oral performance cultures may have had mnemonic functions and likely closely resembled real performance, which lends further validity and benefit to this project. This report begins with an examination of the relevant scholarly literature on oaths from Indo-European through ON. Four examples of oaths from the Poetic Edda are then presented, compared, and read with rhetorical and syntactic strategies to discover the formulas. A discussion section presents three evident conclusions on the structure of oath formulas: oaths are indeed formulaic, formula pieces can be optional but ordering does not change, and certain morpho-syntactic choices are intricately tied to the setting of oaths. Finally, directions for future research are suggested.
Preposition typology with manner of motion verbs in Spanish
(2013-12) Bassa Vanrell, Maria del Mar; Beavers, John T.
Spanish, as a V(erb)-framed language (Talmy 1985), is expected to lexicalize the path of motion in the verb and manner in some satellite when it comes to the description of motion events. Nonetheless, it shows mixed properties (e.g. Aske 1989, Berman & Slobin 1994). All manner of motion verbs can take a path satellite introduced by the prepositions "hacia" and "hasta", and yet only some can take a path satellite introduced by the preposition "a." I claim that goal XPs introduced by "hasta" and "hacia" are adjuncts, whereas "a" is an argument marker. In order to capture the intermediacy of a verb’s ability to take a goal XP, I classify manner of motion verbs according to a three-way distinction that takes into account whether they encode path categorically, overwhelmingly, or only sometimes, and whether they lexically reject the notion of a goal. Finally, I posit verb coercion—under certain semantic and pragmatic conditions—of manner of motion verbs that strongly or categorically favor displacement in order to express a goal. These semantic/pragmatic influential factors are reduced to (i) degree of manner and (ii) degree of goal-orientedness.
Priming across languages in Spanish-English bilinguals
(2013-12) Cooperson, Solaman Joshua; Bedore, Lisa M.
The degree to which the two language systems of bilinguals are separate or interact in some way is a question that has been addressed using several methods. In the domain of morphosyntax, results from cross-linguistic priming have shown that bilinguals’ hearing a particular sentence structure in one of their languages increases the likelihood that they will produce a similar structure in the other language. This supports a shared-syntax model of bilingual processing in which bilinguals store similar structures together. Priming from L1 to L2 and L2 to L1 appears to be equally strong (Loebell & Bock, 2003; Schoonbaert, Hartsuiker, & Pickering, 2007) but researchers have not examined in depth how language experience and proficiency variables affect priming. Priming research has also indicated that only those structures that share word order across languages are subject to priming (Bernolet, Hartsuiker, & Pickering, 2007; Loebell & Bock, 2003) but has not addressed whether the verb features such as tense are subject to priming. This study addressed two questions: 1) How do the language experience measures of age of acquisition, current language use, and language proficiency affect priming? and 2) Are tense markings (future and present tenses) subject to priming across languages? Sixty-eight Spanish-English bilingual adults completed a priming task from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English and measures of language experience and proficiency. Results indicate that although passive structures prime across languages, the variables of age of acquisition, current use, and proficiency do not affect priming. This finding provides support for the shared-syntax model as a representation of bilingual language in speakers with diverse levels of experience and proficiency. Results also indicate that tense does not prime across languages. This suggests that languages have separate stores for tense markings.
Reading comprehension predictors and interventions for bilingual adolescents : a review of best practices
(2016-05) Hubbard, Emma Lee; Booth, Amy; Sundarrajan, Madhu
English language learners (ELLs) comprise a large and growing portion of the United State’s school population. Many ELLs experience difficulty acquiring English reading comprehension. These deficits grow larger as students age due to the Matthew effect and can contribute to significant difficulty accessing the educational environment. This review addresses the skills that contribute to reading comprehension outcomes to identify the key predictors of reading comprehension outcomes for bilingual adolescents. Vocabulary, syntax, and facility in managing cross-linguistic factors emerge as the linguistic skills most directly correlated to reading comprehension abilities. This review concludes by addressing best practices in intervention within these three areas to identify evidence-based approaches to mediate reading comprehension deficits in adolescent ELLs.
Scope, scalarity, and polarity in aspectual marking : the case of English 'until' and Spanish 'hasta'
(2017-08) Bassa Vanrell, Maria Del Mar; Beavers, John T.; Chierchia, Gennaro; Beaver, David; Kamp, Hans; Wechsler, Stephen
This dissertation explores how languages express durations of time and the significant cross-linguistic variation displayed in words describing temporal duration with otherwise quite similar meanings. Specially, I examine 'until'-like phrases that bound events in time. These phrases are puzzling because across languages they typically only modify atelic predicates and not telic predicates. Yet they are acceptable with telic predicates if the predicate is negated, and in that case they furthermore generate a factive inference that the event described by the predicate must come about at a future time. Additionally, some languages, like Greek, use two distinct lexical words, one for atelic predicates and one for telic predicates. Three major prior proposals have been posited: (i) a lexical ambiguity account wherein there is a positive 'until' and a negative 'until', (ii) a monosemy account wherein 'until' is a type of universal quantifier over times that interacts scopally with negation, and (iii) a monosemy account wherein 'until' is a type of measure phrase over an existentially-quantified event. However, each approach fails to generalize appropriately. I revisit these three theories by examining the behavior of English "until"-phrases vis-à-vis durative "for"-adverbials, as well as 'until' counterparts in languages that acquire a superset or a subset of the interpretations of English "until", such as Spanish "hasta" and Greek "mehri". I propose a monosemy account that draws on insights from all three prior analyses. The key insight is that there is parameterization in the quantification that 'until' words in different languages exhibit. English "until" is universal in nature subject to a scope economy constraint. Spanish "hasta" is existential in nature subject to a plurality constraint in positive environments. Both universal and existential 'until' allow for negated telic predicates but the latter admits a wider set of readings and also permits lexical specialization of 'until' under negation, as found in Greek. Ultimately, irrespective of their quantification, English "until" and Spanish "hasta" activate temporal scalar alternatives that I argue derive factive inferences as an epiphenomenon of independent scopal interactions between the alternatives, polarity, and covert exhaustification-based operators of the inferential mechanism.
The semantic import of the French preposition à 'at/to' in verbal argument alternations
(2013-05) Mignot, Charles Alexandre; Léger, Catherine; Russi, Cinzia, 1966-
This study examines the semantic import of the French preposition à 'at/to' in argument alternations. In French, some verbs can be followed by a direct object or by an indirect object introduced by the preposition à 'at/to' (e.g., parer/parer à 'to ward off/to guard against', satisfaire/satisfaire à 'to satisfy', toucher/toucher à 'to touch', etc.). Although the preposition à 'at/to' has been characterized in the literature as a meaningless grammatical element, and more specifically so in cases of argument alternations, this study shows that à 'at/to' is meaningful and that it contributes to the semantics of the indirect transitive constructions of the verbs under scrutiny. Couched in the Cognitive Grammar theoretical framework (Langacker 1987b, 1991), this study is based on the assumption that grammar is meaningful and that the meaning of grammatical items is more abstract than the meaning of lexical items. Consequently, two abstract meanings characterizing à 'at/to' are proposed to account for the semantic differences between the direct and indirect transitive constructions of the verbs analyzed in this study: the expression of an abstract goal and the expression of an abstract localization. For some verbs, the indirect transitive construction entails a notion of goal that is not expressed in the direct transitive construction. For other verbs, à 'at/to' expresses an abstract relation (i.e., an abstract localization) between the lexical semantics of the verb and the indirect object, which results in meaning differences between the direct and indirect transitive constructions based on the notion of affectedness. Following Langacker (1987a), I view transitivity as a transfer of energy and propose that the various levels of energy involved in an event correlate with the various levels of affectedness of the object. I argue that à 'at/to' signals a disruption of energy leading to a lower affectedness of the indirect object than that of the direct object (see also Beavers 2011). Finally, I show that, for the verb toucher 'to touch', the semantic import of à 'at/to' varies in relation to the various senses of the indirect transitive construction of the verb.
Syntactic distribution of English denominal verbs
(2021-05-07) Denlinger, Kristin; Beavers, John (Associate professor of linguistics); Wechsler, Stephen
Denominal verbs have been at the forefront of English word formation and lexical semantic literature. A common approach to deriving the structural representation of a denominal verb’s meaning involves using the canonical thematic role the parent noun plays to choose what type of event structure it should be slotted into. This predicts that the nominal role interpretation should constrain what type of argument structures the corresponding denominal verb can occur in. Specifically, locative denominal verbs should show evidence of being associated with accomplishment event structures, while instrument denominal verbs should show evidence of being associated with activity event structures. The present study empirically tests this prediction by first subjecting denominal verbs to a range of telicity tests and then looking at tokens of different types of denominal verbs in a large corpus to quantify the range of their argument structures and semantic entailments. Ultimately, the results provide modest evidence for attributing accomplishment event structures to locatives and activity event structures to instrumentals, especially for literal uses of these verbs.
The semantics of past participles
(2023-08) Denlinger, Kristin; Wechsler, Stephen; Mahowald, Kyle; McNally, Louise; Kamp, Hans; Beaver, David; Beavers, John
This dissertation proposes a new way of understanding the semantics of past participles, primarily in English. In some uses, past participles denote an event (e.g. 'fed' in 'The baby is being fed cheerios'), while in others the participle denotes a result state of an event of the kind denoted by the verb (e.g. 'fed' in 'The baby seemed well-fed'). This dissertation aims to describe and explain the interpretations and distribution of participial forms, both simple (e.g. 'stained') and compound (e.g. 'tear-stained'), across constructions. In particular, we focus on irregularities in the distribution and meaning of adjectival participles. The key thesis is that some participles are used as names, signs with unique denotations that speakers chunk for reuse. Participial names denote complex concepts which autonomously entail a property and the existence of a previous event via meaning postulates. This usage-based approach reflects how speakers organize their language to reflect the concepts that they want to talk about most, without having to stipulate a well-establishedness condition on the input to a regular rule.