A Notional Theory of Syntactic Categories (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics)

This book presents an innovative theory of syntactic categories and the lexical classes they define. It revives the traditional idea that these are to be distinguished notionally (semantically). It allows for there to be peripheral members of a lexical class which may not obviously conform to the general definition. The author proposes a notation based on semantic features which accounts for the syntactic behaviour of classes. The book also presents a case for considering this classification - again in rather traditional vein - to be basic to determining the syntactic structure of sentences. Syntactic structure is thus erected in a very restricted fashion, without recourse to movement or empty elements.

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LINGUISTICS General Editors: s.

R. ANDERSON, J. BRESNAN, B. COMRIE,

W. DRESSLER, C. EWEN, R. HUDDLESTON, R. LASS, D. LIGHTFOOT, J. LYONS, P. H. MATTHEWS, R. POSNER, S. ROMAINE, N. V. SMITH, N. VINCENT

A notional theory of syntactic categories

In this series

52 MICHAEL s. ROCHEMONT and PETER w. CULLICOVER: English focus constructions

and the theory of grammar 53 PHILIP CARR: Linguistic realities: an autonomist metatheory for the generative enterprise 54 EVE SWEETSER: From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure 55 REGINA BLASS: Relevance relations in discourse: a study with special reference to Sissala 56 ANDREW CHESTERMAN: On definiteness: a study with special reference to English and Finnish 57 ALESSANDRA GIORGI and GIUSEPPE LONGOBARDI: The syntax ofnoun phrases:

configuration, parameters and empty categories 58 MONIK CHARETTE: Conditions on phonological government 59 M. H. KLAIMAN: Grammatical voice 60 SARAH M. B. FAGAN: The syntax and semantics of middle constructions: a study with special reference to German 61 ANJUM P. SALEEMI: Universal Grammar and language learnability 62 STEPHEN R. ANDERSON: A-Morphous Morphology

63 LESLEY STIRLING: Switch reference and discourse representation 64 HENK J. VERKUYL: A theory of aspectuality: the interaction between temporal and atemporal structure 65 EVE v. CLARK: The lexicon in acquisition 66 ANTHONY R. WARNER: English auxiliaries: structure and history 67 P. H. MATTHEWS: Grammatical theory in the United States from Bloomfield to Chomsky 68 LJILJANA PROGOVAC: Negative and positive polarity: a binding approach 69 R. M. w. DIXON: Ergativity

70 YAN HUANG: The syntax and pragmatics of anaphora 71 KNUD LAMBRECHT: Information structure and sentence form: Topic, focus, and the mental representations of discourse referents 72 LUIGI BURZIO: Principles of English stress 73 JOHN A. HAWKINS: A performance theory of order and constituency 74 ALICE c. HARRIS and LYLE CAMPBELL: Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective 75 LILIANE HAEGEMAN: The syntax of negation 76 PAUL GORRELL: Syntax and parsing

77 GUGLIELMO CINQUE: Italian syntax and Universal Grammar 78 HENRY SMITH: Restrictiveness in case theory 79 D. ROBERT LADD: Intonational phonology

80 ANDREA MORO: The raising of predicates: predicative noun phrases and the theory of clause structure 81 ROGER LASS: Historical linguistics and language change 82 JOHN M. ANDERSON: A notional theory of syntactic categories

Supplementary volumes LILIANE HAEGEMAN: Theory and description in generative syntax: a case study in West Flemish A. E. BACKHOUSE: The lexical field of taste: a semantic study of Japanese taste terms NIKOLAUS RITT: Quantity adjustment: vowel lengthening and shortening in early Middle English

Earlier issues not listed are also available

A NOTIONAL THEORY OF SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES JOHN M. ANDERSON Professor of English Language, Department of English Language, University of Edinburgh

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1997 First published 1997 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Anderson, John M. (John Mathieson), 1941A notional theory of syntactic categories / John M. Anderson. p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in linguistics: 82) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN o 521 58023 4 (hardback) 1. Grammar. Comparative and general - syntax. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general - Grammatical categories. 3. Semantics. I. Title. II. Series. P291.A53 1997 4i5-dc2O 96-21789 CIP ISBN 0 521 58023 4 hardback Transferred to digital printing 2004

CP

Much, then, that is considered by the generality of grammarians as syntax, can either be omitted altogether, or else be better studied under another name. (Latham 1862: 577)

'A9f]vas

Contents

Preface List of abbreviations

page x xii

1 i. i 1.2 1.3

Prelude Notionalism Analogism Minimalism

2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8

Fundamentals of a notional theory Syntactic categories and notional features Relations between elements Further categories: the role of feature dependencies Markedness and category continuity Cross-classification Gradience and second-order categories Secondary categories Non-complements

13 13 29 43 61 64 73 104 132

3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7

The syntax of categories Verbal valencies The content of the functor category The basic syntax of predications The formation of ditransitives Variation in argument structure Verbals as arguments The structure of primary arguments

146 149 168 174 236 244 252 292

References Index

i 2 6 8

320 345

Preface

There were the bits he understood. They were bad enough. But the bits he didn }t understand were worse.

The initial quotation here and the chapter epigraphs are drawn from Patrick White's novel The solid mandala, which and particularly Arthur therein have much to say about grammar and meaning. The present work was concluded by its author when the bits he didn't understand were/are still overwhelming; and drawing a line at this point is, as is normal, relatively arbitrary. This means that a number of issues which many might regard as crucial to present-day concern with syntax have scarcely been touched on in what follows, or have even been ignored, and those areas treated have received vastly varying degrees of attention. Also, the recognition here of previous work remains partial, and adapted to the needs of the arguments put forward in particular sections. But there is for such as the present enterprise no great virtue in comprehensiveness of bibliographical reference (or even a possibility thereof). Nor have I striven to establish throughout a consistent temporal endpoint for reference: in a work whose writing extends over any length of time, achieving this would be equivalent to having all of the Forth Bridge freshly painted at the same time. It is my hope that nevertheless - or rather, as a result, to some extent - the following spells out sufficiently, over a wide enough area, and in appropriate sub-areas in enough detail, the general structure of a notional theory of syntactic categories and the major consequences for the syntax of adopting the views that syntactic categories are so based and that syntax itself involves the interaction of structures projected by these categories with pragmatically based requirements involving crucially the organisation of information - though it should be conceded that the existence of the latter is asserted here rather than fully motivated and articulated. The discussion which follows thus involves an attempt to support (what has been for most, in the context of the latter half of the twentieth century) an unfamiliar strategy, both by detailed investigation of some subsystems and with reference xi

xii Preface to a wide variety of language types; as such, its reception will no doubt founder between and among the Scylla of 'true believers' (responsory motto: That's not what we do (anymore)'), the Charybdis of the 'bug collector' (That doesn't happen in (say) Amharic') and the Deep Blue Sea of scholarly inertia (The literature is what my friends tell me about'). I am, however, and of course, solely responsible for failures to launch things worth receiving, despite the help of those whom it is my pleasure in the following paragraph to both acknowledge and absolve. Most of the writing of the book was carried out during the academic years 1991-2 and 1992-3 while the author held a British Academy Readership, and would not otherwise have been carried out: this does not overstate the debt. The first semester of 1991-2 was spent as an associate of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics in the School of English at Aristotle University, Thessaloniki: I am grateful to Professors Efstathiadis and Kakouriotis and their colleagues for their hospitality. I have also had the benefit of presenting aspects of the research reported on here to audiences at the Universities of Goteborg, Helsinki, Manchester and Umea. And a number of other people have contributed to the preparation of this work in diverse ways, from providing the bottle of NAOY22A to talk over to offering criticisms to chew over, to helping me avoid some garden paths. I should especially like to thank the following: Nick Kontos, Scott McGlashan, Peter Matthews, Nigel Vincent, and anon (who also writes some pretty good stuff of his own, particularly the early music); and, most particularly, Roger Bohm, whose influence will be seen to be pervasive. And who could by-pass Fran Colman, longestsuffering in the process of the book's getting written? Not John Anderson Edinburgh

Abbreviations and conventions

ABL(lative) ABS(olutive) ACC(usative) AG(en)T(ive) ART(icle) ASP(ect) AUX(iliary) BEN(enefactive) CLASS(ifier) C(o)MP(lementiser) C(ou)NT COMP(letive) CONT(inous) COP(ula) DAT(ive) DEF(inite) DIR(ectional) DIST(al) E(rgative)/I(nstrumental) ERG(ative)

FIN(ite) FUT(ure) GEN(itive) GER(und) I/II = first/second person III = third person INC(lusive) INDIC(ative) INF(initive) INSTR(umental) INT(erior) INTRANS(itive) I(mmediate)P(ast L(ong)F(orm) P(a)RT(itive) LOC(ative) MASC(uline) NEG(a*ive) NOM(inative) N(on)F(inite)

NONFUT(ure) N(eu)TR(al) PART(iciple) PASS(ive) PERF(ect) PL(ural) POSS(essed) POT(ential) PRES(ent) PREV(erb) REFL(exive) REL(ativiser) S(u)B(or)D(inator) S(u)BJ(ect) S(hort)F(orm) S(in)G(ular) SUBJ(unctive) T(e)NS(e) V(erbal)N(oun)

These abbreviations are mainly used in glosses, where, as labels for morphosyntactic categories, they appear in SMALL CAPS. In the text lexemes/words also appear in small caps, the names of inflexional categories are capitalised initially, and cited word and sentence forms are italicised. Important terms appear in bold on their (re)introduction, as do text occurrences, not within braces, of the semantic features (P, loc etc.) which identify syntactic categories.

xni

I

Prelude

'In the beginning was what word?' Arthur asked.

This book is concerned with word classes and their categorisation, where word is taken to be the basic unit of the syntax and their classification is determined by this syntax, i.e. how they combine to form sentences. It is specifically concerned with the 'substance' of class labels (traditionally, 'noun', 'verb', etc.) and with what role this 'substance' plays in the syntax. The chapters which succeed this one are concerned to lay out and motivate a particular approach to the 'substance' of word categorisation, one which I have dubbed 'notional', in so far as it is conceived of as an extension of those 'traditional' grammars that saw this 'substance' as ontologically based. A more immediate antecedent is some suggestive work of Lyons (e.g. 1966; 1977: ch. 11; 1989); and the approach seems to me a natural extension of my earlier work on 'case grammar' (e.g. Anderson 1971a; 1977; 1980b; 1984b; 1986b), as I have indicated elsewhere (Anderson 1989b; 1992b). The present brief chapter is intended, as described by its title, as a 'prelude' to the main discussion, in providing in brief some context for the assumptions and intentions that inform the latter. It does not attempt to provide a historiography of word-class studies, or even of notionalism: these warrant substantial treatment on their own account. What follows takes off from the combined proposition that there are no specifically linguistic semantic categories, or level of representation, distinct from the syntactic and that syntactic categories are themselves grammaticalisations of cognitive - or notional - constructs; what follows is intended to explicate and to provide support for (particularly) this latter proposition. But it should already be clear that such a viewpoint also imposes certain research strategies. It means, for instance, that it is predicted to be ultimately unprofitable to pursue a theory of syntactic categories autonomously, in isolation from their semantics; a cross-linguistic syntactic, distributionally established category that is not notionally defined is merely of interest as a potential counter-example to

2 Prelude the more retrictive theory of notional identification of word classes. It also means, for instance, that, with respect to interpretation, representations constructed out of notionally defined syntactic categories serve as the input to general (not language-specific) deductive systems. What I am concerned with here, however, is the development of a system of notionally based syntactic categories sufficient, in principle, to subtend the expression of a range of syntactic generalisations, i.e. generalisations concerned with systematic aspects of the distribution of words in sentences. I return later in this chapter to the assumptions I adopt concerning the syntactic status of such categories, and, indeed, about the nature of syntactic structure and its relation to other aspects of the grammar; let us at this point dwell a little on the notional basis for the categories. I.I

Notionalism

The content of a syntactic category, such as 'noun', is notional: the crosslinguistic classes associated with the category are identified as such by the recurrence, as members of these classes, of linguistic items that share certain conceptual properties, as discussed in §2.1 below. Crucially, in the case of nouns, these items denote (what are perceived as) discrete physical objects. Such categories are grammaticalised; as part of a cultural system, the class associated with particular languages may contain 'eccentric' members - indeed, members whose apparent conceptual equivalents belong to a different category in another language. Thus, whereas in English it is arguably the case that the distribution of MAY and MUST warrants recognition that they belong to a class - or at least subclass - distinct from that associated with (other) verbs, their equivalents in many other languages share their distribution with verbs. And, as we shall be discussing in §2.3.1, there are, for example, languages where the equivalents of most or all of those items that we might classify as adjectives in English are instead (untypical) verbs and/or nouns. Thus, whereas, rather uncontroversially, RED in English is distributionally not a noun, but occurs distinctively as an adjective (with nominal uses - That's a nice red - being derivative), in Ossetic, for instance, the 'corresponding' term is, apparently, syntactically like any (other) noun (Abaev 1964: §54). Any notional characterisation of syntactic categories should not only identify the central membership of categories but also provide a basis for understanding such variation. The existence of notionally non-central members frustrates simple-minded application of blanket notional definitions of categories, despite their currency until quite recently, particularly in pedagogical grammars, in attempts to differ-

Notionalism 3 entiate those major syntactic distinctions traditionally embraced by the label 'the parts of speech'. Such definitions either fail to encompass all the exponents of a particular category, or they are so vague and generalised as to be nondistinctive of that category; we are all familiar with Jespersen's (e.g. 1924: 59) demolitions in this respect of the definitions of Sonnenschein and co. (definitions such as 'Nouns name. Pronouns identify without naming.'). See too Lyons 1977: §11.1. Jespersen further shows (1924: 60) that morphologically based ('formal') definitions, though again of ancient ancestry, are also clearly inadequate 'as the sole test' for distinguishing 'parts of speech' in a generally applicable manner. And he concludes: 'In my opinion everything should be kept in view, form, function, and meaning ...' (ibid). But, in my view, these aspects he distinguishes contribute in different ways to the 'view': classes are to be distinguished on a morphosyntactic ('form' and 'function') basis, but their cross-linguistic identification is based on 'meaning', the notional character of central members. Moreover, despite varying degrees of grammaticalisation - or desemanticisation - much of the detailed syntax, as well as the nature of the morphological distinctions associated with particular categories, reflects notional properties. This is quite apart from those relationships in the syntax - notably topicalisation and the like, but including many other variations in linearisation (e.g. Bolinger 1952) - which expound the organisation of information in an ongoing fashion. What I have in mind rather are the kinds of phenomena we shall be exploring in chapter 3 below, such that, for instance, the capacity for what I shall term 'ectopic placement' - roughly equivalent to what has usually been interpreted as the result of 'movement' - is associated with the semantic role of the element concerned, in particular whether it is inherently subcategorised-for or not, subcategorisation being, of course, on a semantic basis. Likewise, as we shall again be looking at, the basic word order patterns in a language reflect the (semantic) valency status of elements (as, semantically, head, complement, circumstantial/adjunct, specifier). Consider here, as a small-scale example of the notional sensitivity of syntax, one aspect of the syntactic behaviour of 'endocentric adjuncts' in English. As has often been observed, there are interesting restrictions in English on preverbal placement of endocentric adjuncts like that in (1.1): (1.1)

a. Mabel very quietly deteriorated/improved b. Bert very quietly ate the last pie c. Felicity very quietly moved away

such that the sentences in (1.2) are not nearly as happy as those in (1.1):

4 Prelude (1.2)

a. * Alfred very quietly arrived/danced b. *Bert very quietly ate c. *Felicity very quietly moved

even though variants with the adjunct in postverbal position are perfectly acceptable: (1.3)

a. Alfred arrived/danced very quietly b. Bert ate very quietly c. Felicity moved very quietly

The verbs in (1.2a) differ from those in (1.1a) in being 'actions' rather than 'processes'. 'Actions' rather than 'processes' do not allow a preverbal adjunct - unless they are presented, as in (i.ib-c), as semantically transitive (not necessarily 'syntactically transitive' - even if the latter concept is well-defined). Not all 'processes' are conducive to the preposed adjunct, however: (1.4)

*Basil quietly fell/tripped

The 'processes' in (1.1a) are specifically 'change-of-intrinsic-state' (rather than, say, 'of-place' simply). And so on: other semantic variables supervene. My point is that any understanding of the syntax of the adjunct is inextricable from the semantics of the adjunction. And this is characteristic of syntactic generalisations: they refer to notional classes and to semantic relations between them. More generally, syntactic properties are projected from notional. It is thus inadequate to suggest that the regularities involved in (1.1-4), and elsewhere, are simply non-syntactic precisely because they are semantically based; that they do not demonstrate a semantic basis for syntax because the phenomena themselves are not 'syntactic'. This is the 'selectional restrictions' strategy - on which see e.g. Radford 1988: §7.9. On such a view, nothing of syntax (subcategorisation, placement of complements, adjuncts and specifiers, 'ectopic' placements) remains - as much of the content of the following chapters is intended to illustrate in some detail. I shall argue, too, that the association with particular word classes of particular 'secondary' categories (such as Case, Tense), so that the latter are recurrently realised in the 'formal' shape of the former, i.e. as part of their morphological structure, is notionally non-arbitrary. The recurrence in association with nouns of definiteness as a functional category - whether inflexionally or periphrastically expressed, i.e. as 'traditional' secondary category or 'article' (§2.7) - follows from their notional characters: crudely (see further §§2.1, 3.7), a definite article/affix is one of those elements that enables a noun to function as (part of) a semantic argument (like a name or a personal pronoun) rather than simply as a predicator.

Notionalism 5 Of course, there may be, as well as individual idiosyncrasies - lexicalisations - and minor grammaticalisations of membership or relation, as well as farreaching relational grammaticalisations, such as that incorporated in the basis for selecting subjects, as discussed in §3.3.1. But these remain desemanticisations; they can be properly understood only against the backgound assumption of a notional basis for syntactic concepts. The basis of linguistic categorisation in meaning was the fundamental insight of that long tradition which eventuated in the 'traditional' (and often pedagogical) grammars which - despite e.g. Jespersen's attempts at toughening them up proved such soft targets for the 'structuralists'. In their different ways, and on different sides of the Atlantic, both Hjelmslev (1961 [1943]) and Harris (1946) reject the notional content of syntax. Thus, for the former, 'the projection of the formhierarchy on the substance-hierarchy can differ essentially from language to language' (1961: 97), where, on the plane of content, the 'form-hierarchy' is roughly, in the terms being used here, the morphosyntactic categorisation - or system of linguistic relations, in more Hjelmslevian terms - and the 'substancehierarchy' is a non-linguistic description of the 'substance' of meaning. With like consequences, Harris (1946) identifies word - or rather 'morpheme' - classes on the basis of language-particular diagnostic environments, so that the classes he sets up for English and Hidatsa are strictly non-commensurate. So, both English and Hidatsa have a class labelled W , but this is fortuitous, non-systematic: whereas TV in English are 'morphemes which occur before plural -s or its alternatives' (Harris 1946: §4.1), in Hidatsa N are 'non-clause-final suffixes' (§5.1). It seems to me that in this respect structuralist syntax was (and is) a barren conceptual detour, and that the history of (transformational-) generative grammar represents a reluctant (and characteristically dissembled) but inexorable retreat from that position. One facet of that retreat is part of the backgound to the discussion of subcategorisation in §3.1.1. In this context, I should perhaps make it clear that I do not regard the developments described as 'generative semantics' (cf. e.g. the contributions to Seuren (ed.) 1974) as in themselves representing an embracing of notionalism: for most of the proponents of that approach, a 'natural logic' was conceived of as forming the basis of syntax; whereas I interpret a notional approach as excluding 'natural logic', as such, from syntax (and indeed from grammar as a whole) and as having it operate upon (amongst other things) interpretations of the categories and structures provided by the latter. To this extent, notionalism has something in common with the Hjelmslevian position alluded to above, while, of course, still denying the (essential) arbitrariness (as posited by Hjelmslev) of the relationship between syntactic representation and logical semantics.

6 Prelude The positing of such arbitrariness frustrates any possibility of a general theory of syntactic categories: overt syntactic diagnostics, just like the morphological, are ineluctably language-particular. Of course, given a sufficiently abstract conception of syntax, it is possible to make cross-language generalisations concerning the syntax of 'nouns', say. Thus, in any language with subjects, 'noun' phrases will constitute the central constituent type with respect to capacity to function as such. But, as we shall see, such generalisations flow from the notional character of 'nouns', and are best formulated in these terms, with brute distribution itself as a consequence of such; syntax does not involve the arrangment of autonomous, or notionally uninterpreted elements. 1.2

Analogism

I also share with Hjelmslev (and other - mostly dead - linguists) a conception of linguistic structure as fundamentally bi-planar, as well as the assumption that the two planes are structured in accordance with the same principles. My main concern in the present section is to attempt to explicate the consequences of this assumption, in particular; but let me turn first to bi-planarity and other aspects of linguistic organisation. We can differentiate different levels of representation of linguistic structure (along the lines of Anderson 1992&: ch. 1) to the extent that the representations assigned to different levels are governed by distinct regularities. Most basically, or strongly (Anderson 1982a), we can distinguish representations based on a distinct substantive alphabet. This is what distinguishes the phonological and the syntactic planes: phonological representations are constructed out of an alphabet of phonetically identifiable features; syntactic structures are erected on the basis of notionally identifiable features. Morphology does not introduce a distinct alphabet. In terms of a modified 'word-and-paradigm' approach to morphology, morphological structure proper interprets the syntactic ('secondary' and 'primary') categories, such as 'Past' and 'verb', associated with a word, in terms of the organisation of the phonological material associated with the item into morphological units. Morphological structure itself involves unlabelled relations: root, base, affix etc. are identified structurally. (For discussion see e.g. Anderson 1984a; 1985a; 1992b: particularly §2.3; Colman 1990; 1991: ch. 2; to appear.) As is familiar, phonological structure also interprets plane-external structure, indeed, both morphological and syntactic structure. There are thus asymmetries in the relationships between the planes (including the sub- or inter-plane of morphology), as well as there being distinct (including, possibly, no) alphabets. This

Analogism 7 constrains the applicability of an otherwise very generally appropriate assumption concerning linguistic structure. I espouse here the following assumption, given here in the form of a directive for linguistic representations: Structural analogy Minimise (more strongly, eliminate) differences between levels that do not follow from a difference in alphabet or from the nature of the relationship between the levels concerned. (Anderson 1992&: ch. 1)

I interpret this as, within the limits indicated, favouring analyses at different levels - most significantly, on different planes - that deploy the same structural relations and principles of combination. It is thus in accordance with the assumptions that, as in Anderson (1992&), the dependency, or head-modifier, relation should be seen as basic to both syntactic and suprasegmental phonological structure, as well as to the internal structure of segments and words, and that segments and words should both be characterised categorially as complexes of simplex features. These recurrences on the two planes are mutually supportive; and, conversely, plane-specific proposals concerning structure must be shown to follow from some independent difference between the planes. Anderson (1992Z?) argues that this offers a preferable research strategy to the 'anomalisf position advocated by Bromberger and Halle (1989), and, pursuing some earlier work (especially Anderson 1985a; 1986b), attempts to illustrate the pervasiveness of analogy of structure. Anderson (1987c) discusses some recent manifestations of the 'analogist' view. However, such a view is of substantive interest only if, as well as being appropriately constrained, it is pursued systematically and comprehensively; a theory which permits sporadic borrowings of conceptual apparatus from one level to another accords to the recurrences no more status than coincidence. I assume in the following chapters various aspects of the structure of syntax and of the grammar that, whatever their internal motivations, receive further confirmation from analogy. Thus, I shall propose specifically (§2.2) that syntactic structure proper is unlabelled: it is constituted by formal objects we can represent as graphs, directed by the dependency relation and linear precedence; and such graphs are projected from well-formed collections of categorial representations, each member of the collection being constituted by the set of notional features associated with an individual lexical item. Syntax is an unlabelled projection of collections of the categorial properties of lexical items. In this it is analogous to suprasegmental structure in the phonology, which is projected from the categories of segmental structure. Units like the syllable, foot etc. are defined

8 Prelude structurally; such 'categorial' labels (as 'syllable', 'foot' etc.) are unnecessary and inappropriate (Anderson and Ewen 1987: chs. 2 and 3), just as phrasal labels are irrelevant to the syntax. Likewise, I shall propose that the exception with respect to this absence of labelling in syntactic structure are those feature-attachments I shall refer to as prosodic (§2.7.5): these are projected on to the syntactic tree from an element associated with a particular configuration and thus acquire a syntactic domain; they are manifested primarily as concord. Again, such attachments are appropriate to the characterisation of suprasegmental structure, notably of harmony 'processes' (Anderson, Ewen and Staun 1985; Anderson and Ewen 1987: §7.6; Anderson 1987a; Anderson and Durand 1988). This is one indication that syntactic prosodies - or autosegments, if the reader prefers - are not an arbitrary device. Perhaps most fundamentally, both syntactic and phonological categories are represented, as indicated, as complexes of simplex features, where individual features may simply combine (or be absent) or (where two are present) one may be subsidiary to the other - there is asymmetry. I interpret this subsidiariness as reflecting a (category-internal) dependency relation. We have, then, at least the first-order categorial possibilities shown in (1.5), in the notation presented more fully in §2.3: (1.5)

a. {A} ('feature A appears alone in the categorial representation') b. {A,B} ('features A and B combine') c. {A;B} ('feature A governs feature B')

Much of chapter 2 in particular is devoted to showing that this provides an appropriate notation for syntactic categories with respect to the range of 'behaviour' we can associate with such. So, cross-classification and various hierarchical relations which categories contract are optimally characterised - i.e. in such a way that simplicity of expression correlates with generality of the particular phenomenon. However, a powerful (external) support derives from the replication of like motivations for the same combinatory possibilities in the representation of phonological segments (Anderson and Ewen 1987: ch. 1). 1.3

Minimalism

The basic unit of the syntax, the word, interfaces with the items listed in the lexicon; indeed, word-lexical item is the unmarked mapping, to the extent that others are typically interpreted as special, 'idiomatic'. An important facet of a lexical item is the valencies and values it assumes as a word; in terms of valency

Minimalism 9 it imposes requirements on accompanying items, and it satisfies the value required by other items. These valencies and values - subcategorisation and categorisation - are framed in terms of notional features, including semantic relations (a.k.a 'case relations', or 'theta-roles'). A well-formed predication (realised ultimately as a sentence) has all its valencies satisfied, and only one value - a predicator - that does not satisfy a valency. Syntactic structure dependency trees with nodes/realising-items ordered in linearity - is projected from such well-formed predications, with results as shown schematically in (1.6): (1.6)


/{ 'neutral'}, {'agentive'}

where 7' is again to be interpreted as 'takes as a complement', and '=>' means 'include the specification on the right in the lexical characterisation of the item on the left'; and the specified complements are in their turn complementees (with nominal complements). For verbs in general we can stipulate the weak subcategorisation requirement of (2.25a), and for functors (b): (2.25)

a. {P}^>/{ }j b. { }^/{N}

Verbs take functor (empty category) complements, the upper (/) and lower (j) numerical values being for the moment unspecified (once more, see further §3.1); unmarked functors are complemented by a name. The wiggly brackets (braces) again enclose bundles of notional features, in the case of (2.24) specifying a secondary category, in (2.25) a primary one. We return to the relationship between these bundles in a moment; at this point let us pursue the complementeecomplement relation. Complements, unlike complementees, are potentially complex. Further, the one-to-many relationship between verb and complements leads to a strong subcategorisation of verbs, as noted above, whereas pronouns and determiners are differentiated only in terms of weak subcategorisation (presence vs. absence of a complement). It is perhaps worth extending such a typology at this point to acknowledge that functors are typically not merely weakly subcategorised in this sense, but also are differentiated in accordance with what kind of primary category complements them. So that, for instance, while in can take either a primary (in September) or secondary (in coming here) argument, the latter are not available to at (atfive o'clock/*at coming here); with in the stipulation (2.25b)

Relations between elements 31 is overridden. We can distinguish an intermediate 'strength' in subcategorisation: verbs are highly differentiated lexically with respect to the secondary functor categories (as well as primary categories - §4.1), determiners are undifferentiated with respect to the categories they are complemented by, while functors are minimally differentiated with respect to primary categories (primary vs. secondary arguments). These categories mark points on a hierarchy of a kind that will become familiar to us particularly in §2.4: high subcategorising differentiation is associated with the class containing only P; presence of N, as with nouns, decreases this; absence of P much reduces subcategorising power; presence of N alone is minimally subcategorisational. These various subcategorisation relationships are reflexions of the asymmetry of the complementation relation. But, further, the distribution of complementee plus complement(s) is determined by the category of the complementee. If we attribute to their combination a constructional status, then the complementee has this special status of its own within the construction. Thus, a construction including a complemented verb has the same distribution as a no-argument verb. The formal properties of sets of such constructions have been explored within the theory of dependency grammars (cf. e.g. Hays 1964; Gaifman 1965; Robinson 1970; Fraser 1990). Complementee-complement is a dependency, or head-modifier, relation, such that the category of the head (complementee) determines the distribution of the construction defined by items contracting the asymmetric binary relation of dependency, or (with multiple complementation) sets of such relations involving a common head, and the head is itself subcategorised for its modifiers (complements). We can represent the dependency relations holding in constructions such as (2.26a) by (b), in terms of the graphic notation adopted in Anderson (1971a; 1976; 1977: ch. 1), and alluded to briefly in §1.3: (2.26)

a. humiliation of Rome by Hannibal b.

humiliation

of

Rome

by

Hannibal

with each head node linked to (each of) its modifier(s) by a dependency arc (directed line), and with the asymmetry, or directedness, of the line being

32 Fundamentals of a notional theory represented by relative vertical placement: of depends on/is a dependent of humiliation, its governor; Rome depends on of, of and Rome (and by and Hannibal) are subordinate to humiliation. A construction is constituted by a head and its subordinates. The discontinuous lines of the graph which intersect the dependency one represent a (symmetrical) relation of association, in this case between items and nodes in the dependency graph, a link which, as far as this representation is concerned, is undirected. (2.26) is defective in crucially omitting reference to the categories of the items: crucially, because the particular dependencies are induced by the (sub)categorisation of the items involved, as revealed by the appropriately enriched representation in (2.27): (2.27)

X/{ neutral} {agentive)

{ }{neutral}

{N}

{ }{agentive}

{N}

humiliation

of

Rome

by

Hannibal

Given the stipulations in (2.25) (on the assumption that the categorial representation of the deverbal noun, here 4 X\ to which we return shortly, includes that for a verb) and given that with a particular verb the value of / =j is determined by the number of bundles of secondary features for which it is subcategorised, the dependency arcs in (2.27) simply reflect the complementation requirements of the associated categories. This follows from the unmarked assumption that there is a one-to-one mapping of items to categorial bundles and of these latter to nodes. The graph is built up on the basis of the subcategorisational requirements of particular items being satisfied by the (primary and secondary) categorial properties of their potential complements. I offer a more explicit account in chapter 3. For now, we can formulate the erection of syntactic structure as: Syntactic projection a. associate a node with each primary category b. make nodej dependent on nodej iff the category associated with nodej has a value which satisfies a valency requirement of the category associated with nodej

where each categorial specification to the right of V specifies a valency requirement, and a categorial representation satisfies a valency provided the requirement imposed by the latter is not distinct from it.

Relations between elements 33 Dependency graphs such as that in (2.27) are redundant, then. However, as we shall see in our discussion of specifiers and circumstantials, the projection of syntactic structure is not always quite so banal. Further, as well as transparently representing the pattern of dependency induced by categorial specifications such as those in (2.27), such graphs (or their equivalent) also form the basis for the building of further, more complex structures, such as that which is involved in 'long-distance' dependencies. This again is discussed further in chapter 3, where it is maintained that, even in the case of the latter, syntactic elaboration is indeed strictly structure-building (rather than mutating - cf. Anderson 1991Z?). Again, the dependency representation permits a transparent formulation of this restriction, as well as many others. Thus, for instance, the head convention discussed in Anderson 1992Z? (see too Robinson 1970; Anderson 1977: ch. 1) exploits, indeed is required by, the fact that dependency representations introduce no phrasal nodes: Head convention Any regularity mentioning category X is to be interpreted as applying to the construction headed by X unless a subordinate of X is mentioned in the same regularity, in which case the the element manifesting X is referred to. So, reference to {P} by a syntactic generalisation is taken to be reference to the construction headed by {P}, S(entence), unless some other part of S is invoked in the generalisation. (See §2.2.2 below for one application of such a principle.) In so far as this restriction is independently motivated, we have some support both for the introduction of such structure and for its minimalist character, containing no phrasal nodes or labels. Heads, and thus syntactic elements in general, are atomic. Similarly, Anderson (1976) argues that such dependency structures facilitate the expression of word-order generalisations, without recourse to some auxiliary notation for marking heads such as is required in constituency notations. In the unmarked case, determination of basic word order in different constructions involves the uniform setting of direction of modification, to left or to right. The trees initially induced - i.e. projected from lexical representations - are 'wild trees' (Staal 1967): lexical items are not associated with information concerning word order. There is no left-to-right ordering of (categories and of) nodes, as projected from the lexicon. Linearity - essentially, as I'm suggesting, setting of the direction of modification - is introduced in the course of further structurebuilding. The directed graphs induced by categorial representations are trees, with only one node, the root, that is not dependent. A requirement that a complement

34 Fundamentals of a notional theory cannot simultaneously satisfy more than one complementee is reflected in the associated dependency graphs being also proper trees, with all non-root nodes dependent on only one head. The graphs induced by the satisfaction of the subcategorisational requirements are proper trees. I shall be formulating in subsequent chapters the restricted conditions under which in building further structure, this requirement is apparently relaxed, in terms of 'legal improprieties'. Once we introduce into syntactic representations, as well as the association and dependency relations, the property of specifying the binary relation of immediate (strict) precedence, indicated by relative horizontal placement in the graph, further restrictions on tree structure are possible. One that is pervasively satisfied, is that of projectivity, or 'no-tangling': dependency arcs and association lines do not intersect except at nodes, as in (2.27), if, at this point, we interpret it as embodying linearity, and unlike the tangled (2.28): (2.28)

Again, however, as anticipated in §1.3, I shall be suggesting below that, in restricted conditions, overlapping with those associated with possible 'impropriety' (double-motherhood), projectivity may be violated: we have minor 'legal tangles'. Anderson (1991Z?) provides a preliminary discussion of both kinds of 'relaxation'. We can at least say at this point that basic, and unmarked syntactic representations are proper and (derivatively) projective. In the preceding, the relationships between various aspects of structure have been described, informally, in 'procedural' terms. This is not intended, in itself, to involve claims concerning 'real time' activation. Thus, for instance, I am not saying that in parsing, linearity, though largely derivative, may not play a crucial part at an early stage. Rather, I have been concerned to extract, as in this sense prior, that information which is contrastive (categorisation and subcategorisation, information structure) from the structural properties that it induces: dependency - and thus constituency, basic word order - given a typological setting, basically head-right vs. head-left; marked word order, etc. (see e.g. Anderson 1992b: ch. 3).

Relations between elements 35 2.2.2

Subjunction

Each of the items in (2.27) is associated with a single category which induces a single node in the dependency tree, on the principle of one-category = onenode (recall the above formulation of syntactic projection). 'Adverbs', however, are bi-categorial, and induce two nodes; but the two nodes, being associated with a single item, are not linearised distinctively with respect to each other. The graph associated with here, after linearisation, is thus as in the subtree in (2.29): (2.29)

Fred

lives

here

the categorial specification for here being (2.30a), or, more compactly, (b): (2.30)

a. { } I {N}

b. {

};{N}

where ';' again indicates dependency, the head being by convention to the left. That is, the categorial characterisation of here involves an internal dependency: the construction has the basic distribution of a functor (cf. Fred lives in this house), but the subcategorisational requirements of the functor are satisfied iteminternally. In §2.8 I shall argue that many, at least, of the traditional 'adverbs' should be associated with an internal functor-headed configuration, and that this is basic to their distribution, though other factors, like the complement/'adjunct' distinction, supervene. Adverbs are lexically distinct as a word class, not merely by virtue of their (external) distribution, but in incorporating internally satisfaction of the subcategorisational requirements of their head category. It is likely that we should add such a complex category to the minimal system of (2.14), even though the membership of such a word class might in some languages be limited to a few 'particles'. This seems to be the case in the Salishan languages, which show a set of deictic particles which 'clarify the relationship of the predicate and of entities connected with it to the situation in which the speech act occurs, and the knowledge and experience of the speaker and hearers' (Thompson 1979: 699).

36 Fundamentals of a notional theory The internal dependency is lexicalised in the case of here. But the same kind of configuration may arise as a consequence of a redundancy feeding the inflexional morphology, so that the members of Case systems induce two nodes linked by dependency, but again not linearised distinctly. The presence of the functor is reflected in the inflexional morphology. Thus, the Finnish sentence of (2.31a) involves a nominal attached by a morphosyntactic redundancy of the character of (c), available to primary arguments, to a functor with in this instance secondary features loc(ative) and int(ernal) (where these are, again, at this point, expository merely): (2.31)

'M. is in the country'

a. Mikko on maassa b.

{loc,int} {N}

on

maassa

c. {N}

where C is a variable over the set of conjunctions of case features Once more, the complex is associated with two unsequenced nodes in the tree, as shown in (b). The internal structure of the word, including sequence relations, so that -ssa, the inessive inflexion, is suffixed to the stem, is assigned by the inflexional morphology proper - recall §1.2, and see again Anderson 1992&: ch. 2. Both adverbs and Case-inflected nominals may thus incorporate a functor. We should, of course, recall too that some adverbs are clearly derivational, as with locally, for example, in which case the functor-nominal combination is provided by derivational (lexical) redundancy. Indeed, there has sometimes been controversy over the derivational vs. inflexional status of certain word forms, as in relation to the Classical Greek 'fifth case', or 'casus adverbialis' (Hjelmslev 1935: 3-4). We return in §§2.7-8 to the status of derivational and inflexional subjunctions, and of the inflexional/derivational distinction. Together, these (Case-inflexion and adverbiality) constitute one kind of

Relations between elements 37 circumstance whereby functors are not expressed by the word class adposition: we have 'portmanteau' expression of functor and nominal. In many languages this is typical of functor expression: in the languages of Australia, for instance, prepositions are not common and postpositions very few (Blake 1987: §1.2). Another possibility is illustrated by the (unfortunately) so-called 'postpositions' of e.g. Finnish; these do not realise a functor simply, but are inflexional functornominal complexes which typically are in their turn complemented by a further functor complex, as shown in (2.32): (2.32)

{ }{loc,int}

I

{ Hgen}

{N}

{N}

kanssa

pojan

'with'

'boy'

(We are again not concerned at this point with the character of the secondary features, such as 'gen(itive)', here (i.e. in the notation of (2.32)) simply juxtaposed to the categorial specification with which they are associated, or with the full categorial structure of pojan.) More commonly, as in many Indo-European languages, adpositions are not themselves inflected but impose Case inflexions on their arguments. I shall suggest in §2.7 that such Case inflexions once more involve a functor-nominal complex. Further, functors may be neither sequenced distinctively nor reflected lexically or inflexionally. This is the case with the higher of the two nodes associated with Fred in (2.29/30'), an amplification of (2.29/30): (2.29/30')

{N}

Fred

{N}

lives

here

38 Fundamentals of a notional theory Here the content of the functor may be said to be expressed by the word order. In the English pronoun system, for the most part, the value of the functor in such instances is also expressed inflexionally (as with he vs. him but not it). The functor here is the 'neutralised' one associated with subject-formation, thus expressing a 'grammatical relation': see §3.1, once again. Primary arguments participate in predications by virtue of providing the value to satisfy the (unmarked) valency of functors. Roger Bohm (personal communication) points out that this can be regarded as providing the rationale for the 'case filter' on overt or 'lexical' NPs of Chomsky (1981: 49), for example: Case filter *NP if NP has no phonetic content and has no Case The alleged distribution of lexical NPs vis-a-vis 'abstract case' reflects the necessarily functor-complementing character of primary arguments. (We should note too that the 'phonetic content' clause is unnecessary, indeed impossible, in a framework without 'empty categories'.) Return again to (2.29/30)'. The dependency arcs therein associated with Fred and with the adverb each link a head and modifier not distinct in precedence (cf. Anderson igjib). We can distinguish the relationship between these two nodes as one of subjunction, vs. the adjunction of a modifier which is linearly distinct from its head. Such a distinction exploits the relative independence of the dimensions of subordination and linearity. (2.29/30) should be further amplified to include another instance of subjunction, associated with the verb, as in (2.29/30"): (2.29/30")

{P} {N}

Fred

{N}

lives

here

Anderson (1976) suggests that this illustrates a derived subjunction, created in the syntax; and it allows us to distinguish formally between the role of the verb as head of the sentence, the construction including the highest (root) node in

Relations between elements 39 (2.29) and all those nodes subordinate to it, and its role as head of a constituent VP, the construction including the node subjoined to the highest node and all the nodes subordinate to it. Given that a constituent VP is well-motivated, in some languages at least, such a distinction is clearly appropriate. Anderson (ibid.) proposes, further, however, that the S/VP distinction is not only derivative, but also may not be universal, or even generalised throughout a single language. We return to the status of VP in the light of further relevant phenomena in §3.3 below. As it stands (2.29/30") violates the one category = one node principle; the resolution of this depends on the formulation of subject-formation proposed there, which provides for the adequate motivation of both nodes. In the present context, what is important is not the derivational status of VP or its crosslinguistic distribution but the viability of a characterisation in terms of syntactic subjunction. Anderson (1976: ch. 1; 1991b) argues that in this way the invoking of subjunction overcomes one of the major objections that has been brought against dependency representations of syntactic structure, the inability to allow an item to function as head of successively more inclusive constructions (cf. e.g. Matthews 1981: 84-90): the verb in (2.29/30") is successively the head of VP and S. Such a suggestion might seem to be in conflict with the traditional notion that the head is what is 'characteristic' of the construction, is what identifies it as a construction type. But it is possible to claim that S and VP are in this sense the same construction type, without this leading to indeterminacy, given the head convention introduced in §2.2.1 above. In terms of the head convention, reference by a syntactic generalisation to {P} will be taken to include the whole S unless the subject (a dependent of {P} outside VP) is also mentioned in the generalisation, in which case {P} is VP. (We should note that sometimes particular instances of reference to 'VP', however, involve reference rather to non-finite forms: see again §3.3.) Moreover, VP in English is differentiated from S by direction of modification, as well as inclusivity: S is left-modified, VP to the right. Invocation of subjunction does not necessarily impair our capacity to distinguish constructions. Thus, representation of successive-headhood is unproblematical for dependency-based representations. Over the past few years there has arisen some controversy over the appropriateness and sufficiency of dependency representations of syntactic structure (see e.g. apart from Matthews (1981: ch. 4): Hudson 19800, b\ 1984; 1987; 19900: ch. 6; Zwicky 1985; Dahl 1980; Corbett, Fraser and McGlashan 1993). What follows here does not directly enter into this controversy; rather, I shall be attempting to show that the minimum of structural notions introduced in our discussion (basically: dependency, linearity and association) for the representation

40 Fundamentals of a notional theory of the complementee-complement relation is sufficient and appropriate to the structural characterisation of the major areas of syntax we shall survey, including the allegedly more problematical ones, such as that resolved above in terms of subjunction. This in itself I take to support the restrictiveness of the assumptions made here concerning syntactic structure (including, crucially, the restrictions on 'phrase structure' associated with adopting dependency as the basis for such). However, I should at least comment that it seems to me mistaken to try to equate dependency or headhood with one or more of a set of distinct morphosyntactic notions (involving the determination of concord or rection, or functioning as the 'morphosyntactic locus') such as are discussed by Zwicky (1985) and others; we shall find that these interact with dependency in a number of different ways. (And see too the discussions in Corbett, Fraser and McGlashan 1993.) Thus, for instance, under rection, in the presence of an item of a particular category or subcategory another item is required to assume a particular distinct morphological shape; so that in English a pronoun is 'objective' when accompanied by a preposition (functor). A little more precisely, a rectee, such as the English pronoun, is dependent on its rector, the preposition in English. Rection accompanies dependency; it goes from head to modifier. Unsurprisingly, the term 'government' has been used of both the head-modifier and the rection relations. Concord, on the other hand, at least in the unmarked instances, involves the agreement in some morphological property/ies of a head with a modifier, as e.g. with English subject-verb concord. Concord is anti-dependency; it goes from modifier to head. See further here Anderson 1979&; 1986c; to appear a. Such a formulation obviously involves 'non-standard' assumptions concerning e.g. the relationship between 'attributive' adjectives and the nouns they accompany, and sometimes show concord with. (We return to attribution of adjectives in §3.7.) Neither of these phenomena should be regarded as providing criteria for the identification or definition of headhood, or as involving a conflict in criteria. They involve principles which take head assignment - the structure of complementation - as a startingpoint. The inappropriateness, indeed circularity, of attempts to define headhood in terms of some independent property of a particular constituent is underlined by the fact that in a dependency grammar constituency itself is derivative, a property of dependency structures. And, in the basic case, syntactic dependency, and thus, derivatively of that, constituency, follow from the subcategorisational properties of the syntactically atomic items. See, however, §2.8 for a refinement of this notion (which does not, however, alter the derivative status of both dependency and constituency).

Relations between elements 41 2.2.3

Internal dependency

The representation for here given in (2.30) includes an item-internal dependency, an internal subjunction: there are two categorial specifications so linked. If we introduce, further, the possibility of asymmetrical combination, subjunction, within a single categorial representation itself, then, in place of simple {P,N}, i.e. non-specific combination of P and N, we can differentiate between two categories differing in preponderance of the two features: (2.33)

{P;N}

{N;P}

with V again indicating dependency (with, by convention, the head on the left). (Compare this carefully with the notation of (2.30b).) Given the one-category = one-node principle, such categorial representations do not of course induce more than one node in the syntactic dependency tree. §2.3 considers the instantiation of such categories in language. There too we investigate the further elaboration of systems showing dependency relations between the features which is allowed for by mutual dependency, indicated in (2.34): (2.34)

{P:N}

P governs N and N governs P. In terms of simple preponderance, (2.34) is equivalent to {P,N} in systems which lack dependency between features, i.e. lack (2.33); but in terms of complexity (2.34) outranks either of (2.33). Notice, as a further notational convention, that if we want to insist on the absence of asymmetry in a combination, then the ' {P.N}' notation is appropriate: '{P.N}' specifically involves no asymmetrical combination, whereas {P,N} is indifferent, and can be taken to refer to a set including all of (2.33) and (2.34). (See Anderson (1988a) for exploitation of the V vs. V distinction in the formulation of a historical (sound) change - or, rather, restructuring.) The internal dependencies in (2.33) are not associated with a head-modifier relation in the syntactic tree. Rather, they correlate simply, as indicated, with relative preponderance of the properties associated with the features. This does have syntactic consequences - as §2.6 illustrates in relation to hierarchical phenomena ('squishes' etc.) - but not in terms of syntactic dependency. One motivation for supposing that the same, dependency relation is involved in this case as in the syntactic tree is Occamesque: only one asymmetrical non-linear relation need be invoked. With representations such as that for maassa in (2.31b), involving dependency between categories, positing of the same relation item-internally and in the tree is supported by the isomorphism involved - and is in conformity with the dependency preservation condition proposed below. We return to this area in §2.6.1. Notice here, however, that, with respect to category-internal

42

Fundamentals of a notional theory

dependencies, there is at least, as observed above, a correlation between preponderance of P (expressed in terms of dependency) and capacity to take (a differentiated range of) dependants/complements. This type of categorial representation - and the syntactic dependencies discussed earlier - will be familiar to the reader acquainted with developments in dependency phonology (e.g., more recently, Anderson and Durand 1986; Anderson and Ewen 1987). Anderson and Jones (1974; 1977) argued that the dependency graphs which had evolved as representations of syntactic structure (particularly as embodied in Anderson 1971a) were also appropriate to the characterisation of phonological suprasegmentals: as intimated in chapter 1, rhyme, syllable, foot, tone group are headed constructions induced by (phonological) categorial representations (for fuller more recent treatments see e.g. Anderson 1986a; Anderson and Ewen 1987: part 1). And Anderson and Jones (1974; 1977) maintained further that the combination of features characterising categories also invoke the dependency relation in analogous fashion to what has been suggested here for syntactic categories - as illustrated by (2.33) and (2.34). In both phonology and syntax, combinations of primary categorial features are associated with nodes in the supra-tree; they are also associated with combinations of secondary features, which are responsible for, among other things, distributional 'fine-tuning', restrictions such as are illustrated by the English initial clusters /pi-, *tl-, kl-/ and by the Gender restrictions manifested in the anomaly of German *der Mddchen. In the phonology, the clusters of (primary) categorial and articulatory features have come to be designated as constituting 'gestures' (Lass 1976: ch. 6); here, I shall use the more neutral term partition for the bundles of primary and secondary features. We return to the secondary partition, i.e. that consisting of secondary syntactic features, in §2.7, which indeed proposes a fundamental revision of the status implied for them here. In the section which follows we explore the further articulation of the primary partition, on the basis of the relational properties introduced here. In the present section it has been suggested that, analogously in the phonology and the syntax, the relations of association, dependency and serialisation are relevant to both infrasegmental/word structure and suprasegmental/syntactic structure. Assignment of these various relations with respect to the latter is derivative; and even within the segment/word, linearity relations (as in - phonological and syntactic - compounds) are redundant, as are many particular instances of dependency - as we shall now see.

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 43 2.3

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies

The combinations of features discussed in §2.1 allowed for a limited set of primary categories, and thus, where these correlate with a set of items showing a distinct distribution, of word classes. The categories are given in (2.13), repeated here: (2.13)

{P} verb

{N} name

{N,P} noun

{ } functor

§2.2 introduced in addition the possibility of 'complex' word classes involving a dependency between two partitions of primary features - specifically a functor and an argument partition, characteristic of 'adverbs' - cf. (2.30b), such a combination being associated with two nodes in syntactic structure. The alleged low-word-class-inventory languages discussed in §2.1 apparently display such a set of word classes, though some of them may be even more restricted in this respect. And we shall note below even some others where the verb/noun distinction has not been controversial. But clearly, on the other hand, there are languages where the set of word classes, and (especially) the set of categories invoked by the syntax, are more extensive. The availability of dependencies between features (internal dependencies - vs. the external dependency involved with adverbs) means that we can allow for more extensive systems in what I shall argue is an appropriate way. 2.3.1

Adjectives

By invoking dependency we can substitute for the simple combination in (2.13) two categories differing in the preponderance of P and N, as in (2.35): (2.35)

{P;N}

{N;P}

so that there are two possibilities gradedly intermediate between {P} and {N}. As far as word classes are concerned, perhaps the most obvious application of (2.35) is to allow for systems in which a distinction is made between nouns and adjectives. Adjectives are, like nouns, classificatory, but traditionally they are said to denote 'attributes' rather than the entities denoted by central nouns; that is, their denotata are (perceived as) both less independent as potential arguments and conceptually simpler. According to Jespersen, 'on the whole substantives are more special than adjectives, they are applicable to fewer objects than adjectives, in the parlance of logicians, the extension of a substantive is less, and its intension is greater than that of an adjective' (1924: 75); cf. Lyons 1977: 447.

44 Fundamentals of a notional theory On the other hand, adjective denotata are typically less dynamic, more stable than the central verbs. Sometimes, on such grounds, adjectives have been described as denoting 'qualities'. Such considerations select as central adjectives those denoting simplex properties to do with size, colour, etc. In languages with a closed adjective class, notionally central adjectives of course preponderate. Dixon (1977), indeed, finds a cross-linguistic tendency for such closed classes to contain a rather specific subset, including basic dimensional, colour, age and evaluative terms. Schachter (1985: 14-5) cites Igbo as a paradigm case in this respect, with eight adjectives evenly divided through these four semantic areas, as shown in (2.36): (2.36)

a. ukwu b. ojii c. ohuru d. oma

'large' 'black, dark' 'new' 'good'

nta oca

'small' 'white, light' ocye 'old' ojoo 'bad'

(dimension)

(colour) (age) (value)

In English, with an open class, adjectives approximate at one extreme to verbs of state (cf. aware vs. know, hungry vs. hunger)', at the other, to nouns denoting entities associated with a particular salient property (cf. dead vs. corpse). (Cf. here e.g. Lyons 1977: 447-8.) There are other respects too in which adjectives fall between nouns and verbs, or approach one or the other. Typical simple adjectives show a lesser range of arguments than verbs, but more than nouns. Agentive adjectives {Be cautious!) are untypical, but less so than agentive nouns. Thompson found that in samples of discourse in English and Mandarin adjectives are used both for 'predicating a property of an established discourse referent' and for 'introducing a new discourse referent' (1988: 174). We can associate these properties of adjectives - intermediate between verbs and nouns - with a {P;N} specification, with {N;P} being attributed to nouns. And this is reflected in adjectival distribution: in English, they occur as (a nonpredicative, or 'attributive') part of arguments, as in (2.37a), though they only exceptionally 'complete' an argument construction, as in (b): (2.37)

a. the humble cottage b. the humble

which is normally interpreted only as plural and human, or possibly abstract; and they occur predicatively, though in many languages only if accompanied by a copula, as in English - though, unlike singular count nouns in English, they are not accompanied by a determiner such as a(n) (cf. (2.5)). I shall suggest below that the word-class system of English is rather more extensive than (2.38), which incorporates the distinction allowed for in (2.35), but also ignores for the moment complex categories like adverbs:

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies (2.38)

{P} verb

{P;N} adjective

{N;P} noun

{N} name

45

{ } functor

A system such as (2.38) seems, however, to be appropriate, as a first approximation, to a range of other languages, including Finnish - and Old English. The basic distribution of adjectives therein is as in (Modern) English, but they show in addition 'concord' in case and number with the the noun to which they are attributed or of which they are predicated, as in the Finnish examples of (2.39): (2.39)

a. iso talo 'large house' isot talot 'large houses' b. Talo on iso 'The house is large' Talot ovat isot 'The houses are large'

Sinhalese, for example, shows a similar distribution for adjectives (though no copula is required in the predicative use); but they do not show the inflexional categories exhibited by either nouns or verbs (Gair 1970: §2.41). Attempts have sometimes been made to establish either the attributive or the predicative use of adjectives as basic, with the other being derived therefrom. Thus, in early transformational accounts (e.g. Smith 1961), attributive adjectives are derived via reduction of relative clauses containing a predicative adjective. Whereas Cresswell (1973: 142-3,183—5; see too Montague 1974), for example, takes the attributive use as basic, with the predicative adjective being in effect a reduced attributive construction. Neither position is easy to reconcile with the fact that in languages lacking or with reduced adjective word class, quality words may be either primarily verbs (predicators) or nouns (arguments). Schachter (1985: 17-18), for instance, illustrates the distributional parallel between 'quality nouns' (corresponding to adjectives in other languages) and other nouns in Quechua. The quality nouns occur, for instance, without accompanying noun, as verbal objects, with an accusative suffix, and markable for number: (2.40)

a. Rika ska: alkalde(-kuna)-ta I-saw mayor(-PL)-ACC ('I saw the mayor(s)') b. Rikaska: hatun(-kuna)-ta I-saw big(-PL)-ACC ('I saw the big one(s)')

and both may be attributive or predicative: (2.41)

a. chay that b. Chay That

alkalde/hatun runa mayor/big man runa alkalde/hatun man mayor/big

(kaykan) (is)

46 Fundamentals of a notional theory In Mandarin, on the other hand, quality verbs (corresponding to adjectives in other languages) may be predicative, of course, but in attributive position are relativised like other verbs: (2.42)

a. liajie de niihaizi understand REL girl ('girl who understands') b. piaoliang de niihaizi beautiful REL girl ('girl who is beautiful')

(Schachter 1985: 18)

For samples of such languages see Thompson 1988: 170-1. These correspondences suggest that neither predicativity nor attributiveness is more basic. Perhaps even more problematical for accounts making predicativity basic are the familiar instances in languages like English of attributive adjectives such as those in (2.43a) which are not predicative, as shown in (b), or where the predicative use is (on the salient reading for the attributive) markedly different semantically, as in (c): (2.43)

a. the late/present/honorary/former/initial/mere president b. The president is ?honorary/*former/*initial/*mere c. The president is late/present

(even if we ignore the denominals studied by Levi 1978: ch. 2 - see too Postal 1969; and §2.6.2 below). Admittedly, these are scarcely central adjectives; and, typically, too, they incorporate a deictic or ranking element. But such attributive uses present a problem for deriving attributives in all instances from the obvious predicative source. Cresswell's contrary proposal is based on the semantic properties of gradable adjectives, specifically implicit reference to a standard of comparison, made explicit in attributive uses such as (2.44): (2.44)

a. A small elephant is a big animal b. Dumbo is a small elephant/big animal

but not the predicative (2.45): (2.45)

Dumbo is small/big

The predicatives in (2.45) involve, on Cresswell's account, a covert element (A) interpreted pragmatically ('for an elephant'/'for an animalV'for his age'/...) to which the adjective is attributed. But such considerations, while, on the one hand, being also applicable to gradable nouns, as in, say, (2.46), which would then also have to be interpreted as reduced attributives, presumably:

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 47 (2.46)

Dumbo is a dwarf/giant

are, on the other, scarcely relevant to many adjectives, including those in (2.43); nor do they account for the failure of predicativity with them. Also problematical are adjectives which may occur only predicatively: (2.47)

a. The president is alive/asleep/prone/remiss b. *the alive/asleep/prone/remiss president

(Siegel 1980: 179)

Anderson (1989Z?; 199ib) suggests that English adjectives are lexically marked as attributives and that predicativity is provided by a lexical redundancy to which e.g. initial and the relevant late are marked as exceptional, perhaps on the basis of their semantic character. Adjectives are a word class with two categorial specifications, both including a common core ({P;N} in terms of (2.38) above; {P:N} in terms of the proposals of §2.3.3 below), with the difference allowed for lexically. However, if the redundancy involved takes attributiveness as basic, then adjectives such as those in (2.47) would have to be marked as obligatorily undergoing it, unless (taking a hint from the history of many of them) we interpret alive (cf. Old English on life) etc. as categorially complex, in (like adverbs) involving a functor-argument internal structure, and thus only apparently adjectival (see further §2.6.1 below). We return to the question of the relationship between attributive and predicative adjectives, briefly in §2.6.1, and slightly more fully in §3.7, after a more detailed consideration of the internal structure of arguments. There also I take up further distinctions associated with adjectives, particularly attributives, notably restrictive vs. non-restrictive and what Siegel (1980) terms intersective vs. non-intersective: cf. Bolinger's (1967) distinction between referent vs. reference modification; also Kamp 1975. Here already I want to have a preliminary look at the latter distinction, however, in that, and in so far as, the phenomena involved are directly relevant to our present concern with the categorial and word-class status of adjectives. Many adjectives in English may be either intersective or non-intersective, as illustrated by Siegel's (1980: 2-3) example reproduced in (2.48): (2.48)

Marya is a beautiful dancer

On one interpretation, Marya is beautiful 'as a dancer' (non-intersective, reference modification); on the other, beautiful 'absolutely' (intersective, referent modification). In predicative position the adjective is merely vague, like any gradable, with respect to standard of comparison: (2.49)

Mary a/the dancer is beautiful

48 Fundamentals of a notional theory The necessarily attributive adjectives of (2.43) are only non-intersective; and we can associate with this their failure to undergo the redundancy alluded to above (on the analysis of Anderson 1989Z?, 1991Z?). However, some adjectives that can be either predicative or attributive normally show only an intersective interpretation: (2.50)

a. The president is sick b. the sick president

These phenomena are crucial to any account of the structure of attribution, and again we return to them in §3.7. Siegel (1980: ch. 2) also shows that the intersective vs. non-intersective distinction correlates with the selection of short vs. long form for an adjective in Russian. This alternation involves a productive relationship marked morphologically. The long form occurs both as attributive and predicator; the short form is only predicative. This leads to the kind of contrast illustrated in (2.51): (2.51)

a. Studentka umnaja student intelligentiLF (The student is intelligent') b. Studentka umna student intelligentiSF (The student is intelligent')

where (2.51a) 'means that the student is intelligent in general, absolute terms', whereas (b) 'is most likely to mean that she is intelligent in her role as a student' (Siegel 1980: 11). Here, the intersective vs. non-intersective distinction is clearly marked in predicative position. This suggests that (2.51a) shows a reduced (nonintersective) attributive construction, such as may be appropriate in English to (at least) those few non-intersective adjectives (such as temporary) which can occur predicatively. Predicative adjectives in Kusaal (Voltaic) also show a morphological contrast in predicative position: (2.52)

a. Pua?-la ane velirja woman-the is beautiful (The woman is beautiful') b. Pua?-la vel woman-the beautiful (The woman is beautiful')

(Ladusaw 1985: 201)

The predicative form in (2.52a) shares morphosyntactic properties with nouns (Ladusaw 1985: §3): unlike verbs, or the predicative form in (b), it shows number agreement with the subject (cf. the plural Puap-la ane velise); it takes the

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 49 coordinator nc and rejects the intensifier sed 'really' - like nouns, and unlike verbs or predicators like that in (b), which take ka and may be modified by sed. Only (a) forms occur in attributive position. If the predicator in (2.52b) is a predicative adjective, then the predicative (a), which, like predicative nouns, requires the copula anc, is again plausibly a reduced attributive construction. Unfortunately, Ladusaw's discussion does not make it clear whether the two constructions in (2.52) are also associated, as one might predict, with an intersective vs. non-intersective distinction. We should note here too that Ladusaw concludes (1985: 205), quoting Welmers (1973: 267), that 'It would require more data and analysis to define the status of qualificatives satisfactorily in terms of the total structure of the languages, but it is clear that one must be most suspicious in respect to a class of "adjectives".' However, I suggest that the word-class status of adjectives in Kusaal is ensured by the very uniqueness of their distribution, as both attributive and predicative, whatever sub-distributions and morphology may be shared with nouns and verbs. In some languages with a closed class of adjectives these are confined to attributive use (Schachter 1985: 16). Ngamambo has only seven basic (underived) adjectives; these occur attributively only. As Siegel (1980: §v.i) shows, these are also non-intersective only. This confirms the primitiveness of the attributive use of adjectives, though it does not necessarily militate against the primitiveness of the predicative use: all basic adjectives in Ngamambo are nonintersective, and so, as is the general pattern, resistant to predicativity. The proposed categorial specification of (2.38) allows in principle for the predicativity of adjectives: any item associated with P may be predicative. But it does not as such provide for their role in the structure of arguments, or for the intersective vs. non-intersective distinction: as indicated, this will be a primary concern of §3.7. At this point, however, I am concerned simply to differentiate adjectives as a word class in a way that is appropriate in a general way to their syntax, without committing ourselves to the structure of attribution, which, clearly, is not as simple as involving an equation of attributive with modifier. 2.3.2

Auxiliaries

The system in (2.38) involves a minimal increment over that in (2.13); we pursue the significance of minimal incrementation in the following section. I conclude this one with consideration of a minimal incrementation of the system given in (2.38): namely, that which results from adding to the possibilities of (2.35) the still more complex category characterised by mutual dependency,

50 Fundamentals of a notional theory which I shall represent as {P:N}. Let us look at the empirical motivations for such an elaboration of the system of syntactic categories. This will in turn lead us to a reconsideration of the interpretation of the representations in (2.38). In a number of languages one can establish a lexical distinction, based on distribution, between verbs that are limited to non-finite positions and those which are not, the latter corresponding to what are often called 'auxiliaries'. Auxiliaries are closed-class items. Thus, in the Australian language Wunambal most verbs occur in uninflected form accompanied by one of a small set of auxiliaries which signal secondary categories, as in (2.53a), while most auxiliaries can also occur alone, with in that case unreduced semantics, as in (b): (2.53)

a. Yala ngu-wanban hunt I-AUX:PRES ('I hunt') b. Ngu-wanban I-fall:PRES ('I fall')

(Vaszoli 1976: 629, 640; see also Blake 1987: §7.2)

What characterises non-finite forms is that they typically cannot occur as the predicator in a 'simple' sentence. In Wunambal the universally non-finite yala 'hunt' thus never occurs alone. In other Australian languages the auxiliate is overtly marked as non-finite, and the form is usually referred to as a 'participle', in that it also marks subordinate adverbial clauses (Blake 1987: §7.3). In all of these instances, auxiliaries and non-auxiliaries have distinct distributions, with that for the auxiliaries being more verbal, conferring finiteness. In a sense the verbal functions are shared in such auxiliary-auxiliate combinations between auxiliary and non-auxiliary, with the auxiliary determining the basic distribution, and carrying the independent secondary categories, and the non-auxiliaries allowing different argument structures, and showing, if anything, only rectional secondary categorisation (as 'participles'), marking them as subordinate. The word classes of such systems require the range of categories shown in (2-54): (2.54)

{P}

{P;N}

{P:N}

{N;P}

{N}

{ }

aux

verb

adjective

noun

name

functor

wherein all the less than binary combinations are closed class, and adjectives remain intermediate between verbs and nouns in relative preponderance of the notional features. Such a system is also appropriate to languages like Ngabere (Chibchan), wherein auxiliaries do not monopolise finitehood but where their distribution is otherwise distinctive, in this case in taking their non-subjective complements to the right rather than the left, as illustrated by ndin in (2.55a):

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies (2.55)

a. Ti na-in I

gO-FUT/DIST

kri

nugwa-e

log

bum-NF

51

( T m going to burn the logs') b. Niara-gwe ngobagare buga-i III,SG-ERG

child

feed-FUT

('She will feed the child') whereas non-auxiliaries in the language are basically clause-final, as in both of (2.55) (with, respectively, the non-auxiliaries nugwae and bugai). (For discussion see Young and Givon 1990: particularly §2, from which the examples are drawn.) Only the auxiliaries are basically finite; with non-auxiliaries, lexically non-finite, a finite distribution would be allowed for by redundancy. In Finnish, on the other hand, although the copula associated with the adjectival predicator of (2.56): (2.56)

Kivi on kova stone is hard (The stone is hard')

is also used to form 'compound tenses', as in (2.57): (2.57)

Olette

erehtynyt

you-are

CITIPAST-PART

('You have made a mistake') and though Finnish even has a negative verb, as illustrated in (2.58): (2.58)

ole erehtynyt Ette You-not be err:PAST-PART ('You have not made a mistake')

these items are not distributionally distinct from other Finnish verbs, some of which can appear in the same constructions, governing infinitives and participles. They are not syntactic auxiliaries, then. (This is not to deny that in the grammatical traditions associated with a number of languages such items have been labelled 'auxiliaries', on 'functional' grounds, grounds reflected in the notion 'helping verb'; merely to deny the relevance of these considerations to the determination of syntactic categories.) In this respect, the set of categories given by (2.38) appears to be sufficient for the word classes of Finnish and other languages lacking syntactic auxiliaries; there is apparently no need to invoke mutual dependency in representing their word classes. In many languages auxiliaries can occur as such (with no semantic differential, as in Wunambal) as non-finites as well as finites. This seems to be true of Basque (though there is some controversy concerning the categorisation of the

52 Fundamentals of a notional theory auxiliaries - cf. e.g. Manandise 1987). Before illustrating this, it will be helpful, I think, to outline some of the main characteristics of the Basque verbal system, in accordance with what, I think, is a rather traditional view. In Basque, most verbs occur only as non-finites: to form a 'simple' sentence they must be accompanied by an auxiliary; this is the so-called 'analytic' construction. (Of the so-called 'synthetic' verbs, which display a full(-ish) finite paradigm, only about a dozen are in common use.) The form of the auxiliary, however, reflects the argument structure of the auxiliate, as illustrated by (2.59): (2.59)

a. Joan

da

go:PART AUX,PREs:(s)he

('(S)he left/has gone') Joan

zen

gOIPART

AUX,PAST:(s)he

('(S)he had gone') Joaten

da

gOIGERUND

AUX,PRES:(s)he

('(S)he goes/is going') Joaten

zen

gOIGERUND

AUX,PAST:(s)he

('(S)he used to go/was going') b) Igorri du sendiPART AUX,PREs:(s)he-it ('(S)he sent/has sent it') Igorri

zuen

sendiPART AUX,PAST:(s)he-it

('(S)hehadsentit') Igortzen du send-GERUND AUX,PREs:(s)he-it ('(S)he sends/is sending it') Igortzen

zuen

sendiGERUND

AUX,PAST:(s)he-it

('(S)he used to send/was sending it') c) Gustatu zaio pleaserPART AUX,PREs:it-him/her ('It (has) pleased him/her') Gustatu zitzaion pleaseiPART AUX,PAST:it-him/her ('It had pleased him/her')

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 53 Gustatzen zaio please:GERUND AUX,PREs:it-him/her ('It pleases/is pleasing to him/her') Gustatzen zitzaion please:GERUND AUX,PAST:it-him/her ('It was pleasing to/used to please him/her') d) Eman dio telliPART AUX,PREs:(s)he-him/her-it ('(S)he (has) told him/her it') Eman zion telliPART AUX,PAST:(s)he-him/her-it ('(S)he had told him/her it') Emanen dio tell-.GERUND AUX,PREs:(s)he-him/her-it ('(S)he tells/is telling him/her it') Emanen zion telliGERUND AUX,PAST:(s)he-him/her-it ('(S)he was telling/used to tell him/her it')

(2.59a) illustrates the use of the auxiliary with intransitive verbs, (b) the transitive auxiliary, (c) the 'oblique transitive', and (d) the ditransitive. This dimension of variation in the form of the auxiliary (that reflected in the division into (a)-(d)) correlates with the argument structure of the auxiliate; we return to this in §3.3.4. Here I want to focus on other aspects of the 'external' distribution and morphological structure of the auxiliary and auxiliate. The auxiliary is the locus of tense variation and person and number marking, while the non-auxiliary occurs in a non-finite form, a form which elsewhere can function as a noun (the 'gerund') or adjective (the 'participle'). The Basque auxiliaries, as in some cases in English, as well as forming constructions with verbs (as in (59)), also take non-verbal complements, as illustrated in (2.60): (2.60)

a. Hirian da town-in (s)he-is ('(S)he is in town') b. Liburua du book-the (s)he-has-it ('(S)he has the book')

(cf. e.g. Saltarelli 1988: §1.2.1.1), in which situation the Basque forms, with no distinct accompanying (auxiliate) 'main' verb, would be translated as 'be' and 'have', respectively. The Basque auxiliary verbs may be appropriately described

54 Fundamentals of a notional theory as such, i.e. both 'auxiliary' and 'verbal': with respect to most verbs, they are distributionally distinctive (with respect tofiniteness)and mark distinctive tense/ aspect distinctions; and, as well as sharing a finite paradigm with the 'synthetic' verbs, they share with non-auxiliary verbs as a whole the possibility of occurring as non-finite, as illustrated in (2.61) for the 'be' (auxiliary) verb: (2.61)

Alegera izaiten da lively be:GERUND (s)he-is ('(S)he is usually lively')

This distribution as non-finite is common to all Basque verbs; what is striking is that the auxiliaries are, as in Wunambal, the only finite verbs (with the few ('synthetic') exceptions we have noted), despite consistently being notionally non-central verbs. We return in the following subsection to the non-centrality of auxiliaries in this respect. Here I consider a couple of further related questions raised by the Basque phenomena. Since, on the one hand, the Basque (non-'synthetic') verb has a basic distribution included in that of the auxiliary, are the two sets simply subclasses? On the other hand, in languages or subsystems where auxiliaries only are finite and all non-finites are non-auxiliaries, are we justified in labelling auxiliaries as 'verbs'? The latter question might seem to be purely terminological, non-systematic. However, on notional grounds, and in relation to language comparisons and to the formulation of associations between primary and secondary categories, I suggest the term is appropriate. I propose the criterion that any item whose preponderance of P is greater than or equal to the proportion attributable to central verbs is verbal, and will attract typical secondary categories, such as Tense. The Basque auxiliaries, though notionally non-central, are, as the overwhelmingly predominant finites, highly P-full, predicationinducing. And the auxiliaries of Wunambal (recall (2.53)) are also verbal, on such grounds. So too are the so-called 'auxiliary particles' of Kalkatungu, illustrated in (2.62): (2.62)

a. A-ni nuwa? AUX-you see ('Do you want to see him?') b. A-kin nuwa? AUX-you see ('He wants to see you?')

Blake (1987: §7.5) denies verbal status to such on the basis of the fact that 'they cannot occur on their own as the sole verb form of a clause', and thus 'they are

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 55 dependents within their clauses'. However, (verbal) headhood is quite compatible with the taking of an obligatory (verbal) complement, as with the English finite form of (2.63a): (2.63)

a. Frances tends to fall over b. *Frances tends

which is surely uncontroversially a head complemented here by to fall over, and necessarily complemented by some (infinitival) verbal form - cf. (b). Such a conclusion is quite generally applicable: see further §§2.3.3, 34~5- We must not confuse 'dependency' with the taking of an obligatory argument; this represents one more misinterpretation (cf. §2.2.1) of the nature of syntactic dependency. The first question raised by discussion of Basque - involving the word class status of non-auxiliary and auxiliary - returns us to the issue of criteria for word classes. In the major system of that language - i.e. if we ignore the 'synthetic' non-auxiliaries - the distribution of non-auxiliaries is included in that of the auxiliaries; and the set of secondary categories associated with the former is similarly included in that carried by the latter. But it is still plausible to claim that this involves a difference in basic distribution rather than the 'fine-tuning' that we can associate with subclasses and secondary features, such as place of articulation in the phonology and Gender-choice in the syntax (cf. §2.2.3). Finite vs. non-finite is a fundamental determinant of the erection of syntactic structure, as will emerge very clearly in chapter 3. Particular combinations of categorial features may not be lexically distinctive in particular languages - say, {P} vs. {P;N} in Finnish - but they may still be crucial therein to determining syntactic structure; and they can be regarded as defining word classes even when, as in Basque, the distribution of one class (non-auxiliaries, {P;N}) is included within another (auxiliaries, {P}and{P;N}). We can represent the Basque auxiliaries and non-auxiliaries lexically as in (2.64a), with auxiliaries being susceptible to redundancy (b): (2.64)

a. {P} {P;N} aux verb b. {P} ^>;N

which provides for the overlap in distribution, by adding a possible dependent N to the lexical specification for auxiliaries. I assume that in this way any requirement that the distribution of potential word classes not show an inclusive overlap can be overridden by the salience of the difference between the overlapping and non-overlapping distributions. Distributional salience is associated with distributional differences which

56 Fundamentals of a notional theory can be interpreted as realising distinctions in primary category and are thus frequently associated with word-class bifurcations. 2.3.3

Finiteness

Finiteness is manifested in the capacity to typically constitute the predicator of a 'simple' sentence; finite clauses are thus also more isolating syntactically, more resistant to 'extractions'. A non-finite, as governed, may also be rectionally marked (as 'infinitive', 'participle' etc.), as well as often showing reduction, compared with finites, in the non-rectional categories distinguished in their morphology - though the categories involved may vary from language to language (George and Kornfilt 1981; Joseph 1983: ch. 2), so that the unmarked non-finite, the 'infinitive', for instance, is not necessarily 'untensed', or 'non-concordial', or whatever (see further §3.6). In the previous subsection we distinguished between languages (like Finnish) in which finiteness is not lexically relevant and those (like Wunambal) in which only a closed class - of auxiliaries - could be finite. In some systems, however, finiteness may be associated either with an auxiliary or a non-auxiliary: though the auxiliary can in such instances be said to be more {P}-full, it does not monopolise finiteness. Let us return, for illustration of this possibility, to the minority ('synthetic') verbal system of Basque alluded to above. Compare with the corresponding expressions of (2.59a/b) the 'synthetic' forms of (2.65): (2.65)

a. Doa go:PRES-(s)he ('(S)he goes/is going') Zoan go:PAST-(s)he ('(S)he was going/used to go') b. Badaki know:PRES-(s)he-it ('(S)he knows it') Bazakien know:PAST-(s)he-it ('(S)heknewit')

Now, we might characterise these lexically as in (2.66): (2.66)

{P}&{P;N)

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 57 (though there are considerable gaps in the paradigms of the various 'synthetic' verbs), i.e. as basically both finite and non-finite, with auxiliaries and most other verbs distinguished as in (2.64a), so that, lexically, only auxiliaries are uniquely {P}, and most non-auxiliaries are {P;N}. But in other languages a lexical treatment of the alternation offinitenessbetween auxiliary and non-auxiliary is much less apparent. Thus, in English, as is familiar, almost all verbs have a full finite paradigm, and distribution offinitenessbetween auxiliary and non-auxiliary depends on the range of syntactic circumstances associated with the so-called 'NICE' properties (e.g. Quirk et al. 1972: §3.5; Huddleston 1979), giving such familiar sets as (2.67): (2.67)

a. Flo works Does Flo work? Flo doesn't work b. Flo is working Is Flo working? Flo isn't working

with a finite auxiliary in all of the positive declarative, interrogative and negative sentences in (b), but with the finite non-auxiliary being limited in its syntactic distribution, specifically to a positive declarative where occurrence of an auxiliary has not been opted for, such as in the first example of (2.67a); the 'corresponding' interrogative and negative sentences (instantiating two of the NICE properties) contain an (expletive) auxiliary. Only have, be and (perhaps) do show the full range of finite and non-finite occurrence that would warrant attribution of (2.66) (with modals - having no non-finite forms - being {P} only). But if other verbs are lexically {P;N}, how do we allow for the finite occurrences of such, as in (2.67a)? Let us note, in this connexion, a possible parallel between the behaviour of {P} elements and that of functors, as described in §2.3.2. There I suggested that functors may be expressed either as adpositions or (only) via inflexional marking (i.e. morphosyntactically); and this duality may be manifested even in a single language (as, say, Latin). Finiteness is analogous: in English, for example, it may be manifested either by an auxiliary or by the form of a non-auxiliary; indeed, it may be given no overt expression except in terms of syntactic potential, so that the finiteness of the verb in e.g. (2.68): (2.68)

The plumbers repair the cistern

is manifested in its capacity to head a simple clause. Further, just as Latin prepositions exercise rection (recall §2.2.2) on a dependent argument (in the form of

58

Fundamentals of a notional theory

case-marking), so finites impose secondary categories on a dependent non-finite (giving infinitives or participles, for instance). Such parallels suggest that finiteness is a category, {P}, which may also both occur independently and be manifested morphosyntactically. So that the non-auxiliary in the first example in (2.67a) is categorially complex: it is associated with a (provisional) representation such as that in (2.69): (2.69)

{P}{non-past,m,sg} I {P;N}{X}

Cf. (2.31b) for inflexionally marked functors. If this is extended to languages like Finnish, so that the finite forms of verbs are distinguished from non-finite forms as {P};{P;N} vs. {P;N}, then the same set of primary categories would be appropriate to it, i.e. that in (2.54), with the proviso that simple {P} is lexically empty, so that Finnish lacks syntactic auxiliaries. Such a suggestion involves the rejection of the strong requirement that a primary category be associated with an independent word (cf. e.g. Anderson 1976: ch. 2); only in some syntactic circumstances, and in some languages, is this ensured in the case of {P}. But we have already adopted such a relaxation with respect to functors, { }. In many languages, the other simple combination, {N}, characterising among other things determiners, is manifested inflexionally in some instances, at least, as with the Basque (singular) definiteness marker in liburua 'the book' (cf. liburu 'book'); elsewhere, definite vs. indefinite, or specific vs. non-specific determination may be given no lexical or morphosyntactic expression at all, as generally in Czech, as illustrated in (2.70): (2.70)

Nad obilim tancil zar 'over' 'corn' 'danced' 'heat' ('Heat danced over the corn')

(Dvofakova 1964: 131-2)

where the 'thematic' obilim has already been established in the context and would in English require a definite article (at least); or, as I shall argue in §3.7, with plurals in English, such as those in (2.71): (2.71)

a. Fred was attacked by gannets b. Fish are attacked by gannets

Contrast the specific and the non-specific ('generic') plurals of (a) and (b) respectively. There is no overt marking of the (non-)specificness of the arguments in (2.71). These (combinatorially) simple categories {P}, {N} and { } are also closedclass; contrast the typically open-class non-unary combinations {P,N} associated

Further categories: the role of feature dependencies 59 with nouns, verbs and adjectives. Certainly, many languages display a large class of adpositions, but most of these are arguably categorially complex (like the Finnish postpositions discussed in §2.2). Names (vs. pronouns) are perhaps more seriously exceptional here; on the other hand, in lacking sense, they are, as we have noted (§2.1.4), all (apart from Gender differences) lexically (as opposed to referentially) equivalent. For related reasons Thrane (1983: 162) excludes names (along with functors and auxiliaries) from the set of 'lexical items': Generally, no proper name can be shown to contract hyponymical relations with any other form, so, according to (7), proper names are not lexical items on the basis of: (7) A lexical item L (in language A) is a form which contracts hyponymical relations with other forms (in A). Whatever contrast-relations L contracts are contracted with lexical items belonging to the same hyponymical system as L. {P} and {N} are in general semantically attenuated with respect to {P;N}, (nonauxiliary) verbs, and {N;P}, nouns: as verbals, auxiliaries are notionally noncentral, they are rather abstract situation-deflners; names/pronouns are denotatively empty. We can associate these properties with the set of functional categories specified by simple (unary) combination of the primary features. Roger Bohm (personal communication) points out that such a provision for (primary) categories that are not necessarily realised as a distinct word remains highly constrained, both by the architecture of the system of categories (so that extension of the set of functional categories is non-arbitrarily bounded) and by the notional content. A class of auxiliaries characterised as {P} shares with a class of non-auxiliaries {P;N} the capacity to induce arguments, and, as we shall see in chapter 3, the same is true of the 'absorbed' {P} that I am proposing in relation to English and Finnish. Compare here e.g. Ouhalla (1991), where the absence of a '0-grid', or argument-induction, is claimed to be a defining property of 'functional category'. This opens the door to a possible (and, to some extent, actual) unrestricted proliferation of 'secondary categories'. If, despite its failure in a number of languages to be manifested lexically or morphosyntactically, we posit {P} as a universal category or even a possibly lexically empty universal word class, then our tentative minimal system (for adjectiveless languages) now assumes the shape of (2.72): (2.72)

{P}

{P;N}

{N;P}

{N}

{}

finite

verb

noun

name

functor

with the system of (2.54), required for 'adjectival' languages like English, Finnish etc., being a minimal increment thereof:

60 Fundamentals of a notional theory (2.54)

{P} aux

(P;N) verb

(P:N) adjective

{N;P} noun

{N} name

( ) functor

and with the alleged 'sub-minimal' languages perhaps requiring only the (simplex) classes of (2.73): (2.73)

[P]

{P,N}

{N}

{}

finite

full-word

name

functor

so that {P} is realised by e.g. the copula of Inland Olympic Salish (recall (2.22b) above), and is otherwise manifested as part of the complex category characterising predicator use of 'full words'. It is appropriate to note at this point that either lower bound is, of course, not to be attributed to the early stages of first-time acquisition of categorial systems. It seems clear that auxiliaries and names/pronouns/ determiners are developmental specialisations of more inclusive categories including verbs and nouns, respectively, involving a split of the finiteness and referential functions of P and N from the sense-carrying. We can think of auxiliaries and names as retaining the more pragmatic (modal, referential) attributes of P and N. I suggest, too, that such a view is compatible with e.g. Radford's (1990) observations concerning the relative lateness of development of functional categories among children acquiring English. See further §2.4 below. Such a strategy as I have followed in this section in relation to the finiteness category {P} in part reflects the kind of traditional view expressed in Latham's 4 a verb is a word which can, by itself, form both the Predicate and the Copula of a Proposition, as, The sun shines' (1862: §689); except that I would substitute 'predicator' for 'Predicate' and insist on the verbality of the 'Copula' itself. The approach might also be said to underlie in part proposals concerning the universality of a category AUX (Steele 1981), or of Infl (e.g. Reuland 1983). Indeed, Manandise (1987), for instance, interprets the auxiliaries of Basque as manifestations of AUX, and Wasow and Akmajian (1981) attribute an inflexional AUX to Old English and German. The present proposal differs, apart from being embedded in a general explicitly notional theory, in insisting on the essential verbalness and nominality of AUX and, say, DET, respectively, and their status as heads of their respective constructions (recall §2.1.2 on determiners as complement-takers, transitive pronouns) - with this latter proposition now being rather less controversial. Such insistence must confront, for instance, the alleged non-verbal character of AUX in some languages. This I cannot pursue here; I merely observe that arguments concerning the non-verbalness of (some) AUX typically involve comparison with (other) verbs in the same language rather than a general

Markedness and category continuity 61 characterisation of the notion verb. Also problematical for the proposals made here are languages whose morphosyntax (as well as lexicon) allegedly makes no reference to a finite/non-finite distinction. Joseph cites, for example, Cree, 'in which every verb form is variable, changing according to person and number of its subject and object, mood, and to some extent tense and aspect as well' (1983: 10). But we cannot simply conclude from this that the finite/non-finite distinction is categorially irrelevant. Notice, for instance, that Cree distinguishes a 'conjunct' (vs. 'independent') mode for verbs, a paradigmatic set 'typically used to modify a noun' (Wolfart and Carroll 1981: 74), i.e. with a use that is primarily attributive. Further, 'conjunct' status is marked by a set of 'word-like elements' (Wolfart and Carroll 1981: 76) whose morphosyntactic character is similar to that of other elements expressing notions to do with 'time'; and the categorial status of all of these may very well be characterisable as 'auxiliary'. Henceforth, I shall refer to those categories with prominent P as verbal(s) and those with prominent N as nominal(s), which constitute primary arguments. Adopted category labels are as in (2.54/72/73); when there is in a language a distinct class of finites I shall, however, refer to them as auxiliaries. §§2.5 and 2.6 attempt to provide an explicit measure for the notion 'prominence' or 'relative preponderance'. We turn now firstly, however, to the expression of markedness by the notation. 2.4

Markedness and category continuity

I have been suggesting that the distributionally established categories of (2.54/72) are characterised appropriately by the notional features assigned to them therein. The nature of the particular combinations of features also provides us with a straightforward measure of relative complexity, a measure that reflects markedness. For instance, in a very obvious sense, the adjective of (2.54) is the most complex category there: it not only involves both features, but they are also related in the most complex fashion, by mutual dependency. And it is arguably the most marked category there. The markedness of particular linguistic properties is established by empirical phenomena that show them to be less accessible than corresponding unmarked properties. I assume that markedness should correlate with the relative complexity of the independently motivated linguistic characterisation of the properties concerned: this imposes an important constraint on linguistic theory - in this instance, on our theory of categories. I thus eschew as circular the view that markedness is an independently stipulated property of linguistic representations (Chomsky and Halle 1968: ch. 9; Aoun 1981) - cf. e.g. Lass 1975; Lass and Anderson 1975: app. iv; Anderson

62 Fundamentals of a notional theory and Ewen 1987: §1.3.3 - though it does correlate with grammar complexity/ attainability (Rouveret and Vergnaud 1980; Kean 1981). The markedness of adjectives is associated with their limited distribution through the languages of the world (recall §2.3.1): they are apparently lacking in e.g. Quechua and Mandarin, and numerically marginal in other languages (e.g. Igbo). In Cherokee (Lindsay and Scancarelli 1985) most 'adjectives' are derived (based on noun or, more commonly, verb roots), and so categorially complex (see §2.6). This is a different kind of paucity from that exhibited by the closed class { }, whose status as such, and whose occurrence as a category, is universal. Adjectives are potentially open-class; functors are extensible in a major way only by incorporation in a complex category, as made overt in the postpositions of Finnish (recall (2.32)). I interpret this distribution of adjectives in languages as revealing reduced accessibility (compared with nouns and verbs, and functors). This reflexion of markedness correlates with the greater internal complexity of their categorial representation, as in (2.54). The relative markedness of adjectives and other categories is also revealed developmentally, I suggest. Acquisitional data are notoriously difficult to interpret with respect to their syntax (cf. e.g. the succinct discussion of Elliott 1981: ch. 5), given notably the very limits of the linguistic abilities of early-stage acquirers. But children's acquisition of an adjective class can be argued to be quite late, compared with the other distinctions in (2.54), at least in relation to English and other languages for which materials are available. I do not pursue this here. Anderson (in prep) offers a rather speculative scenario of word class development along these lines - but one which I do not think is inaccurate with respect to the status of adjectives and other classes. Again, this scenario relates in an obvious way to the relative complexities embodied in the representations of (2.54), in so far as order of acquisition reflects relative complexity. Let us now look more closely at the measurement of complexity. The complexity measure provided by categorial representations can indeed be calculated in various ways. Most simply, we can associate each increase in complexity of relation with a successive integer in the series o, /,..., n, as indicated in (2.74): (2.74)

o ;

= =

1 2

'-

=

3

so that categories with no combination ({N}, {P}, { }) have zero-complexity, simple combinations ({N,P}) are one step more complex, combinations which

Markedness and category continuity 63 show an asymmetrical relation ({N;P}, {P;N}) yet more so, and adjectives, with a double (mutual) asymmetry, are most complex, with a complexity of three. So much is in itself relatively trivial, except that the categorial representations are motivated not simply by a desire to express relative complexity but also by the need to allow expression of the other phenomena surveyed in this chapter (involving particularly distinctiveness, cross-classification (§2.5) and gradience (§2.6)) on the basis of combinations of notionally based features. The motivations for the representations are largely independent of their role in the measuring of complexity. Further, we can constrain evolving systems on the basis of the hierarchy provided by (2.74); changes must be minimally incremental or decremental in terms of complexity. A system without combinations cannot evolve immediately into one displaying :-combinations (and none with ;). Moreover, in-/decrementation must result in systems that are internally consistent: there cannot e.g. develop a system with {N;P} and no {P;N}. This, and minimality, follows from what Anderson (1992&: §7.1) formulates as the category continuity condition: Category continuity condition With respect to a particular language system: (a) a category {A,B} presupposes categories {A} and {B}; (b) categories {A:B} and {A;B} presuppose a category {B;A} (where A and B, at this point, are variables over the features P and N), which is a well-formedness condition on systems of categories, limiting, for instance, by (b), the occurrence of {N:P} to systems which also contain {P;N}, and thus also, by (b) again, {N;P}. The systems in (2.75) are well-formed: (2.75)

a. {N} {N} b. (N) c {N}

{P} { 1 |N,P} (N;P) {N;P} {P;N} {P} IP) { {N;P) {N:P} (P;N} {P}

{ }

•se in (2.76) are not: (2.76)

a. b. c. d.

{N} {N} {N} {N}

e- { 1

{N,P} { } |N;P) (P) { ) {N;P) (P;N} 1 ) |N:P) IP} {v} (N,PI (N) {N;Pi

{P;N}

{P}

{v}

(2.76a) violates category continuity (a), (2.76b) violates category continuity (b), (2.76c) again violates category continuity (a) in that P appears in (in this case asymmetrical) combinations without appearing alone, and (2j6d) once more violates category continuity (b). (2.76c), on the other hand, is deviant by virtue of having a non-distinct category ({N,P}): all three of {N;P}, {N,P} and {P;N}

64 Fundamentals of a notional theory involve combinations of N and P, and the specification 'N,P' does not uniquely select any one of them. Some such continuity condition has been implicit in our discussions of the systems appropriate to different languages (§§2.1, 2.3), as well as relating to markedness; and it is explicitly deployed in the discussion of category change in Anderson 1992a; 1992&: ch. 7; 1993a. Its viability depends on our being able to identify classes notionally and on the appropriateness of the categories which are assigned to them. This latter (in particular) might be seen to be undermined by the system-relativism of category assignment. Thus, Anderson (in prep a) suggests that in the development of word classes in child language nouns first distinguish themselves from names by virtue of being categorised as {N,P} (vs. {N}), but are later categorised as {N;P}. Similarly, the sub-minimal system of (2.14) that we tentatively associated with Salish in §2.1.5 accords to nouns (i.e. 'full words') the specification {N,P}, whereas in English etc. they are again {N;P}. But appropriateness, and determinateness, is maintained if, recognising the primacy of naming and nominals suggested and motivated in Anderson (in prep a), in particular, as manifested in the staging of category acquisitions, or categorial distinctions, proposed there and reproduced in table 2.1, we associate with nouns, where they are distinct from names, the property of having a N which is not dependent on P (as in both stage 2 and stage 3 in table 2.1), and with verbs, where distinct from (a closed class of) auxiliaries, the property of having a P governing N (as in stage 3). This formulation makes it 'easier' to be a noun within the superclass of nominals than to be a verb within the superclass of verbals, in accord with the developmental scenario of Anderson (in prep a), while allowing a consistent correlation of categories with notional features. 2.5

Cross-classification

The previous section has suggested that (primary) categorial representations such as those in (2.54), repeated here, once more: (2.54)

{P}

{P;N}

{P:N}

{N;P}

{N}

{}

aux

verb

adjective

noun

name

functor

appropriately express the relative markedness of the various categories, and (potential) word classes, in providing an inherent measure thereof in terms of the complexity of the combinatorial relations involved. The representations are independently motivated on notional and distributional grounds. And the notionally based distribution of features determines further syntactic properties. On the

Cross-classification 65 Table 2.1: Order of acquisition of categorial combinations nominals 1

verbals

{N}

2

{N}

{N,P}

(P)

3

{N}

{N;P}

{P}

{P;N}

names

nouns

auxs

verbs

one hand, the categorially intermediate position of adjectives revealed in (2.54) is reflected, for instance, in their intermediate capacity as argument takers vis-avis verbs and nouns: as already observed, nouns in English are only marginally subcategorisable for an agentive argument (Be a good chap!), whereas with a small subset of adjectives an agentive argument is normal (Be careful!, Be discreet!), and agentivity is a major subcategorisational parameter with verbs. On the other hand, the distribution of features enables us to define classes of categories: thus, for instance, the capacity to be predicative is associated with the presence in a categorial representation of the feature P. We return in the section which follows to further manifestations of the former kind of property, i.e. of gradience - manifestations some of which are perhaps less controversially syntactic. Here we consider the expression of the latter, i.e. of crossclassification. At an informal, intuitive level, the cross-classificatory expressibility of the notation deployed in (2.54) is apparent, and arguably appropriate. Thus, as well as defining classes simply in terms of (a) shared feature(s) (e.g., as above, all categories whose representation includes P), we can also characterise (for example) the class of verbals as those categories showing a preponderance of P: P is either the only feature present (auxiliary), or it is the governing feature (verb). But we need to consider more carefully whether the notation indeed allows us in detail to satisfy another measure function, that associated with the notion of natural class, such that the representation of a cross-class intrinsically reflects its relative generality and its potentiality for recurrence in linguistic generalisations. Anderson (1980a: 187) formulates this desideratum with respect to phonological segments as part of the componentiality assumption, replicated here: Componentiality assumption The representation of the internal structure of segments is such as to optimise the expression of phonological relationships that are (a) recurrent and (b) natural.

66 Fundamentals of a notional theory (See too Anderson and Ewen 1987: ch. 1.) Requirement (b) is not our principal concern at this point; the notional features introduced here are intended to be cognitively natural, just as the phonetic features of Anderson and Ewen (1987) are intended to correlate with perceived phonetic dimensions. Rather, I want to focus on recurrence and optimisation, facilitation of the expression of cross-class generalisations. Let us approach this via a familiar notion of natural class. 2.5.7

Natural classes

The notion of natural class is perhaps most familiar, indeed, with respect to the phonology, and with respect to binary features (cf. e.g. Lass 1984: §5.2). Take, for instance, a hypothetical vowel system such as that in (2.77): (2.77)

III

Id

I2J

IXJJ

lol lal

with its members distinguished by the (binary) feature value assignments in (2.78): (2.78)

+high -back

+high (-low) +back

—high —low —back

-high — low +back

(-high) 4-low -back

-high) +low +back

(-low)

Each segment constitutes a realisational class; and the representations allow us to characterise cross-classes which satisfy componentiality, such as those in (2.79): (2.79)

a. [-back] b. [+high]

(/i/, /e/, /a/) (liljul)

'[-back]' and [+high] can be argued to have a phonetic denotation; (cross-) classes specified in this way are recurrent; and the generality of the classes is reflected in a representation which is obviously simpler - say in terms of counting feature-value pairs - than that for each of their members. Among the vowels, the members of the class in (2.79b) are minimally distinguished as [+high, —back] and [+high, +back], respectively; those in (a) as respectively [+high,

Cross-classification 67 —back], [—high, —low, —back] and [+low, —back]. (Redundant feature-value pairs are bracketed in (2.78).) To the extent that recurrence correlates with this measure of simplicity, so that, for instance, [-back] recurs in linguistic generalisations but, say, the conjunction of [+high, -back] and [+low, +back] does not, the notation is in accord with componentiality. As Lass (1984: 82) points out, this does not always appear to be the case, given the feature sets commonly proposed; and Anderson (1980a) and Anderson and Ewen (1987: ch. 1) argue that many of these failures follow in principle from the use of binary features. However that may be, in a range of instances the binary feature notation can be said to define appropriate sets of natural classes. So too the definition of the categories noun, verb, adjective and preposition in terms of the feature values given in (2.80): (2.80)

[+N, -V]

[-N, +V]

[+N, +V]

[-N, -V]

noun

verb

adjective

preposition

(Chomsky 1970) allows for the satisfaction of componentiality to the extent that cross-classes such as [+N] etc. are recurrent in linguistic generalisations, and 'classes' such as [+N, - V ] and [—N, +V] are not. (I assume that here, as in the phonology (cf. e.g. Anderson and Ewen 1987: 12-15), the use of 'Greek-letter' variables is illegitimate - so, there is no [aN, - a V ] ; apart from anything else, their availability renders the notion natural class largely vacuous.) And such evidence as there is does appear to support the natural classes provided for by the assignments of (2.80), though not unproblematically. It should also be noted in qualification that the only direct counter-evidence would be offered by recurrent reference to the above 'class' and/or to [+N, + V] and [-N, - V] - provided we are allowed to refer to any grouping of three of the categories, say noun, verb and adjective, by excluding the fourth. If we are not, then that particular grouping (noun, verb and adjective vs. adposition) would seem to provide counterexamples, in typically dividing open from closed class. Of course, this can be allowed for by invoking a further feature; but this considerably weakens the interest of the classification provided in (2.80). The content, if any, and particularly the status of any such content, of the 'N' and ' V invoked in this familiar system of classification is unclear. Chomsky and Lasnik suggest that 'in more or less traditional terms, we may think of [+N] as "substantive" and [+V] as "predicable"' (1977: 430, note 16). But this suggestion does not appear to have any consequences for the grammar (as opposed to the reader, who is thereby provided with some familiar-seeming referencepoints); and this is perhaps just as well, given e.g. that, as is 'traditionally' recognised, nouns as well as verbs and adjectives are 'predicable'. But it does seem

68 Fundamentals of a notional theory clear that the suggestion is not to be interpreted as claiming a notional content for the categories. I do not pursue this notation, which, as with its phonological analogue, is incapable of expressing both componentiality and gradience. 2.5.2

The representation of cross-classification

Evidence for cross-classes is not as straightforwardly established or interpreted as is sometimes supposed. Nevertheless, groupings of classes do play a role in the expression of linguistic generalisations. I do not have in mind here the crosslinguistic 'neutralisations' cited by e.g. Stowell (1981: 25). The fact that in some languages it is not appropriate to recognise a class of adjectives (such that adjectives in other languages 'correspond to' nouns or verbs or both in such languages) reflects rather the marked/complex status of adjectives. And the fact that semantic relations may be signalled by nominal (case) inflexions and/or verbal items or inflexions rather than overt functors depends on functors constituting the empty class much of whose content (of semantic relations) is determined by subcategorisation requirements, and as such susceptible to be combined in expression with the associated argument or to be left unexpressed in the presence of an appropriate predicator or predicator morphology. These considerations introduced by Stowell are not germane to the establishment of cross-classes. Rather, concerning cross-classification, we can say that certain groupings of categories are indeed universally appropriate, such as the set of potential predicators - i.e. items whose categorisation contains P - or the set of classes with open membership - i.e. items whose categorisation involves (in a non-sub-minimal system) a dependency-invoking combination. Further, as discussed in §2.5.1, the complementation requirements of particular sets of items require reference to cross-classification; such requirements, if recurrent, should be reflected componentially by the notation. Thus, as well as the pattern illustrated by the English verb of (2.81): (2.81)

a. He expected her to like cheese b. He expected that she would like cheese

which takes a complement with predominant P, i.e. verbal, non-finite (= P;N) or finite (= P alone), we have, for example, (2.82): (2.82)

a. She seems to like cheese b. It seems that she likes cheese c. She seems happy (with cheese)

where the complement in (c) shows merely a governing P, together with governing N (mutual government), so {P:N} (= adjective), and also the like of (2.83):

Cross-classification 69 (2.83)

a. He wants (the wine) to lie in the cellar b. He wants the wine cool

where the complement involves specifically P;N (no *He wants that the wine will improve, in British English, at least), combined (b) or not (a) with N;P. Further, verb complementation must distinguish between different classes of non-finite (so far undifferentiated as all P;N), given that (2.84c) is available to like but not to e.g. want. (2.84)

a. He likes (the wine) to lie in the cellar b. He likes the wine cool c. He likes lying in the cellar

and that (2.85) shows a finite complement alternating with an '-/rcg-form', rather than an 'infinitive': (2.85)

a. He mentioned that he'd visited Pamela b. He mentioned (his) visiting Pamela

while (2.86) shows all three: (2.86)

a. He intends that Barbie should resign b. He intends to resign c. He intends resigning

Such phenomena are familiar, and obviously involve a number of other considerations, including the question of the representation of different non-finites, and other 'complementisers', thus far not developed here (see §3.6 in particular). Their relevance at this point is merely to illustrate something of the range of cross-classes referred to by the subcategorisation of verbal-complement-taking verbs. We must now inquire how in principle such cross-classes are to be represented in a componentially satisfactory way in terms of the notation we have been developing, which cannot refer to individual feature values (given that there are no values). Workers in dependency phonology (e.g. Anderson and Ewen 1987) have argued that representations built on the analogous simplex features of the phonology can indeed be seen to satisfy componentiality in this respect. Before proceeding to consider such a claim in relation to the syntax, however, we should note that the representations which we have been attributing to word classes, or phonological segments - at a contrastive, lexical level while indeed being contrastively unambiguous, are nevertheless ambiguous if considered as specifying the domains of derivative processes or contextual information such as subcategorisation. Thus, the word class 'name' is unambigously differentiated from 'noun' in terms of {N} vs. {N;P}. But say we want to refer,

70 Fundamentals of a notional theory e.g. in some subcategorisational formulation, to the class consisting of nouns and names: {N} in itself is now ambiguous, as a designation of the class containing N or of the class containing only N. The latter class is conceptually more complex; and such complexity is reflected in the representations that have been proposed for the phonology by adoption of the operator I I, for 'only'; so that Anderson and Ewen (1987: 158) differentiate between vowels and consonants as in (2.87): (2.87)

{IVI}

{C}

vowel

consonant

with vowels being the class characterised as containing only V, the vocalic feature, whereas consonants are characterised by non-exclusive presence of C. The latter class may thus include voiceless plosives (lexically {C}), voiced plosives ({C;V}), voiceless fricatives ({C:V}), sonorants ({V;C}), etc., depending on the specific language system. The specification within 'I I' is thus exhaustive; in its absence the representation is interpreted as not necessarily exhaustive. At a lexical level no such distinction need be invoked categorially: representations are necessarily exhaustive. In subcategorisations, and in reference in derived representations, given that 'I P, ';' and ':' contribute to complexity, the natural class {C} emerges, appropriately, as less complex than any of its members, such as {ICI} or {IC;VI}. So too in the syntax the class of predicatives is {P}, and the class of finites {IPI}. We can think of class reference as being regulated by an analogue of the head convention, roughly: Class convention Any (non-lexical-categorial) regularity mentioning feature(-combination) F is to be interpreted as applying to any category containing F unless other aspects of the content of the category are also mentioned. So that {F} can designate e.g. all of {IF;GI}, {IFI}, {IG;FI} and {F:G}, involving F (and some other feature G), but {F;G} designates only {IF;GI} and {F:G}. Componentiality can thus in principle be satisfied in the case of cross-classes characterised by presence of a particular feature or combination. However, in order to ensure that the notation is able to express an appropriate range of natural classes, we need too to be a little more precise concerning the notion of 'preponderance' invoked at various points in the preceding discussion - such as in the characterisation of verbals as showing 'preponderant' P. It is clear that, given the range of primary syntactic categories proposed so far (cf. (2.54) above), in some intuitive sense (as noted initially in the present section) P in

Cross-classification 71 {IP;NI} and {IPI} can be said to be 'preponderant', whereas in {IN;PI} and {INI} and {P:N} it is not. But how do we express the cross-class with preponderant P in a componentially satisfactory way? Let us consider some of the possibilities that have been suggested. We can interpret {IPI} and {INI}, the exhaustive interpretations of {P} and {N}, as {P;0} and {N;0} respectively; i.e. as government by each feature of the null element, whose presence, naturally, is less costly with respect to complexity than those of P and N. {P;} will then generalise, naturally, over {P;N} and {P;0}/{ IPI}. But such a specification will also include adjectives, {P:N} = {(P;N)&(N;P)}. The inclusion of a cost-free negation operator '~' allows us to specify a cross-class ~{N;}, the complement of the class in which N governs which would exclude adjectives. But this cross-class would also include functors. It would also be componentially unsatisfactory as the specification of a cross-class which includes functors, whose own specification, { } or {0}, is simpler (but see below). However, perhaps this offers a principled basis on which to exclude functors from the domain of ~{N}: as a consequence of the requirement that a cross-class cannot include as a member a class whose specification is simpler. This effectively excludes functors from cross-classification, perhaps a desirable result. But notice too that the representational proposals just made also appear to exclude, or at least complicate, satisfaction of the category continuity condition. We have introduced two categorial specifications, {P;0} and {N;0}, which so far lack converses, with governing 0 . Now this may be a property of 0 . On the other hand, there are classes for which the converses are arguably appropriate. As we have seen, there are, for instance, functors which are complemented internally; some adverbs are {0;N}: cf. the discussion of here in §2.2.2. However, the notion of internal complementation introduces other factors to which we must return, most immediately in §2.6.1. Some questions thus remain concerning the expression of cross-classes via such a notational simplicity metric as discussed here. In the subsection which immediately follows we consider an alternative measure of naturalness of cross-classification which, I think, emerges more immediately from the class representations we have been developing. I conclude this one by indicating how, with reference to a notation using the 'IT and ' - ' operators, some of the subcategorisational cross-classes exemplified in the preceding might be characterised. The alternative verbal arguments of expect (2.81), mention (2.85) and intend (2.86) constitute cross-class (a) in (2.88); the verbal/adjectival arguments of seem (2.82) cross-class (b); like (2.84) takes (c); while want allows only (d):

72

Fundamentals of a notional theory

(2.88)

a. b. c. d.

~{N;} {P;} {P;N} {IP;NI}

(={IPI}, (={IPI},(={IP;NI

with (b) depending on the convention that {IPI} = {P;0}. Some of these verbs also take nominal (non-subjective) arguments. Clearly other factors are involved here, specifically, as indicated, the character of the 'complementiser' introducing the verbal arguments, which is not always 'neutral' (as signalled overtly in e.g. / want for to go). Moreover, although, for convenience of exposition, the preceding has ignored a possible intervening overt 'complementiser' in the constructions we have been looking at, traditionally it has often been considered that it is indeed they for which the verbs are subcategorised; so that, in terms of the present notation e.g. expect might be subcategorised for a non-subjective functor phrase of the character of (2.89): (2.89)

{/~{N;}}

Cf. (2.88a). Things are not quite like that, as will emerge in §§3.3 and 6. Here, however, I have been concerned to illustrate simply the cross-classificatory potential of a notation based on simplex features and dependency, on the basis of a complexity measure analogous to that which has been associated with binaryfeature-based notations, and already deployed in the phonology.

2.5.3

^n alternative

measure

I want to conclude this section with a brief consideration of an alternative measure of class-naturalness which perhaps relates more directly to a notation based on 'preponderance'. We can represent relative preponderance directly if, very straightforwardly, we interpret the internal weightings of the component features of each of the categorisations in (2.54), again repeated: (2.54)

{P} aux

{P;N} verb

{P:N) adjective

{N;P) noun

{N} name

{ } functor

in terms of the proportions suggested in (2.90): (2.90)

4P::oN aux

3P::iN verb

2P::2N adjective

1PH3N noun

oP::4N name

oP,oN functor

which are intended to make more explicit our intuitive understanding of the notion of 'preponderance', on the basis of the weighting equations of (2.91): (2.91)

X alone = 4

X; = 3

X: = 2

;X = 1

absence of X = o

Gradience and second-order categories 73 where X is (at this point) a variable over P and N (or V and C in the phonology). In these terms, the cross-class of predicatives is 4>oP': categories whose P weighting exceeds o - excluding names and functors. Likewise, the cross-classes in (2.87) are representable as in (2.92): (2.92)

a. >2P

b. >iP

c. iP

d. 3P

The measure of generality is thus not primarily based on any 'symbol count' or such like: the characterisation of the more general cross-class (2.92c) is in an obvious sense more complex than that for the specific (d). Rather, even more obviously, the more general a cross-class the greater the number of values the weight characterisation allows, as illustrated in (2.93): (2.93)

a. >2P = 4P, 3P b. >iP = 4P, 3P, 2P c. iP = 3P, 2P d. 3 P e. >oP = 4P, 3P, 2P, iP

Trivially, the longer the list of values the more general the class. However, it might be appropriate to distinguish between equivalently weighted cross-classes, such as (2.93a) and (c), on the basis of relative complexity, to the extent that verbals are recurrently more referred to by regularities than (non-auxiliary) verbs and adjectives. A benefit of making the preponderances associated with the notation explicit in this way is that it also leads to a transparent characterisation of gradient phenomena, phenomena which have often been seen as incompatible with categoriality (cf. e.g. Ross 1972). The section which follows tries to show that an account of different varieties of gradience is highly dependent upon categorial representations of the type we have been developing and the complexity measures they induce. In exploring this we shall also extend the range of categorial distinctions that can be made available to the syntax: it is perhaps with respect to such more delicate distinctions that gradient phenomena are more apparent. 2.6

Gradience and second-order categories

Categorial properties ieak', but arguably in an orderly, hierarchical fashion. Not only is it possible in principle to distinguish non-central members of the word classes, but also, among these, there can be some which show properties more centrally associated with another minimally distinct class; moreover, these properties may even spread to more remote classes, but less so. Thus, as we have observed, subcategorisation for an 'agent' is a central property of verbs ({P;N}),

74 Fundamentals of a notional theory but is less common, and non-central with adjectives ({P:N}) - Be careful!, etc. - and rather marginal with nouns ({P;N}), where a straightforward 'agentive' interpretation may not be obvious - Be a hero! Ross (1972) surveys a range of properties with respect to which adjectives are intermediate between verbs and nouns. These display one manifestation of gradience, one which correlates with the hierarchy displayed in (2.90) above, measured in terms of preponderance of P. I should perhaps qualify my term for this notion as 'relative gradience', in that I shall be suggesting that the categorisations identify cardinal points on particular gradients; Bolinger's well-known discussion of gradience (1961) is concerned, on the other hand, with 'strong gradience', such that, with respect to intermediate points, 'for there to be gradience it is sufficient to show that no definite number can be established between the two poles' (p. 23). The availability of some properties to some categories involves more subtle judgments, including estimates of relative acceptability. Such phenomena are basic to Ross's (1972, 1973*2, b) notion of 'squishes' as involving orderly gradations in acceptability. Again, I shall argue that, at least for the limited subset I shall be able to consider here, these are in accord with the measure provided by our discussion in §2.5.3, so that the correlation between relative acceptability and categorisation exhibits relative gradience: see §2.6.3 below. Firstly, however, I want to examine carefully a rather striking 'leak' in English involving full acceptability, one whose interpretation has occasioned some controversy but which I shall argue illustrates relative gradience. 2.6.1

Transitive adjectives in English

It is a commonplace of English syntax that certain items traditionally regarded as adjectives nevertheless appear to take a 'bare' NP as (non-subjective) complement, i.e. an 'unmarked object', as illustrated by (2.94): (2.94)

a. He is not worth his salt b. He is like his father

(Jespersen 1924: 163)

and (2.95): (2.95) The bowl is near the fireplace a phenomenon otherwise restricted to verbs. Apparently, a property associated with verbs 'leaks' down into the next most P-full class, to be reflected in members which, as 'relational', are more verb-like than the central membership of the class. However, Huddleston (1984: 348), for instance, argues that such items are 'at the borderline between the two classes' of adjective and preposition, and that the

Gradience and second-order categories 75 classification of near 'remains somewhat indeterminate'. He claims that although near can, like adjectives, appear attributively, and shows a morphological comparative and superlative: (2.96)

his near(est) relatives

'its prepositional properties are evident in examples like He buried it near the fence, where it has an NP complement, heads a phrase functioning as adjunct and is in paradigmatic contrast with such central prepositions as at, by, beside, under, etc' But the status of the taking of 'bare-NP' complements is exactly what is at issue; and other 'adjectives' show a similar ('adjunct') function while taking a PP: (2.97)

He buried it close(st) to the fence

(Consider too Huddleston's the one which he had buried nearest (to) the fence.) We have here a phenomenon independent of near's ability to take a 'bare NP', namely the capacity of spatial adjectives to complement (in subjunction) an unexpressed functor functioning as an 'adjunct' - i.e. to appear in a structure such as (2.98): (2.98)

,

{P:NJ

near/close

(to)

the fence

where with near the dependent functor need not be expressed independently, but is realised as to with close. That is, both near/close are 'adjunct' adverbials as well as (as I'm suggesting) adjectives. And even if such a configuration were also to be associated with use of near as a complement, as in (2.95), i.e. here too it is interpreted as (a complement) 'adverbial', this does not account for the failure of near to take a PP rather than a NP, given e.g. (2.99): (2.99)

The bowl is close to the fireplace

with overt functor. Near illustrates, whatever, a 'leak' of transitivity from an adjacent word class. Maling suggests that near is 'perhaps the only surviving relic of the class of

76 Fundamentals of a notional theory transitive adjectives' (1983: 266), though she also acknowledges the possibility that due and opposite might be such (note 22). Her arguments against such a status for like and worth and for their interpretation as prepositions are of some interest to our present concern; but I shall suggest rather that they realise configurations like that in (2.98), containing an adjectival categorisation which takes a complement with unexpressed functor, and that they provide evidence of another instance of gradience. Maling cites three sets of properties whereby adjectives and prepositions are distinguishable. One set, the morphological, is indecisive, as inapplicable in English (there is no agreement of adjectives), or at best only confirmatory: the fact that near shows a (morphological) comparative can be taken to confirm its status as an adjective, but the absence of such with like and worth is indecisive. Similarly, among Maling's 'semantic or functional' criteria, the fact that both like and near are modifiable by very and how, so and too, as in (2.100): (2.100)

a. very like, very near, *very worth b. how like, how near, *how worth

confirms their status as adjectives, while not disbarring worth, given that not all adjectives are so modifiable. And all three, like (other) degree adjectives, can complement seem: (2.101) It doesn't seem like/near/worth it We should note, in passing, that seem-complementation is another candidate for ieaking'. Thus, verbal complements to seem are pretty much unrestricted lexically; and most central adjectives are potential complements. But some noncentral nouns can also constitute viable complements, as with Bill seems an idiot. (Cf. Bolinger 1972: 77-9.) We have a hierarchically diminishing 'leak', with the ieak' into nominals being restricted to 'evaluative' nouns. Maling rejects these latter properties, illustrated by (2.100-1), as failing to constitute 'strictly categorial' criteria, principally on the ground that certain, 'metaphorical' PPs also satisfy them, as illustrated by (2.102): (2.102)

a. Jed is very out of condition b. How out of condition is Jed? c. Jed seems out of condition

Arguably, however, these are derived adjectives, associated with the configuration (2.103): (2.103)

Gradience and second-order categories 77 (cf. e.g. Quirk et al. 1972: App. 1; 1985: App. 1 52), and thus also occur attributively: (2.104) An out of condition athlete Maling objects (1983: 257-8) that not all such 'metaphorical' PPs can be attributive (thus *A« onto something reporter hounded the president), and, conversely, not all those that can occur attributively can be also predicative. But, as we have seen, this is true of the class of adjectives as a whole. Moreover, the nonattributives also tend to resist modification by very etc. (*Joe is very onto something). It may be that these are simply not recategorised; they are functor phrases simply, rather than being adjectivalised. As Maling notes (1983: 158), there is considerable variation between speakers in this area; I take it that this may reflect varying presence vs. absence of (lexical) recategorisation as regards particular items. Paradoxically, perhaps, the 'fused' PPs of the alive, asleep, etc. type mentioned in §2.3.1 above, which are also unhappy with very-modification, and do not occur attributively - while some of them, unlike (other) adjectives, allow modification by well (cf. Bolinger's (1972: 38) / was well awake etc.) - are among the least plausible candidates for recategorisation as adjectives. Maling also considers a number of criteria she regards as 'strictly categorial', including occurrence in 'prenominal position'. If there are (other) adjectives which are only predicative, then this is indecisive, as is the second such criterion, 'intransitive' use. If, on the other hand, apparently uniquely predicative 'adjectives' are of the character I have suggested for asleep, then such behaviour on the part of like and worth would argue against an adjectival status. However, attributive use of like is more general than suggested by Maling's aknowledgment (1983: 267) of 'a few marginal uses of like in prenominal position' (illustrated by The like-subject constraint was proposed by Perlmutter, or You'll need boots, raincoats, and the like), as shown by (2.105): (2.105) Jocelyn offered a like suggestion And its limited occurrence there can be attributed to the very fact that it is transitive, so that its normal position is quite regularly postnominal: (2.106) Jocelyn offered a suggestion like yours with (2.105) being elliptical. So too with worth, except that, as more resistant to ellipsis, it is never prenominal. Curiously, while Maling asserts that 'if worth was an adjective, then the only possible analysis would be to claim that the NP-complement were an inverted measure phrase' (1983: 269), she goes on to show that its complement need not

78 Fundamentals of a notional theory be a 'measure' expression. The fact that it often takes 'measure' expressions would be quite compatible with status as a 'transitive' adjective, which, moreover, obviates any need to appeal to 'inversion'. Similarly, on one use, one of the objects of due is typically a 'measure' expression (Derek is due me five francs), just as the subject is on another (Five francs are due me); but the conclusion that it is a (di-)transitive adjective is hard to escape. The 'transitivity' of like and worth would also account for their failure, as putative adjectives, to show 'enough-shiff to post-head position: (2.107)

a. Bill is tall enough b. Bill is similar enough to the portrait c. *Bill is like enough the portrait

(cf. Jackendoff 1977). However, as with the transitive verb in (2.108b), which similarly excludes enough from immediate-post-head position: (2.108) a. Beppo travels enough to the continent b. *Beppo visits enough the continent enough can occur after the object complement: (2.109)

a. Bill is like the portrait enough b. Beppo visits the continent enough

We have a manifestation of the familiar 'interpolation ban' with respect to head and 'bare' nominal complement (e.g. Postal 1974; Maling 1983: 263-4). On the other hand, the greater acceptability of (2.1 ioa), with interpolation between transitive near and its object: (2.110)

a. ?The box is near enough the fence b. The box is near enough to the fence c. The box is near enough

can be seen as parasitic upon the prepositional-complement (b) and intransitive (c) uses of near. However, as Maling observes (1983: 263, 266, 268), like and worth share with prepositions the capacity to take a preceding enough: (2.111)

a. Robin seems enough at home b. Chris looks enough like you to be your twin c. Sailing is great fun, but owning your own boat isn't enough worth the trouble for me to want to buy one

This is compatible with associating with like and worth a complex configuration such as that in (2.98); whereas near (when it is a complement rather than an 'adjunct') is simply an adjective:

Gradience and second-order categories 79 (2.112)

*The box is enough near the fence

Likewise, alike, and, to the extent that it can be conceived of as measurable, alive, as realising a categorisation with governing functor, but 'intransitive' (as incorporating a dependent nominal), show both preposed and postposed enough: (2.113)

a. Bobsie is enough alike/alive to surprise you b. Bobsie is alike/alive enough to suprise you

And all of these, except near (and other adjectives), can be premodified by very much (Maling 1983: 267-9). Near, then, is an adjective which, like other 'locational' adjectives, is associated with the (2.98) categorisation only in 'adjunct' function; whereas worth is inherently so. Like shares functor properties with worth, but, as we have also seen, it can occur prenominally and take modification by very (as well as very much). Notice too that, as Ross (1972: 317) observes, like and near both, as with other adjectives, form a -ness-noun that preserves the adjective's argument structure (likeness to, nearness to). This all suggests a hierarchy of categorisations intermediate between adjectives and prepositions, where the intermediate categories show graded mixtures of adjectivalness and functorness, just as adjectives themselves are graded between nouns and verbs. Perhaps we canfindthere too a place for opposite, to which many of the criteria discussed are inapplicable, but which, like near, often takes a preposition (... o/from) and can be attributive and accepts to some extent modification by very (the (very) opposite direction). However, it does share with like, on the other hand, the capacity for a nominal use (the like (of), the opposite (of)) also shown by some (complex) prepositions (the inside (of)), a use unlike those usually associated with adjectives (the poor (plural); the beautiful (abstract)) - except perhaps comparatives and superlatives. And, like functors, but unlike adjectives and the other items we have been considering here, it can be premodified by right. We can relatively straightforwardly allow for most of this gradience if we extend the system of categories allowed for by permitting second-order categorisations, involving combinations in dependency of the basic categorial representations of (2.54) above, giving in this case (2.114): (2.114)

{P:N} close due

{(P:N); } near

{(P:N): } like

{ ;(P:N)} worth

{) at

with 'prepositionality' increasing to the right; the representations for near and worth are equivalent to (the relevant part of) (2.103) a n d (2.98) respectively.

80 Fundamentals of a notional theory These intermediate representations constitute second-order categorisations, with complex first-order categories enclosed in (round) brackets; we consider their character in the subsection which immediately follows. What has emerged in this one is evidence for a gradience among the class of items whose categorisation includes P:N, as well as for the initial 'leaking' gradience of transitivity which initiated the discussion. Thus, I take due to be a ditransitive adjective equivalent to the verbal owe. I suggest further that opposite fits into the hierarchy between worth and at, by virtue of a 'third-order' categorisation: (2.115)

{ ;((P:N):)}

i.e. a functor that incorporates an adjective with incorporated functor (with opposite to the last is not incorporated). Notice that, appropriately, increasing prominence from left to right in (2.114/115) of the functor category (involving a simple relational label) is associated, in notional terms, with a decrease in the qualitative content - and gradability of the item (if we ignore the non-central adjective due). (2.114/115) is not quite the equivalent of Ross's (1972: 317-19) proposed squish; but, as he concedes, there are problems with some of his evidence, e.g. with respect to the ranking of near and opposite. There is at least a plausible partial match. The representations in (2.114/115) enable us to express relationships both hierarchical (in terms of relative preponderance of the adjective and functor specifications) and cross-classificatory (in terms of shared configuration or relative preponderance), so that, for instance, both opposite and at have highest weight of functorhood (and accept premodifying right) and like and worth are appropriately represented as intermediate between near and at. But rather than spelling out these relationships in terms of characterisations which are proposed here very tentatively, given the nature of the evidence, let us turn to another area of gradience which is both better represented (with respect to numbers of items involved) and, I think, better defined: in relation to it I shall try to show more explicitly how hierarchical placement can be formulated in terms of the measure developed in §2.5.3. However, by this point, the usual hawkeyed reader will have registered that there are two apparently different circumstances in which we have encountered phenomena involving, in some sense, 'second-order dependencies' among features. In §2.2.2 I proposed that here be characterised as in (2.30), repeated here:

Gradience and second-order categories 81 b.

(2.30)

{N}

and 'adverbial' near in (2.98) is shown as having the same configuration. The valency of the functor is satisfied internally, and each categorial specification included in ' {}' brackets induces a corresponding node in the syntactic structure, in accord with one category = one node, as expressed in (2.29/30"): (2.29/30")

{N}

{N}

Fred

lives

here

(again ignoring for the moment the problem of the two nodes apparently associated with the category {P}). The categorial dependency here contrasts with that attributed to nouns in e.g. (2.38) - {N;P} - which I have not interpreted as involving internal satisfaction, or as introducing two syntactic nodes. Let us call the dependency exhibited by (2.29/30") intercategorial, and that by the representation for nouns intracategorial. In both these cases, the terms of the dependency relation are not themselves internally complex, do not involve internal dependencies: (2.29/30") is 'second-order' only in the sense that it involves a dependency relation between potential categories. We have just introduced categorial representations in (2.114) that include dependencies I have explicitly dubbed 'second-order', dependencies one of whose terms itself involves (internal) dependency. I shall reserve the term 'second-order' for such. The question arises as to whether these second-order dependencies are intercategorial, as assumed in (2.98) above, or intracategorial. As involving intercategorial dependency, we might represent the structures induced by near and worth as (2.116a) and (b) respectively:

82 Fundamentals of a notional theory (2.116)

a.

„

(N P)

near

b.

(N)

the statue

{N P)

{N}

worth

five dollars

That is, near is an adjective with non-subjective complement satisfied internally, and this complement, the functor takes a nominal complement (here the statue); whereas worth is a functor with internally satisfied adjective complement (like locally, where the presence of the functor is overtly signalled by the derivational morphology), and this adjective is transitive (with here five dollars as object). Opposite is alike but incorporates a further functor. This seems to be appropriate notionally: near and opposite take as external complement elements (like the statue) typical of central functors (like at, in), while the external complement of worth (like two dollars) is more typical of adjectives (like due). I tentatively adopt the position that, with all word classes involving secondorder dependencies proper, that dependency relation is intercategorial. That is, in essence, (2.54) exhausts the set of basic word classes; other classes are categorially complex, in the sense of involving an intercategorial dependency. Often this internal (intercategorial) complexity is made overt by the derivational morphology, as noted in relation to locally, and as with the constructions to which we turn in the next subsection. But, as is apparent from the case of here, this is not a necessary condition for intercategoriality. We have another instance of lack of isomorphy between categorisation and morphological expression. In much of what follows, however, I shall not mark intercategorial dependencies distinctively, by appropriate bracketing, where this status is not itself at issue; rather the notation of (2.114) will be used for simplicity of presentation. Let us note finally in this subsection that intercategorial dependencies at least provide support for attributing the same (dependency) relation to syntactic structure and categorial structure, in terms of dependency preservation. The intercategorial dependencies of (2.116) are projected into sentential structure in such a way that the (internal) governor determines, as syntactic head, the external syntax, while the range of complements is determined by the internal complement. The dependency relation is preserved in the induced structure.

Gradience and second-order categories 2.6.2

83

Deverbal nouns in English

As just observed, some second-order categorisations, involving intercategorial dependency, may be reflected in the derivational morphology. So it is with the head of (2.26a) above, whose categorisation, as a nominalisation, we might now give as in (2.27'), i.e. that of a noun with secondary verbal specification (as suggested in Anderson 19890; 1991b; 1992b: ch. 7): (2.27')

{N;P};{P/{ntr},{agt}} humiliation

Hagt} {N} of

Rome

Hannibal

Thus, as a noun, humiliation can satisfy the (external) requirements of determiners and attributive adjectives (see further §3.7): (2.117)

a. the humiliation of Rome by Hannibal b. total/unexpected humiliation of Rome by Hannibal

but, as incorporating a verbal, it governs a full predicational structure, including, in this instance, an unmarked agentive, and interacts selectionally with attributives as an event-denoting item, parallel to the interaction of adverbial and verbal in (2.118): (2.118)

a. Hannibal totally/unexpectedly humiliated Rome b. Rome was totally/unexpectedly humiliated by Hannibal

We look a little more carefully at the relationship between (2.117b) and (2.118) in chapter 3, as well as at the character of the structures realised by (2.119): (2.119)

a. Rome's humiliation by Hannibal b. Hannibal's humiliation of Rome

wherein the initial element is, apparently, simultaneously determiner to (i.e. governor of) and argument of humiliation. We are concerned here with these nominalisations as alternative expressions of the argument structures also found in (2.118), with the crucial variable being the class of the ultimate head of the construction. This means too that the present discussion is limited to predicational nominalisations - those which Comrie and Thompson (1985: 349) label

84 Fundamentals of a notional theory 'Name of activity or state'; it does not include those they label 'Name of an argument' (illustrated by English divorcee, walker, drink, etc.). Unlike the (primary) verbals in (2.118), these nominalisations lack tense and agreement morphology, as well as both object-formation (so Rome in (2.27'), (2.117) and (2.119b) is marked with of) and subject-formation (so Hannibal in (2.27'), (2.117) and (2.119a) is marked with by), and thus also any manifestation of passive. Even the examples of what one might call determinerisation in (2.119) should not be regarded as showing the results of subject-formation, and (2.119a) etc. are not formed by passive, given that, apart from (2.119) lacking any morphological marking as such, the alternation between (2.117a) and both of (2.119) is paralleled not only by (2.120): (2.120)

a. the collapse of Rome b. Rome's collapse

with an intransitive neutral, but also by (2.121): (2.121)

a. b. c. d.

the collapse of the market on Friday Friday's collapse of the market the removal of the ban last month (by the minister) last month's removal of the ban (by the minister)

with in (b) and (d) an 'adjunct' determiner. Notice too the possibilities with the 'agentive intransitive' in (2.122): (2.122)

a. b. c. d. d.

the walkout by the garbos on Tuesday the walkout of the garbos on Tuesday the garbos' walkout on Tuesday Tuesday's walkout by the garbos Tuesday's walkout of the garbos

where the dual marking of the garbos (by or of) can be attributed to their dual semantic function (agentive and neutral), as argued for in §3.1; certainly this is not plausibly to be attributed to passive. The distribution of adpositions in these nominalisation structures reflects the semantic roles of their arguments. Such constructions have recently attracted a good deal of attention: see e.g. Anderson 1977: §3.5.10; 1979a; 1980b; 1982a: 14-6; 1987/7; Jackendoff 1977; Amritavalli 1980; Bohm 1982, 1983; Williams 1987; Wilkins 1988; Rappaport 1989; Lefebvre and Muysken 1988; Dik 1989: §11.3; and many more. Zubizarreta (1987: §2.1.1.3), for instance, illustrates restrictions on determinerisation which reflect a preference as such for neutral arguments that undergo a change of state (are 'affected'). And cross-linguistic comparisons have proved to be instructive with respect to their analysis. Anderson (1989/7), for instance, points to the absence, or very restricted occurrence of determinerisation in many

Gradience and second-order categories 85 languages - yet another indication that the variant in (2.149b) and the like should in no sense be considered basic, or its determiner a plausible 'subject'. Compare with the preceding the Italian of (2.123): (2.123) a. la distruzione della citta da parte dei Goti ('the destruction of the city by the Goths') b. la scomparsa dei soldi ('the disappearance of the money') c. ilritiroda parte dell'esercito ('the retreat by the army') d. il ritiro dell'esercito ('the retreat of the army')

(Anderson 1984a: 16)

where DI (dello, della, dei) marks the neutral argument and the complex DA PART DI the agentive, with again the agentive intransitive argument showing either (c) vs. (d). The characterisation of the nominalisation given in (2.116) involves a secondorder dependency relation (between N;P and P). As such, it implies, given category continuity, a 'converse' category, with P governing N;P. We might suggest that this is what is appropriate to gerunds in English; that is, the ing-forms in (2.124): (2.124)

a. John's building the factory b. John's disappearing c. John's leaving

are categorially {P;(N;P)} (cf. e.g. Anderson 1989b; 1991b; 1992b: §5.6). As such, so predominantly verbal, they show object- and subject-formation: there is no adpositional marker of the object, and no 'determinerisations' not licensed by subjecthood of the determinerised expression: (2.125)

a

- *the factory's building by John b. *Tuesday's opening the factory by John

and there is a passive, periphrastically and morphologically marked as such: (2.126) the factory's being built by John The gerund takes an adverb (such as unexpectedly) rather than an adjectival modifier (such as unexpected). However, there remain with gerundial constructions the marks of determinerisation, and the construction as a whole is a primary argument, in that it can be governed by an adposition, as in (2.127a): (2.127)

a

- Bill was surprised by/at John's building a factory b. Bill was surprised that John should build a factory

86 Fundamentals of a notional theory Cf. the finite argument of (b). This reflects the presence of the nominal partspecification. Fraser (1970) distinguishes between these gerunds - what he calls 'factive nominalisations' - and 'action nominalisations' in -ing such as (2.128), with regular determiner and/or overt marking of the argument that would be an object with the gerund: (2.128) a. b. c. d.

the chairing of the session by John John's chairing of the session the shouting by/of the crowds the decaying of the building

This terminology is based on the fact that whereas the gerunds are normally associated with a 'factive' reading, the examples in (2.128) are normally 'actional'; cf. Fraser's examples (1970: 84): (2.129)

a

- John's riding his bicycle (bothered her) b. John'sridingof his bicycle (startled them)

I shall refer to the latter here as verbal nouns. The constructions which they govern lack object-formation (note again the ofs in (i28a-b)) and subjectformation (note (a) and the post-head functor phrases in (c-d)): I assume that (b) shows simply determinerisation (without subject-formation), as with nominalisations. They also take attributives rather than adjuncts: (2.130)

a. John's riding his bicycle incompetently b. John's incompetent riding of his bicycle

Verbal nouns are thus, on a range of grounds only sampled here, clearly 'more nominal' than gerunds. But the verbal nouns are also more restricted with respect to nominal properties than nominalisations proper. Determinerisation, in particular, is more limited. Examples like (2.i24b-c) should be ambiguous between a 'factive' (gerund) reading and an 'actional' (verbal noun) reading, but the 'factive' reading is always more salient, at the least. Verbal noun constructions also exclude many 'adjunct' determinerisations - cf. (2.i3ia)-(b): (2.131)

a. ^Tuesday's striking by/of the garbos b. Tuesday's unveiling of the plaque (by the president)

Fraser also claims that 'there are no cases of the action nominalization in which the subject of a passive sentence (the original direct object) can become possessivized' (1970: 87), which he illustrates with examples like (2.132): (2.132)

*their attacking by the Indians (sounded the alarm)

Gradience and second-order categories 87 (cf. too (125a)). I don't consider this to involve passivisation, but rather simple determinerisation (as in (119a)). And some examples are better than others: (2.133)

?the plaque's unveiling (by the president) (took fully two hours)

But determinerisation again is markedly restricted in such cases too. Verbal nouns also share with gerunds unhappiness with the attributivisation of arguments. Compare with (2.134): (2.134) a. America's rejection of the proposal b. America's rejecting of the proposal c. America's rejecting the proposal the constructions in (2.135) with an attributivised argument of the nominalisation: (2.135)

a. the American rejection of the proposal b. ?*the American rejecting of the proposal c. *the American rejecting the proposal

(On such constructions see e.g. Levi 1978: ch. 2.) To the extent that attributivisation is associated with nominality of the head of the predication, such acceptability ratings (where '?*' marks an example more questionably bad than '*') reveal the verbal noun as 'less nominal' than nominalisations. (We return to the significance of complex acceptability markings such as '?*' in §2.6.3.) The verbal noun is syntactically intermediate between the gerund and the nominalisation. This is reflected in the ('second-order') categorisations of (2.136): (2.136) gerund

verbal noun

nominalisation

with the verbal noun showing mutually dependent P and N;P. The left-to-right ordering in (2.136) corresponds to relative preponderance of the P and N features. To make this more explicit: in terms of an extension of the measure introduced in §2.5.5, w e c a n establish the proportions in (2.137): (2.137)

a. {P;(N;P)J = 3P::I(3N::IP) = i2P::4(3N::iP) = I3P::3N b. {P:(N;P)} = 2P::2(3N::iP) = 8P::8(3N::iP) = ioP::6N = 5P::3N c. {(N;P);P} = 3 ( 3 N : : I P ) : : I P = I2(3N::IP)::4P = 7P-9N

The first equation in (2.137) simply instals the measures suggested in §2.5.5 c o r " responding t o ' ; ' and ':', at both first-order and second-order levels; the second enhances the second-order values to recognise the first-order total (2 + 2, or 3 + 1, = 4); the third sums the values given to P and N. This gives us a simple measure of relative preponderance. Such an extension, in making even more overt the relativistic basis of the measure, of course requires that we reconsider the formulations for natural classes

88 Fundamentals of a notional theory proposed in §2.5.5, which were based on absolute values for P and N. Thus, for instance, the representation for verbals, given as (2.94a), repeated here: (2.94)

a. >2P = 4P, 3P

can take the form of (2.138): (2.138)

^3P::iN

i.e. the proportion of P to N is greater than or equal to 3-to-i. But the generality of the class again correlates with the number of possible values available within the system. With respect to the phenomena considered in this subsection, we can say that subject-formation is associated with just this class, which includes gerunds (13:3) but not verbal nouns (5:3) or nominalisations (7x9). Non-subject determinerisation and attributivisation require (2.139): (2.139)

>IN::IP

(i.e. the proportion of N exceeds that of P), but they 'leak' into the verbal noun class (3::5), perhaps on the basis of the governing N;P component shared with nominalisations. Similarly, object-formation may 'leak' into the adjectival class (as described in §2.6.1 above) from the (verbal) cross-class defined by (2.138) on the basis of a P;N component shared with verbs. Primary arguments, on the other hand, are simply any categorisation including the configuration N;P but not P;N, thus including nouns, nominalisations, verbal nouns and gerunds, but not verbals, adjectives etc. Expression of cross-classes thus requires reference both to proportionality specifications and to shared subconfigurations. And reference to the latter may induce 'leaks' from the cross-classes defined by the former. Notionally, nominalisations are more verbal than nouns: they show a 'verbal' range of argument-types, including agentives, and the entity they denote is typically processual, 'second-order'. It may indeed be that we should interpret non-central processual nouns such as demise as morphologically covert nominalisations, categorially {(N;P);P}, given their insistence on a neutral argument undergoing a process. Typically, nominalisations allow either a 'factive' or an 'actional' interpretation: (2.140) the demolition of the theatre (took several months/enraged them) As noted, verbal nouns are generally 'actional' only (hence Fraser's (1970) 'action nominalization' terminology). We can legitimately associate this with their greater verbality, on the basis of the 'instability' associated with P (recall §2.1.1). However, what of gerunds, according to (2.137) the most verbal of these

Gradience and second-order categories 89 categories, but 'factive'? Gerunds, however, introduce another distinction which renders them non-commensurate in this respect. Let us now look at this aspect of the status of gerunds. Gerunds do not constitute a lexically distinctive category, a word class. In §2.1.5 w e drew a distinction between those categories that are given lexical recognition, are associated with different classes of items, and those which are merely required by the formulation of syntactic regularities. Gerunds have the latter status: they are a form of the verb which appears in certain syntactic circumstances, specifically as primary arguments. Tactivity' is not an inherent property of the class of verbs, but rather is associated with occurrence of a particular verbal form. Verbal nouns, however, constitute a lexical class, albeit a derivationally very productive one. Not all verbs can constitute the base for a verbal noun. Unsurprisingly, non-processual ('stative') verbs are resistant: (2.141)

a. b. c. d.

*the knowing of the truth (by/to/... Hilary) *the containing of an apology by/of/... the book ^Hilary's knowing of the truth *the book's containing of an apology

(cf. e.g. Fraser 1970: 91-2). Compare the gerunds of (2.142): (2.142)

a. Marilyn's knowing the truth b. the book's containing an apology

Even with processuals that are 'non-actional', nominalisation is preferred: (2.1431) a. b. (ii) a. b.

*the dying of his father *the declining of Rome the death of his father the decline of Rome

and many verbal nouns based on agentive verbs strike me as rather stilted, at best: (2.144)

a. b. c. d.

?the examining of the patient by the doctor (took several hours) ?the doctor's examining of the patient the examination of the patient by the doctor the doctor's examination of the patient

particularly if intransitive: (2.145)

a

- ?*the retreating of/by the Romans b. the retreat of/by the Romans

Some verbal nouns (such as that in the greening of the suburbs) have no obvious verbal base.

90 Fundamentals of a notional theory Such indications of lexicality confirm a status for verbal nouns suggested by the lack of evidence of verbal derived syntax, particularly subject and object formation, as illustrated by (2.128) above: they constitute a distinct lexical class. A rather striking further illustration of this lack is provided by a consideration of verbal nouns based on GiVE-class verbs, such as that in (2.146): (2.146)

a. the teaching of French grammar to that class (by Eloise) b. Eloise's teaching of French grammar to that class

I have suggested that the occurrence of o/here and in (2.128) is an indication of lack of object formation; of marks the neutral functor. The present class of verbal nouns offer further evidence for this. Constructions involving GiVE-class verbal nouns are often rather stilted; but the potential equivalents of the verbal (2.147): (2.147)

Eloise taught that class French grammar

are crashingly awful: (2.148)

*Eloise's teaching of that class (of) French grammar

Marking in such constructions by of, and to, reflects semantic function, not a derived, verbal object: again, the verbal noun lacks the syntactic stigmata of verbalness. Gerunds, in contrast, are forms of the verb; their nominality is further grammaticalised, it is syntacticised, provided for by (non-word-class-changing) morphosyntactic redundancy. They are a further grammaticalisation of the verbal noun: so, their gross 'external' syntax is nominal (they constitute a primary argument), but their complementation and modification - recall the differences of this kind (re-)illustrated by (2.149): (2.149)

a

- Bill's secret demolition of the factory b. Bill's secretly demolishing the factory

- and their derived ('internal') syntax are verbal. Whatever else is involved in grammaticalisation - i.e. syntacticisation - of (a derivative of) a lexical distinction, the 'external' syntax of the original is retained: we consider a further example in §2.6.4. Gerunds are derived by lexical (morphosyntactic) redundancy, of, say, the form, for English, of (2.150): (2.150)

{P;N}

allowing gerunds to all verbals categorised as {P;N}, i.e. all except the modals. This means that in lexical entries we need to differentiate, in the relevant area, between verbs, verbal nouns, nominalisations and nouns, only, as in (2.151):

Gradience and second-order categories 91 (2.151)

{P;N} verb

{P;(N;P)} verbal noun

{(N;P);P} nominalisation

{N;P} noun

with verbal nouns being 'displaced' to the right on this hierarchy by the application of (2.150). See, however, §2.6.5 below (and, further, §3.6), for a reconsideration of these categorisations in the light of a wider range of phenomena, and of a richer system of categories. 2.6.3

Nouniness

In an unduly neglected (because awkward?) series of studies, Ross (1972; 1973a, b) sought to establish a number of hierarchies of 'categories' constructed on the basis of the interaction of the 'categories' with a range of syntactic regularities. The interaction defines a squish, whose basic structure can be represented, schematically, as in table 2.2, where categories A...D are successively more available to the regularities involved. We have a hierarchy if possession of property 4, for instance, implies possession of j , and 3 of 2, and so on: i.e. if there are no holes in the matrix. The schema of table 2.2 represents a 'wellbehaved squish' in this respect. Fragmentary squishes can also be established in the phonology on the basis of phenomena (involving especially syllable structure and lenition/fortition in different languages) such as have been invoked in the constructing of 'sonority hierarchies': cf. e.g. Anderson and Durand 1986: §3.4; Anderson and Ewen 1987: §4.5. It is argued there that the capacity to express such phenomena of the notation they advocate, which is analogous to that proposed here, confirms its appropriateness for phonological representation. See too Anderson (1992a) for more detailed illustration of this expressibility in relation to English syllable structure and to various lenition ('vocalisation') phenomena reconstructed for early Middle English. Typically, unacceptability is gradable rather than simply on/off (OK/*); so that we might have table 2.3 rather than table 2.2 as a schema for the typical squish, (where '?', '??', '?*', '*', '**' indicate increasing unacceptability). Though the positioning in the matrix of particular increases in unacceptability may very well vary from speaker to speaker, provided that this remains 'orderly' - there are, in particular no (horizontal or vertical) reversals in acceptability grading - the squish can again be considered to be 'well-behaved'. On the basis of a wide range of phenomena, and of the associated squish, Ross (1973a) assigns degrees of 'nouniness' to a number of categories, viz. the complement-types labelled (following his nomenclature) as in (2.152):

92

Fundamentals of a notional theory Table 2.2: A squish Regularities Categories

1

2

3

4

5

A

OK

*

*

*

*

B

OK

OK

*

*

*

C

OK

OK

OK

*

*

D

OK

OK

OK

OK

*

5

Table 2.3: A squish with multivalued cells Regularities Categories

(2.152)

1

2

3

4

A

OK

9

99

*

B

OK

OK

9*

*

C

OK

OK

OK

9*

D

OK

OK

OK

OK

*

The nouniness squish that >for to>Q> Ace Ing > Poss Ing > Action Nom > Derived Nom > Noun

which constructions Ross (1973a: 141) exemplifies (from left to right) as in (2.153): (2.153)

that Max gave the letters to Frieda for Max to have given the letters to Frieda how willingly Max gave the letters to Frieda (embedded question) Max giving the letters to Frieda Max's giving the letters to Frieda Max's/the giving of the letters to Frieda Max's/the gift of the letters to Frieda

(see particularly his (2-111)).

Gradience and second-order categories 93 Actually, the nouniness squish is more complex than the patterning shown in table 2.3, in that it includes regularities which invert the pattern of acceptability, i.e. which, in reference to the categories in (2.152), would be more acceptable the closer the category is to the 'top' of the hierarchy, rather than to the bottom. This pattern Ross, following Quirk (1965) - but, it seems to me, not very closely - terms a 'serial relationship' (19730: 232-3). This, however, need not concern us here: the point is that the (serial) squish defines nouniness. On the basis of this, Ross argues for a non-discrete view of categorisation; so that he proposes that 'the previously used node S, sentence, be replaced by a feature [aS], where a ranges over the real numbers in [0,1]. Each of the complement types in [(2.152) - JMA] would be given a basic value of a, and rules, filters and other types of semantic processes, would be given upper and lower threshold values of a between which they operate' (19730: 188). And he goes on (§2.5) to argue that the 'lexicalist' view then being developed (e.g. in Chomsky 1970; 1972) 'gives the incorrect impression that there is a discrete difference between derived nominals and all other kinds of complements' (19730: 230). What I have been suggesting here is that we can establish hierarchies independently of the squishy phenomena that manifest the hierarchies, and that e.g. degree of predicativity can be computed on the basis of the measure suggested in §2.5.3, which in turn interprets the configurations of notional features appropriate to the various categories. It is then an interesting empirical question to what extent this measure would correlate with Ross's (19730: §3.1) computation of the 'distance' between different categories based on the details of the squish. But the squish phenomena themselves do not require abandonment of categoriality; indeed, they can be said to involve relative rather than absolute gradience, as distinguished above. It will be apparent, further, that I take the view that, though a squish may cut across the lexical/non-lexical boundary (and thus the distinction between intercategorial and intracategorial combinations), this does not undermine this distinction, which is based on other considerations, mainly associated with lexical idiosyncrasy (cf. e.g. Anderson 1984b: ch. 1; and see further below). It may be that there are squishes, or parts of squishes, which do not conform with the predictions of a metric based on notionally-based categories; it may be that some 'non-discreteness' is ultimately inescapable. But, though I cannot hope here to consider more than a tiny fraction of the wealth of evidence adduced by Ross - his work lays out a lengthy programme of research for any theory of syntactic categories (even, or particularly, for those which have failed

94 Fundamentals of a notional theory to acknowledge it) - nevertheless, it can be shown at least that the partial hierarchy established in this section correlates rather well with relevant observations offered by Ross - as is already indicated in outline in Anderson 1989b; 1991b; 1992a: ch. 5. So, too, the comparative material on nouniness adduced by e.g. Hopper and Thompson (1984) and Givon (1990: §12.6) can be interpreted as reflecting relative preponderances of the notional features. Here, however, let us focus on Ross's observations on the constructions in English discussed in the previous subsection. Anderson (1991b), for instance, shows that the relative unacceptability of complements with an (unincorporated) negative registered by Ross (1973a: §2.15) is directly associated with the (relative) preponderance of the N property. Ross records amongst others the judgments reproduced in (2.154): (2.154)

a. b. c. d. e.

That he does not prepare dinner is good for her health For him not to prepare dinner is good for her health ?His not preparing dinner is good for health *His not preparing of dinner is good for her health **His not preparation of dinner is good for health

(c), (d) and (e) contain respectively a gerund ('Poss Ing'), a verbal noun ('action nominal') and a nominalisation ('derived nominal'); the proportion of N associated with each is shown in (2.137) above, repeated here: (2.137)

a. [P;(N;P)J = 3P::I(3N::IP) = i2P::4(3N::iP) = 13PH3N b. [P:(N;P)J = 2P::2(3N::iP) = 8P::8(3N::iP) = ioP::6N = 5P-3N c. {(N;P);PJ = 3 ( 3 N : : I P ) : : I P = I2(3N::IP)::4P = 7P-9N

The finite does of (2.154a) has only P, so is 4oN'. The relative weightings of P and N in the case of the infinitive construction is as in (2.155): (2.155)

{P;(P;N)J

= 3 P : : I ( 3 P : : I N ) = I2P::4(3P::IN)

=

I5P::IN

with the infinitive form again being provided for by an extension of the redundancy (2.180) above, viz. what I now give as (2.156): (2.156) {P;N}

{P;(P;N)} {P;(N:P)} (P;(N;P)}

infinitive participle gerund

which allows a range of non-finite forms to verbs (see further Anderson 1991b: 309; §3.6 below); the infinitive is highly verbal. It emerges from a correlation of the proportionalities given in (2.137) a n d (2.155) with the judgments recorded in (2.154) that acceptability gets to be questionable when N is close to 1:13 (the gerund of (2.137a) - example (2.154c)), and increases markedly as the proportion of N increases.

Gradience and second-order categories 95 As Ross points out, 'some negative items are more offensive to nouny complements than others' (1973a: 162). Thus, among the examples in (2.157): (2.157)

a

- That no children prepare dinner is good for her health b. For no children to prepare dinner is good for her health c. *No children's preparing dinner is good for her health d. **No children's preparing of dinner is good for her health e. **No children's preparation of dinner is good for her health

even the head with more than 3:: 1 of P (the gerund of (c)) is markedly unacceptable. But the gradation of acceptability remains consistent with the hierarchy. As this is replicated elsewhere in Ross's material (with one or two acknowledged pieces of 'bad behaviour') - and even allowing for speaker variation in judgment of relative acceptability, provided this remains overall 'well-behaved' with respect to the hierarchy, we gain powerful support for the measure developed here and the categorial representations it interprets. It may be that syntactic nouniness is affected by factors other than the categorisation of the head of the embedded predication. The examples of (2.154) and (2.157) omit some intermediate types examined by Ross - cf. (2.152/3) above; and one of these, Ace Ing, appears to involve a gerund, for instance. However, the overall construction differs from Poss Ing, the gerund construction discussed above, in lacking a 'determiner', which categorially is simply {N} (recall §2.1.2 above). If we interpret marking with the genitive as evidence of determinerisation, whatever the categorial structure of the genitive in the gerund construction, it includes N as a dominant element. The oblique of the Ace Ing construction, however, simply marks the argument of a non-finite and provides no evidence of a {N} (determiner) node associated with the gerund complement. This may account for the hierarchical position of Ace Ing in (2.152), less nouny than Poss Ing. Admittedly, that makes the computation of nouniness that bit more complex - though in principle still based on the distribution of the notional features. 2.6.4

Deverbal adjectives in English

As is familiar, we can draw a distinction in English, parallel to that between nominalisation and gerund, between adjectivalisation and participle; and we have anticipated the characterisation of participles in the form of (part of) the redundancy (2.156) above. But also, in rather traditional terms (as exemplified by Gildersleeve and Lodge 1895, for Latin), we can distinguish between an 'active' and a 'passive' participle, exemplified respectively in (2.i58a-b) and (c):

96 Fundamentals of a notional theory (2.158) a. The farmer was killing the duckling b. The duckling was dying c. The duckling was killed (by the farmer) (I now have to write the textual equivalent of the exemplificatory The farmer killed the duckling.) The subject of the passive construction in (2.158c) corresponds to the object of the active (a), or, more exactly, of The farmer killed the duckling - in terms of semantic function and other aspects of semantic selection. There is no passive equivalent to The duckling died: in English the 'passive' participle is a form of verbs with two arguments, corresponding, centrally, to the object and subject of the corresponding active. (The characterisation of the discrepancy in assignment of grammatical relations is not our concern at this point: see further §3.3 below.) In other languages, there are impersonal passives corresponding to some intransitives: see further, once more, §3.3, in particular. The situation in English is complicated by the fact that the same morphological form as that in (2.158c) is also used in the active (2.159a): (2.159) a. The farmer has killed the duckling b. The duckling has died and similar formations occur in intransitives such as (b), to form the 'perfect' construction. Huddleston (1984), for instance, following another tradition (cf. e.g. Latham 1862: §715), thus distinguishes between 'present' and 'past' participles; but then is compelled (1984: 321) to distinguish between 'perfect past participles' (of (2.159)) a n d 'passive past participles' (of (2.158c)), even though in Present-day English the latter, at least, can be considered in no sense pastreferring. Such considerations, as well as those underlying my nifty use and nonuse of quotation marks around 'active' and 'passive' in the preceding, have led some scholars (such as Jespersen 1931: §7.5; Strang 1970) to prefer the notionally empty terms 'first' and 'second participles' for the forms in (2.i58a-b) and (2.158/159), respectively - or even a mixed nomenclature: cf. Mitchell's (1985) 'present participle' vs. 'second participle'. We should note in relation to this last that it is also not at all obvious what is 'present' about the 'present participle'. I shall adopt here the non-committal (and therefore ultimately undesirable) terminology of 'first participle' vs. 'second participle'; notional and other distinctions between participles are explored on a more general basis in Anderson 19926: ch. 7; 1993a). A further complication in English is that what I am now calling the first participle is morphologically the same as what in the preceding subsections was called the 'gerund'. That this is not simply an idiosyncratic property of Modern English is suggested by the fact that the translational quasi-equivalents of

Gradience and second-order categories 97 (2.i58a-b) in a number of languages, i.e. expressions of progressiveness or of imperfect in general, involve 'nominal forms' of the verb, often governed by a functor of the character of 'at' or 'in', as in Scottish Gaelic (2.160): (2.160)

Bha e ag gearradh craoibhe was he at cutting of-tree ('He was cutting a tree')

(For extensive cross-linguistic exemplification see e.g. Anderson 1973a; Comrie 1976.) Early Modern English 'progressive' constructions such as are exemplified in (2.161): (2.161)

a. Are you crossing of yourself b. who were merrily a working

(e.g. Jespersen 1931: §12.3 (4), (2)) show evidence of nominality (2.161a) and a (reduced) functor (b) (cf. the 'adjectives' like asleep discussed in §2.6.1). The evolution of the Modern English progressive is a rather complex and controversial area (cf. e.g. Nickel i960), particularly as concerns the role in it of such constructions and of the Old English 'verbal adjective' and 'agentive verbal noun' in -end; and its synchronic status remains such, with Bolinger (1971), for instance (and see too Anderson 1973a), arguing that the verb form is a locative nominal. Even those who wish to maintain a distinction between gerund and participle are compelled to concede that 'on account of the identity of form between Verbnoun and Verb-adjective in -ing, it is sometimes difficult to determine to which part of speech a particular form belongs' (Onions 1904: 131); and the bases for their decisions are not always compelling. Thus, for Onions (1904: 1303), only (a) and (c) of (2.162): (2.162) a. b. c. d.

What is the use of his coming? What is the use of him coming? He prevented them from leaving He prevented them leaving

are gerunds, where the preceding genitive in (a) and preposition in (c) are apparently decisive. (Cf. too Bolinger 1961: 21, on 'the haziness of the -ing\) For the moment, let us adopt the position that it is necessary to maintain a distinction between a first participle in -ing and a second participle in -N/-T (-(e)n, -t, -(e)d, ablaut), leaving aside any relationship with gerunds. Certainly, as concerns the representation of such forms, it is difficult to deny some adjectival status to the -ing formation in (2.163a): (2.163)

a

- The result was (very) disturbing (to most of us) b. Most of us were (very) disturbed (at the result)

98 Fundamentals of a notional theory as to the -N/-T formation of (b). These, however, are derived forms, rather than forms of the verb. Wasow (1977: §4) surveys a number of 'adjectival' characteristics of such -N/-T 'participles', including premodification by very (as in (2.163b)) and prefixation by un-, which, again, is also available to 'adjectival' -ing forms, as shown by the verb-based derivatives in (2.164): (2.164)

a

- That was undisturbing b. We were undisturbed

(Though some verbs show prefixation by an-, that set does not include disturb, etc.) The potential bases for such 'adjectival' participles are also restricted: central are verbs which take an experiencer object and a causal-source subject, such as perturb, surprise, astonish, delight, and so on; but not all such potential bases undergo both adjectivalisations (calm, seduce, etc.). And we also find, for instance, non-verbal bases such as that in five-legged (cf. e.g. Hirtle 1969). There is also much evidence of apparently idiosyncratic (non-compositional) formations, such as benighted, uplifting. Unlike the verbal construction of The result disturbed most of us, which shows object-formation, the adjectival (2.163a) spells out the 'experiencer' functor as to (cf. Fred was nice to us). In (2.163b) the 'experiencer' is subject and the 'source' of the disturbance, again not a 'bare' nominal, is marked with at. And we should note (2.165) a s a further possibility: (2.165) We were (very) disturbed by the result one containing by. We return below to this difference, and to the apparently 'passive' character of these adjectival constructions of (2.163b), (2.164b) and (2.165). The 'verbal' participles have, however, a verbal distribution, except that they, like adjectives, require a copula for forming a finite construction. As verbs they retain an element of 'dynamism': (2.165) (without very) is ambivalent in this respect ('statal' vs. 'non-statal'); and compare the sentences in (2.166): (2.166) a. The results were disturbing to us b. The results were disturbing us Like other verbs, the -ing form in (2.166b) takes an object, a 'bare' nominal, as non-subjective complement, and its phrase-internal syntax is that of a verb; and it has the 'dynamic' interpretation associated with the simple verb (and not the adjective). If thus, as with gerunds, we interpret 'verbal' participles as grammaticalisations, specifically syntacticisations, of (in their case) a verbal adjective, we can

Gradience and second-order categories 99 differentiate between them and 'adjectival' participles in terms of the 'secondorder' categorisations in (2.167): (2.167)

(P;(P:N)}

{(P:N);P)

participle

adjectivalisation

where (and henceforth) I substitute the terms participle and adjectivalisation for, respectively, 'verbal participle' and 'adjectival participle'. Again, the notation permits us to define an appropriate hierarchy, in this instance on the verb/ adjective dimension. It is not clear that in the case of the -ing forms we are considering there is an intermediate category parallel to the verbal noun discussed in the immediately preceding subsections (i.e. a {P:(P:N)} category). There is, it is true, a restricted set of (intransitive) forms that can occur in attributive position: (2.168) a. the (incessantly) falling rain b. (rapidly)risingunemployment But this looks like a 'leak' into (the first participle form of) the verb category from the adjectival: exceptionally, these verb forms occur attributively. But they contrast with the adjectivalisations in (2.169): (2.169)

a. (very) upstanding citizen b. (very) exciting games

in having a necessarily 'progressive', 'dynamic' interpretation. They do not correlate with an independent notional distinction vis-a-vis other verb uses. There is a similar 'leak' with -N/-T participles (transitive and intransitive): a captured enemy, a fallen tree. But here too, with -N/-T forms, we may also find an intermediate category. As well as the 'experiencer' formations of (2.163^165), we find another class of 'statal' -N/-T forms based on actional transitive verbs, which occur only with a (optional) by argument and are not gradable, but do show unprefixation: (2.170)

a. The fruit is (un)touched (by human hand) b. The island was (un)inhabited (by Glaswegians)

We can perhaps attribute to the forms in (2.170) - and perhaps to 'statal' by formations in general - the verbal adjective categorisation of (2.171): (2.171)

{P;(P:N)}

{P:(P:N)}

{(P:N);P}

participle

verbal adjective

adjectivalisation

If we do associate ^-complementation with verbal adjectives, then we can

ioo

Fundamentals of a notional theory

perhaps differentiate between pairs like (2.163b) and (2.165) above, repeated here: (2.163) (2.165)

b. Most of us were (very) disturbed (at the result) We were (very) disturbed by the result

as adjectivalisation (with directional complement) vs. verbal adjective (with agentive complement, marked with by). Huddleston (1984: §9.2) tentatively suggests even more extensive informal 'squishes' along the verb-adjective dimension, particularly in the case of -N/-T forms (cf. p. 324); but the distinctions he makes are accommmodated by the combination of categorial differentiation and categorial leak' proposed here.

2.6.5

Adjectival nouns/nominal adjectives in Japanese

All of the second-order categorisations discussed so far have involved one simplex member (P or functor), as in (2.171). I want now to look at evidence for a complex of complexes; this will lead to a reconsideration of one aspect of the complexes proposed in the preceding subsections. Many grammarians of Japanese have recognized a category interestingly referred to as either 'adjectival noun' or 'nominal adjective' (cf. e.g. Nakau 1973; Martin 1975: §§1, 3, 13.5a; Kageyama 1982; Miyagawa 1987). (2.172a) offers an example of such: (2.172)

a. Hanako ga kirei da H. NOM pretty AUX ('Hanako is pretty') b. Hanako ga utukusi-i H. NOM beautiful ('Hanako is beautiful')

while (b) contains an adjective. I shall refer to the putative category as adjectivenoun. Miyagawa (1987) specifically argues that adjectives and adjective-nouns be differentiated, in terms of an extension of the system of Chomsky 1970 (cf. §2.5.2 above), as in (2.173): (2.173)

[ + V] adjective

[ + V, +N] adjectival noun

such that for adjectives [±N] is neutralised, given that adjective-nouns share properties with nouns ( [ - V , +N]) which are not associated with adjectives including taking the da copula of (2.174):

Gradience and second-order categories (2.174)

IoI

Hanako ga sensei da H. NOM teacher AUX ('Hanako is a teacher')

Ohkado (1991) argues that such a characterisation is inappropriate, in that both adjectives and adjective-nouns share some other properties with nouns, as well as with verbs. He suggests that they are both categorially [+V, — N], so that the complication of neutralisation need not be introduced into the system of categorial classification; and that the alleged 'nominal' properties of adjective-nouns can to be accounted for otherwise. Now, it does seem that there are generalisations that involve a cross-class of adjectives, adjective-nouns and nouns (cf. e.g. Ohkado 1991: 79-80, on soo da replacement) and one of adjectives, adjective-nouns and verbs (cf. again Ohkado 1991: 80-1, on co-occurrence with -soo 'appear' and modification by zibun 'very (much)'; also Nakau 1973: §1.1.1). And Ohkado also points to a number of (positive and negative) properties shared exclusively by adjectives and adjectivenouns, such as their adverbial use, modification by totemo 'very', appearance in comparative constructions and rejection of the emphatic particles sae 'even', sura 'even' and mo 'also' (1991: 76-8; and see too Nakau 1973: 17-24, 26). But some of the evidence for the greater nouniness of adjective-nouns is not easily dismissed. Ohkado (1991: 70-2) points out that the form of the copula is not always the same with nouns and adjective-nouns; and he argues 'that the copula da is just one instance of the manifestation of INFL and that the surface forms of it in the context illustrated in [(2.172a)] and [(2.174)] happen to be the same'. But, even if the analysis in terms of 'INFL' is accepted, it is, other things being equal, unsatisfactory to have to say that its forms in the syntactically least marked context 'just happen to be the same' when in construction with nouns and adjective-nouns. Ohkado specifically cites, in support of the suggestion of 'coincidence', the discrepancy between the relativised forms of da with nouns and adjective-nouns {no vs. na)\ but, on the other hand, such overt marking of relativisation occurs only with the noun and adjective-noun constructions and not with verbs or adjectives (Nakau: 1973: 25-6). Martin also notes that 'where you would expect to hear A[djectival]N[oun] na N[oun] you may instead find, especially in written Japanese, AN no N* (1975: 766) Similarly, even though (Ohkado 1991: 72-4) not all speakers accept the adjective-noun + -mitai 'seem like' construction in (2.175a):

102 Fundamentals of a notional theory (2.175)

a. sizuka-mitai ('seems to be quiet') b. sensei-mitai ('seems like a teacher') c. *utukusi-mitai (' seems to be beautiful')

(cf. the acceptable noun and unacceptable adjective constructions in (b) and (c)), and though it may simply reflect a marginally acceptable 'leak' from the noun to the adjective-noun category, it does at least argue for hierarchical adjacency of the adjective-noun to the noun. We can allow for the distinctiveness of adjective-nouns and their hierarchical and cross-classificatory behaviour if they are accorded the categorisation in (2.176): (2.176)

{P:N) adjective

{(P:N),(P;N)} adjective-noun

{P;N} noun

involving a second-order (simple) combination (rather than dependency relations), a combination of internally complex categorisations. To the extent that notionally central 'nouns' and 'adjectives' respectively cluster in the noun and adjective classes (rather than the adjective-noun), the categorisations are also appropriate in notional terms. The Japanese adjective-noun involves, then, a second-order combination of subrepresentations which are both complex, P:N and P;N. In the light of such a possibility, let us return, briefly, to the characterisation of the various deverbal formations in English suggested in §§2.6.2, 2.6.4, repeated here: (2.136)

{P;(N;P)}

{P:(N;P)}

{(N;P);P)

gerund

verbal noun

nominalisation

participle

verbal adjective

adjectivalisation

(2.171)

And let us now observe that nominalisations are specifically deverb rather than deverbal: they are not based on modals. Given that verbs are {P;N}, more appropriate representations would involve the second-order complexes of (2.177): (2.177)

a. {(N;P);(P;N)} nominalisation

b. {(P:N);(P;N)} adjectivalisation

These formations are based on verbs, not onfinites,and they reflect the argument structures of such. They can be contrasted lexically with denominal and deadjectival verbs:

Gradience and second-order categories (2.178) a. {(P;N);(N;P)} denominal verb

103

b. {(P;N);(P:N)} deadjectival verb

illustrated respectively by embus, detomb, shovel, colonise, etc. and deepen, beautify, tidy, equalise, enlarge, etc. Verbal nouns and adjectives are correspondingly: (2.179) a. {(P;N):(N;P)} verbal noun

b. {(P;N):(P:N)} verbal adjective

again, appropriately, most marked. Calculations of weighting emerge as is shown for categories involving N;P (noun) in (2.180): (2.180)

a. {(P;N);(N;P)} = i2(9P::3N)::4(3N::iP) = ioP::6N = 5P-3N b. {(P;N):(N;P)) =4(3P::IN)::4(3N::IP) = 4P::4N= IP::IN c. {(N;P);(P;N)} = I2(9N::3P)::4(3P::IN) = 6P::ioN = 3P-5N

with the formations of (b) and (c), of course, being less verbal than gerunds, {P;(N;P)}, I3P::3N (recall (2.137a) above). The various kinds of non-finite, recall also, do not constitute lexical classes: all verbs are provided with such specifications by redundancy. The interesting question arises, however, as to whether, on the assumption of category continuity even with respect to derived representations, there is a lexical (or derived) category with reversal of the second-order dependency associated with gerunds, for example; i.e. a category characterised as in (2.181a): (2.181)

a. {(N;P);P} deauxiliary noun

b. {P;(N;P)} gerund

The {P} class is small - modals + have, be and do (which are {P}&{P;N}) and its members typically take verbal complements; so one can expect any derived class not to be numerous and its members to be complex. Possible examples are: (a) has been, (the) have nots, (the) can dos, (one of the great) might have beens, as well as the 'frozen' a must. Notice too, maybe, a formation established as an 'adjunct' - so { };{(N;P);P}. However, let us now note that not only nominalisations but also gerunds are based on verbs rather than verbals in general; and that the representation in (2.181b) is therefore more appropriate simply for denominal (finite) auxiliaries, if such there be (English need seems to be at least diachronically such), while that in (2.178a) is more suitable for gerunds. But how then are gerunds to be distinguished from denominal verbs, to which the characterisation in question was originally ascribed in (2.178a)? Certainly, denominal verbs are typically based on nouns in a particular semantic function (cf. e.g. Anderson 1984b: §§4.1-2), as with the examples embus (loc), detomb (abl) etc. listed above. Their

104 Fundamentals of a notional theory categorisation is thus more complex than that in (2.178a), which we can perhaps limit to gerunds. However, this scarcely captures the sense that gerunds are essentially deverbal nouns 'grabbed back' by the verbal system - syntacticisations of the nominalisation construction. For that, a more apposite suggestion would be a more complex representation of the character of {(P;N);((N;P);(P;N))} - which embeds the representation for a nominalisation within that for a verb. This representation proposed for gerunds involves, appropriately, 2 iP:: 1 iN. On similar grounds, we can also argue that a parallel complex forms the basis for the representation of participles. 2.7

Secondary categories

I have been careful to acknowledge that the preceding section was concerned with 'relative gradience'. This means, among other things, that for different speakers the 'turn-over-point' for particular categories may differ: not all speakers will necessarily agree with the individual judgments of Ross recorded in (2.154) and (2.157), f° r example. Further, languages may differ in their typical 'turnover-points' in terms of properties relevant to the verb-to-noun hierarchy, even when they show the same categorial distinctions. Thus, the -dikl-ecek 'verbal nouns' in Turkish, for instance, whatever their categorial specification - they seem to be nominalisations of participles (Lewis 1967: ch. ix, §7) - retain more verbal properties than any of the second-order verb-noun categories of English discussed in §§2.6.2-3, while being, like a noun, marked as ACC and showing a genitive argument: (2.182)

Cocuk-lar-a asagiya inip kendisi-ni sokak-ta child-PL-to down having-descended her-ACC street-in bekle-dik-leri-ni sb'yle-di await-VN-their-ACC say-m,PAST ('She told the children that having descended they waited for her in the street') (Comrie and Thompson 1985: 362; from Lewis 1967: 254)

The verbal noun (VN) beklediklerini not only takes an accusative (kendisini) cf. further Comrie and Thompson 1985: §2.1.2.1.3 - but is marked as non-future (by -dik rather than -ecek)\ in (2.182) there is no overt genitive argument, but it is signalled by the affix -led 'their'. Comrie and Thompson (1985: §2.1.1.1.3) also point to Turkish 'verbal nouns' in -me marked with the suffix -il also found in verbal passives, and with a genitive argument corresponding to the subject of a verbal passive (cf. Lewis 1967: ch. x, §7), as the genitive in (2.182) corresponds to an active subject. Their §2.1 is indeed concerned with illustrating the varying verbality/nominality of 'verbal nouns' in different languages; to the

Secondary categories

105

extent that this distribution is 'orderly', in Ross's sense, with respect to verbs and nouns, in particular, the position adopted here is quite compatible with there being varying 'turn-over-points' in categories intermediate between verbs and nouns. A crucial component in such comparative discussions of 'intermediate' primary categories is the observation that certain secondary categories are recurrently associated with particular primary categories or word classes. I suggested in §2.1 that there is a natural basis for these recurrences; that the notional character of particular word classes and of the secondary categories themselves forms a basis for explaining them. I now want to look at this suggestion in a little more detail; and, indeed, to try to articulate more explicitly the notion 'secondary category'. What is the internal structure of what I called in §2.2.3, o n analogy with the organisation of the phonetic features of the phonology, the 'secondary partition' of notional features? Let us firstly survey those categories that recur with particular word classes.

2.7. /

The notional basis for secondary categorisation

For Varro, verbs in Latin are words that vary in form to show Tense; nouns (wherein, as we should recall as general in the Classical tradition, he includes adjectives) inflect for Case (see e.g. Robins 1951: 54). And the intermediate category of participles exhibits both Tense forms and Case inflexions. There are, of course, problems with such characterisations as general definitions; and we have in what precedes established word classes on a different (and, to some extent, even more ancient) basis. Tense-marking on verbs is far from universal; and there are a few languages where Tense differences are marked on nouns, though in terms suggestive of a 'leak' from the verb class. Cf. e.g. S. R. Anderson (1985: 179), who offers the examples in (2.183) from Kwakw'ala: (2.183)

a

- xan xwakw'ana b. xan xwakw3na c. xsn xwakwsnxda

('my canoe') ('my future canoe') ('my past canoe')

Likewise, inflexion for Case is restricted in its distribution; and in some languages even apparently finite verbs can be inflected for Case, when functioning as a complement (secondary argument), as in the Kanuri (East Saharan) of (2.184): (2.184)

Sava-nyi ishin-ro tsmansna friend-my come+m,SG-DAT think+m,SG,PERF ('I thought my friend would come') (Noonan 1985: 47, from Lukas 1967)

106 Fundamentals of a notional theory The DAT marker attached to the subordinate finite verb in (2.184) can be seen to be attached to the pronominal goal argument in (2.185): (2.185)

Ava-nz3-ye shi-ro kurj3na father-his-NOM him-DAT money ('His father gives him money')

cin give+m,SG

while (2.186) illustrates independent use of the finite which is subordinate in (184): (2.186) Sava-nyi ishin friend-my come+m,SG ('My friend is coming') However, both traditional associations (noun and Case, and verb and Tense) are recurrent. If one includes in the notion 'case', as recommended by e.g. Hjelmslev (1935/37), expression by adposition and position, i.e. if (as suggested here) one equates 'case' and functor, then the noun-'case' association is arguably universal (with substantives). This of course removes us from the domain of putative morphological definitions of the word classes, and of the traditional secondary categories, but it does highlight a correlation with our proposed notional characterisations (§2.1.1 above). Morphological Case and, more generally, functors are associated with nouns - or, again more generally, nominal or 'name' phrases - because as names the latter provide stable labels for arguments whose functions are specified by functors: having preponderant N, they constitute primary arguments. Other secondary categories recurrently associated with nouns again reflect their status as potential stable labels: Gender, in the wide, 'noun class' sense (cf. for instance Dixon 1982: §5.2; Craig 1986a; Corbett 1989) - including, for instance, the prefix systems of Bantu (e.g. Manessy 1967; Denny and Creider 1986), and involving classification by relatively stable (though sometimes obscured) properties; Definiteness and Specificity marking (as Basque liburu-a 'book-the'), enhancing the naming capacity; variation in Number, which allows for discrete manifestations of a name. S. R. Anderson (1985: §2.1.1) appropriately groups these latter as 'inherent' categories of the noun, whereas Case is 'relational'. Case is certainly syntagmatic; and some of the 'inherent' categories (but typically not Gender) are paradigmatic, in the sense of each of their members being available to (a set of) nouns (or rather name phrases). Thus, LIBER is Masculine, but it may be realised as either Singular or Plural. But Case is also specifically rectional; in traditional terms, unless it is 'adverbial' (recall §2.5.3), it is determined by a governing predicator and/or functor.

Secondary categories 107 Anderson (1979&; 1986c; to appear b) suggests that rection - determination of a secondary category by presence of (members) of a class (recall §2.3.3; and see §3.2 for a more formal statement) - 'follows' dependency; in a sense, it is one manifestation of government (traditionally, as we've noted, an alternative label for rection itself). Conversely, concord typically proceeds contradependency: heads attract the (secondary) category values of their subordinates. From such a perspective, it is significant that nominals, while very generally showing (the results of) rection, are characteristically not agreement targets. S. R. Anderson (1985: §2.1.3), f° r instance, notes that 'rules of agreement in most languages function to copy inherent or relational features from nouns onto other parts of the structure, rather than the other way round, and it is thus quite rare to find a situation in which nouns are marked for some feature to agree with something else'. I suggest that this correlates with the other aspect of their notional character, as minimally P, minimally predicative/relational: they are not typically complementees, and thus not typically in an agreement-target position. The major exception, nominal agreement with a possessor, is illustrated by the Turkish (2.187): (2.187)

Ali'nin gomleg-i Ali+GEN shirt-poss ('Ali's shirt')

(Swift 1963: 207; cf. Lewis 1967: ch. Ill, §17)

where the non-genitive is inflected as 'possessed' (POSS). Some languages distinguish in this respect between 'alienable' and 'inalienable' possession (bodyparts, kinship, etc.): in Algonquian the latter are always Possessed (Bloomfield 1946: §32). Inalienable possession, at least, involves nouns which are inherently relational, as recognised overtly in Algonquian; in the case of kinship terms in Algonquian, the Possessed forms are indeed (derivatively) morphologically verbal (cf. again Bloomfield 1946: §32). Even agreement with alienable possessions can be related to the effects of determinerisation: see Anderson to appear b. At any rate, nouns are only marginally agreement targets. Verbals, on the other hand, show agreement with categories of their arguments, commonly in Person and Number, sometimes in Gender or Definiteness/ Specificity (S. R. Anderson 1985: §2.2.3), consonant with their relational centrality as preponderantly P. And most of the many 'relational' categories listed by Anderson (§2.2.2) as associated with the verb are non-rectional; rather, they involve registering on the verb the number of arguments (transitivity) or (derivational) changes therein (detransitivisation, causativisation), or 'foregrounding' or (non-)coreference of arguments (voice, reflexivity, reciprocity, cross-reference and switch-reference). This again reflects the verb's relational centrality, as

108 Fundamentals of a notional theory asserted by a number of scholars over the years (see e.g. Miller 1985, for some discussion), and as made explicit in dependency grammars; in the present framework, this is a property of P. Subordinate verbals are, of course, accessible to rection. Participles and infinitives, for instance, as forms of the verb, are often selected by a governing verbal (e.g. an auxiliary - recall §2.3.3 above); and relativisation of the verb reflects subordination to a nominal head. Typically, a 'subjunctive' form is required by the presence of a particular governing verb class. Thus, what Noonan (1985: §3.1) describes as the 'discourse-dependent' complement of Spanish commentative verbs: (2.188)

Lamento que Juan I-regret that Juan

salga/*sale

esta noche

leave+m,SGSUBj/*iNDic this night

(Noonan 1985: 98)

is headed by a subjunctive rather than an indicative verb. We return to these phenomena in §3.6, and briefly in §2.7.3; n e r e I a m concerned merely to indicate that they are not incompatible with the central relational status of verbals. It is perhaps significant in this regard that most instances of rection of a verbal involve another verbal as trigger. As S. R. Anderson (1985: 189) observes, 'a complete catalog of the distinctions in meaning that can be indicated formally by verbs in the languages of the world ... would be extraordinarily long and difficult', and, as concerns inherent' categories, 'the bulk of the "complete catalog" would come in this area'. The most recurrent inherent' categories, however, are associated with the predication's relation to 'event-descriptions' (Tense, Aspect) or 'propositions' (Polarity) and 'speech acts' (Modality, including evidentiality/inferentiality/ report). These again clearly relate to the verbal's predicativity/relational centrality, but also, particularly in the case of Tense and Aspect, to the minimality of the N feature, and thus to the description of mutability. Verbals are associated with event-specificity rather than entity-specificity. I am suggesting, then, that there is a natural notional relationship between the primary categories which define the word classes noun and verb and the (types of) secondary categories which are recurrently expressed in the morphology of these word classes. Let us, however, try now to be a little more precise about this relationship. 2.J.2

Periphrasis and nominal categories

Thus far we have envisaged the formal relationship between primary and secondary categorisation as involving in all cases a simple partition of features,

Secondary categories

109

with the primary partition being the determinant of basic syntactic structure. But one striking characteristic of the secondary features of verbals and nominals is that the distinctions they make may also be made, in most instances at least, though not necessarily in the same language, by periphrases, involving typically closed-class, or functional-category items bearing some syntactic relation (for us to make precise in what follows) to the 'full' word class which might otherwise (elsewhere in the same language, or in another language) signal morphologically what the periphrasis conveys. We have already recognised and partially implemented in our analysis such a relationship between adpositions and Case: Cases are functors that are not independently serialised; alternatively, as Hjelmslev (1935/37) and others have recognised, adpositions are periphrastic Cases. What I am now going to argue is that such relationships are typical of the traditionally recognised secondary categories of nouns and verbs, and that this is crucial to our understanding of their status. Thus, distinctions in Gender may be marked morphologically, as in Latin, or Swahili, or Dyirbal, or the Sesotho of (2.189), where 'the numbers refer to the concordial classes which agree with each of the nouns' (Demuth et al. 1986: 456): (2.189)

mo-tho e-mo-holo 6-rata o-ntja e-ntle ea-hae 1-person 1-1-big i-like 9-dog 9-beautiful 9-1 (The old man/woman likes his/her beautiful dog')

or by the presence of different classifiers (cf. e.g. Denny 1976; Allan 1977), as in the Yidiny of (2.190), with 'generic' classifiers mayi and bama: (2.190)

Mayi jimirr bama-al yaburu-ngu vegetable yam person-ERG girl-ERG (The girl-person dug up the yam-vegetable')

julaal dig+PAST (Dixon 1982: 185)

Indeed, according to Craig (1986a: 4), 'Jacaltec ... is an example of a noun classifier system at the fuzzy edges between prototypical noun classes and prototypical sets of numeral classifiers' (cf. Craig 1986/?). Similarly, Definiteness can be marked morphologically, as in Basque (liburu 'book' vs. liburu-a 'the book'), or by an 'article', as in English; and 'unreduced' (demonstrative) deictic categories associated with the noun may be manifested morphologically, as in Yuma la1 ve-va-c 'snake-this-NOM' (Halpern 1946: 263), or periphrastically, by demonstrative {this snake). We find Number marked both in the morphology and by periphrasis: by special plural markers, as often in Polynesian (Krupa 1982: 101), as well as by quantifiers/numerals many, two, three,... men vs. one man. In some languages, such as Hungarian, Plural marking is normally excluded in constructions with numerals/quantifiers.

I io

Fundamentals of a notional theory

Such mutual exclusiveness can be regarded as reflecting at least partial equivalence. Often a single periphrastic head realises more than one secondary category, as in the Samoan nominal phrases of (2.191): (2.191) a. b. c. d.

le va'a va'a se va'a ni va'a

('the canoe') ('the canoes') ('a canoe') ('canoes')

(Krupa 1982: 100-1)

Cf. too English this/these vs. that/those and the like. In Tongan Number and Gender are co-expressed: kau 'plural marker used for people' ...,fanga 'plural marker for animals and objects qualified by the word/:/'/ 'small'. (Krupa 1982: 101) [italics (and some minor punctuation) added - JMA] Compare here the plural classifiers of Jacaltec (Craig 19866: §1.2). Such coexpression parallels the cumulation typical of inflexional systems. And elsewhere we also find agglutination of morphemes which express periphrastically notions associated with nominal secondary categories, as in Yagua jiy-nu jddcachoonu 'this-animate/singular parakeet' (Payne 1986: 125). What are we to make of these similarities in expression, and of the general parallelism between inflexion and periphrasis? Let us approach this via our earlier look at Case and functors. In §2.2.21 associated the Finnish Inessive with the configuration repeated here from (2.31) above - wherein the functor and nominal nodes are serialised simultaneously, with the secondary categories associated with the former being reflected in the morphology of the manifesting item, whose root realises the {N} component: (2.3O

b.

.

{ }{loc,int)

I

{N}

maassa

('in (the) country')

Contrast the independently sequenced functors in the English of (2.27') above, partly replicated in (2.192):

Secondary

categories

ill

(2.192)

}{agt}

by

{N}

Hannibal

This embodies the notion that secondary category of Case is simply a functor denied independent (periphrastic) expression. Distinctions otherwise associated with different members of the functor category (realising lexical features of dimensionality, motion, orientation) are reflected in the morphology of the manifesting item (recognised in traditional classifications involving 'adessives', 'inessives', 'allatives', 'superessives', etc.). However, independent functors and Cases can co-occur, as in the familiar Latin examples of (2.193a): (2.193)

a

- Ad urbem iit b. Romam iit

('He went to (the) city') ('He went to Rome')

Cf. (b) with only a morphological functor. Such instances cannot be identified with the Finnish postposition construction discussed in §2.2.2, and illustrated by (2.32), once more repeated here: (2.32)

}{loc,int}

{ Kgen}

I

{N}

{N}

kanssa

pojan

'with'

'boy'

which involves an inflected nominal governing a Case-marked further nominal. (2.193a) shows no evidence of such a structure. It may be that Latin prepositions are, nevertheless, nominals of fixed inflexion which are complemented by an inflected nominal; but let us examine an analysis involving less covertness.

112 Fundamentals of a notional theory In this connexion, we should also recall that a single Latin preposition may be in construction with different Cases: (2.194)

a. In portu navigo in harbour+ABL I-sail ('I'm sailing in harbour') b. in magnificam domum venire in grand+ACC house+ACC to-come ('to come into a grand house') (Gildersleeve and Lodge 1895: 246, 214)

The Case inflexion discriminates 'motion whither' from 'place where' - as we're all no longer taught. These Cases express inflexionally features otherwise associated with lexical classes of verbs/adpositions; specifically, they express a subpart of the subcategorisational requirements of these classes: they differentiate their valencies. We can represent the situation rather more fully as in (2.195), with (a) and (b) therein corresponding to (2.194a) and (b) respectively, and (c) to (2.191b): (2.195)

a.

b.

{/{loc}

{/{loc}} {loc ,int}

{loc

in

portu

{P;N/{locgoal}

{loc ,int}

{loc,goal}

venire

c.

{P;N/{ locgoal}} {loc,goal} Romam

{ }; {loc,goal} {P*,N/{ locgoal}} {N}

nt

Romam

nt

Secondary categories

113

where the secondary categories are shown overtly as associated with the primary (rather than this being signalled simply by juxtaposition, and the Latin ABL = { } {loc} and ACC = { } {goal} (not necessarily loc). Latin nouns are subject to a redundancy which assigns to them a governing empty category which may or may not be associated with an independent node in the syntactic tree. In (2.i95a-b) the dependency is intracategorial. Whereas the Romam name in (2.193b), of course, does not require an independent functor, and so, as involving an intercategorial dependency, introduces two nodes in the syntactic tree, as shown in (2.195c). The directional verbs are subcategorised for an argument that is both ioc' and 'goal', such that the 'goal' component may optionally be part of the subcategorisation of the 'loc'. But again the morphology expresses a configuration which in other circumstances is associated with an adposition, as the alternative presentation on the right in (2.195c) perhaps makes clearer. We can think of the inflexional Case system of a language like Finnish as involving partial morphologisation: here the Case-marked nominals have the (syntactic) role of functors. The Case system of the examples in (2.i95a-b) is fully morphologised: the Cases in themselves do not have syntactic consequences. These represent different degrees of incorporation. Latin as a whole is a mixed system, with (2.195c) showing only partial morphologisation. Such is typical of the 'older' Indo-European languages. But in both instances the Cases are provided to nominals by morphosyntactic redundancy, such as will be elaborated below. The inherent' secondary nominal categories are susceptible to a similar account, as involving partial morphologisation: they involve elements capable of independent syntactic expression and, though not given such in these instances (of morphologisation), nevertheless retaining a syntactic role. Classifiers and Gender, for instance, can be differentiated as independent vs. superjoined incorporated - transitive {N}s, so structurally perhaps as in (2.196): (2.196)

a.

b.

{N/}{class a )

{N;P}

{N/} {class a )

I

{N;PJ

Classifiers are subcategorised for a nominal (where the precise character of the specification is left open in (2.196)), though in many languages the classifier may also occur intransitively: 'in Burmese, classifiers are the

114 Fundamentals of a notional theory only forms that correspond to third person inanimate pronouns in other languages' (Dixon 1982: 212; cf. too Craig (1986Z?: § 1.1) on Jacaltec). Classifiers and Gender are usually mutually exclusive (Sanches and Slobin 1973), as alternative, syntactic and partially morphologised, expressions of a particular {N} type, though occasionally a language may show co-existing subsystems of classifiers and Gender (see again Craig 1986b). Gender involves an incorporated classificatory {N}; as such, the {N} is provided to nouns ({N;P}) by the morphology. (As elsewhere in this discussion, incorporation' should not be given a 'processual' interpretation; it refers to a morphological vs. a syntactic status.) A similar interpretation seems to be appropriate with definiteness and Number/ numeral, except that the latter, at least, very often shows 'agreement' rather than simple (non-)incorporation. Thus, Number in English, for example, shows both 'agreement' and simple incorporation: these men, (the) men; whereas, as noted, Hungarian has only independent serialisation of the quantifier or incorporation (as Plurality) - recall (2.191). We should note too that some classifier systems, as well as (of course) Gender, also exhibit agreement (cf. once more Craig 1986Z?: §1.1; Demuth et al. 1986). We return briefly in §2.7.5 to the expression of 'agreement' in the syntax. The suggestion of such a relationship - as is embodied in (2.196) - between e.g. classifiers and Gender is not, of course, to deny 'grammatical differences' (Dixon 1982: 213) between them. But the fact that one variant is (inflexional-) morphological and the other not accounts for most of these: Gender typically exhausts the class of nominals, whereas some nominals may be normally not accompanied by a classifier; classifiers are often optional, or are permitted/ required only in the presence of a numeral (Indonesian), or a numeral or a demonstrative, or a possessive; a single noun may co-occur with different classifiers; sets of classifiers are in general more numerous in their membership, and the membership may be fuzzy-edged (Yidiny). So too, again, with Number and numerals/quantifiers, and definiteness affixes and articles. Thus, for instance, numeral systems are typically larger than Number systems; though in some Australian languages this is scarcely the case (Hale 1975). It is also suggestive, concerning the posited relationship, that some Gender systems seem to have developed from an earlier classifier system (Creider 1975; Denny and Creider 1976; Dixon 1982: §§5.4, 6.5); and cf. e.g. S. R. Anderson (1985: 178) on the development of the Swedish and Norwegian Definiteness marker. That is, in some instances at least, the notion of morphologisation/incorporation can, after all, be interpreted diachronically in 'processual' terms.

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115

I am interpreting these inherent secondary nominal categories, then, as transitive names/pronouns ({N/}) which, unlike the corresponding periphrases, take their subcategorised nominal in subjunction; their valency is satisfied internally. Their relationship with the primary category is not only notionally non-arbitrary but also structurally identical (barring sequencing) to that of potential namephrase heads. However, whereas classifiers etc. are offered independently to the syntax, the Gender etc. configuration is created in the morphology. That is, in languages with the appropriate secondary (morphological) categories, nouns can be provided with the appropriate governing category lexically, by morphosyntactic redundancies of the character of (2.3 ic) above, for Case in a language like Finnish, repeated here: (2.3D

c.

{ }" be'kal duleya be'khmrpal sa'kakiya mvp kaluhuya befkhkalphiifya be'kal ce'xelka

'he them killed' 'they him killed' 'he went-home' 'they went-home' 'they slipped'

As observed in §3.1.2, the morphology signals that the argument of (c/d) is both erg, which determines the shape of the pronoun, and abs, given that the argument triggers number suppletion in the verb. A simple distinction between subject and object is insufficient to characterise the morphological distinctions between (d) and (e).

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Anderson (1977: 263-4) also rejects Connie's (1973) 'syntactic' account of the 'active' system of Batsbi. It is true that use and non-use of the Ergative in intransitives in 'active' (sub)languages does not always coincide with a simple agent vs. non-agent opposition - cf. e.g. Holisky (1987) on Batsbi, and Mithun (1991a) more generally - but the semantic (and pragmatic) distinctions made are obvious extensions of such a base. This is true whether or not the 'active' marking has been lexicalised (as a property of particular verbs) or not - i.e. whether we have to do with what Dixon (1979) terms a 'split-S' system or a 'fluid-S'. It is presumably precisely because the marking with intransitives is in many instances redundant that such extensions are permissible. Unsurprisingly, too, such morphosyntactic differentiation among intransitives may mark 'aspectual' differences, as with auxiliary choice in Italian etc. (recall the introduction to §3.1 above). 3.3.2

Non-subject principals

Abs is a default principal grammatical relation; it figures as such in a (subsystem in the absence of a subject (or any other principal - such as we shall turn to shortly). I suggest that we can say, as a consequence of the discussion in the preceding subsection, that subjecthood should be associated with a (sub)system only if it meets the subjecthood criterion (Anderson 1979a; 1979c; 1980; Bohm 1983: 117; 1992: §2.1.1): Subjecthood criterion A (sub)system possesses subjects if, in the unmarked instances, the highestranking arguments in different predication types share unique non-contingent syntactic and/or morphological properties, where ranking is in accord with the subject selection hierarchy. Eligibility (exclusive or primary) for raising could be one such property. The principal grammatical relation is associated with the syntactically most 'active' argument; its determinateness allows for its reconstruction in circumstances otherwise rendered opaque (notably by 'movement' or 'omission'). (This is the third characteristic Matthews (1981: 107) associates with the traditional notion of 'subject'.) Abs as a principal grammatical relation is a grammaticalisation of the basic semantic relation; subject is a grammaticalisation of a hierarchisation of semantic relations with respect to topicalisability. If the hierarchical status of the semantic relations is invariant, then the only other possible kind of grammatical principal, apart from subject and (by default) absolutive, would be one to whose selection a hierarchy of semantic relations

194 The syntax of categories is not relevant; and if, on the other hand, only semantic relations are within the scope of any formulation selecting a grammatical relation, then the only other possibility is a principal whose assignment to a particular argument is not grammatically determined. That is, the argument sharing in the properties unique to the principal grammatical relation is variable within individual predications. Such a principal Anderson (1979a) suggests is appropriate to Tagalog, for example: he labels these arguments primes; in Philippinist terminology, they have mostly been known as the 'topic/focus'. Schachter (1976: 496-7) illustrates that in Tagalog the prime, though characterised by 'presupposed referentiality', is not uniquely so, and it does not necessarily exhibit (other) properties one might associate with 'topicality'; he refers specifically to the account of this offered by Li and Thompson (1976). (Cf. too, on Ilocano, Schwarz 1976: §§8-9.) Schachter comments further: 'when a sentence contains more than one noun phrase whose referentiality is presupposed, it is not always clear why one of these noun phrases, rather than another, is chosen as topic ... Under such circumstances, it seems that there is often a good deal of leeway with regard to the choice of topic, even in a fixed discourse context ...' (1976: 497). 'Presupposition of referentiality' does not determine choice of prime. Thus the sentence in (3.73): (3-73)

Dadalhin ni Rosa ang pera kay Juan para sa iyo BEN DIR you ABS-will-take ERG R. PRIME money LOC J. ('Rosa will take the money to Juan for you')

where the verb is marked for abs-prime ('goal-topic') and the abs functor is realised by the prime marker ang, contains arguments all of which are associated with 'presupposed referentiality'. In this connexion, we should also acknowledge a further local restriction concerning prime and referentiality: for the most part, a non-prime abs will be interpreted as indefinite (Schachter 1976: 516, notes 3 and 4), and in this sense selection of the abs as prime in (3.73) is not entirely 'free'. We return to the significance of this below. In any case, such interpretational preferences cannot disguise the grammaticalised status of the prime, though it differs from the subject in not being determinate with respect to the hierarchy of semantic relations. This, and the correlations with (in)definiteness, is illustrated by the alternatives in (3.74): (3.74)

a. Mag-salis ang babae ng bigas sa sako para sa bata ERG-will-take-out PRIME woman ABS rice DIR sack BEN DIR child (The woman will take some rice out of a/the sack for a/the child') b. Aalisin ng babae ang bigas sa sako para sa bata ABS-will-take-out ERG woman PRIME rice DIR sack BEN DIR child ('A/the woman will take the rice out of a/the sack for a/the child')

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c. Aalisan ng babae ng bigas ang sako para sa bata DiR-will-take-out ERG woman ABS rice PRIME sack BEN DIR child ('A/the woman will take somericeout of the sack for a/the child') d. Ipag-salis ng babae ng bigas sa sako and bata BEN-will-take-out ERG woman ABS rice DIR sack PRIME child ('A/the woman will take somericeout of a/the sack for the child') (again from Schachter), in whose glosses I've substituted ABS for 'goal' and ERG for 'actor'. The 'subject-like' properties of primes that Schachter notes (1976: §2) are, rather, characteristic of principal relations in general, including the abs in 'syntactically ergative' languages. Thus, for example, Schachter invokes the 'accessibility hierarchy' of Keenan and Comrie (1977), in terms of which subjects are most (and thus possibly exclusively in a language) accessible as relativisees; and he notes that 'in Philippine languages it is clear that only topics can be relativized' (1976: 500). Schwarz (1976: §4) also cites this as evidence for the subjecthood of the Ilocano prime. But in the 'syntactically ergative' Dyirbal and Sama it is only abs that can be relativised (Dixon 1972: §§4.10, 5.5; Johnson 1974; Anderson 1977: §3.5.5; van Valin 1992): recall (3.68) above. Accessibility to relativisation does not differentiate or select between different systems of principal relation; it does not require that we identify prime with subject. On the other hand, the failure of the prime to exhibit other characteristics which Schachter attributes to subjects (1976: §3) does not weaken their claim to principalhood: the relevant characteristics (involving control in equi and reflexivisation) are to be associated primarily with erg rather than subject (cf. again e.g. Anderson 1977: ch. 3; see too Schwarz (1976: §3) on the role of linear precedence). Likewise, the fact that not all sentences in Tagalog contain a prime - they are unsurprisingly absent from existentials: (3-75)

May aksidente (Kagabi) 3 accident last-night (There was an accident (last night)')

- is not inconsistent with principalhood (or subjecthood, for that matter), as established in §3.3.1 above. Schachter eventually concludes that 'there is a division of subject-like properties between the category we have been calling the topic and the category we have been calling the actor, with a few subject-like properties reserved for the intersection of the topic and the actor, the actor-topic' (1976: 513). However, the 'subject-like' properties attributed to 'actors' are simply those capacities for control that we can in general associate with erg. I have labelled as ERG the functor in (3.73) that is traditionally called 'actor' to indicate that ni does indeed seem

196

The syntax of categories

to mark erg arguments: its distribution is semantically natural (as with other functor markers, though with some syncretism), and it certainly does not evince the large-scale grammaticalisation we can associate with principal grammatical relations other than abs. Schachter points out that 'actor' cannot be equated with 'agent' in the sense of 'the typically animate perceived instigator of the action' (1976: 497). But the examples he adduces to illustrate this are exactly of the types which are erg but not 'agents' (in this sense): they are inanimate (his examples (7)) or {erg,loc} (his examples (5) - experiencer - and (6) - recipient). It is therefore unnecessary to attribute to Tagalog and the like such a bizarre dispersal of 'subject-like' properties as Schachter envisages. The Tagalog prime is a principal grammatical relation that differs from subject in not being selected in accordance with the hierarchy of semantic relations, and displays the appropriate (derived) properties. Schwarz argues that the 'unmarked focus' (prime) in Ilocano is erg/'actor' (1976: §7). If this is so, then it is an indication of the potential of erg arguments for topicality which underlies the prevalence of the subject-based (rather than prime- or abs-based) system of grammatical relations; subject grammaticalises the unmarked topicalisation pattern, whereas prime simply grammaticalises topicalisation. On the other hand, Gil (1984) argues that the Austronesian languages, and specifically Tagalog, are 'patient-prominent'; this means, amongst other things, that the 'goal'/'patient' is preferred textually, and grammatically (e.g., as noted in relation to (3.73), definite 'goals' are necessarily primes). I take this as a reflection of the absence of subjecthood, and the consequent retained 'prominence' of abs, as in an 'ergative' or 'active' system. Tagalog is apparently an 'active' language, in distinguishing between agentive and non-agentive 'intransitives' (Schachter 1976:499): recall the Dakota of (3.72). At any rate, its system cannot be interpreted as simply 'ergative' (Payne 1982; Cooreman, Fox and Givon 1984); this ignores the superimposition of prime assignment on to the signalling of semantic relations. Part of Schwarz's evidence for 'actor-focus' as unmarked is the fact that whereas otherwise the prime usually occupies first post-predicator position in the sentence, as in (3.76a), a definite (non-prime) erg pre-empts this initial slot (1976: §6), as shown in (b): (3.76)

a. Ma-bisito ti babai (i)ti lalaki ABS-kiss girl boy (The girl can be kissed by a boy') b. Bisito-en ti babai ti lalaki kiss-ABS girl boy (The girl kisses the boy')

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197

{Ma- in (3.76a) is an 'abilitative' ABS-as-prime prefix; hence the gloss.) Compare too, once more, the Tagalog sentence of (3.73). There is a strong correlation between the syntactically salient initial position and definite erg (whether or not also prime). Likewise, a prelude to status as full syntactic subject for Dative arguments is acquisition of subject position (Anderson 1984^: §3). On the other hand, morphosyntactic subjects may occupy a position not associated with syntactic subjecthood, as with those in English 'existential there' sentences. Having a consistent position does not in itself show that a morphosyntactic relation is also syntactically relevant otherwise (in particular, to control and 'movement'). This has a bearing on a consideration of non-principal relations, to which we now turn. 3.3.3

Non-principals

The traditional 'syntactic' Case theory that developed from the work of Rumpel (1845, 1866) saw the cross-linguistic determination of the manifestations of some Cases as basically 'syntactic', non-notionally-based. Thus, typically, the Nominative is viewed from such a perspective as the Case which (whatever else) marks the subject, the Accusative signals the direct object, while the Dative is the Case of the indirect object (for a concise illustration, cf. e.g. Mitchell and Robinson 1982:104-5); t n e s e Cases reflect the distribution of grammatical relations, on such a view. I'm not primarily concerned here with these alleged Case/grammatical relation correspondences, though they will be relevant; rather, I want now to consider what motivations there might be for recognising these further (to subject) grammatical relations. As to their status, I have already suggested, in the immediately preceding sections, that both subject and (direct) object are derivative (of the array of semantic relations), the latter in terms of the object rule (I leave aside the possibility of 'indirect objects' for the moment): Object rule An object is an abs denied subjecthood by an erg. As well as being consistent with the notional grammar position, this restricts objects to subject systems - though we must later consider to what extent it is only erg subjects that impose objecthood on an abs. Let us begin with a look at the former claim, the limitation of objecthood to subject-based systems - a claim not uncommon among students of ergativity (cf. e.g. Klimov 1984) - though the different proposals (as to the type of subject involved) that might be embodied in the object rule are necessarily intertwined in the discussion which follows. In a language like English (to take the usual random sample), the abs denied

198

The syntax of categories

subjecthood by an erg shows various (possibly, but problematically) distinctive morphosyntactic properties - vis-a-vis, crucially, other participant arguments. Morphologically, putative object pronouns are oblique, specifically Accusative, despite not being governed by an overt functor {to him) or used absolutely {Me!). We can, in Rumpelian fashion, associate the identification of Accusative in a language specifically with its being used to mark an object as defined by the object rule, however else it may be distributed - e.g. as the 'Accusative of Extent in Time' in Latin: (3.77)

Duodequadraginta annos tyrannus Syracusanorum fuit Dionysius ('(For) thirty-eight years Dyonisius was tyrant of the Syracusans') (Gildersleeve and Lodge 1895: §336)

Having such a morphological marker is necessarily not a feature of 'ergative' languages (which are necessarily 'morphologically ergative'), given that the abs in a predication also containing erg will be marked in the same as way as abs in a predication without erg. Similarly, though some subject-based systems show 'object concord', this is not associated with 'ergative' systems, where any concord with an abs in a predication also containing an erg is shared with the abs in a predication lacking erg. 'Ergative' (sub-)languages cannot have morphosyntactic objects - objects that are morphologically signalled as such. This is, of course, not to deny that a language may distinguish morphologically between a 'transitive' and an 'intransitive' abs while marking ('transitive') erg differently from both. Mixed systems provide instructive illustrations here. In Japanese, for instance, the postposition ga marks the morphosyntactic subject, as in (3.78a), or it realises the abs in a (experiencer) predication which lacks morphosyntactic subject-formation, such as we find in (3.78b): (3.78)

a. Otooto ga sensei o tasuke-ta younger-brother SBJ teacher ACC assisted ('My younger brother assisted the teacher') b. Taroo ni eigo ga wakaru T. DAT English ABS understands ('Taro understands English') c. Taroo ga eigo ga wakaru (Taro understands English') d. *Taroo ni eigo o wakaru

(Shibatani 1978: 59, 63)

That is, ga indicates the principal relation; as Sugamoto (1982: §3) illustrates, abs ga shares one or two properties with subject ga, but is otherwise nonsubjective. O in (3.78a) marks the object. We also find (3.78c) beside (b), with

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199

both subject and absolutive marked with ga\ in such predications subjectmarking is optional. But we do not encounter (3-79d), with object-marking but no subject-marking. Objecthood depends upon subjecthood, as required by the object rule. Roger Bohm (personal communication) points out that problemetical here are instances like those in (3.79), respectively from Icelandic and Old English: (3-79)

a

- Mer/mig vantar

peninga

I,DAT/ACC lack+m,SG,PRES money+ACC ('I lack money') b. Him licade hire jDeawas III,DAT please+III,SG,PAST her way+PL,ACC ('He was pleased with her behaviour')

which exhibit just the configuration disallowed by Japanese, (pawas could be Nominative, but the lack of concord suggests not.) Apparently in such cases the syntactic subjecthood of the experiencer arguments is sufficient to license object-marking. This is a less restrictive relationship than suggested by Japanese, but it still links objecthood to the presence of a subject. It is perhaps worth recalling too, at this point, that objecthood depends not merely on subjecthood, but also on the subject's bearing a particular semantic relation, in terms of the object rule: Object rule An object is an abs denied subjecthood by an erg. The relation is one whose presence in a predication must reflect a subcategorisational requirement; it is necessarily not simply abs, which may be 'empty'. This means that the equivalent of what has come to be called 'Burzio's generalization' (deriving from Burzio 1981) is a consequence of the object rule. The 'generalisation' has been variously interpreted; I give it here, after Belletti and Rizzi (1988), as: Burzio's generalisation V assigns structural case only if it has an external argument Assignment of 'structural case', the object-marking Accusative, presupposes a non-empty subject. But, in terms of the object rule, assignment is seen as a consequence of the attribution of subjecthood ('externalisation') to a hierarchically designated participant, and thus may be absent entirely from a (sub)language. Let us return now to the question of 'syntactic' objecthood, before introducing further considerations relevant to the status of 'Burzio's generalisation'. It is not clear what motivation there might be for appealing to a 'syntactic'

200

The syntax of categories

object in the 'syntactically ergative' Dyirbal. Likewise, as concerns a primebased language, Gil argues that 'direct object... is not a viable construct in the grammar of at least one language, namely, Tagalog' (1984: 87). However, a demonstration that object is not syntactically relevant in such languages depends on the disengagement of an explicit syntactic characterisation of objects, which (in so far as it has been attempted) has proved elusive. But to the extent that syntactic objecthood correlates with morphosyntactic objecthood - i.e. that there is lacking an analogue to the discrepancies we have observed between syntactic and morphosyntactic subject, or, rather that discrepancies among 'object properties' do not simply coincide with the syntactic/morphosyntactic distinction (as evidenced below) - we can tentatively conclude that objects are lacking in nonsubjective (sub)systems. Before proceeding to further contemplation of the notion 'syntactic' object, let us also note that in English the property of being marked by an Accusative is apparently shared for many speakers with equative abs (which is not denied subjecthood by an erg), as in The person who called was her/me. For such speakers, objecthood - as far as Accusative-marking is concerned - could involve dropping 'by an erg' from the object rule: Object rule' An object is an abs denied subjecthood. Such a less restrictive formulation would also allow objecthood to the second argument with non-'holistic' {/{loc,abs} {abs}} verbs like those in (3.80) (on the analysis of Anderson 1984c, for example): (3.80)

a. The box contains his lunch/them b. His admirers include many children/them

as well as to the arguments denied subjecthood by the expletives in (3.81): (3.81)

a. It pleased them that the show was a failure b. It was raining cats and dogs

If the it is purely expletive, Burzio' s generalisation cannot be derived. However, since the latter has its major role in the explication of the alleged syntax of unaccusatives, this is perhaps no great loss. There is no point, moreover, in denying objecthood to the postverbal argument in even (3.81b), with (uncontroversially?) expletive subject. The postverbal argument in a 'holistic' like (3.22b), repeated here: (3.22)

a. Sewagefloodedinto the tank b. The tankfloodedwith sewage

The basic syntax ofpredications

201

would also have to be marked, apparently, as exceptional to the extended object rule'. But we can perhaps associate this exceptionality with the character of the lexical redundancy allowing for such as (3.22b) - say (3.82a) (which unpacks unidirectionally the composite lexical entry of (3.34) above), which regards the (3.22b) verb as a derived item with an incorporated absolutive argument: (3.82)

a. {P;N/{ absj} {loc}} =* {P;N/{ loc,abs}} : I holistic b. {abSi\{P;N}}

and where 'holistic' simply abbreviates the characterisation of the appropriate semantic class. Thus, the rule renders a verb semantically intransitive, as in (3.22b) vs. (a), by virtue of incorporating the abs and marking the loc argument as a {abs,loc}. The optional circumstantial {with sewage) which appears in (3.22b) will be marked lexically as in (3.82b), as seeking to retro-complement a verb with an incorporated {abs} argument to which it can be interpreted as being in apposition (a coindexed circumstantial). As elsewhere (cf. §3.2.2), the circumstantial abs is marked with with. On incorporation, see further §3.5. If we anticipate that discussion by proposing (as here) an appositional analysis for (3.22b) and the like, then the vwY/i-argument therein is no longer an exception to the extended object rule (object rule' above), as well as the optionality of the phrase being seen to follow from its circumstantial character. The observed distribution of Accusativity in English means, however, that even within a single language, with respect to a single property, there is variation (It's I/me) in the according of objecthood. Anderson (1984c) argues that this is characteristic of the status of objecthood in language: the subset of 'transitive' abs invoked by alleged 'object-based' phenomena is variable, intraand interlinguistically. Let us return now, in preparation for further consideration of this, to other suggested aspects of objecthood, and particularly to the question of the extent to which objects might be claimed to have a syntactic status. A NP of a character satisfying the object rule is associated in many languages with a particular position (hence comparisons of 'word order' involving 'S, O, V ) , though often occupation of this position does not necessarily coincide with the assignment of objecthood on other grounds. Thus, although the postverbal NPs in both (3.80) and (3.83) occupy the immediately postverbal position associated otherwise with objects - and may also satisfy the extended object rule:

202 (3.83)

The syntax of categories a. The car weighs two tons b. He looks the part c. She possesses a delightful disposition

- it has frequently been observed that, unlike (other) direct objects in English, they don't appear as subjects in 'corresponding' passives (for some discussion, cf. e.g. Granger 1983: §3.2.6.4; S. R. Anderson 1988b: 301-2): (3.84)

a. *Two tons are weighed by the car b. *The part is looked by him c. *A delightful disposition is possessed by her

However, it is not at all obvious that the formulation of active/passive 'correspondences' in English, at least, even requires reference to objecthood, or to a NP in an object position. Let us look at this before proceeding. In §2.7.3 we interpreted passive as a variant of raising in which the raisee is the argument second on the subject-selection hierarchy. In English, the central passive verb is one that takes an erg argument, with the rejected raisee marked with the by functor (as with erg in nominalisations). If the erg is also loc, a variant with to rather than by may be available: (385)

a. His books are known by a lot of people b. His books are known to a lot of people

Two-participant verbs with a ranking argument which is loc but not erg mark this rejected raisee with an appropriate {loc}: (3.86)

a. His lunch is contained in the box b. Many children are included among his admirers

Cf. (3.80a). In each of these instances, the raised argument is an abs, which, in the active, is also an object, in terms of the (extended) object rule. But 'passive' raising in English is not limited to object-'correspondent', or abs, apparently. Thus, (3.87), for instance, are passives: (3.87)

a. This pot has been cooked in (by generations of Smiths) b. This bed hasn't been slept in (by anyone)

with raisees which are the loc argument of a ('derived' (a) - on a non-cannibalistic interpretation - or not (b)) agentive intransitive: (3.88)

a. Generations of Smiths have cooked in this pot b. Nobody has slept in this bed

and the 'stranded' functor indicates this. The examples in (3.87) bring along interpretations which involve there being some sign of the activity denoted by

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203

the non-auxiliary predicator having taken place (or not), of the locative having been affected - cf. e.g. Riddle, Sheintuch and Ziv 1977. We could allow for this by also attributing to these loc arguments the abs - and thus also object - relation, given that an abs argument in general denotes the entity perceived as undergoing an action. However, the interpretations in question seem rather to be a function of the conjunction of perfect and passive, given the viability of e.g. (3.89): (3.89)

a. This pot isn't cooked in (anymore) b. This bed isn't slept in (anymore)

and the absence here of these semantic properties. There is no semantic basis for assigning abs (and so objecthood) to the relevant arguments. No more need we attribute to the postverbal arguments of traditional 'prepositional' ('abstract' locational/directional) verbs such as those in (3.90): (3.90)

a. Freddie listens to the album b. Nellie has abstained from nothing

either the semantic relation abs or the grammatical relation object, unless we insist that the viability of a passive, as in (3.91): (3.91)

a. The album isn't listened to b. Nothing has been abstained from

must be associated specifically with them. However, it is not clear on what grounds one could maintain such insistence. The characterisation of passives in English need not invoke objecthood - or even abs - though the latter does seem to characterise the unmarked passivisee. The marked status of 'prepositional' passives in English is perhaps reflected in the range of factors which Hudson (1990: §12.5) notes as correlating with the viability of different prepositional passives in English. An even more drastic version of 'object-based' analyses of passives like (3-83) and (3.85), involving 'reanalysis' (lexically or syntactically) of the preposition of (3.84) and the like as part of the verb complex, is offered by Johnson (1979), Hornstein and Weinberg (1981), Bresnan (1982) and others. Any accounts invoking 'reanalysis', or 'restructuring', are thereby intrinsically suspicious. And Postal (1986: §6.1) offers a number of arguments against such an analysis in this case, while S. R. Anderson (1988&: 302-4) dismisses a treatment of such passives as involving a verb + 'particle' structure. What is perhaps most instructive, though, is what emerges from (Postal's discussion (1986: §6.3) of) the two partially viable arguments in favour of 'reanalysis' offered by Bresnan (1982). She observes that, unlike with other sequences of predicator

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and preposition, a passive predicator and the preposition 'stranded' by passive cannot have material 'interpolated' between them, as illustrated by (3.92b) suggestive of a predicator-preposition unit: (3.92)

a. That was spoken of reverently b. *That was spoken reverently of

Likewise, passive predicator plus 'stranded' preposition behave like a verb unit in terms of eligibility for 'participle adjective conversion'; the adjectival status of such is illustrated in (3.93): (3-93)

a

- e a c n unpaid for item b. an unspoken of passion for chocolate

However, evidence that the passive predicator and the following preposition form a unit doesn't tell us anything about the corresponding active: if 'reanalysis' is optional, the viability of (3.94), compared with (3.92b): (3.94)

They spoke reverently of that

does not argue for absence of 'reanalysis' in actives, but it indicates lack of positive evidence of such 'reanalysis'. And (3.93) and the like are even further from demonstrating anything about the structure of Bill didn't pay for that item etc. Even if the passives in (3.92) and (3.94) involve some kind of 'reanalysis', evidence for this does not extend to the 'corresponding' actives. Moreover, availability for 'attributivisation', as in (3.93), is no more an indication that participle and preposition are a verb unit (independently of the results of 'attributivisation') than (3.95a) is evidence that the verb and preposition in (b) are such: (3-95)

a

- the sell-by/use-by date b. We must sell/use it (by) that date

What the 'reanalysed' structures share, apart from a passive predicator, is preposition 'stranding'. This in itself does not explain the interpolation prohibition, for instance, given the viability of Who did he speak most offensively to? etc. (Postal 1986: 217); but it is certainly not present in the actives. This suggests that any evidence for 'reanalysis', however interpreted, is consequent upon passivisation and preposition 'stranding'. The passive raisee in English is not necessarily abs, or an object, or in object position (however that is characterised). And Siewierska (1984: 71-4) notes some other languages (such as Hibena, Mashi and Olutsootso) showing apparent passivisation of locatives, in particular. But many languages do not permit 'stranded'-preposition passives, or passives where the subject would 'correspond' to a non-Accusative 'object'. Thus, in Old English, for instance, it

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appears to be the case that a passive subject always 'corresponds' to an Accusative object (with one verb being possibly exceptional here - Mitchell 1985: §851), without preposition; Genitive and Dative 'objects' are retained (not raised) in impersonal passives (Mitchell 1985: §§848-54), and there are no passives involving stranded prepositions (Mitchell 1985: §855). Here, perhaps, the argument which 'corresponds' to the passive subject conforms to the object rule; and we have coincidence between morphosyntax (Accusative marking) and syntax ('correspondent' of the passive subject). Collinge (1984:19), however, reminds us that in Ancient Greek, on the other hand, a Dative argument (for example) may 'correspond' to the subject of a passive sentence. So there is variation in this respect - how closely the passive 'victim' coincides with the requirements of the object rule - even among languages with non-minimal oblique paradigms. Despite this variability, 'passivisability', together with distinctiveness of position and morphosyntactic characteristics, is perhaps the most widely used 'diagnostic' of (direct-)objecthood: cf. e.g. Hyman and Duranti (1982) on Bantu, Comrie (1982) on Huichol, Borg and Comrie (1984) on Maltese; more generally, Collinge 1984: §4. Consonant with this, the glossary of Borsley's (1991) textbook glosses 'object' as 'a complement of a verb which becomes a subject in a passive' (p. 229). Such criterial use of passivisability means that, given variation in what is passivisable, the semantic identity of objects, and their semantic role in different predication types, will vary from language to language. Thus, 'the grammatical relation defined internally in Huichol by control of verb-object agreement and correspondence to the subject of a passive sentence corresponds in part to what are called direct objects and in part to what are called indirect objects in other languages' (Comrie 1982: 97); and the 'indirect object' usurps object properties in predications containing both a 'direct' and an 'indirect' object: Huichol is a 'reverse object' language (e.g. Rosen 1990: §6.1.1.3): (3.96)

Nee waakanaari ne-meci-tikiiti eeki I chickens i,SG-n,SG-give you ('I gave you the chickens')

And in KinyaRwanda, both of the non-subject arguments in the 'double-object' construction are available for passive: (3-97)

a. Igitabo cy-a-haa-w-e umugore n'umugabo) book it-PAST-give-PASS-ASP woman by-man ('The book was given to the woman (by the man)') b. Umugore y-a-haa-w-e igitabo (n'umugabo) woman she-PAST-give-PASS-ASP book by man ('The woman was given the book (by the man)') (Kimenyi 1980: 127; also Rosen 1990: §6.1.1.2)

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Whether or not the two arguments are simultaneously 'direct objects' in the same predication (cf. Zaenen (1984) on Kikuyu), the notion 'object' has a wider scope in this domain than in Huichol, or (as we shall see) Hebrew. In this respect, objects contrast with subjects, which are selected in accordance with the hierarchy of semantic relations, and where interlinguistic variation is associated with restrictions on the kinds of argument that can enter into particular semantic relations. As already observed, the apparently inanimate non-central English experiencer of (3.47): (3.47)

Tuesday saw Brenda's departure

for instance, would be very marked in many other language systems. What varies in the case of objects, on the other hand, is the set of abs that are counted as such on the basis of comparable criteria. Given such a background, we should finally explore here the consequences of what lies behind Givon's insistence that 'the DAT/BEN object is higher on the hierarchy of direct-objectivization than the ACC object - provided a language has any grammaticalized DO category at all' (1984&: 153). That is, the situation exemplified by Huichol - recall (3.134) - is what we should expect if 'a language has a grammaticalized DO category at all'. Let us look briefly now at Givon's proposed typology, as a prelude to a consideration of the associated hierarchy. In the terms proposed by Givon, Bill in (3.98) bears the 'semantic case' DAT, while the book is ACC: (3.98)

a. She gave the book to Bill b. She gave Bill the book

and (b) has undergone 'Dative Shifting'. Givon suggests that in Hebrew and Sherpa, for instance, with no alleged 'Dative Shifting', 'there is no grammaticalization of the pragmatic case of DO' (1984: 157). I am not concerned here with the alleged 'process' of 'Dative Shifting' as such. There can be no such 'process': as we have seen, like unaccusative, if syntactic, the 'process' would violate even strict cyclicity; if lexical, it would have to have access, illegitimately, to derived syntactic properties, such as 'grammaticalized DO'. (Cf. the extensive discussions of Anderson 1977: §§2.7-8; 1978; 1987J; 1992b: ch. 4; Bohm 1986; Givon's 'Dative Shifting' is not limited to DAT/BEN, but this only affords more extensive evidence against its existence. We return to the character of the relationship between (3.98a) and (b) and the like in §3.4.) However, the non-availability of a 'process' of 'Dative shift' that I am claiming is not unconnected with what I have to suggest concerning the semantic relations to be

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attributed to the arguments in (3.98) - which is the issue I now want to address, before returning, on the basis of this, to the alleged hierarchical status of Givon's DAT/BEN. Contrary to what is suggested by Givon and others (such as Larson: 'the thematic roles assigned to these constructions are identical' (1988: 351)), I am assuming that (3.98a) and (b) differ in the semantic relations present; and specifically that, whereas the book in both is an abs, and she an agt (simple erg), Bill, though bearing a loc relation in both, is also erg in (b) only. That is, we can associate with the verb in (3.98) the alternative valency patterns expressed in (3.99): (3.99)

a. /{erg} {abs} {loc} b. /{erg} {erg,loc} {abs}

We can envisage the {erg,loc} specification as embodying the basis for Givon's observation that 'most commonly the dative is a conscious goal of the transaction' (1984: 88). Such representations as that in (3.99b) apparently (as noted in §3.2) introduce another violation of the 'one-instance-per-clause constraint' though here, unlike in equatives, one instance is combined with another semantic relation, as with the two abs in 'holistics' like (3.32b): we return to this in §3.4. Both the {loc} and the {erg,loc} in (98/99) show semantic properties associated with (spatial) goals (see Anderson 1978; 1987^), as well as, in the case of the alleged simple loc, being marked as such. However, the erg specification attributed to Bill in (3.98b) introduces additional restrictions associated with Givon's just-quoted observation. The {erg,loc} is involvable in the transaction being represented. We can highlight this with appropriate choice of items, as witnessed by the contrast between (3.iooia)and(b): (3.iooi) a. b. (ii) a. b.

She taught Greek to Bill She taught Bill Greek She taught Greek to an empty room *She taught an empty room Greek

(cf. Green 1974: §4-B; Anderson 1977: §2.7.3; S. R.Anderson 1988&: 299-300); only on the basis of (3.iooib) would one normally suppose that Bill had necessarily actually acquired some Greek. Similarly, the 'lack of involvement' associated with the simple loc allows for the viability of (iooiia) vs. (b), the latter of which, as involving an experiencer/dative (so erg), requires as an argument something denoting an entity normally conceived of as 'involvable', potentially capable of control. The character of the semantic distinction(s) involved here remains controversial: cf., as well as the works just mentioned, Pinker 1989; Johnson 1991.

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However, again, I'm suggesting, distinct arrays of semantic relation are appropriate in the different syntactic environments in which the predicator occurs. I shall also argue in §3.4 that the {erg,loc} which occupies 'object position' in (3.94b/96ib) is derivatively, as a consequence of a quite general requirement, and by virtue of this specification, also an abs, as required by the object rule. The cross-linguistic distribution of DAT/BEN that Givon (1984) relates to a hierarchical ranking of DAT/BEN above ACC and presence vs. absence in the language of 'Dative Shifting' relates rather to the absence in particular languages of one or other of the variants allowed for in (3.99). In Huichol, in which DAT/BEN always outranks ACC, we have only (3.99b); in Hebrew, in which it never does, we have only (3.99a): but see further below for a refinement of this characterisation. Givon's other instances of 'promotion' to 'DO' in various languages can be interpreted as involving lexical rules associating abs with arguments showing a range of other relations: cf. e.g. Bresnan and Kanerva 1989, on 'applicatives' in Chichewa. Thus, we can assign to the arguments in the KinyaRwanda sentences (3.101)

a. Umugore y-oohere-eje umubooyi ku-isoko woman she-sent-ASP cook to-market (The woman sent the cook to the market') b. Umugore y-ooher-eje-ho isoko umubooyi woman she-sent-ASP-LOC market cook (The woman sent-to the market the cook') (Kimenyi 1980, via Givon 1984: §2.5)

where -ho on the verb in (b) signals the derivational relationship (analogous to that involving 'partitive'/'holistic' pairs in English), the respective semantic relations displayed in (3.102): (3.102) a. {erg} {abs} {loc} b. {erg} {loc,abs} {abs} It is consistent with the case grammar position that, whether or not it is appropriate to regard the hierarchically superior abs in (3.139/140) as objects, the derivational relationship itself need and can have no recourse to reference to 'object'. And we can at least say that the alleged object in all these instances would be an abs, in conformity with the demands of the object rule. Say we can maintain the position that the object is always an abs denied subjecthood. Even this is in doubt: the phenomena described in the preceding paragraph might be interpreted, contrary to the case grammar assumption, as involving simply alternative objecthood assignments (not 'promotions') - an

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209

interpretation perhaps closer to Givon's intentions than his 'promotion'terminology might suggest - unless the abshood of the allegedly {loc,abs} argument in (3-97/98b) and the like can be positively supported. If not, abshood is at best merely a central property of objects. And even if objects are abs, there is still considerable cross-language variation in defining the appropriate subset, even on the basis of relatively constant criteria (agreement, passive). Thus, whereas for Givon (1984: §2.2) there are no {erg,loc} objects in Hebrew, with the ACC argument always being marked as object, as in (3.103): (3.103) Hu natan et ha-sefer la-isha he gave ACC the-book to+the-woman ('He gave the book to the woman') and thus no 'Dative Shifting' analogue to the (repeated) Huichol examples of (3.96): (3.96)

Nee waakanaari ne-meci-tikiiti eeki I chickens i,SG-n,SG-give you ('I gave you the chickens')

in the 'reverse-object' Huichol, as observed above, it is (in the present terms) specifically the {erg,loc} with 'ditransitive' verbs that is object, as in (3.96), as well as the abs of 'monotransitives'. Like the abs in 'monotransitives', the {erg,loc} in (3.92) controls concord and can have a 'corresponding' passive subject; the simple abs in (3.92) does not possess these (and other) shared properties, nor is there an alternative structure in which it does and the loc does not (parallel to English (3.98a), where the loc has no passive-subject 'correspondent'). (As noted, Huichol is, indeed, a nice illustration of Givon's claim concerning the primacy of 'DAT/BEN'.) Borg and Comrie (1984: §2) show a similar situation for Maltese, except that (§3), with the 'ditransitives' ta 'give' and wera 'show', either the {erg,loc} or the simple abs is 'passivisable', as in KinyaRwanda (recall the alternatives illustrated by (3.97) above). Borg and Comrie (1984) indeed argue explicitly for the 'diffuseness' of the (direct) object relation, such that also the {erg,loc} with Maltese ta and wera is 'a partial object'. Anderson (1984c: §3) presents evidence of an even more radical 'diffuseness': in English, properties which have been claimed to correlate with objecthood do not coincide in the the ranges of arguments they select as such. He considers specifically the criteria for objecthood invoked by Postal (1974) in his discussion of raising, and shows, for instance, that in English the passive, 'particle-placement' and the 'interpolation ban' are associated with different sets of 'objects'. Let us look briefly at these, even though it is already clear that passive in English is not limited to abs/object victims, and that the

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The syntax of categories

class of abs involved will vary depending on what counts as passive - in e.g. including or not (3.86) above. Thus, the 'particle' back can precede or follow the simple abs in (3.104): (3.104) a. Bert gave back the money b. Bert gave the money back but it cannot precede the {(erg,)loc,abs} arguments in (3.105): (3.105) a. Bert crossed back *(over) the road b. *Bert gave back the bank the money unlike the non-abs loc with overt functor; nor can it immediately follow the {(erg,)loc,abs} of (3.106a): (3.106

a. *Bert crossed the road back b. ?Bert gave the bank back the money c. Bert gave the bank the money back

whereas in (b), where back follows a {(erg,)loc,abs} but precedes a simple abs, it is rather (for some people, markedly) more acceptable, and, with back following a simple abs, as in (c), there are again no problems. On the other hand, all of the immediately postverbal abs arguments with give (but not cross) are 'passivisable'. For many speakers, as illustrated by (3.107), an abs in a 'ditransitive' predication containing a (non-proniminal) {erg,loc} is not 'passivisable', though the {erg,loc} is: (3.107) a. *The money was given the bank b. The bank was given the money but the 'interpolation ban' applies to both: (3.108)

a. b. c. d.

He secretly gave the bank the money *He gave secretly the bank the money *He gave the bank secretly the money He gave the bank the money secretly

Compare (3.108) with (3.109): (3.109)

a. *Stan loves actually Mabel b. Stan is actually Mabel's lover

where the traditionally objective abs of (a) falls within the ban, and the postverbal abs of (b), not denied subjecthood by an erg but by another abs, is not susceptible. On the other, or perhaps third, hand, the interpolation before the abs of (3.110), whose subject also is not erg, but loc, is much less happy:

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211

a. The bag usually contains my lunch b. ?*The bag contains usually my lunch

So too (3.111b): (3.111)

a. He usually has the answer b. ?*He has usually the answer

which also illustrates that the viability of (3.109b) is not simply a result of the 'auxiliary', or 'function verb', status of the predicator. (One might wonder, incidentally, in the light of proposals made concerning (3.92) etc. noted above, what 'reanalyses' this 'interpolation ban' is a reflexion of.) I conclude that interlinguistic 'diffuseness' is matched by intralinguistic. This pervasive 'diffuseness' calls into question the theoretical status of the notion 'object'. Does labelling as 'object' represent any more than a vague gesture towards recognising, in a label, that varying subsets of abs denied subjecthood may have distinctive morphosyntactic properties attributed to them, and to this extent exhibit grammaticalisation? The original rule: Object rule An object is an abs denied subjecthood by an erg perhaps identifies a core of instances which will be associated with any 'object property', though it will exclude 'particle-placement' in English as such; but it has no more systematic universal significance than this. It identifies an area of potential grammaticalisation. 'Application' of the object rule itself allows for a further 'diffuseness', in that, given the non-uniqueness of abs, it provides for a predication to contain more than one object. If, for instance, both Bill and the book in (3.98b) above are (whatever else) both abs, then they both, in a sense, satisfy the object rule, even though subjecthood is more accessible to the {erg,loc} than the simple abs, as evinced by the acceptability of the passives in (3.107); and, despite differences in distribution that we can associate with distinctions in semantic relation, a 'double-object' interpretation is perhaps not inappropriate in the light of e.g. the 'interpolation' phenomena alluded to above, where (3.108) reveals a parallel between the two co-present putative objects (and see further Anderson 1977: §2.8.13; 1978). However, this provides further confirmation that an object is simply a non-subjective abs, one whose object status is variable in this respect too, given that, in Huichol - recall discussion of (3.96) above - apparently only the {erg,loc} can be ascribed objecthood, whereas in Hebrew (cf. (3.103) above) the locative argument is never object. 'Double-objecthood' is also variably attested.

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S. R. Anderson (1988^: 313), on the basis of a critique of attempts to characterise (direct and indirect) objecthood, notably those of Jespersen (1927) and Quirk et al. (1972), also concludes that: direct object and indirect object ... do not represent significant and unitary grammatical categories in syntactic structure. It is of course convenient to have these labels available for discussing the parts of particular sentences, and in a large central core of cases, we can determine their reference with little risk of ambiguity. This convenience does not by itself justify them as terms of grammar, however. Anderson, however, rejects, further, the basis for the object rule, in so far as he argues that 4it is not its semantic role that makes a given NP a direct object' (1988Z7: 290). However, this argument is based on the assumption that only one semantic relation is assigned to each NP and on interpretative appeals that 'there is surely no difference whatsoever in the semantic role filled by a given postverbal NP in the (a) and (b) sentences' of pairs like that in (3.112): (3.112) a. Jones made a silk purse out of a sow's ear b. Jones made a sow's ear into a silk purse

(ibid)

appeals which there is 'surely' no reason to accept. Certainly, the two postverbal NPs in both of (3.n2) label the source (a sow's ear) and goal (a silk purse) in the representation of a change of 'existential state'; but the unmarked one signals in addition the NP that is presented as undergoing, being affected/ effected by, the process, the NP which is taken as the basic label for the entity. This relation is given separate expression in (3.113): (3.113) Jones changed our house from a palace into a slum in this instance, by our house', whereas each of the verbs in (3.114): (3.114) a. Jones created a silk purse out of a sow's ear b. * Jones created a sow's ear into a silk purse and (3.115): (3.115) a. *Jones turned a silk purse out of a sow's ear b. Jones turned a sow's ear into a silk purse allows only one of the directionals to combine with the relation given separate manifestation in (3.113). This relation, as introducing the label for the entity affected/effected by the process, is, as elsewhere, abs. So that we can associate with these sentences the distinct assignments of semantic relations given in (3.116):

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213

a. {erg} {loc,abs} {abl} (= (3.112a), (3.114a)) b. {erg} {abl,abs} {loc} (= (3.112b), (3.115b)) c. {erg} {abs} {abl} {loc} (=(3.113))

One cannot motivate attributing to different lexical items the same set of semantic relations merely on the basis of their 'describing (at least grossly) similar situations' (S. R. Anderson 1988&: 290). The same extra-linguistic situation may be presented linguistically such that different roles are overtly attributed to the participants. The classic instance of this, as noted in §3.1, is the buy/sell pair, which may occur in sentences relating to the 'same' situation, as imaginably in (3.117): (3.117)

a. Berndt bought the Audi (from Paul) (last Tuesday) b. Paul sold the Audi (to Berndt) (last Tuesday)

but where alternative agencies are made overt; linguistically, neither (3.117a) nor (b) contains two agents. The considerations introduced by S. R. Anderson (1988b) thus do not undermine the putative universality of the object rule, and the role of abs therein - though, as we have noted, there may be other reasons for regarding abshood as being an unmarked rather than a necessary property of objects. The status of objecthood is thus rather marginal, apparently. And, as already emerges from the above consideration of 'objects' in general, it is even less clear what substance can be given to the notion 'indirect object', distinct from the semantic relation Dative (directional {erg,loc(abs)}). The term has been used, more loosely, and with no theoretical consequence, for some defined grouping of participants (excluding subject and direct object), and even (also) for the complement of prepositions. A common, more restrictive tradition lies behind Quirk et al.'s (1972: 349) account of English: An INDIRECT OBJECT, where both are present, precedes the DIRECT OBJECT, and is semantically equivalent to a prepositional phrase. The successive postverbal NPs in (3.98b), repeated here, together with (a): (3.98)

a. She gave the book to Bill b. She gave Bill the book

are respectively 'indirect' and 'direct' objects, in these terms. Quirk et al. also claim that 'a direct object may occur without an indirect object, but not vice versa ...' (ibid.); but S. R. Anderson (1988a: 296) observes, as had Jespersen (1927: 295), that such a requirement cannot be maintained: cf. e.g. He teaches (boys) (Greek). As we have observed in relation to examples like (3.100), the

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'semantic equivalence' between 'indirect objects' and prepositional phrases is somewhat limited. And the complex of properties associated with 'indirect objects' (in these terms) described in the preceding - and more fully in Anderson (1977: §§2.7-.8; 1978) - does not require reference to such a 'notion', rather than to a directional {ergjoc}, involving the independently motivated semantic relations. Adherents of relational grammar, on the other hand, distinguish the to-phrase in (3.98a) - i.e. the simple directional loc - from the two immediately postverbal NPs in (3.98) as an 'indirect object' vs. 'direct', and this is invoked along with subject and 'direct object' as a universal grammatical relation. There is no syntactic motivation for recognising these directional phrases as distinctive, apart from their alleged participation in 'Dative Shifting'; here, too, there is e.g. no correlation with obligatory vs. optional status (see e.g. Pinker 1989: 35). And the non-universality of this, as with the preceding, notion of 'indirect object', is, I shall suggest, even less in doubt than that of direct objects, or objects in general. The semantic relation experiencer/dative ({erg,loc}), on the (yet) other hand, is plausibly universal - signalled by an oblique (Dative) inflexion/ adposition or realised as an object or both, or as a subject in the absence of a simple erg. Even 'morphologically ergative' languages, such as Basque, show overt Datives, reflected 'concordially' in the examples of (3.118) (as well as, elsewhere, by nominal inflexion): (3.118) Chehetasunak eman niozkan/niozkaten/nauzkitzuen explanations given I-had-them-to-him/I-had-them-to-them/I-had-them-toyou-PL ('I had given explanations to him/them/you (pi)') though these languages necessarily lack objects, morphologically, at least. It is not that overt marking of 'datives' - as opposed to presence of the semantic relation itself - is universal; merely that they and their distinctive expression are not restricted to systems of a specific derived-relational type. The characterisation of English 'indirect objects' offered by Quirk et al. (1972) - whereby of the NPs in (3.98) only Bill in (b) is such - is eminently non-generalisable, given that not all languages have such NP + NP sequences, or predications in which an {erg,loc} is preferred as object to - or, at least shares objecthood with - the abs: recall the phenomena which are the basis for Givon's (1984) discussion of Hebrew and Sherpa as languages lacking 'Dative Shifting', such that there is no sentence corresponding to (3.98b), in which the simple abs is 'displaced' as object, but only the variant of (Hebrew) (3.103), repeated here:

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(3.103) Hu natan et ha-sefer la-isha he gave ACC the-book to+the-woman ('He gave the book to the woman') Nor are 'indirect objects' in the relational grammar sense - realised by the fo-phrase in (3.98a) - universally attested: thus, the sentence in (3.96), again repeated: (3.96)

Nee waakanaari ne-meci-tikiiti eeki I chickens i,SG-n,SG-give you ('I gave you the chickens')

illustrates the unique possibility with such co-occurring arguments in Huichol, such that only the {erg,loc} exhibits 'object properties'. The absolute neutralisation that would be involved in suggesting that in such a language the 'indirect object' undergoes obligatory 'Dative Shifting' is obviously undesirable, and renders the proposal of universality vacuous - even if 'Dative Shifting' were not itself illegal - in violating, at the very least, the strict cyclicity condition. For more general discussion and exemplification see Anderson 1978, Faltz 1978. Anderson (1978) argues specifically that something like the array of semantic relations given to 'dative pairs' in (3.99), again repeated here: (3-99)

a. /{erg} {abs} {loc} b. / {erg} {ergjoc} {abs}

and exemplified, once more, by (3.98) or (3.iooi), the latter repeated here: (3.1001) a. She taught Greek to Bill b. She taught Bill Greek - and with the {erg,loc} amplified derivatively, as discussed in §3.4 below, to {erg,loc,abs} - provides for the various 'object-and-other properties' attributed to such sentences. Thus, for instance, Bill in (3.iooib) is preferred as object by virtue of relationally outranking Greek - as combined abs vs. simplex - and, as the hierarchically second argument to the erg, it 'corresponds to' the passive subject {Bill was taught Greek), whereas in (a) Greek is hierarchically second (Greek was taught to Bill). As we have seen, the abs associated with this instance of the 'dative' Bill is also the basis for its resistance to 'interpolation' (recall the examples in (3.107)); and the {loc,abs} conjunction is what is resistant to interpolation of 'particles' (recall (3.105)). As indicated above, we take up the potential problem posed by the cooccurrence in the same predication of {erg} and {erg,loc} in §3.4. In the subsection that follows now I look at the character of subject-formation and its relation to sequencing of elements, or linearisation. In this one, I have tried

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The syntax of categories

to document the 'diffuseness' of objecthood, and also the variability in the distribution of what Givon (1984) calls DAT/BEN. And we are now in a position to refine upon the characterisation of this offered above (in the discussion following (3.100)). Whereas both arrays in (3.99) are available to a single predicator in a language like English, in others, such as Huichol, only one of (3.99a) and (b) is found with a single predicator. Huichol and Old English (together with Hebrew, perhaps) differ in turn in that whereas in the former, as in (Present-day) English, the {erg,loc} in the equivalent of (3.98/1 oob) is derivatively also abs, and so an object, as in (3.96), in Old English this is not so, and the {erg,loc} remains morphosyntactically non-objective, marked as Dative - except with a few verbs (such as Iceran 'teach') that take two Accusatives (Mitchell 1985: §§1083) and non-passivisable (except with Iceran etc. This reflects a failure of the {erg,loc} in Old English to raise/subject-form, thus acquiring an abs specification (§3.4); raising in such constructions is abs-based (we have an ergative subsystem). A final possibility is represented by those languages, or subsystems, which apparently lack an equivalent to (3.99b), as represented, according to Faltz (1978), by K'ekchi and Tamazight. This and the other major possibilities in the area of 'Datives' are presented in table 3.2. Old English is actually, as shown in the table, a mixed system; verbs, such as Iceran 'teach', which take two Accusatives, pattern, in terms of passivisation, as the corresponding arguments in Huichol (or Present-day English): only the {erg,loc,abs}, not the {abs}, has a corresponding passive subject (Mitchell 1985: §835). This is not uncommon. We have here another dimension of variability in language categorisation which is obscured by inappropriate claims for universality of derivative properties. And §3.4 below offers further motivations for such an account of this variability as I have sketched here, as well as providing a more explicit formulation of the structure of 'ditransitives'. 3.3.4

Subject-formation and linearisation

I now want to look rather more carefully at the implementation of subjecthood in the (morpho)syntax, and at the interaction of this with (other aspects of) the erection of syntactic structure, including linearisation. I have differentiated between syntactic and morphosyntactic subjecthood, since they may not coincide, as in examples of the familiar type of (3.119): (3.119) There are fairies at the bottom of the garden

The basic syntax ofpredications 217 Table 3.2: Dative object constructions Tamazight I-sa urgaz lesGap i Gmaftufl: m,MASC,SG-give man book to woman (The man gave the book to the woman') Huichol (3.96) Nee waakanaari ne-meci-tikiiti eeki I chickens i,SG-n,SG-give you ('I gave you the chickens') Old English ]3e him hringas geaf that II,DAT rings+ACC gave ('who gave him rings')

{erg} {abs} {loc}

{erg} {abs} {erg,loc,abs}

{erg} {ergjoc} {abs}

{erg} {erg,loc,abs} {abs} siddan he his cnihtas gelaered haefde done craeft daes lareowdomes after he his followers+ACC taught had the+ACC craft+ACC of teaching ('after he had taught his followers the craft of teaching') English (3.1001) a. She taught Greek to Bill b. She taught Bill Greek

{erg} {abs} {loc} {erg} {erg,loc,abs} {abs}

KinyaRwanda (3.97) a. Igitabo cy-a-haa-w-e umugore (n'umugabo) book it-PAST-give-PASS-ASP woman by-man (The book was given to the woman (by the man)') b. Umugore y-a-haa-w-e igitabo (n'umugabo) woman she-PAST-give-PASS-ASP book by man (The woman was given the book (by the man)')

The central instances of syntactic and morphosyntactic subject do coincide in English: selection in each case satisfies the hierarchy of semantic relations that determines subjecthood. As we have observed, the non-coincidence in (3.119) results from failure to select a syntactic subject, with the (English) requirement for a syntactic subject being satisfied by an expletive. Morphosyntactic subjecthood may be signalled by adposition or inflexion or verb concord, and such a subject may contingently occupy a characteristic position that does not coincide with the unmarked position for the syntactic subject, as in English 'existential there' sentences such as (3.119). The morphosyntactic subject may be realised only morphologically, in 'null'-subject languages such as Italian; here 'concord' satisfies the requirement for a morphosyntactic subject, and the realisations of

218

The syntax of categories

syntactic and morphosyntactic subject are discrete, with possible absence of a syntactic subject, and with the morphosyntactic subject being possibly expletive. In English, on the other hand, the expletive syntactic subject may also be the morphosyntactic subject. In (3.120) the expletive it controls concord, and the finite verb is singular, despite the coordinate complement: (3.120) It seems equally likely at this point that the president will be reelected and that he will be impeached even though this other, sentential argument is capable of exercising control of concord, in appropriate circumstances, as in (3.121): (3.121) That the president will be reelected and that he will be impeached are equally likely at this point These examples are discussed by McCloskey, who associates occurrence of plural concord with sentential co-ordinations which 'specify a plurality of distinct states of affairs or situation-types' (1991: 564). Both syntactic and morphosyntactic subjects are selected on the basis of the subject-selection hierarchy of §3.3.1: Subject-selection hierarchy

erg < abs As noted, it is on this basis that, despite the discrepancies recalled above, the term 'subject' is appropriate to both constructs. Implementation of subjecthood is different in the two instances - as suggested by the discrepancies motivating the terms 'syntactic' and 'morphosyntactic'. Let us look first at the nature of morphosyntactic subjecthood. The effect of formation of a morphosyntactic subject is 'neutralisation': as is familiar, assignment of subjecthood obscures morphological clues as to the semantic relations of subject NPs. So that, for example, all of the morphosyntactic subjects in (3.122) - which are also syntactic subjects - control concord on the predicator: (3.122) a. b. c. d.

Fifi killed the cat Fifi loves cats Fifi left Fifi toppled

The basic syntax ofpredications

219

though they are arguably (semantic-)relationally disparate - say, as in (3.123): (3.123) a. {erg}

b. {erg,loc}

c. {erg,abs}

d. {abs}

I suggest, however, that the rule of formation for morphosyntactic subjects is not in itself mutational, but involves addition of a feature. If we interpret subject-formation as a grammaticalisation of the status of ergs as unmarked topics, then a plausible rule is perhaps: Morphosyntactic-subject-formation

{ }

{IPI} {P;N}

where { }{is the secondary specification of that functor (represented by the upper { }) which is highest on the hierarchy of semantic relations.

This confers morphosyntactic subjecthood on the hierarchically highest argument of a verb that depends on (in adjunction or subjunction) a finite element. (Typically, as we shall see when syntactic-subject-formation is formulated, the finite element will also govern the relevant functor phrase, but not in the case of 'existential there' sentences, for example, where a more subordinate argument is preferred to the syntactic subject (there) of the {IPI} concerned, as in (3.119) above.) Subjects are thereby 'honorary' obligatory ergs. The rule applies vacuously in the case of (a)-(c) in (3.122), given the lexical specifications in (3.121); but its effect is to collapse the functor specifications of the highest arguments of (c) and (d). The functor and the predicator invoked in the rule are syntactically distinct, but a particular serialisation is neither invoked by the rule nor prescribed by it. Concord involves the spread of the pronominal specification for this erg argument - whether it originates as (3.122a), (b), (c) or (d) to the {IPI} predicator via 'prosodic' attachment to the syntactic projection of {IPI}, indicated schematically as subject concord:

220

The syntax of categories Subject concord

{erg}

{IPI}

{N}

{P;N}

This prosody is also manifested in reflexive 'anaphors' such as that in (3.124): (3.124)

Fifi loved herself

which (in English) have this {IPI} as the {IPI} to which they are most immediately subordinate - unlike in (3.125): (3.125)

*Fifi saw the boy who loved herself

where the concord prosody of the most immediately superordinate {IPI} is incompatible with the reflexive. In order to allow for non-subject (sub)systems, we should generalise the preceding formulations as morphosyntactic-principal-formation and principal concord, with implementation differing in how the victim is selected. We need also to allow for systems with multiple concords, as evidenced by the Basque of (2.59), partially replicated here: (2.59)

d. Eman

dio

telliPART AUX,PREs:(s)he-him/her-it C(S)he (has) told him/her it') Eman zion telliPART AUX,PAST:(s)he-him/her-it (*(S)he had told him/her it') Emanen dio tell:GERUND AUX,PREs:(s)he-him/her-it (*(S)he tells/is telling him/her it') Emanen zion tell:GERUND AUX,PAST:(s)he-him/her-it ('(S)he was telling/used to tell him/her it')

I do not pursue this, except to observe that the Basque forms provide strong support for the generalisation of something like the concord rule, crucially its involvement of both {IPI} and {P;N}. As predicted by this view of concord, it is the argument structure of the {P;N} (verb: eman(en) in (2.59d)) that is reflected in the shape of the {IPI} (auxiliary: dio/zion in (2.59d)). On the other hand, we

The basic syntax ofpredications

221

should acknowledge that such formulations are appropriate to central instances of concord only, in so far as there as there appear to be languages in which concord extends to non-finite forms (§3.6). In 'null'-subject languages, formation of morphosyntactic subject is morphology-internal. The dependency relations between {IPI} and {erg} are not the result of syntactic projection but are created by morphological redundancy; indeed, if we interpret the subcategorisation slash V as an instance of the dependency relation, they are already specified in the lexicon. Thus, if we formulate subject-formation as: Morphosyntactic-subject-formation' {IPI} {P;N}

where { }, is the secondary specification of that functor which is highest on the hierarchy of semantic relations then we can formulate the difference between 'null'-subject languages and non'nuir as involving whether or not the functor node in the reformulated formation rule must be distinctively realised (from the {IPI} node) in the syntax; in 'null'-subject languages (morphosyntactic-) subject-formation takes place in the (inflexional) morphology and the configuration specified in the formation rule is a subjunction path. Likewise, we can generalise subject concord over 'null'-subject languages as, again schematically, subject concord', which abstracts away from linearity relations: Subject concord'

I

{P;NJ

L

{erg} {N}

222

The syntax of categories

with, again, a requirement for non-'null'-subject languages that the predicator must be realised distinctively in the syntax from the specified subordinate functor. In 'null'-subject languages, both syntactic subjects and appositions to the morphosyntactic subject (so-called 'inverted' arguments - recall §2.7.3) - as re-exemplified here in (3.126a) and (b), respectively: (3.126)

a. Giuseppe ha trovato la lampadina ('G. found the lightbulb') b. Sono rimasti dei profughi ungheresi nel paese ('Some Hungarian refugees remained in the country')

are obligatorily sensitive to the prosody associated with the {IPI} within whose domain they fall, rather than themselves being the source of concord, which, just as in 'null'-subject (2.230c), has its source in the verb. In such languages, where morphosyntactic-subject-formation is pre-empted by the morphology, the source of concord is, syntactically, within the predicator itself. We have here, then, a strictly morphological subject. For suggestions along similar lines see e.g. Lehmann 1983; Dik 1989: §§6.6, 15.1.4, 15.3. In most instances, subject-formation has no effect on the set of relations attributed to an eligible argument; only victims originally lacking erg are affected, by the addition of an erg. It is attributable to this perhaps, rather than merely their complexity (cf. §3.3.1), that ranking {erg,loc} arguments in a subject-forming system may persist in lacking the stigmata of morphosyntactic subjecthood. Recall at this point the above discussion of examples of so-called 'impersonals' from Old English such as (3.59a), repeated here: (3-59)

a

- Him

ofhreow

daes

mannes

he/they+DAT pitied+III,SG the+GEN man+GEN

('He pitied the man') The predication contains arguments which are, whatever else, {erg,loc} (experiencer: him) and {abl} ('abstract' source: dees mannes); the former is marked with a Dative inflexion, the latter with a Genitive; neither controls concord, which is invariably third person singular; there is no Nominative argument and no (other) syntactic concord-controlling argument. Contrast with the arguments in (3.59a) the manifestations of morphosyntactic subjecthood in (3.127): (3.127)

a. Ne seowe J)u god saed on JDinum aecere? ('Did you (NOM) not sow good seed in your field?') b. Hi hinelufedan... ('They (NOM) loved him ...') c. Eode he in mid ane his preosta ('He (NOM) went in with one of his priests')

The basic syntax ofpredications

223

d. ]3a he on lichoman waes ('when he (NOM) was in the flesh') e. Se maessepreost JDaes mannes ofhreow (The priest (NOM) pitied the man') even with the same predicator as in (3.59a), as exemplified in (3.127c). The (directional) {erg,loc} in (3.128), outranked as subject by the simple {erg} (see §3-3-5). is also marked with a Dative inflexion: (3.128) ac he forgeaf eordlice ding mannum ('but he gave earthly things to-men (DAT)') Suppose then we have in Old English a morphological rule associating {erg,loc} with Dative, as, say, in (3.129): (3.129)

{erg,loc} => Dative

where 'Dative' is intended merely to indicate that there is some distinct morphological shape for {erg,loc} arguments. Things are, of course, more complex than this, in that, for instance, {erg,loc} may also be marked with Accusative (often with the same predicator); but I don't think this affects the core of the situation under consideration. (For discussion of relevant material, see e.g. van der Gaaf 1904; Elmer 1981; Ogura 1986; Anderson 1986J; 1988b.) Say that there is also for Old English a subject-realisation rule of the character of (3.130): (3.130)

{erg} => Nominative

The impersonal (3.59a) and the personal (3.127c) exhibit potential conflict between rules (3.129) and (3.130): so that, if (3.129) has priority, as more specific, then the arguments of the experiencer-source verb are marked as in (3.59a); if (3.130) applies quite generally, with (3.129) being limited to directional {erg,loc} not eligible for subjecthood, then inflexion is as in (3.127c). This situation in Old English may reflect diglossia of the character suggested by Lightfoot (1991: §6.1), though not involving the kind of alternatives envisaged by him. (He envisages juxtaposition of a system with 'inherent' case and one without, which does seem at all to meet the case (with apologies!) for Old English: 'inherent' case is associated with both personal and impersonal predications, as evidenced by (3.127c) and (3.59a).) Subsequently, (3-59a)-type variants become non-available. Often this is attributed to the loss of (most) case inflexions in English (cf. recently Fischer and van der Leek 1983; Lightfoot 1991: §6.1). I suspect that something like the reverse is the case. Examples like (3.59b), again repeated here:

224 (3-59)

The syntax of categories b. ... him sceal scamian aetforan Gode he/they+DAT must feel-shame before God

suggest that such Datives are already interpreted as syntactic subjects (here undergoing raising) before loss of the case marking. What seems to be happening subsequently in the history of English is development of a closer matching between syntactic and morphosyntactic subject, with selection of morphosyntactic subject coming to conform with that of the syntactic subject. The 'existential' of (3.119) represents a rather isolated exception to this, and even it is under threat, as witnessed by the colloquial (3.131): (3.131) There's fairies at the bottom of the garden and the like, in which the postverbal argument fails to control concord. I am suggesting that it may be this development - reinterpretation of morphosyntactic non-subjects in accordance with their syntactic subjecthood - that allows for cases to be lost, rather than vice versa. Syntactic subjecthood is manifested not, of course, by morphological expression but in eligibility for raising and the like, and with an unmarked position (which may not be occupied by the merely morphosyntactic subject). Morphosyntactic subjecthood (in the unmarked case, at least) is associated with finite verbs: in the formulations of morphosyntactic-subject-formation and concord offered above, the governor is ' {IPI} '.It would look as if non-finite predicators, and non-verbal, even - to judge from eligibility for raising - have, in a sense, syntactic subjects as readily as finites. It would appear that the governor of the relevant construction with syntactic subjects is simply 4 {P}', P is present. But syntactic subjecthood as such is not manifested in predications that are not finite, merely eligibility for raising or 'equi'/licensed absence. In English, an overt syntactic subject is associated with presence of both a {IPI} node and a dependent node with dominant P. I suggest therefore as a provisional characterisation of syntactic-subject-formation the following: Syntactic-subject-formation

where { }j is the secondary specification of that functor which is highest on the hierarchy of semantic relations.

The basic syntax ofpredications

225

That is, the syntactic node associated with the hierarchically highest functor of a P-dominant predicator is further associated with a node attached to the governor of this governor, its metagovemor, and, in English, for example, serialised to its left (' the verb in (3.132) is lexically {P;N/{erg} {abs}}; as a non-auxiliary, it is also subject to morphological redundancy (3.133): (3.133)

(IP"} {P;N}

which allows it to occur in finite position when this can coincide with the position of the non-finite - as in (3.132), for example - but not in NICE

226

The syntax of categories

contexts. Given also the redundancy providing {N}s with functors, repeated here: (2.31)

c. {N} where C is a variable over the set of conjunctions of case features

the categories underlying (3.132) will induce the unserialised syntactic structure (3.134): (3-134)

{P}

{erg}

{abs}

{P .N}

{N}

{N}

read

John

Rasselas

I

I

(ignoring marking for Tense). Both nodes above John and both above Rasselas are saturated: functors take one argument, names take none. But the upper node with read is not: given that all predicators must be accompanied by an abs, even if they are not subcategorised there for, {P} has an empty slot, the complement slot of the abs which is required to be present as one of its dependents by the universality-of-abs principle. Subject formation fills this empty slot with John, as the hierarchically highest argument, and also linearises this phrase to the left of ( ' < ' ) read. Rasselas, on the other hand, is linearised to the right by the default redundancy for modifiers: Modifier serialisation (English)

WORD;

WORD,

WORD,

WORD,

(linearity follows subordination,'—»'), which is the basic condition assuring that English is head-left (centrifugal). (On linearity as primarily a property of words/ formatives, see also Higginbotham 1983.) This gives (3.132). I am assuming that (as in general) initially, in (3.134), the read-, John-, and Rasselas-phmsts are syntactically distinct but not mutually serialised, since the serialisation is in

The basic syntax ofpredications

227

itself non-contrastive. The serialisation appropriate to the upper (subject) arc in (3.132) is preferred to that determined by the the lower (modifier of {P;N}) one. This is general; sequencing gives priority to the upper node: Superiority An item realising a pair of associated syntactic nodes is sequenced in accordance with the requirements of the upper node. However, notice also that, in conformity with inalterability, the lower dependency associated with John is not relinquished on establishment of the upper one. Nevertheless, subject-formation can also be said to establish a constituent 'VP' (initially absent, as again non-contrastive), i.e. a constituent consisting of {P;N} and those elements subordinate to it but not (also) associated with another dependant of its governing {P}. In the 'existential' (3.119) the default (expletive) selection for syntactic subject there is attached and serialised in accordance with syntactic-subject-formation, while the morphosyntactic (but not syntactic) subject fairies is serialised like any other complement according to modifier serialisation, i.e. to the right of the predicator. This requires, of course, that the BE of such sentences has, exceptionally for an auxiliary, access to redundancy (3.133). As observed above in relation to morphosyntactic-subject-formation, the relative order of functor and predicator is not germane to the rule: in English, the morphosyntactic subject precedes if it is syntactic subject and follows if it is not - the latter, as observed, in accordance with the variant of the rule for modifier serialisation selected by English. In (3.135), with independent lexical realisation of {P} - as the auxiliary may: (3-135) J°hn may read Rasselas John is attached by subject-formation to the syntactic node associated with may, since here read is non-finite, and it projects no {P}-node; and read thus satisfies the valency of may. (3.136) where '{P;N}' is the representation for an infinitive, the unmarked non-finite, provided as the lexical representation for non-modals. A finite read - i.e. a form having undergone redundancy (3.135) - would violate the subcategorisational demands of may. Read thus projects only one syntactic node, and it is thus the {P} node projected by may that provides the unsaturated metagovernor that John must satisfy as abs-filler - and, finally, subject, as represented in (3.137):

228

The syntax of categories

(3-137)

{abs} (erg)

I {N} John

{P}

{P N}

{abs}

I

{N}

may

read

Rasselas

Here governor and metagovernor of John are syntactically distinct, serialised (by the modifier rule) with respect to one another. Attachment of John in (3.137) is in effect a 'raising'; and I now want to show that raising of non-auxiliaries can also be subsumed under syntactic subject formation - or, rather, vice versa. The may predication, indeed, is but one instance of what Anderson (1972) calls a 'quasipredication', a predication with a functor empty of an argument and with a dependent predicator; that paper offers an extensive and somewhat speculative discussion of the role in the syntax of empty functors, one which I shall draw on and try to sharpen. But let us note firstly, before proceeding to a more extended consideration of raising, that the syntactic representation in (3.137) involves a violation of projectivity: again in conformity with inalterability, the dependency of John on read is maintained once it is also attached to may; but in this instance, the lower dependency arc intersects an association line. We shall be concerned below to elaborate a little on constraints on such violations of projectivity, and to establish that they are principled. Let us for the moment merely observe, as a first step in that direction, that the offending arc terminates in a (derived) specifier position. This observation, I suggest, is the basis for invocation of the relevant constraint, which I give, informally, in the very general form that we shall find to be appropriate as the discussion proceeds: Non-projectivity condition One terminal of a non-projective line must be in a basic unsubcategorised-for modifier position. It is trivially true of the subject arc that it terminates in an element that is unsubcategorised-for; its formation, as described above, depends on just that. But

The basic syntax ofpredications 229 the non-projectivity condition requires in addition that a terminal of an offending arc must occupy a position - placement in sequence and in configuration that is characteristic of basic unsubcategorised-for elements, i.e. a position that is inherently unsubcategorised-for, but introduced rather by the requirements of 'retro-valency'. And this requirement too is satisfied by the configuration which is created derivatively, outside the subcategorisation domain of the argument concerned (which is headed by {P;N}), by (syntactic-) subject formation. I'm suggesting that in the instances we've looked at subject-formation creates a specifier, an unsubcategorised-for modifier serialised to the left of its head. Specifiers are subject to: Specifier serialisation (English) WORDSPEC

\

WORDk

=>

WORD,

WORDSPEC

(a specifier precedes its governor), which overrides the default serialisation of modifiers given above, and 'preposes' the specifier very of (2.227a), repeated here: (2.227)

a

- Janice is very articulate

Circumstantials such as that in (2.268), repeated here: (2.238) They make the toys upstairs which are only derivatively circumstantials - they also occur as complements conform to either the general modifier rule, as in (2.238) or the specifier, as in (2.241), again repeated here: (2.241) Upstairs they make the toys but for the most part circumstantials obey the default option. Specifier serialisation is also responsible for the position of so in both of (3.138), involving respectively verbal and adjectival specification, in these instances by a complemented specifier: (3.138) a.

so

enraged

so

heavy

Mary

that she hit him

b.

that he sank

230

The syntax of categories

These specifiers again occupy a position we are associating derivatively with syntactic subjects: below we shall indeed subsume subject positioning under specifier serialisation. But notice now that the effect of specifier and modifier serialisation with respect to the structures in (3.138) has been to 'extract' so: the subordinates of so are also subordinate to the governor of so (enraged and heavy respectively), and they are thus serialised to the right of both so and its governor, giving discontinuity, non-projectivity. These non-projectivities of (3.138) are again in conformity with the non-projectivity condition formulated just above. Indeed, as a characteristic locus for unsubcategorised-for elements, the position occupied by so can be interpreted as providing a 'template' for subject-formation whereby the non-projectivity condition can be satisfied. This illustrates the basic scenario whereby the creation of secondary non-projectivity may be licensed. By secondary non-projectivity I mean that introduced by the assignment of more than two mothers to a single item, as with syntactic subjects. Specifier structures like those in (3.138) instantiate primary non-projectivity. Notice specifically that the node initiating the offending dependency arc in (3-!37) - part of the configuration realised as John - is associated with a node which is itself governed by a node to which the node terminating the arc is independently subordinate. This latter relation involves an analogue to the familiar 'c-command' relation defined over constituency-based structures; let us call it d-command, formulated as: D-command Node a d-commands b iff there is a c such that a depends on c and b is subordinate to c. In the case of subject-formation, d-command is achieved only via the metagovernor: thus John in (3.137) comes to d-command read only via projection of the node associated with the unsubcategorised abs introduced with respect to may. Such derived d-command is characteristic of secondary non-projectivities, as will begin to emerge when we now turn to other means of satisfying the requirement for a metagovernor imposed by syntactic-subject-formation. Consider now a raising structure such as we can associate with (3.139a), initially projected, schematically, as in (b): (3139)

a. Kate expected John to read Rasselas

The basic syntax ofpredications

231

b.

{P}

{erg,loc}

{P;N/{erg,loc}{P;N}}

{N}

expected

I

Kate

{P N}

to-read

{erg}

{abs}

I

I

{N}

{N}

John

Rasselas

- with details like the subcategorisation of (the simple transitive) read omitted. I am also ignoring the status of 'infinitival to\ for the moment; but since I shall argue in §3.4 (developing upon e.g. Pullum 1982; Anderson 1992&: §5.6) that it is relatively 'transparent' to the phenomena with which we are concerned at the moment, such neglect does not affect the present discussion. I have also again omitted from (3.139b), as not projected from the subcategorisations, any instances of unsubcategorised-for abs. Here there are two such, introduced as elsewhere in conformity with the predicatorial universality of a dependent abs: one, as in (3.132), assigned to the {P} category, the other supplied to the {P;N} associated lexically with expect, which, as indicated in (3.139b), also lacks an abs in its subcategorisation frame. To-read is again non-finite, to satisfy the valency of expect; and so it projects only one syntactic node. But in this case the unsaturated metagovernor is provided by the {P;N} category realised as expect, which is subcategorised for only {erg,loc} and {P;N}) and thus offers the requisite empty abs. This gives (3.140):

232

The syntax of categories

(3.140)

{P}

{erg,loc}

{abs}

{P;N/{erg,loc}{P;N}}

{N}

{erg}

I

{P

{N} expected

Kate

John

{abs}

I

{N} to-read

Rasselas

The effect of 'subject-formation' with John is to 'raise' it into the expect clause: 'raising' occurs as an alternative fulfilment of 'subject-formation'. Perhaps, though, it is more respectful of traditional understandings of the terms to see syntactic-subject-formation as a special case of raising; and, indeed, to accommodate traditional 'raising' in the above formulation of syntactic-subjectformation we must generalise the upper node to '{P >}' rather than simply '{IPI}'. I shall henceforth refer to the revised formulation as raising, distinguished from the narrower traditional conception of 'raising' by the absence of quotation marks. 'Subject-formation' can thus be identified with 'raising' (and 'passive raising'). In all instances, raising associates the argument highest on the hierarchy of semantic relations with the empty abs node of its metagovernor, and the satisfaction of the valency of this node is the motivation for the building of the extra structure. The same valency requirement, as well as the same structure building, characterises both 'subject-formation' and traditional 'raising'. An apparent consequence of raising, in the present - as illustrated in (3.140) - instance, however, is the serialisation of the raisee to the right of its metagovernor, unlike with the raising in (3.132), whose placement to the left we incorporated as part of 'syntactic-subject-formation'. We must then apparently differentiate these cases as in (b) and (c) of raisee serialisation, where (a) is simply an instance of superiority: Raisee serialisation (English) a. Raisees are serialised with respect to their metagovernor b. Raisees to {IPI} serialise as specifiers thereof c. Raisees to {P;N} serialise as modifiers thereof

The basic syntax ofpredications

233

and eliminate the order stipulation from raising/'syntactic-subject-formation', as updated at this point, to accommodate the revision proposed above - generalising '{IPI}' to '{P >}' - and to incorporate a further generalisation involving elimination of the dependent {P >}, which allows the rule to involve dependent non-verbals:

where { } {is the secondary specification of that functor which is highest on the hierarchy of semantic relations with the nature of the hierarchy, and its existence, being dependent on the system's type of principal relation. As an abs, John in (3.139/140) is also serialised closer to expect than is the verbal argument. In general, we can say that the unmarked position for abs is adjacent to its verbal, in accord with the hierarchy of semantic relations, which regulates aspects of predicational serialisation not determined configurationally, i.e. by the rules determining direction of specification/modification. John is right-adjacent to expected as a combination of modifier serialisation and hierarchical placement. John in (3.139/140) is outranked as potential subject of expect by ({erg,loc}) Kate, which is attached by raising/subject-formation with respect to expect to the node projected by its {P}. With (3.141), on the other hand: (3.141) John seemed to like Rasselas the empty abs of the upper predicator, filled by John, as with (3.139/140), undergoes further raising/subject-formation, giving (3.142):

234

The syntax of categories

(3-142)

{abs} {abs} {P N}

{erg} {N}

{P: N}

John

seemed

{abs} {N}

to-like

Rasselas

with two applications of raising (one of 'raising', one of 'subject-formation'). As in (3.137), we have non-projectivity involving an arc initiating in specifier position; and John, realising the element in specifier position, d-commands to-like by virtue of the node projected by the upper abs. Horn (1985) observes, on the basis of a sample of divergent languages, that 'raising-to-object' seems to be markedly restricted in its distribution through the languages of the world. The nature of this provides us with some potential evidence for the proposed characterisation of the circumstances under which non-projectivity may obtain. Horn formulates the restrictions on 'subject-toobject-raising' (what he refers to as the occurrence of 'NP R terms') as: Languages in which NPR terms occur are those whose basic word order patterns are such that the subjects of other complement sentence types can occupy string positions of object NPs (direct objects, objects of prepositions, etc.) in higher clauses. (1985:815) This condition is met in English, for instance, given the possible absence of complementiser illustrated by sentences like (3.143): (3.143)

Kate believes John has read Rasselas

whereas (according to Horn) in, for example, Dutch, with obligatory presence of a complementiser in complement sentences, the condition cannot be met, and there is, allegedly, no 'raising-to-object' (cf., however, Evers 1975). In 'VSO' Samoan, the word order precludes fulfilling of the condition, as illustrated by

The basic syntax ofpredications

235

(3.144): (3.144)

Sa mafaufau Susana e manaia Japani TNS imagine Susanna TNS lovely Japan ('Susanna imagined Japan was lovely')

and again, as Horn (1985) observes, 'raising-to-object' is absent from the language. What is of interest in the present context, however, is that, given some such condition, 'raising-to-object' seems to be possible only when the raisee can serve as both object of the matrix and subject of the complement clause, without - and this is the crux - creating a violation of projectivity. Thus, Stephens (1990), for instance, argues that while finite clauses in Breton are VSO, infinitives take their subjects to the left; and this means that the subject, Yann, of the infinitive in (3.145a) appears in the position otherwise occupied by the 'object' of the preposition/complementiser evit (Stephens 1990: §3.1): (3.145)

a. Krenv awal'h eo Lomm evit Yann da spontan dirazan strong enough is Lomm for Yann to fear before+IH,SG,MASC ('Lomm is sufficiently strong to frighten Yann') b. Lakaat a reas Lenaig Yann da dewezhaat ar re vihan make PART did Lenaig Yann to look-after the one little ('Lenaig made Yann look after the little one')

And we do indeed find in Breton 'raising-to-object' structures such as (3.145b) (Stephens 1990: §3.3). Yann in (3.145b) is in a position to serve as both object of lakaat and subject of dewezhaat without there being a violation of projectivity. (Cf. Sproat 1985, on Welsh; and the discussion of Irish in Horn 1985, which draws on McCloskey 1984.) The 'discrepant' word orders allow this; the 'consistent' Samoan does not. I'm suggesting that the restricted distribution of 'raising-to-object', vs. 'raising-to-subject', reflects an avoidance of unsanctioned non-projectivity, given that neither object position nor the non-finite predicator position are unsubcategorised-for. In contrast, the position of the (syntactic) subject - i.e., as prescribed by raisee serialisation (b), that of a specifier, is unsubcategorised-for, and tolerates non-projectivities. The hypothesis concerning the syntactic origin of (syntactic) subjects suggested above is also supported by purported evidence for the so-called 'subject within VP' hypothesis (e.g. Fukui 1986; Sportiche 1988; Rosen 1990: §2.2.2). Sportiche, for example, argues that the French forms of (3.1461) illustrate not rightward 'floating' of the quantifier but rather 'stranding' of the quantifier by the leftward movement of the subject NP away from its initial position (marked by tous in (ic)):

236

The syntax of categories

(3.146O a. Tous les enfants ont vu ce film ('All the children have seen that film') b. Les enfants ont tous vu ce film c. Les enfants ont vu cefilmtous (ii) /pCtous) les enfants /pWont (tous) [P.N vu ce film (tous)777 subject-formation raising no raising (3.146H) is intended to indicate diagrammatically, in terms of the present proposals, which do not, of course, countenance mutation of structure or sequence, that whereas in (3.i46ia) the whole tous les enfants phrase has undergone raising into the {P;N} phrase headed by ont and raising (subject formation) into the {P} phrase also headed by ont (on the assumption that French does not show an auxiliary/non-auxiliary distinction), in (b) tous has failed to undergo subjectformation, and in (c) even the initial raising; and, in these latter two cases, it comes to occupy the appropriate positions as argument of the ont {P;N} and vu {P;N} respectively. I suspect (3.i46ic) may rather show apposition, but at least (b) can be seen as support for some sort of 'extraction' analysis for subjects. 3.4

The formation of ditransitives

In §3.3.3 I associated with sentences like (3.98), repeated here: (3.98)

a. She gave the book to Bill b. She gave Bill the book

the arrays of semantic relations shown in (3.99), again repeated, involving a violation of the one-instance-per-clause constraint on the occurrence of semantic relations: (3-99)

a. /{erg} {abs} {loc} b. / {erg} {erg,loc} {abs}

Here we have two instances of erg - one of them, admittedly, in combination with another relation, so that the overall roles are distinct. But the motivations for the violation are substantial, such as to suggest that we should reconsider the nature of the constraint itself. However, I shall indeed take the nature of the violation as a clue to the establishment of a more adequate analysis. As we have seen in §3.2, Anderson (1978; 1987J) provides evidence for attributing such a characterisation as we find in (3.99b), including 'erg', to experiencers/datives in general, notably the sharing of properties with Agentives, associated in such an account with the occurrence of erg in the representation of both agentives and experiencers/datives. And the erg shared by subjects and

The formation of ditransitives 237 {ergjoc} arguments (even in non-subject position) underlies a number of syntactic regularities. Thus, as pointed out by e.g. Postal (1974: §5.1), the kind of 'extraction' possible with respect to the object in (3.147): (3.147) the girl who(m) you bought pictures of is ruled out for many speakers of English if the argument from which the w>/*-NP is 'extracted' is either a subject, as in (3.148a), or an {erg,loc}, as in (b): (3.148) a. *the girl who pictures of lay on the table b. *the scholar who(m) I gave a student of a lot of money Cf. too e.g. Anderson (1977: §2.8.11), on eac/i-floating. The {erg,loc} here is in 'object position', but it behaves like a subject. Anderson (1978) attributes such shared (in)capacities to the sharing of erg. But this means that, even before subject-formation, a sentence like (3.98b) contains two erg arguments, as noted in §3.3.3, and re-represented in (3.99b). I shall suggest here, however, that accommodation of this does not necessitate wholesale abandonment of the 'one-instance' constraint; merely, I suggest, a relocation, as a one-instance-per-predicator constraint. And this is compatible with an account of ditransitive constructions which is desirable in other respects, as I shall now try to show. Crucial here is the proposal that give, teach etc. are complex predicators, perhaps of the character of (3.149): (3.149)

{P;N/{erg}{P;N}} I {P;N/{ <erg,>loc} {abs} }

(cf. e.g. Anderson 1971a: ch. 11; 1977: §2.8; 1987^; 1992b: §4.3). Here the one-instance-per-predicator constraint is satisfied by the individual simplex predicators into which the complex is decomposed, even when the optional erg (associated with the 'double-object' (3-98b/99b) etc.) is included. This complexity is reflected in the derivational morphology of a number of languages: some such verbs, at least, are marked as derived, specifically as causatives, as in Germanic or Arabic (cf. e.g. 'allama 'make to know, teach', 'alima 'know'). But the complexity also has syntactic consequences, as well as satisfying the observations concerning {erg,loc} and ditransitive constructions made in this and the immediately preceding section. The upper {P;N} in (3.192) will be associated, by redundancy, with an unsubcategorised-for abs; and this provides the argument whereby the upper {P;N} acts as metagovernor for the hierarchically highest argument of the lower, what would be its (syntactic) subject. This argument is either (in the absence of

238

The syntax of categories

an erg combined with the loc) abs, underlying (3.98a), or {ergjoc}, underlying (3.98b). This gives us (3.150): (3150)

{abs}

{P}

{abs}

{erg}

{P;NJ

{erg,loc)

1

{abs

1

1

{N}

{P;NJ

{N}

{N}

she

gave

Bill

the book

as a development of the initial structure for (3.98b), in which the original erg she outranks the {erg,loc,abs} that results from this raising, with respect to the subsequent raising creating the subject of {P} (and which ignores details like subcategorisation and the internal structure of NPs). She is linearised ahead of gave by specifier serialisation; Bill follows in accordance with modifier serialisation, but precedes the hierarchically inferior book. In this way, too, the {erg,loc} gains the abs feature that enables it to meet the object rule, which otherwise seems to be appropriate (to English, and generally as the unmarked situation, at least), in requiring objects ('diffuse' in membership or not) to be an abs. (3.150) also involves non-projectivity, with the arc linking gave and the book being intersected by the line associating the two nodes projected from Bill. Here too the non-projectivity condition: Non-projectivity condition One terminal of a non-projective line must be in a basic unsubcategorised-for modifier position is satisfied. Certainly, the former, dependency line linking gave and the book does not involve at either terminus an unsubcategorised-for modifier position. But the position occupied by the upper node associated with Bill is indeed arguably such; that is, the offending line in (3.150) is not a dependency arc, as in (3.137/138), but this particular association line. The non-subcategorised-for position involved is that filled by particle circumstantials, as in (3.104a), or (3.151a):

The formation of ditransitives 239 (3.151) a. Bert gave back the money (to the building society) b. Bert gave the money back (to the building society) (The to-phrases are optionally lexicalised participant goals, Iocs.) The particles are a set of locational/directional circumstantials which exceptionally have access to the position exemplified in (3.1047151a) and thus to nonprojectivity: (3.152)

Bert

gave

back

the money

(which omits e.g. the internal structures of gave and of the money). On the syntax of such circumstantials, see e.g. Emonds 1972: §§I-VI; Anderson 1977: §2.8.8. What is important here is that, as with specifiers and subjects, such structures provide a 'template' for the 'double-object' structure of (3.150) in so far as the licensing of non-projectivity is concerned: Bill in (3.150) occupies a position that is inherently not subcategorised-for. As observed above (in §3.3.3), there are apparently languages or subsystems, such as reflected in the predominant pattern in Old English, in which the raising attributed to {erg,loc} in 'double-object' constructions in English does not occur: these {erg,loc}s are not marked as objects, but characteristically by a distinctive, Dative inflexion; and they do not passivize as such. In such systems, too, {erg,loc} arguments in non-agentive predications, though hierarchically eligible, tend not to be marked as morphosyntactic subjects either, and may fail to 'behave' in various ways like syntactic subjects. Thus, Ziv (1976) observes that the {erg,loc} in the 'possessive' construction in Hebrew is marked as oblique, and, for instance, is not eligible for raising, though it occupies unmarked subject position, as in (3.153) (representing 'Normative Literary Hebrew'):

240

The syntax of categories

(3.153) Hay a ledan hameil miyisrael od baxoref was+m,sG to-Dan the-coat from-Israel still in-the-winter ('Dan had the coat from Israel already last winter') Likewise, the {ergjoc} of (3.103), cited above - assuming it to be such (rather than a simple loc): (3.103) Hu natan et ha-sefer la-isha he gave ACC the-book to+the-woman ('He gave the book to the woman') shows no possibility of raising and thus of passivisation. Such correlations, if pervasive, support the identification of subject-formation with raising and the role of such in the derivation of (3.150): we have in both circumstances (with respect to potential subjecthood of an {erg/loc} in non-agentive predications, and with respect to potential objecthood of an {erg,loc} in agentives), failure to apply the same rule for erecting structure, raising/subject-formation. Cole et al. (1978) suggest, on the basis of comparative evidence, that 'dative' {erg,loc} potential subjects in the parent Germanic language lacked any of the properties associated with subjecthood. As discussed in the preceding section, Old English preserves a set of 'impersonal' verbs, which can occur in constructions without morphosyntactic subject; recall (3.59a): (3-59)

a

- Him

ofhreow

daes

mannes

he/they+DAT pitied+III,SG the+GEN man+GEN

('He pitied the man') I associated the loss of such constructions with increasing congruence in syntactic and morphosyntactic subjecthood in the history of English, given the evidence in Old English already for syntactic subjecthood of the Dative in such sentences. As a consequence, the realisation rule (3.129): (3.129)

{erg,loc} => Dative

is disfavoured for subject {erg,loc}s, and thus in general. Over the same period, non-subject {loc,erg}s with verbs like give lose Dative marking (Jones 1988: §4.6.c; Fischer 1992: §4.8.4) and become eligible for passive (Fischer 1992: §4.9.1), as in Present-day (3.107b): (3.107) b. The bank was given the money Old English lacks such passives, and the {erg,loc} is typically marked with Dative in both actives and (impersonal) passives, as in (active) (3.128): (3.128)

ac he forgeaf eordlice ding mannum ('but he gave earthly things to-men (DAT)')

The formation of ditransitives 241 (also repeated here). I take the development of such passives to be a consequence of the loss of (3.129). Given the experiencer subject condition, now reinterpreted in terms of raising: Experiencer raising condition An experiencer fails to be raised only if it is morphosyntactically oblique the loss of (3.129), and distinctive oblique marking for {erg,loc}, means that {erg,loc}s will have to raise, acquire 'objecthood', as in Present-day (3.98b) and the like: (3.98)

b. She gave Bill the book

(as abs denied subjecthood), and be preferred for passivisation (as a complex abs) to the simple abs. Again, such a scenario depends on the equation of (syntactic-) subject-formation and raising (as embodied, for instance, in the Experiencer raising condition). Give and teach are 'inherently dative' verbs, which we can associate with the partial lexical entry in (3.149) above. Benefactives are also locative, specifically goal, arguments; but they are optional circumstantials in examples like those of (3.1541): (3.i54i) a. b. c. d. (ii) a. b. c. d.

Janey made a necklace for Sheila Janey bought a necklace for Sheila Janey sang (a song) for Sheila Janey intrigued for Sheila Janey made Sheila a necklace Janey bought Sheila a necklace Janey sang Sheila *(a song) *Janey intrigued Sheila (OK in different sense)

and, as such, are apparently generally available with agentive predicators, just as I have suggested to be the case with instrumentals. However, (3.154^) apparently show such arguments - i.e. sharing interpretation and selection with those in (i) - in 'internal' double-object position, the position we have associated with an inherent {erg,loc}. The two alternations (dative and benefactive) are thus often treated together. But the benefactives differ not merely in terms of the circumstantial character of (3.154O. In the 'internal' object position they require a following abs ('object') - cf. (3.i54iic/d) - not merely, say, non-final position (Vane sang Sheila for five hours), although the prepositional phrases of (3.1540 are all optional. As we have observed, this requirement is not universally true of inherent ditransitives (He taught Beryl). Both the positioning of the 'internal' benefactive and the requirement of a following abs are allowed for if (3.154H) involve a predicator of the character

242

The syntax of categories

of (3.155a), which results from application of the redundancy in (3.155b); (3.155c) gives the resultant structure, which does not (in this instance) show the erg that is eventually combined with the abs associated with Janey as a consequence of morphosyntactic-subject-formation: (3.155)

b. {P;N/{erg}} I

a. {P;N/{erg}} I {P;N/{erg,loc}} I {P;N/{abs}...}

{P;N}/{erg,loc}] I P;N/{abs}...}

c.

•

{P}

{abs}

{P;NJ

{abs}

{abs}

{P;N}

{erg loc}

{abs}

{N}

{P;NJ

{N}

{N}

Bert

made

Sheila

a necklace

1

{erg} I

The redundancy depends on the assumption that all of the eligible verbs are notionally 'causative', and thus internally complex in the way required by the input to the rule, which, as indicated in (3.155b), takes a predicator with a single specified agt argument over an absolutive predicator of some sort. The rule in (3.155b) introduces with respect to any such configuration an intermediate benefactive predicator category, with a subcategorised-for {erg,loc} and an unspecified abs; like the dative, a benefactive is an 'involvable' goal, but it is lexically derived in 'internal' position. Syntactically, the abs of the lowest predicator fills the empty abs of the intermediate, benefactive predicator; and the {erg,loc} argument of the latter fills, in turn, the empty abs of the upper, 'causative' predicator. It is the requirement to fill the empty abs of the benefactive predicator that underlies the pattern of acceptability in (3.155H), rendering the lexical benefactive necessarily 'internal'. The proposal made here also

The formation of ditransitives 243 allows us to characterise similarities between dative and benefactive, while not obscuring differences in distribution. The benefactives of (3.155O are simply circumstantials. Like subjects, the raised argument in (3.98b) and the like can also be the source of an 'agreement' prosody, realised as reflexivisation. Compare with (3.124), repeated here as (3.156a), the 'double-object' sentence of (b): (3.156)

a. b. c. d.

Fifi loved herself Maurice showed Fifi herself (in the mirror) *Herself loved Fifi *Maurice showed herself Fifi (in the mirror)

and contrast (c) and (d). We interpreted herself in (3.156a) as satisfying the prosody initiated by its controlling subject which attaches to the {P} syntactic node, and is also manifested by concord. Conversely, the prosody may be said to license the occurrence of the reflexive. In the case of (3.156b) the prosody, initiated by the 'dative', is associated with the second-highest syntactic node projected by the verb (and is thus not manifested as concord) cf. the structure in (3.150). The acceptability of (3.156b) (and (3.159a) below) and the like is very susceptible to choice of verb and informant; all of Postal (1971: 126), Jackendoff (1972: §4.10.6) and Anderson (1977: §3.2.4), for instance, describe / sold the slave himself (and / sold the slave to himself) as deviant. But at least in some cases 'double-object' reflexives seem to be viable. The relationship between the reflexive and its 'controller', the source of the prosody, shows the same asymmetry in both (3.156a) and (b): the reflexive is subordinate to but not dependent on a governor of the 'controller', viz. the highest node projected by the verb in the case of (3.156a) and the second highest in the representation of (3.156b). Again the structural relation involved, in this case necessarily asymmetric, is that I have dubbed d-command: the reflexives are asymmetrically d-commanded by their 'controllers'. Further, they are 'controlled' by the most immediately d-commanding potential 'controller'; so that e.g. (3.157b) is not viable: (3.157)

a. Maurice showed/assigned himself Fifi b. *Maurice showed/assigned Fifi himself

where the licensing prosody is blocked by the intervening Fifi. Likewise, given a representation for (3.98a) like (3.158):

244

The syntax of categories

(3-158)

{abs}

(P) 1

{N}

1 {P;N} 1 1 {P;NJ

she

gave

{erg}

{abs) {abs}

{loc}

1

1 {N} the book

{N}

to

Bill

in which the abs selected by the lowest predicator is raised, rather than the loc 'corresponding to' the {erg,loc} of (3.98b), then reflexive and 'controller' in (3.159a) - but not (b) - conform to the same asymmetry: (3.159) a. b. c. d.

Maurice showed Fin* to herself (in the mirror) *Maurice showed herself to Fifi (in the mirror) Maurice showed/assigned himself to Fifi *Maurice showed/assigned Fifi to himself

and in (d), unlike (c), the 'controller' fails to be the most immediately d-commanding. That the well-formedness of (3.i56a-b), (3.157) and (3.159a) - and the badness of (3.i56c-d) and (3.159b) - is not simply a matter of sequence is illustrated by (3.160): (3.160) Maurice showed to herself (in the mirror) the girl in the blonde wig For related discussion and further illustration see also e.g. Bach 1979; Dowty 1979; Barss and Lasnik 1986; Aoun and Li 1989; den Dikken 1991; Lefebvre in press. What I have tried to indicate here is that the (asymmetric) d-command relation associated with 'control' of reflexives emerges from the 'decompositional' analysis of double-object verbs. 3.5

Variation in argument structure

As a transition from concern primarily with predicational structure to the consideration of the character of arguments that concludes this chapter, I want here

Variation in argument structure 245 look briefly at some other 'extensions' to the basic predicational pattern elaborated in the preceding, particularly in §3.3. These involve lexical 'expansions' or 'contractions' in subcategorisation, and are mostly derivational, but the passive constructions also considered (as argument reducing) involve an inflexional relationship, and one which in many languages is periphrastically expressed. I begin here, however, with a derivational relationship involving reduction in overt complementation. In some cases, the simple abs valency with verbs of the notional class discussed in the preceding section in relation to the 'double-object' construction is satisfied internally. And, as pointed out by e.g. Anderson 1971a: §9.5; 1977: §2.8.10, some languages reflect this in their morphology. Thus, in Old English, for instance, pancian 'thank' is overtly based on the noun pane, and its 'object' is inflected for Dative. Schematically, we can associate such verbs with the lexical specification in (3.161): (3.161)

{P;N/{erg}} I {P;N}/{erg,loc} } I abs I N

wherein the abs argument can be said to be incorporated. Compare with this the representation for Present-day English give suggested in (3.149), where the abs argument is not incorporated. Such an interpretation of 'thank'-type verbs is supported further by other syntactic parallels with unincorporated 'doubleobject' sentences. With many incorporated, as well as unincorporated structures in Old English (as discussed in §3.4), such as those in (3.162), there is no raising (and thus no passivisation) of {erg,loc}: (3.162) a. Hie him sealdon attor drinccan (They gave him/them (DAT) poison to drink') b. He Gode J^ancode ('He thanked God (DAT)')

(though, as we have noted, some such verbs allow raising - and thus marking of the {erg,loc} with accusative, and passivisation). In Present-day English, on the other hand, {erg,loc}s with both incorporated and unincorporated abs show raising. These THANK-type verbs are typical in a crucial respect of incorporation of arguments into verbs, as of other derivational relationships: the incorporated argument is an abs. In Present-day English, the typical noun-verb incorporation

246

The syntax of categories

involves 'zero-conversion', as in (3.163), showing the central 'ergative', absbased pattern: (3.1631) (ii) (iii)

a. b. a. b. a. b.

Rain/snow/hail fell It rained/snowed/hailed They have produced buds/calves/rust They have budded/calved/rusted Fred gave his friends help/thanks/support Fred helped/thanked/supported his friends

(Anderson 1984&: §4.1)

But abs-based incorporation is also central, presupposed by other patterns, when the derivation is overtly signalled by affix, as in Old English, or involves the presence of a 'full' verb form, as in the compounds of (3.164): (3.164) a. sunrise, landslide, rainfall b. lionhunt, bloodshed, leg-pull

(Anderson 1984&: §5.1)

which are noun compounds based on the incorporation of a verb and its abs argument, whether transitive, as in (3.164b) or intransitive (a). We find a similar pattern with 'syntactic' incorporations, such as are illustrated by examples from Southern Tiwa in (3.165) and (3.166): (3.165) a. Seuan-ide ti-mu-ban man

i,SG-see-PAST

('I saw the man') b. Ti-seuan-mu-ban i,SG-man-see-PAST

('I saw the man') (3.166)

We-fan-lur-mi CLASS + NEG-SnOW-fall-PRES + NEG

('Snow isn't falling')

(Baker 1988: 82, 88)

Both incorporees are abs. Even though (3.163) and (3.164) involve morphological relationships between lexical entries and (3.165/166) a morphological relationship fed by the syntax - an argument fails to be serialised (in the syntax) relative to its governor, and is serialised by the morphology - in both instances we have the familiar 'ergative' pattern pivoted on the abs relation. Again, I take this to illustrate the irrelevance of grammatical relations both to the lexicon and to initial syntax. Once more, of course, such a situation is susceptible to an unaccusative interpretation. And this is, indeed, how Baker (1988: §3.2) allows for the incorporations in both of (3.165b) and (3.166); both incorporees are initial objects (transitive or unaccusative), while the subjects in transitives and agentive ('unergative') intransitives (Baker 1988: 82, 89) are not, in these terms, and

Variation in argument structure 247 cannot be incorporated. But again appeal to unaccusativity is unnecessary: only the incorporees are simple abs participants. And there are again particular problems in such an appeal. Van Valin (1992: 208-9), f° r instance, points to languages in which 'initial subjects' are incorporated: 'unergative' subjects in (Australian) Mayali (for which he refers to unpublished work by N. Evans), and apparently both 'unergative' and transitive subjects in (Eastern Cushitic) Boni (Sasse 1984: §5). Southern Tiwa itself shows incorporation of animate non-human 'initial transitive subjects' (Allen, Gardiner and Frantz 1984; Frantz 1985) - though admittedly only in the -c/ze-construction (often interpreted as 'passive' - Rosen 1990). On Baker's account, incorporation of such 'external arguments', if such they are, would violate the 'empty category principle', in that the 'trace' left by the incorporated argument would not be 'properly governed'. The bifurcation into 'external'/ 'internal' imposed by this account thus seems to be inappropriate. Rather, we have a hierarchy of 'incorporability': Lexical incorporation hierarchy {abs} < {erg,abs} < {erg} Simple abs arguments are most readily incorporate not because they are 'internal arguments' - the 'internal'/'external' distinction is irrelevant if unaccusativity is rejected, and is anyway derivative (of VP-formation) - but because the abs argument is centrally most closely tied semantically to the predicator: as the unspecified functor, it imposes a minimal barrier between its governor and its dependent. As is familiar, this closeness is manifested in the detailed restrictions which predicators typically impose on their abs arguments, whether subject or object (Moravcsik 1978). It is possible that the incorporability hierarchy simply inverts the subject selection hierarchy - i.e. is of the character of: Lexical incorporation hierarchy'

abs< {,abs} <erg But I have not been able to verify this. We can formulate lexical incorporation in its most general form as a lexicalderivational redundancy along the following lines: Incorporation

I C I N

248

The syntax of categories

where cross-linguistic selection of C (a variable case/functor specification) is determined in accordance with the incorporability hierarchy, with abs being the default choice - and where, of course, there is cross-linguistic variation in the classes of item affected and in the morphological implementation. I do not pursue this here, but an incorporation analysis along such lines is arguably appropriate to a wide range of phenomena, including the 'holistics' discussed in §3.1, antipassives and passives, and, for that matter, nominalisations. Let me at least indicate the shape such analyses might take, taking passive as an illustration. Let us firstly distinguish from it the argument-reduction we find in some languages in the form of a lexical derivational relationship often termed anticausative; these derive intransitive from transitive verbs, in accordance with the familiar 'ergative' pattern, as in the Hungarian of (3.167): (3.167) a. Zoltan cukrot old a vizben ('Zoltan dissolves sugar in the water') b. A cukor a vizben old-odik ('The sugar dissolves in water') (cf. again Comrie 1985&: 325), where -odik in (b) is (one variant of) the anticausative marker. We have here a derivational redundancy involving elimination of an erg argument in the case of the marked form. Much more generally, we can associate with languages a general syntactic valency-reducing redundancy, the passive, which, in terms of subject formation, 'substitutes' for the hierarchically highest argument, centrally an erg, the next highest, centrally {abs}. As is familiar, in some languages (e.g. Amharic, Latvian, Songhray/Sonrai - Keenan 1985; Siewierska 1984: 35 - or several of the Brazilian Arawakan languages - Derbyshire 1986: 509), passive clauses contain overtly nothing corresponding to the active subject; in others (e.g. English), there is an optional obliquely-marked element; and, in a few languages, such an oblique element is obligatory (Siewierska 1984: 35-7). However: 'passive and anticausative differ in that, even where the former has no agentive phrase, the existence of some person or thing bringing about the situation is implied, whereas the anticausative is consistent with the situation coming about spontaneously' (Comrie 1985b: 326). Such observations suggest that we can characterise passivisation as a functorincorporating morphosyntactic redundancy, along the following lines:

Variation in argument structure 249 Passive {P;N/{C}} => {P;N} I C I N where {C} is a functor selected in accordance with the hierarchy of semantic relations (and cf. e.g. Baker, Johnson and Roberts 1989). Such a formulation constitutes a very general argument-reducing redundancy. Subjects of the predications which are induced by the output to passive are selected in accordance with the hierarchy, minus the hierarchically highest argument, with the latter valency being satisfied internally, with the result that it is possible for Siewierska (1984: 75) to claim, after a wide-ranging survey, that 'the only feature which unites all the passive constructions discussed in this chapter is the non-agentive character of the subject'. Central instances will involve specification of {C} as erg; and such will be appropriate for many languages. No language incorporates only non-ergs. Likewise, in many languages, an eligible verb will have to be subcategorised for another argument, centrally an abs, as well as for the incorporee: thus, English allows only passives based on verbs with more than one argument, with the second argument undergoing 'passive' raising. In other languages, an 'impersonal' construction is the result of passive incorporation with one-argument verbs or verbs whose second argument is not abs (as illustrated by the Dutch of (3.26b)). As observed, in many languages, accompanying the erg-incorporating passive verb there may be - and in a few, apparently, there must be - an appositive (co-indexed) circumstantial erg. But such is frequently absent. Notionally, passives are thus less centrally verbal: reduction in argument potentiality, and specifically loss of overt {erg} participant arguments, renders them more peripheral. In some languages this is made transparent by the verb morphology, apart from merely in a loss of one of the agreement possibilities - where a language shows both subject and object concord in the active. Thus, as a rather striking illustration of agreement loss and more, in Apalai (a Carib language of Brazil), while the active transitive verb agrees with both subject and object, as in (3.168a), in the passive 'the bound person marking prefixes ... are replaced by the prefix f-"NONFINITE"' (Koehn and Koehn 1986: 47), as is shown in (b):

250

The syntax of categories

(3.168)

a. Ku-any-no III,SG,SBJ + I,INC,OBJ-lift-IP

('He lifted us') b. T-any-se kymoro ey-a NF-Hft-CMPL I,INC

Ill-by

('We were lifted up by him')

which also illustrates that in the passive 'the tense and aspect marking suffixes of active verbs are replaced by -se "COMPLETIVE"' (ibid.). The prefix toccurs elsewhere as a 'possessor reflexive': (3.169) T-6xi-ry

z-uru-Vko

kyn-ako

m,REFL-daughter-POSS m-tell-coNT m-be+ip ('He was talking to his own daughter') (Koehn and Koehn 1986: 44-47)

Its occurrence in (3.168b), as well as the absence of concord, can thus be taken to reflect the reduced verbality of the predicator, as well as, perhaps, the presence of the incorporated erg - due to passivisation - with which eya is in apposition. As indicated, I do not pursue here a survey of incorporation types. But I think it can be argued, for instance, that the observation that 'the relation between predicate-argument structure and syntactic structure is systematically more transparent in the noun phrase than in the sentence' (Zubizarreta 1987: 46) hence the expository recurrence here of the the destruction of the city by the Goths genus of example - in part reflects the fact that nominalisation involves incorporation and that (at least postnominal) arguments corresponding to the participants associated with the base verb are consequently circumstantial, and thus overtly marked as to their semantic relation. (See further Grimshaw 1990.) But I shall not enter on this large territory at this point. Incorporations involve argument reduction. The most widespread 'process' of argument extension involves causativisation, which is rather associated with the lexical-derivational creation of complex predicates. As we observed in discussing the suggested lexical characterisation for 'double object' verbs proposed in (3.149) above, the complex character of some such verbs is sometimes reflected in their morphology: they are overtly marked morphologically as causative. Indeed, this characterisation, repeated here: (3.149)

{P;N/{erg}{P;N}} I {P;N/{<erg,>loc} {abs} }

conforms to the output to the derivational redundancy that I suggest regulates the construction of causatives. I give this as follows:

Variation in argument structure 251 Causativisation => {P;N/<erg>}

{P;N/{erg}} I {P;N/<erg,loc>}

(cf. Bohm 1982: §3.3.4). The lexical-derivational redundancy of causativisation creates a complex causative predicator - subcategorised at the superjoined level for {erg} - out of any other predicator type, but converts any incoming {erg} to {erg,loc}, a form of dissimilation. Thus, the Tamil causative predication (3.170b) differs from the predication in (a) involving the base verb in showing an extra, {erg} argument which (as is usual) takes precedence over the other arguments of the derived verb with respect to subject-formation: (3.170) a. Tanjyr vayalil paaynttatu water field-in flowed (The waterflowedin the field') b. Kamakkaran vayalil tanjtiray paayssinaan farmer field-in water-Ace caused-flow ('The farmer watered the field')

(Kandiah 19681219)

and, morphologically, in terms of presence of a derivational suffix and a different realisation for tense. Unremarkably, the abs subject of (3.170a) corresponds to the object of (b): we have the expected 'ergative' relation. The argument corresponding to the agt of (3.171a), the 'secondary agent' of (b), however, is marked by a Dative in the (b) sentence: (3.171)

a. PiUay SOORU unj;aan child rice ate (The child ate rice) b. Ammaa piUaykku SOORU uuttunaal mother child-DAT rice caused-eat (The mother fedriceto the child')

as one would expect of the {erg,loc} specified as output to the formulation of causativisation given above. In §3.4 I suggested reinterpreting the one-instance-per-clause constraint on the distribution of semantic relations (apart from abs) as a one-instance-per(simplex-)predicator requirement, satisfied by (3.149), as repeated immediately above. However, to the extent that the causativisation rule is appropriate, we can impose the stricter requirement that the overall subcategorisation of any, including a complex, predicator must not show more than one instance of the same role, where role is the combination of semantic relations associated with a particular functor, so that {lergl} and {erg,loc}, for instance, constitute distinct roles:

252

The syntax of categories Role criterion A predicator is permitted to subcategorise for only one instance of each distinct role (except {labsl})

Depending on how the distinctiveness of roles is formulated, this criterion can be more or less restrictive. For instance, if only combinations of a PLACE relation with a non-PLACE are counted as distinctive, then predicators will not subcategorise for both {lergl} and {erg,abs}, or {loc} and {loc,abl} (Path). I shall adopt this interpretation of distinctiveness, which allows a predicator to co-select arguments with the roles {lergl} and {erg,loc}, and {labsl} and {loc,abs}, while - appropriately, I suggest - ruling out, as non-distinctive, co-selection of arguments showing combinations such as those just mentioned. This imposes significant constraints on the notion of possible subcategorisation frame, including those associated with complex predicates, and thus on the notion of complex predicate, which otherwise might allow for excessive expressibility. S. T. Rosen (1990: §6.1) shows with respect to a range of languages that the case marking of the non-subject arguments of causatives patterns 'exactly as case marking does in VPs in general in the language' (p. 220). Given the role criterion, this is precisely what is predicted by the rule for causative formation given above, which, amongst other things, confers on causatives based on transitives the structure I have attributed lexically to inherently 'double-object' verbs, with non-subject {erg,loc}, provided the causative {erg,loc} is limited within a language to the same range of possibilities as the inherent (recall the range shown in table 3.2); i.e. provided the behaviour of {erg,loc} is consistent through the language. The observed pattern of case marking - and availability for passive, for example - follows from just this. Again a lexical redundancy involves reference to semantic rather than grammatical relations; again notional elements form the basis for lexical and syntactic generalisations. 3.6

Verbals as arguments

At this point we begin to change the focus of our attention from predicators (and particularly verbals) and the role of their valencies in generating syntax to the character of different arguments and the constraints their categorisations impose on the erection of syntactic structure. Initially, attention will continue to be given to categories which are more centrally predicative, in that we are concerned with the role of verbals as (secondary) arguments, principally to other verbals. This will involve us in an investigation of what varieties of argumenthood we can attribute to verbals - e.g. what semantic relations are involved, and how and to what extent signalled - as well as further specification of the role of subcategorisation and of non-projective dependencies in the building of complex

Verbals as arguments 253 syntactic structures. As part of a concern with the expression of argument status, we also return briefly to the character of finiteness, before proceeding in the final section to a consideration of more central argument types. 3.6.1

Introduction: direct and mediated argumenthood

Some of the constructions we have been concerned with in chapter 2 and (particularly) chapter 3 involve verbal arguments. Thus, the finite verb in (3.172a) takes an infinitive as an argument as an alternative to the non-verbal predicators of(b): (3.172)

a. Jerome seems to be foolish/a fool b. Jerome seems foolish/a fool

And in (3.173) we apparently find a finite argument: (3-173) It seems that Jerome is foolish As hitherto with the to of the English infinitive, I ignore for the moment the status and character of the that of (3.173). With this proviso, all of these subordinate constructions have been represented in the preceding as direct - or unmediated - arguments of the superordinate verb, their relationship to which is not mediated by a semantic relation. This is illustrated by the proposed representation in (3.174), in which the adjective depends directly on the finite verb (and where the subcategorisation of foolish is not at issue in the present context; that suggested should be taken as illustrative merely): (3-174)

{abs}

{P}

{P: N/erg,loc,abs}}

{abs) {erg,loc,abs}

I (N) Jerome

seems

foolish

254

The syntax of categories

The single argument of the adjective fills, via raising, the 'empty' (unsubcategorisedfor) abs associated with seem (whose subcategorisation is satisfied, in this manifestation, by {P:N}), as well as the 'empty' abs introduced by the finiteness element. (Recall the proposal concerning raising and (syntactic-) subjectformation made in §3.3 above, and the role therein of metagovernors and the 'empty' abs supplied to meet the universality-of-abs requirement.) The proposed absence of mediating semantic relation appears to be appropriate here and in the other examples of (3.172). In each instance, none of the positively specified relations - erg, loc, abl - is appropriate in characterising the relationship between the two predicators, and it is precisely the very absence of abs in the subcategorisation of seem that triggers the introduction of the 'empty' abs filled by raising. Likewise, the presence of the expletive in (3.173) is an indication that the subordinatefinitepredication is not an abs: the it again realises an 'empty' abs argument. And the verbal argument does not undergo subjectformation: (3-175)

*That Jerome is foolish seems

not even optionally, like the sentential abs of (3.176): (3.176) a. It is obvious that Jerome is foolish b. That Jerome is foolish is obvious But (3.176) also, of course, thereby illustrates that some verbal arguments bear a semantic relation, as made overt in (3.177): (3.177)

{abs}

{P}

{abs}

{P}

that

Jerome is foolish

{P N}

obvious

which leaves unexpressed the internal structure of the embedded finite, and in this instance provisionally associates that with abs. That Jerome is foolish is the abs argument of obvious, which raises tofillthe 'empty' abs of the upper is, and thus constitutes its (syntactic) subject. The same derivation is appropriate to

Verbals as arguments 255 (3.178a), except for aspects following from the fact that seem is non-auxiliary, as shown in (b), and, crucially, is associated with two 'empty' abs; but, again, the initial abshood of the embedded finite represents its status with respect to obvious: (3.178)

a. That Jerome is foolish seems obvious b.

{abs}

{P}

{abs}

{P N}

{P N}

seems

obvious

{abs}

{P}

that

Jerome is foolish

Contrast this with (3.175), where the embedded finite does not bear a semantic relation and so does not subject-form. The analysis of (3.176b) and (3.178a) as showing (optional) subject-formation might be seen as called into question by the low acceptability of the 'subjectinversion' forms of (3.179): (3.179) a. ?*Is that Jerome is foolish obvious? b. ?*Does that Jerome is foolish seem obvious? compared with (3.180): (3.180) a. Is it obvious that Jerome is foolish? b. Does it seem obvious that Jerome is foolish? I shall suggest below, however, that the anomalous character of (3.179) reflects the resistance of verbal arguments to morphosyntactic subject-formation, and does not affect our interpretation of (3.176b) and (3.178a) as involving verbal syntactic subjects. In English, immediate-postverbal position is not occupied by syntactic subjects in general; it in (3.180), for instance, is not such, though it is morphosyntactic subject, nor is the a fly of (3.53), repeated here:

256 (3-53)

The syntax of categories a

- There is aflyin my soup b. There seems to be aflyin my soup

There is no motivation for regarding the initial arguments in (3.176b) and (3.i78a)as 'topics' (Koster 1978), or anything other than subjects. Ross (1973a: §2.4) argues that the degree of deviance of sentences containing what he calls 'island-internal sentential NPs' correlates inversely with the nouniness of the 'sentential NP\ I do not regard such constituents as 'NPs'; however, it is unsurprising that degree of nouniness should correlate with the capacity to constitute a morphosyntactic subject. (Curiously, Bennett (1991-3) regards such sentences as (3.179) as acceptable.) Transitive predicators with finite verbal abs are given in (3.181): (3.181) a. The police revealed that Phil had escaped b. His family has not forgotten that she took the money with the 'corresponding' passives being (3.182): (3.182) a. That Phil had escaped was revealed by the police b. That she took the money has not been forgotten by his family and with (3.183) illustrating the possibility of absence of subject-formation of the embedded verbal in the passive: (3.183) a. It was revealed by the police that Phil had escaped b. It has not been forgotten by his family that she took the money Whereas the sentences in (3.184) show a verbal argument with unspecified semantic relation: (3.184) a. Bilbo expected that she would leave Donald b. *That she would leave Donald was expected by Bilbo c. It was expected by Bilbo that she would leave Donald where the 'personal' (i.e. with subject-formation of the embedded verbal) passive (b) is anomalous; contrast the adjectival That she should have left Donald was not unexpected. There is no distinct manifestation of an 'empty' abs with (3.184a), whose presence is required by universality-of-abs. I assume that, as with the derived intransitive in (3.185b), the abs requirement is satisfied internally (cf. here §3.3.6): (3.185) a. Bill reads a variety of books b. Bill reads eclectically so that Bill and read in (3.185b) are specified as in (3.186):

Verbals as arguments 257 (3.186)

{erg,abs} I {N}

{P;N/{erg}} I {abs}

And expect similarly incorporates an abs. However, with many of the verbs that (like those in (3.181-183)) otherwise take a verbal as non-subjective abs there is a distinct 'empty' abs, filled expletively: (3.187)

a. Everyone bore (it) in mind that she had started the business b. Geraldine hates/doesn't much like ?*(it) that Bill drinks Coke

Here the verbal overtly fails to constitute an object. With many such verbs the expletive version is preferred, and with some - such as those in (3.187b) - it is for many speakers obligatory. When the expletive is obligatory, as with other such 'empty' abs, such as those in (3.188): (3.188)

a. The bandits hot-footed/high-tailed it out of town b. *It was hot-footed/high-tailed out of town (by the bandits)

passivisation is precluded, as in (3.189b): (3.189)

a. It was borne in mind by everyone that she had started the business b. *It is hated/not much liked (by Geraldine) that Bill drinks Coke

The expletive in (3.184c), on the other hand, fills the 'empty' abs introduced by the passive be itself; and the same interpretative possibility presumably accounts for the viability of (3.189a). We also find verbal arguments in Present-day English which are apparently erg, as in (3.190): (3.190)

a. That Shirley left so early didn't please Bertrand {erg} {erg,loc,abs} b. That Shirley left so early surprised Bertrand

with semantic relations distributed as indicated. (3.190) exemplifies what Stockwell, Schachter and Partee (1973: §III.A.3) call the 'abstract instrumental', though they in fact discuss sentences where the non-{erg} argument is also sentential. I take such sentences as (3.190) to instantiate causatives in which the {erg,loc} of the lower predicator satisfies the 'empty' abs of the causative and its own abs is satisfied internally (see §3.5). Corresponding to such there are instances with no subject formation of the verbal argument, as in (3.191): (3.191)

a. It didn't please Bertrand (that) Shirley left so early b. It surprised Bertrand (that) Shirley left so early

as well as 'passives':

258

The syntax of categories

(3.192) a. Bertrand wasn't pleased (that) Shirley left so early b. Bertrand was surprised (that) Shirley left so early Compare the non-verbal arguments in (3.193): (3-193) a. Bertrand wasn't pleased by/at/with this turn of events b. Bertrand was surprised by/at this turn of events with partially distinctive erg marking (as compared with non-psychological verbs). The introduction of specific semantic relations for verbal arguments - and thus of subject-formation with such, as exemplified by (3.176b) and (3.188) - is one of the major innovations in the history of English syntax. Old English shows nothing corresponding to such structures, and, indeed, no evidence that verbal arguments are not all direct. Traugott might appear to be being merely more cautious than this when she says that 'complements that could, on the basis of their equivalents in P D E, be regarded as subjects actually either function as oblique NPs in impersonal constructions, as complements of NPs or predicates, or are undecidable' (1992: 234). But the reverse of 'undecidability' is the case, I suggest: there is no motivation for regarding any verbal arguments as subjects in Old English, 'undecidably' or otherwise; the purported 'undecidability' is an artefact of the unwarranted decision to introduce subjecthood as a possible option for certain verbal arguments ('on the basis of their equivalents in PDE'). Thus, Traugott comments with respect to (3.194): (3.194) Fordy me dyncd betre ... daet we eac sumae bee ... on daet therefore me seems better... that we also certain books ...into that gediode wenden de we ealle gecnawan maegen language translate that we all know can (Therefore it seems better to me... that we also translate certain books... into that language which we all can understand') that 'the j!*ef-clause may be taken to serve the stimulus function without also being subject or object, i.e. it could be an oblique NP. On the other hand it could be the subject' (1992: 235). But there is no reason why the cte-clause should be the subject, and to suggest so obscures an important difference from Present-day English: verbal arguments in Old English do not occupy subject position. Subjecthood is not an option for verbal arguments in Old English. On the other hand, it should be clear too that I am also not subscribing to the alternative analysis offered here by Traugott: it seems to me to make no sense whatsoever to say that the ctef-clause is 'an oblique NP' (or any kind of NP); nor is it apparent even why it is to be labelled as a 'stimulus'. Consistent with the pervasiveness in Old English of direct-argumenthood

Verbals as arguments

259

with verbals is the more extensive evidence of expletive (though, no doubt, originally deictic) realisation of the 'empty' abs, as illustrated by the first pcet in (3-195): (3.195)

Da on morgenne gehierdun t>aet £>aes cyninges J)egnas J)e him when in the-morning heard it that of-the-king thanes that him beaeftan waerun J)aet se cyning ofslaegen waes, J)a ridon hie Jsider behind were that the king killed was, then rode they thither ('When in the morning the king's thanes who were behind him heard that the king had been killed, then they rode there') (Traugott 1992: 259)

Similarly, in Old English there are no uncontroversial instances of subject infinitives (cf. Mitchell 1985: §§1537-9), whereas in Present-day English infinitive constructions function as subjects both in (3.196b): (3.196)

a. It would be nice to visit the Black Forest b. To visit the Black Forest would be nice

parallel to (3.176b), and in (3.197b), parallel to (3.190): (3«!97)

a

- It didn't please Bertrand to have left so early b. To have left so early didn't please Bertrand c. Bertrand wasn't pleased to have left so early

Traugott (1992: 244) again unhelpfully introduces subjecthood as an 'undecidable' option for Old English infinitive arguments in impersonal constructions, as well as making the rather baffling claim that the sentence in (3.198): (3.198)

to J)am Pentecosten waes gesewen ...blod weallan of and at that Pentecost was seen ... blood to-well-up from eor]?an. swa maenige saedan J)e hit geseon sceoldan earth. as many said that it see should ('and at Pentecost... blood was seen to well up from the ground, as many said who were supposed to have seen it')

7

contains 'a bare infinitive functioning as the subject of a passive sentence'. Subjecthood is attributable to neither of the infinitives {weallan, geseon) in (3.198). This is so even apart from the fact that no infinitive in Old English could possibly meet Traugott's own definition of 'subject': 'it is associated with nominative case, and it agrees with the finite verb' (1992: 213). This defines what I am calling here the morphosyntactic subject, which Old English infinitives and Jb^f-clauses - are (if anything) even further from approximating than they are syntactic subjects. Also surprising, and also relevant to the general area we are concerned with, is Traugott's declaration that 'one type of non-finite complement construction

260

The syntax of categories

that occurs in PDE but apparently not in OE is the "subject-to-subject" raising construction' (1992: 249), given the currency in Old English of (3.199) and the like: (3.199) Hit ongan rinan... it began to-rain... Indeed, the evidence she adduces in favour of an 'auxiliary' interpretation of the 'pre-modals' - viz. 'the fact that if they occur with a verb that demonstrates "impersonal" syntax ..., the pre-modals share all the properties of that verb, rather than being "personal"' (1992: 195) - as in (3.200): (3.200) Donne maeg hine scamigan ^aere braedinge his hlisan then may he+ACC to-shame of-the-spreading of-his-fame ('Then he may be ashamed of the extent of his fame') is rather to be interpreted as consequent of the status of magan as, like its descendant, a 'raising-to-subject' verbal. Traugott also claims that 'infinitive complements in OE are for the most part objects of transitive verbs' (ibid.). But neither in Old English nor in Present-day English are there motivations for attributing objecthood to infinitives. Rather, Old English infinitives do not bear a grammatical relation - or a specific semantic relation - to their governing element - except that, as in Present-day English, they are presumably Goals when they constitute 'purpose' circumstantials (Mitchell 1985: §§1554, 2942). It should be pointed out, in fairness to Traugott, that such unwarranted attribution of grammatical relations to verbals, and particularly infinitives, is widespread, and reflects something of the confusion concerning grammatical relations confronted in §3.3 above. Further recentish examples are provided by Joseph (1983: §3.2.1), on the 'functions' of the infinitive in Ancient Greek, and by Molencki (1991), whose discussion of Old English does not even concede that the subject/objecthood of verbal arguments might be (as for Traugott) 'undecidable', but unquestioningly assigns subjecthood to, for instance, the infinitive construction bracketed off from the rest of the sentence in (3.201), which is said to exemplify 'non-finite clauses in the subject position' (p. 38): (3.201) t>e gedafenad Q)ine J)eode to laeranne] you behoves your people to teach ('It behoves you to teach your people') Attribution of grammatical relations to verbals is frequently made not on syntactic grounds but on the basis of semantic relations perceived as shared with nominals, where even this perception is itself not necessarily well founded.

Verbals as arguments

261

I'm suggesting, then, that we should rather distinguish between direct and mediated argument status for verbals; and that in a language like Old English mediated (via a semantic relation) status - and thus assignment of a grammatical relation - is absent (except with circumstantials such as 'purpose' infinitives). With mediated secondary arguments, subject-formation is optional. It is perhaps worth confirming at this point that this does not mean that sentences like (3.196b) and (3.197b) are to be interpreted as exhibiting the result of an optional movement, into subject position; rather, the positional differences between the (a) and (b) sentences in (3.196/197) reflect the absence vs. presence with the embedded clauses of subject-formation, which is of the structurebuilding character discussed in §3.3.4. Let us now turn to the nature, in particular the categorial identity, of the markers of argument status, starting from what we can observe from the preceding concerning Present-day English: namely, that these are not centrally, if at all, discriminators of semantic relation. 3.6.2

Subordinators

The English infinitival to construction is perhaps the periphrasis par excellence. The to merely provides an overt signal of the infinitive status of the dependent verb form, and as such is to be regarded as categorially transparent, as made explicit by the categorisation of (3.202a), which develops the proposal concerning the verbal status of to formulated by Pullum (1982): (3.202)

a. {P;N/{P;N}}

b. {P;N} I {P;N}

That is, infinitival to is an item that can occupy the position of an infinitive provided it has an infinitive dependent on it. In other languages, such as Latin or German or (partly) Old English, the 'equivalent' of Modern English to is morphological: i.e. there is a marked verb form specified as in (3.202b). We look at the interaction of such a specification with other properties of German in §3.6.4 below. Normally in English, the specification for an item subcategorised for {P;N} is subject to (3.203): (3.203)

{/{P;N}} => {/{P;N/{P;N}}}

which redundancy allows for the intervening periphrastic to. But modals, 'periphrastic' do, (non-passive) 'perception' verbs, (non-passive) make and let

262

The syntax of categories

(whose passive is anyway marginal), and infinitival to are exceptions to (3.203), and take a 'bare' infinitive, as illustrated by the sequences of a familiar type in (3.204): (3.204)

a. b. c. d. e.

Bert should leave Bert didn't leave Philomena saw Bert leave Philomena made Bert leave Bert happened to leave

with ought etc. being exceptions to the modal exceptionality. Infinitival to is thus a 'raising' verb which is only non-finite. The (subcategorisedfor) initial structure for (3.139), repeated here: (3.139) Kate expected John to read Rasselas should therefore be expanded as in (3.205), as compared with that proposed in §3.3.4, which ignored the role of the to: (3-205)

{P;N/{erg,loc}{P;N}

,N}

{erg}

I {N} expected

Kate

to

read

{abs}

I {N}

John Rasselas

so that John is raised to fill the 'empty' abs of to as well as that associated with expect (its eventual object), giving, with subjectivisation of Kate, (3.206):

Verbals as arguments 263 (3.206)

{abs} {erg,loc}

I

IP)

{abs}

;N/{erg,loc){P;N}} {abs} {P;N/{P; {P N}

{erg}

{N}

{N} Kate

expected

John

{abs} {N}

to

read

Rasselas

with John dependent on all of expected, to and read. However, (3.196) and (3.197) reveal that infinitival constructions can function as subjects in Present-day English, and that their argument status is thus in such instances mediated by a semantic relation. The infinitival arguments in both (3.196) and (3.197) are arguably both {abs} - the abs of the latter being 'in compensation' for the internal abs argument of please - and with the latter being •n addition erg. To allow for these we can associate infinitival to with the redundancy of (3.207): {abs<erg>}

(3.207)

{P;N/{P;N}},*(3.203)

which optionally associates with that verb which is subcategorised for an infinitive alone and is an exception to (3.203) - i.e. infinitival to - the possibility of being an abs argument (with or without erg). And such a (mediated) configuration optionally shows subjectivisation, as in (3.196) and (3.197). The subject of the infinitives in (3.196) and (3.197) has apparently not undergone raising but is simply unexpressed. However, notice now that the mediated infinitivals in (3.208): (3.208) a. It is absurd for Mary to be worrying b. For Mary to be worrying is absurd and (3.209):

264

The syntax of categories

(3.209) a. It would please Jonathan for Mary to be leaving Bill b. For Mary to be leaving Bill would please Jonathan c. Jonathan would be pleased for Mary to be leaving Bill have overt subjects which are also, apparently, dependent on a for, with this dependency relation being reflected in the rectional pattern shown in (3.210): (3.210) a. It is absurd for her to write that b. For her to write that is absurd Whatever their historical connexion, this for is to be distinguished from the preinfinitival/

The structure ofprimary arguments 299 while in French there is no such redundancy, so that nouns enter into argument positions only by virtue of satisfying the valency of a determiner. In English, such a redundancy allows argumenthood to plural - i.e. count non-singular and mass nouns; singularity requires a determiner. In Japanese and the like, the requirement that numerals take a {cnt} argument is satisfied, given that nouns are not so classified, by items taking a noun as an argument that are themselves {N}{cnt}, i.e. numeral classifiers, as represented schematically in (3.287), which indicates only the relevant aspects of structure of a typical Tzeltal number phrase: (3.287)

{N/{cnt}}

{N/{N;P}}

{N P}

{cnt} os

tehk

three

CLASs:plant

te? tree ('three trees') (Lyons 1977: 461-2, drawing on Berlin 1968)

We take up the status of numerals from a more general perspective in a moment. We should note here that Gil claims that 'the count-mass parameter covaries with the configurationality parameter - a language distinguishes between count and mass nouns if and only if it possesses configurational NPs' (1987: 267). This might be allowed for if {sg} were to be universally a non-lexical property of determiners/pronouns. Thus, in English it requires, as in (3.278) above, presence of an independent determiner; whereas in Japanese, which lacks determiners, the singular/plural distinction - and so differentiation of count/mass - is not available. However, the alleged covariation appears to be illusory: there are indeed many languages, such as Latin or Czech, which have well-developed number marking but no obligatory differentiation of definite/indefinite - thus, languages to whose characterisation the unrestricted redundancy of (3.286) is necessary but which nevertheless show a classification of nouns into count vs. mass. Gil's claim seems, indeed, to be partly contradicted by (the exclusion clause of) his own proposed 'Universal 1' (1987: 263):

300

The syntax of categories If a language has obligatory marking of (in)definiteness, then it has obligatory marking of nominal plurality (but not vice versa)

given that 'obligatory marking of (in)definiteness' is (in his terms) associated with configurationality. The representation in (3.287) is based on the assumption that cardinal numerals belong to the class of determiners, transitive {N}s that enable nouns to occur as arguments. Numeral + noun constructions are commonly differentiated into two types, in terms of whether the numeral is 'adjectival' or 'nominal' (Greenberg 1978b). We can illustrate these with English (3.288): (3.288) a. one man, four men b. one of the men, four of the men Here, use of the 'nominal' construction is associated with deflniteness of the noun - though, as we shall see, other factors are also involved. In some languages, the 'adjectival' construction is used with smaller numbers, the 'nominal' with larger: in Lithuanian, for instance, numerals 1-9 are 'adjectival', whereas with higher numerals the noun is inflected in the genitive plural (Greenberg 1978b: 285). The 'nominal' construction is often referred to as 'partitive'; and this seems to be just, in the light of our discussion of partitive collectives in §3.7.1. So, the numeral therein takes the noun as a {pit} argument. But what of the 'adjectival' construction? If by 'adjectival' is meant 'optionally modifying' and/or 'non-nominal', this scarcely seems to be appropriate to this use. In the first place, it is unclear what motivations there are for proposing that numerals should enter into two such different structures, with choice of structure varying from language to language, and from numeral to numeral in the same language. Secondly, a modifying status for numerals that are not overtly partitive would be in conflict with the relationships of subcategorisation displayed in (3.288) and the like, and with the exercising of rection of number by numerals: in Turkish, 'the noun itself is in the singular with numerals designating numbers larger than 1' (Greenberg 1978b: 282). In English, associating absence of of with modifying status would recruit the prenominals in (3.289) as 'adjectives': (3.289) a. a dozen/hundred/thousand men b. two dozen/hundred/thousand men despite their overt nominal structure. Observe, too, that the conditions for absence of o/are different here. The noun following the of in (3.290a) is not definite; rather it is the plurality of the preceding 'numeral' that seems to be decisive:

The structure ofprimary arguments 301 (3.290)

a. dozens/hundreds/thousands of men b. a score of men

while its presence in (3.290b) is apparently idiosyncratic (in this class and environment) to score (cf. three score binders, scores of binders). This would suggest that all such putative 'adjectival' constructions involve a 'numeral' head and incorporation of the partitive into the noun. Given that the indefinite article may also be partitive, it and one will share these aspects of their categorisation. I assume they differ in that one is overtly contrastive (and this correlates with the facts of stress noted by Perlmutter 1970); a(n) is 'extense' in Hjelmslev's (1935/37) sense, or 'unmarked' in the sense described by Thorne (1982), basing himself on Lyons' (1975) use of this term in relation to the vs. this/that. A partitive analysis is also appropriate to non-numerical quantifiers, such as that in (3.291): (3.291)

a. some men b. some of the men

As Jackendoff (1968: §111) notes, the partitive can surface under 'stranding': (3.292)

a. Guess what we don't have any of: insect repellent b. *Guess what we don't have any: insect repellent

(See further Anderson 1976: ch. 6.) The non-numerical quantifiers introduce another distributional variant for absorbed {pit}: (3.293)

a. all men b. all (of) the men

one where an 'adjectival' interpretation is implausible. The quotes around the term 'numeral' when applied in the preceding to the items in (3.289/290) involve a recognition that these are 'relational' nouns ({N;P/{prt}}) rather than determiners ({N/{prt}}), as shown by the structural possibilities exhibited there. Their relationship to numerals proper is thus analogous to that holding between partitive collectives, such as group, and nonnumerical quantifiers. All of these, however, are nominal. But numerals and some non-numerical quantifiers also appear in the postdeterminer position characteristic of 'modifiers of the noun', if not necessarily adjectives, and the non-numericals take the specifically adjectival specifier very: (3.294O the three sailors, the (very) many/few idlers (ii) a. His opponents werefivein number b. His opponents were many/few

302

The syntax of categories

(3.294H) illustrate that these items are also marginally/archaically predicative. We can allow for this if these quantifiers are a blend of determiner and adjective. If they are categorised as in (3.295): (3.295)

{{N/{prt}},{P:N}}

then the attributive/predicative distribution of (3.294) is associated with the {P:N} specification, with the pit complement being incorporated into the adjective/determiner; that in (3.288b) and (3.296b) is associated with {N}: (3.296) a. many houses b. many of the houses and that in (3.288a) and (3.296a) with either - or, indeed, both. However, before we can explore such a possibility, it is clearly time to look more carefully at the notion 'modifier of the noun'. Consider the 'modifiers' of children in (3.297), where each example is intended to represent a full noun phrase: (3.297) a. b. c. d. e.

hungry/smiling/slum children children with lollipops children full of lollipops children to be avoided children who like lollipops

These are not complements of children, they are not required to satisfy its subcategorisation; nor does children obviously complement them. Rather, like the circumstantials of §2.8, they involve 'retro-complementation'; they are elements which, like instrumentals etc., are looking for a head of a particular character in this instance, a {N/}. In this way they can be seen to identify subsets of the set of entities denoted by the noun dependent on {pit}. It would seem that a very general redundancy such as (3.298) is responsible in English for the syntax of such attributives: (3.298)

{A} = {\{N/}}

where perhaps only elements that are exclusively N are excluded from the lefthand side, i.e. as A, though prenominal attributive position is limited to items which are uncomplemented {P:N} and {N;P}. Given such an equation, we can associate with attributives like those in (3.297) schematic structures such as are offered in the small sample in (3.299):

The structure ofprimary arguments 303 (3.299)

a.

{P N)

{N/{prt}} {pit} {N;P)

hungry

children

b.

(N)

{N/{prt}) {prt} {N;PJ

children

with

lollipops

where both hungry and with lollipops are {\{N/{prt}}} by virtue of (3.298). Prehead position for an attributive is restricted, as with verbal circumstantials, to items without overt complementation, though they may, of course, be specified - very (overwhelmingly) hungry etc. - or reiterated. And, as, once again, with verbal circumstantials, the categorial association of such an attributive may violate projectivity, as exemplified in (3.300), with separate determiner and noun:

304

The syntax of categories

(3.300)

{N/{prt}}

(P:

{pit}

I

{N;P}

hungry

child

with the highest node again being due to the 'retro-complentation' of hungry. Thus, the absence of a pattern of valency means that, contrary to the views put forward by Anderson (1976: ch. 7) and Abney (1987), attributive adjectives are not heads complemented by the accompanying noun. Here I have adopted a position not unlike that recently argued for by e.g. Svenonius (1993): attributive adjectives are not required by subcategorisation, but are adjoined to partitive determiners. Probably exceptional here are those 'adjectives' that can be attributive only, as with those in (2.43a), repeated here: (2.43)

a. the late/present/honorary/former/initial/mere president b. The president is ?honorary/*former/*initial/*rnere c. The president is present/late

with (b) and (c) illustrating that they are either anomalous in predicative position or semantically distinct. Now, these can be predicative if they are accompanied by a noun: (3.301) He is/was (a(n)) late/present/honorary/former/initial/mere president That is, we should describe them as transitive rather than necessarily non-predicative. And we can allow for their distribution, including possible iteration (late former honorary president etc.) if they are categorially: (3.302)

{N;P/{N;P}}

i.e. nouns (!) which take another noun as complement. This is not unlike the proposal made in Anderson (1976: ch. 7), but restricted here to a limited subset of 'adjectives'. A consequence of assigning such a categorisation to 'attributiveonly adjectives' is that those languages, such as Ngamambo (§2.3.1), that lack

The structure of primary arguments 305 predicative adjectives should now be regarded as swelling the ranks of the nonadjectival: their 'adjectives' are transitive nouns. The non-head status of 'ordinary' attributive adjectives is strikingly confirmed by evidence from code-switching. Mahootian (1993) proposes and motivates the following principle: The language of a head determines its phrase structure position in codeswitching as in monolingual contexts. In terms of the present framework we should perhaps rephrase this as: The language of a head determines its phrase structure position with respect to its complements in code-switching as in monolingual contexts. given my more inclusive usage with respect to 'headhood'. Thus, in codeswitching involving Farsi, which is centrally OV but also allows postverbal objects, and English, with postverbal objects only, we predict the following word-order possibilities for mixed-language combinations of verb and object: (3-3°3)

a

b. c. d.

English Object + Farsi Verb Farsi Verb + English Object English Verb + Farsi Object *Farsi Object + English Verb

Only (3.303d) would violate Mahootian's principle: the head is in an unlicensed position with respect to the syntax of the language to which it belongs. She verifies that this prediction is correct, both in relation to evidence from this particular pair and to that from a range of similar pairings. If the relationship between attributive adjective and noun is not that of headcomplement, then switching in such constructions is not governed by the principle. This 'has the striking consequence that code-switching between languages with pre- and postnominal adjectives should give rise to adjectives and nouns from one language appearing in an order unique to the other' (Santorini and Mahootian to appear: §3.1). Santorini and Mahootian go on to show that in a range of relevant instances 'this expectation is indeed borne out', as illustrated by the Swahili-English example (3.304): (3-304)

Nikaona i-na taste lousy sana 1+thought it-with very ('I thought it had a very lousy taste')

(Myers-Scotton 1993: 29)

They also offer some evidence that 'attributive-only adjectives' do conform to the predictions of the principle - if they are interpreted as 'heads'. The main body of attributives we have considered - i.e. those that are not

306

The syntax of categories

'attributive-only' - are circumstantial modifiers of {N/{prt}}. We can also distinguish 'retro-complementary' modifiers of {N;P}, allowed for by (3.305): (3.305)

{A} =

{\{N;P}}

I suggest that this is an appropriate characterisation of Siegel's (1980) non-intersective attributives (Bolinger's (1967) reference-modification). Recall (from §2.3.1) the discussion of the ambiguity of (2.48), again repeated: (2.48)

Marya is a beautiful dancer

as to whether Marya is beautiful 'in general' (intersective) or specifically 'qua dancer' (non-intersective). We can represent the two interpretations of the final noun phrase in We saw some beautiful dancers as in (3.306): (3.306)

a.

{N/{prt}}

{P

(pit) |N;P}

some

beautiful

dancers

b.

{N/{prt}]

some

{prt} {P N}

(N;P)

beautiful

dancers

The structure ofprimary arguments 307 Of course, as observed in §2.3.1, so-called 'attributive-only adjectives' do not allow a non-intersective reading; indeed, on the basis of what was argued above, they are excluded as attributives, given that noun attributives must precede the noun they modify {brick wall), but only non-subcategorising attributives may precede: as transitive nouns, former etc. cannot be attributive. Among 'ordinary' adjectives, some will participate in only one or the other of the attributive possibilities represented by (3.298) and (3.305). We can draw a similar distinction between the postnominal attributives in (3.299b) and (3.307): (3.307)

i

{N/{prt}}

{N}

{prt} {N;P}

paintings

by

Picasso

with, in the latter case, the functor phrase constituting a noun 'circumstantial' (recall the introduction to this chapter). We can now return to the numerals and non-numerical quantifiers characterised as in (3.295), whose distribution is partly that of a determiner, partly adjectival, as illustrated in (3.288b) and (3.296b), on the one hand, and by (3.294), on the other. The quantifier of (3.292a) could be either determiner or adjective; and I suggest it satisfies both aspects of its categorisation, as shown in (3.308):

308

The syntax of categories

(3.308)

{N/{prt}},{P:N}}

{prt}

I

{N;PJ houses many

The topmost node is required by the 'retro-complementation' of the attributive adjective component of the categorisation. All of the English determiners we have considered in this subsection are indefinite; we take up the characterisation of definiteness in the following, final subsection. The overt indefinite determiners apart from the indefinite article that is, (numerical and non-numerical) quantifiers - are partitive; the others, count (plural), mass and singular (the indefinite article) may or may not be partitive. The partitive generally allows, among other things, alternative paraphrases with There is/are/tic.... or It was .... (Cf. here, on the significance of the former, Keenan 1987.) Thus, (one (set) of interpretation(s) of) the sentence with the partitive in (3.309a): (3-3°9) a- Some goats butted him b. There were some goats (that) butted him c. It was some goats (that) butted him is paraphrasable by (b) or (c). So too with the partitives of (3.310):

The structure ofprimary arguments 309 (3.31 oi) a. A goat butted him b. There was a goat (that) butted him c. It was a goat (that) butted him (ii) a. Goats butted him b. There were goats (that) butted him c. It was goats (that) butted him But the non-partitive of (3.311 a) allows of these only the (c)-type paraphrase: (3.311)

a. Goats don't appeal to Hanna b. * There are goats (that) don't appeal to Hanna c. It's goats (that) don't appeal to Hanna

The interpretation of non-partitive indefinites correlates with one sense of 'generic'. The universal quantifiers, on the other hand, allow a doubly-negated 'existential' paraphrase (see further Anderson 1973^): (3.312)

a. All of the goats butted him b. There were none of the goats (that) didn't butt him c. It was all the goats (that) butted him

The possibility of these paraphrases correlates with a final aspect of the categorisation of determiners that I want to merely allude to before moving on to look at definites specifically. I take the paraphrasability of (3.313a) by (b), for instance: (3-313)

a. Bert likes some operas b. There are some operas (that) Bert likes

to reflect the status of some operas as satisfying, as well as the requirements of likes, the valency of an 'existential' predicator category that is available by redundancy as an extension of any verb: (3.314) {P;N} =>

So that some operas in (3.313) has the dual categorisation made explicit in (3.315):

310

The syntax of categories

(3-315)

f{P){3))

I

IP}

{abs}

{prt}

I

{N/{prt)}

{N;P)

likes

some

{P;N} Bert

{abs}

operas (with irrelevant categorisation, such as that associated with Bert, omitted). Some operas satisfies the unsubcategorised-for abs of the existence predicate, its metagovernor, in accordance with the application of Quantifier-raising: Quantifier-raising

{N/{prt}}

{N/{prt}} here seeks the closest empty existential abs; no more than one {IPI} may intervene between the existential {P} and the predicator of the argument { };{N/{prt}} - participating in quantifier-raising. Further, a {P;N} may develop an indefinite number of existential extensions, provided these can be satisfied by indefinites; this is required by familiar examples such as Every girl kissed some boy, where the predicator is complemented by two quantified arguments.

The structure ofprimary arguments 311 It is not my concern to attempt to formulate the relationship between scope of the quantifier, as defined by the relative height of its associated existential, and relations of constituency, government or precedence - as investigated by Ioup (1976) and many subsequent studies. (Once again (cf. Anderson 1977: Preface), I have failed to write a book about quantifiers; once again, despite some differences in basic assumptions, not to mention the large body of work on quantification that has accrued in the meantime, an idea of how what I suggest here might be developed can perhaps be gleaned from the preliminary versions of (particularly) Anderson 1973^; 1974a, b.) The quantified phrase in (3.3 i6i) may be associated with an existential developed either by the higher or by the lower verbal, with corresponding interpretations as roughly indicated in (ii): (3.3161) Frieda wants to seduce a Latvian (ii) a. There's a Latvian Frieda wants to seduce b. Frieda wants there to be a Latvian (for her) to seduce (iii) a. It's a Latvian Frieda wants to seduce b. Frieda wants it to be a Latvian she seduces with (b) representing the so-called 'opaque' reading. (3.316m) are further interpretations, also found with 'generics' and definites, to do with 'focus'. Again, I associate these with a categorial extension like that in (3.314), but in this instance equative. However, again, I do not pursue this here. One aspect of (3.315) and the like that we must confront is the apparent violation of superiority instantiated therein. I formulated superiority as: Superiority An item realising a pair of associated syntactic nodes is sequenced in accordance with the requirements of the upper node such that, in the determination of word order, the requirements of the upper node of a pair projected from a single item take precedence over those related to the lower, as illustrated by the behaviour of wh-forms: (3.317)

a. Who do you think saw you? b. Who(m) do you think (that)I saw?

where the wh-forms fail to occur in the positions expected of arguments of saw, but rather in accordance with the specifier status of the w/z-form in the uppermost predication. However, the existential phrases of (3.309a), (3.310a), (3-3i3aX (3-316i) and the like all occur in the positions that we would expect of arguments of the lower, non-existential verbal, even though they are also attached, via quantifier-raising, to the existential verbal. This appears to infringe

312

The syntax of categories

superiority, whatever the word-order requirements of the existential predication might be. However, the sequencing requirements of the existential predication - or, rather, the absence of certain such - are very relevant to a resolution of this anomaly; but only once we have reconsidered the character of superiority. Given the data considered, the above formulation of superiority is indeed much too general: superiority is operative only if the upper node is non-basic, specifically a derived specifier, as in the instances repeated just above. Let us, accordingly, reformulate superiority, more restrictively: Superiority' An item realising a pair of associated syntactic nodes is sequenced in accordance with the requirements of the upper node /j(f that node is a specifier. Otherwise, the sequencing requirements of co-associated nodes must not be in conflict; superiority permits a limited exceptionality with respect to this requirement (to which we return shortly). This correlates with the restriction of 'raising-to-object' to certain word-order types of languages; recall Horn's formulation concerning the distribution of 'NPR terms': Languages in which NPR terms occur are those whose basic word order patterns are such that the subjects of other complement sentence types can occupy string positions of object NPs (direct objects, objects of prepositions, etc.) in higher clauses. (1985: 815) If this condition is not met, the two predicators involved impose incompatible word-order demands, a conflict which cannot be resolved by appeal to superiority (given that objects are not specifiers). Superiority' is operative in the examples such as (3.317) because the upper of the two co-associated nodes occupies, as subject, a specifier position (recall §3.6.2). I suggest that superiority effects are not observable in structures involving existential extensions precisely because existentials lack (syntactic-) subject-formation. Some operas occupies the position it does in (3.315) as a (non-specifier) modifier of both verbal categories. As we have observed, the subcategorised-for argument of an overt existential of the character of (3.318): (3.318) There are hundreds of objections also fails to undergo subject-formation - hence the expletive, unnecessary in (3.315). Such a lack seems to be widespread. Recall, for instance, the absence of a principal relation in the Tagalog existential of (3.75):

The structure ofprimary arguments 313 (3.75)

May aksidente (Kagabi) 3 accident last-night (There was an accident (last night)')

Lack of superiority effects follows from the non-subject-forming character of existentials. However, what now of (3.309a) and the like, with quantifier-phrase in subject position? Here, the requirements of the lower node apparently override that of the latter, in that the non-specifier modifier of the existential predicator is attached to the left. This suggests the relevance of an inferiority condition parallel to superiority' - or, rather, that a more general formulation is appropriate, one which incorporates the default requirement: Ectopidty The sequencing of an item realising a pair of associated syntactic nodes must satisfy the requirements of both nodes, unless one is a specifier and one not, in which case the position of the specifier is prescribed. This requirement interacts with absence of subject formation to determine the word order of structures incorporating existential extensions, as well as providing for the distribution of wh-forms whose character was a motivation for the formulation of superiority and of the subject existential of (3.309a), which differ in whether the superior or inferior node is a specifier. 3.7.3

Definites

It is often assumed that there is a structural parallelism between the definite and the indefinite article in English (for example); and such underlies the analysis proposed in Anderson 1989c, which attributes status as an alternative manifestation of {N/{prt}} to both demonstratives and the definite article. However, it has been clear for some time that the syntax of the articles is divergent (cf., for some relevant earlier discussion, Moravcsik 1969: 85-90; Perlmutter 1970; Anderson 1976: ch. 7) - even apart from the obvious observation that the indefinite article but not the definite is limited to singular (count) constructions. And this divergence relates to their respective notional characters. Presence of the indefinite article in (3.319a) and the like signals individuation, as indicated in (3.278) above, whether or not also partitive; but the definite phrase in (3.319b): (3-319) a. a large house b. the large house

314

The syntax of categories

also involves individuation, though the article is indifferent to the singular/ plural/mass distinctions. However, the article itself, as definite, also signals that in the relevant context a referent is identifiable and, unlike a pronoun, it may introduce an item whose role in identification is intended to be crucial - in (3.319b), large if it bears the tonic, but house if this latter does. Let us introduce the (secondary) feature 8 to represent definiteness in this sense* and characterise a definiteness element as a {N} that takes an individuating {N} as an argument. As a transitive {N} that takes a transitive {N} argument - so that in its case {8} is associated with {N/{N/}} - the definite article does not change the argument ({N}) status of the phrase, but it allows for a distinct level of attributive. That is, I take (3.319b) to show, on a partitive interpretation, a structure such as (3.320): (3.320)

{N/{prt}} {sg} {prt} {N;P} {cnt}

the

large

house

The definite article takes an argument as its complement (but not one which is itself {8}); in this case its subcategorisation is satisfied by the configuration for the indefinite article of (3.278), but here incorporated. Again, prenominal position is limited to non-complemented attributives; cf.:

The structure ofprimary arguments 315 (3-321)

|N/{prt}} (sg)

{A}={loc)

I

(prt) (N;P) lent)

the

house

at the end of the street

As before, {A} is circumstantial to a determiner, as indicated in (3.298), and is a slot for a large range of categories. In (3.322): (3.322)

the large red house

the first adjective retro-complements the, it is restrictive; whereas the second is circumstantial with respect to the lower {N}: as with the adjective in (3.299a), it is non-restrictive. In many instances, the definite article may lack retro-complementation: the referent is sufficiently identified by the context, as, typically, with phrases including a noun like president. But {A} includes nouns; so that (3.323) is also a possible configuration:

316

The syntax of categories

(3.323)

{N/{prt}] {sg} {prt} {N;P} {cnt}

the

house

with the noun presented as identificatorily contrastive - as in, say, Bill is in the house (as opposed to the garden). On one interpretation of (3.319b) there is no retro-complementation; the definite article is simply complemented by the noun. On another, the noun both complements and retro-complements the definite article. Compare (3.324), with, in this case, the noun attributive to the definite article, and the adjective nonrestrictive:

The structure of primary arguments 317 (3-324)

{N/{prt}} (sg) {A)={P:NJ

{N;P)

lent) the

large

house with the restrictive adjectival construction of (3.320) above. The status of attributives as subordinates to the (definite) determiner is confirmed by the distribution of 'weak' adjectives in the Germanic languages that retain this distinction. Thus, as discussed in §2.7.4, the Old English adjective in (3.325a) is 'weak', those in (b-c) 'strong': (3-325) a. se goda mann 'the/that good man' b. god man 'a good man' c. Se mann bid god 'The man is good' The 'strong' form is unmarked; an adjective is declined 'weak' only if it is governed by a definite determiner, in accordance with the principle of rection. (For discussion, see again Anderson 1986c; to appear a.) In Present-day English, as we have observed, non-partitive plurals and noncounts may be (overtly) determiner-less. In French, by virtue of the absence of redundancy (3.286), repeated here, once again:

318

The syntax of categories

(3-286) {N;P} =*

{N} I

a noun requires a determiner in order to function as an argument; recall (3.280): (3.280.0 a. Elle a achete des cigarettes ('She bought cigarettes') b. Elle a achete du fromage ('She bought cheese') (ii) a. Elle aime les cigarettes ('She likes (the) cigarettes') b. Elle aime le fromage ('She likes (the) cheese') (3.280O are partitive (recall (3.282); (3.28oii) are on one interpretation 'generic'. This means that the French definite article is used with a noun even when a referent is to be identified out of context (since the referent is the entire set of instances denoted by the noun). In English this possibility is mostly restricted to the singular (the lion, etc.), where, again, (3.286) does not apply (singular nouns require an independent determiner). (Nominalised nationality adjectives are exceptional here: the Picts.) Demonstrative 'determiners' like this and that are transitive definites - so {{N/{N/}}{5}} - where the {A} which satisfies the subcategorisation is an incorporated deictic; elsewhere, the deictic element may be distinctly expressed - as in French cet homme-ci/la - or its expression diversified - as in colloquial this here accountant. (Personal) pronouns, on the other hand, are definite forms that are not subcategorised for a transitive N, but rather for a simple {N} that is satisfied internally; and they usually lack modification by {A} (though consider she who must be obeyed etc.): (3.326)

{N/{N}}{8} I {N}

Cf. Lyons (1977: §15.2) on the common element of definiteness here, and the diachronic links between demonstratives, personal pronouns and definite articles; also Kramsky 1972.1 do not pursue the categorial decomposability of 8. It is at any rate a redundant property of {N}s that take {N}, whether the latter are transitive or not. Despite the relative context-independence of names, we can associate the same specification with them (cf. e.g. Langobardi 1994). In some languages, indeed, as we have seen, the definiteness element is independently expressed, as

The structure ofprimary arguments 319 in the Greek o Nikos '(the) Nick', ta Trikala (a town in Thessaly). This leaves, as simple, uncomplemented and unincorporating {N}s (arguments), pronominal indefinites such as German man, French on. It is then striking that these are associated with the anthropocentricity also characteristic of erg in the system of semantic relations, and with 'empathy' hierarchies and the like. We are confronted once again with the notional basics underlying linguistic categories.

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Index

Abkhaz, 116, 117-18 Ablative, 294 abl(ative) (semantic relation), 170, 222-3, 252, 295 Absolutive, 122, 183, 185-7, 188-9, T 9° abs(olutive) (semantic relation), 159-61, 162-8, 169-74, 174-9, l8o > 186-7, 188-92, 194-7, 197-8, 201-3, 206, 207-16, 217, 236-8, 241, 249, 251, 252, 254-7, 263-5, 269, 270, 275-7, 295, 296 as a principal relation, 188-91, 193-4 as 'unmarked', 172-3 in derivational morphology, 162-3, 245-7 multiple presence of, 161, 166-7 universality of, 11, 166-7, 175-6, 225, 226, 256 unsubcategorised-for, 166-7, I75~9» 225, 226, 227, 228, 230, 231-2, 233-4, 237-8, 242, 254-5, 256-7, 259, 264, 271, 272, 275,290,310 absrule(s), 159, 180 abs selection hierarchy, 186-7 ACC, 206, 208 acceptability gradience, 87, 91-5 Ace Ing (vs. Poss Ing), 95 Accusative, 197, 198, 199, 200, 204-5, 216, 223 active languages, 191-3 'split-S' vs. 'fluid-S, 193 adjectivalisation defunctorial, 76-7 deverbal, 95-100, 102-3 adjectival noun see adjective-noun adjective, 2, 15, 43-9, 61-2, 65, 68, 100-2 attributive, 44,45-9, 77, 165, 302-8; nonpredicative, 46,48,49, 304-5, 307 deverbal, 165-6, 204 intersective vs. non-intersective, 47-9, 306-7 lack or paucity of, 44,49, 62 predicative, non-attributive, 47 restrictive vs. non-restrictive, 47, 315, 316-17

strong vs, weak, 125, 317 transitive, 74-82 verbal, 99-100, 102-3 adjective noun, 100-2 adjunct, 3-4, 75 adposition, 20, 21,40, 59, 62, 75-82, 106, 217 see also functor adverb, 35, 137-8 'manner', 140 Agaw, 116 ag(en)t(ive), 16, 29-30, 133, 139, 156, 157, 159, 160, 162, 164, 166, 169, 185, 236, 251 agent rule, 155, 156 agglutination, n o 'AGR', 191 agreement see corcord Algonquian, 107 Amharic, 248 analogism, 5, 6-8, 66-7, 69-70, 82, 91, 130, 132,170-2, 251 anticausative, 248 antipassive, 186-7, 248 Apachean languages, 122 Apalai, 249-50 applicative, 208 apposition, 131, 141, 148, 201, 236, 249, 250 Arabic, 237 Arawakan languages, 248 argument, 15, 18, 26,44 direct, 253-4, 256, 258-61, 265-6, 275-80 extension/reduction in see valency, increase/decrease in mediated, 23, 254-8, 261, 263-6, 275-80 primary, 18, 106, 292-319 secondary, 18-19, 253-91 sentential, 218, 253-91 see also subcategorisation, valency, value argument structure, 52, 146-9, 292 article, 17-18, 21, 24, 114, 301, 308, 313-18 Aspect, 108, 116, 117, 163, 164, 179, 186, 193,279 association, 32

345

346 Index Athapascan languages, 116,122 attribute, resultative, 164 attributive, 148-9, 165, 302-9, 314-15 attributive redundancy, 302 attributivisation, 87, 88, 204 Australian languages, 25, 37, 114 Austronesian languages, 196 AUX, 60-1 auxiliary, 28, 50-6, 116-18, 177-8, 179, 183, 211, 227-8, 260, 280-3, 291 criterion for, 281 modal, 260, 261, 280-1, 282 Bantu, 106, 205 'bare finite', 265-7 Basque, 51-5, 56, 58, 60, 106, 109, 182-3, 191, 214, 220, 280, 281, 282 Batsbi, 193 benefactive (semantic relation), 241-3 Bengali, 23 bi-planar structure, 6-8 Boni, 247 Breton, 235 Burmese, 113-14 'Burzio's generalisation', 199, 200 Case, 36-8, 105-6, 109, 110-13, JI5> I 2 3 , 173-4 'inherent', 223-4 loss of, 223-4 case component, 169-74 case filter, 38 case grammar, 1, 149, 152-68, 174-9 case relation see semantic relation 'case theory', 177 casus adverbialis, 36 category adjustment convention, 283 category continuity condition, 63-4, 71 causative, 123, 237, 242, 250-2 causativisation, 251-2, 257 c-command, 230 Chamorro, 117 Cherokee, 62 Chichewa, 208 Chickasaw, 116,192 Chinese, Classical, 18 circumstantial, 133-4, 137-43, 148-9, 155, 173-4, 201, 229, 238, 260-1, 289, 292, 302,303,306,315 stacking of, 140-1 class (word), 11-12 central vs. peripheral member of, 2 closed see functional category conjugational and declensional, 125 leaking of properties of, 73, 74, 76, 80, 99-10, 102, 105

minimal system of, 23-8, 35, 59, 283, 291 minimal incrementation of systems of, 49, 63-4 negatively specified, 71 non-universality of systems of, 17 ontogeny of, 60, 62, 64 sub-minimal system of, 12, 24-8,43, 59 see also cross-classification class convention, 70 classifier, 109, 113—15, 116-17, I46~7> 299 code switching, 305 cognitive grammar, 172 comparator, 76, 127-8, 134-5 Comparison, 125-8 complementary distribution, 171-2 complement(ee), 21-2, 29-32, 39-40, 225 see also participant zero, 29, 319 complementiser, 20, 69, 72, 270, 278, 287, 289 complex abs rule, 159 complexity measure, 62-4, 87-8, 94-5, 104 componentiality, 65-6,68-73 compound, 246 concord, 8, 40,45, 107, 114, 117, 118-20, 122, 123, 125, 128-32, 182, 183, 191, 209, 217-18, 219-222, 243-4, 249-50, 285-7 with possessor, 107 configurationality, 151-2, 298-300 constituency, 34,40 contrastivity, 34, 169 control, 131, 180, 185-6, 189-90, 191-2, 224 copula, 18, 21, 22-3, 27-8, 60, 100-1, 161 countable, 296-9, 308, 314 Cree, 61 cross-classification, 64-73 cumulation, n o cyclicity, strict, 154, 157, 165, 175-9, 206, 215 Czech, 58, 299 Dakota, 191-2, 196 DAT/BEN, 206-9, 216 Dative, 172, 184-5, 186, 190, 197, 205, 213, 214, 216, 222-4, 239-41, 245, 251 'dative movement/shifting', 153-4, 206, 208, 214,215 d-command, 230, 234, 243-4 'decomposition' (lexical), 244 Definiteness, 58, 106, 109, 114, 118, 194-5, 196, 298-300, 311 definites, 313-19 see also Definiteness 'degree words', 136-7 deictic, 318 demonstrative, 109, 125, 318 dependency, 7-8, 16, 31-42, 54-5, 108 graphic representation of, 31-4

Index internal, 35, 40; intercategorial, 35-6,41, 79-82, 85, 113,115, 137; intracategorial, 41-2,43-56, 70-3, 81-2, 113 'long-distance', 154, 272 mutual, 41,49-50 preservation condition, 41, 82 derivation see morphology determiner, 17-18, 31, 296, 298-300 definite, 19-20, 58, 296-7, 317-18 indefinite, 20, 297, 308-13 see also article, numeral, quantifier determinerisation, 84-5, 86-7, 88, 95, 107, 148-9 discontinuity, 141 see also non-projectivity discourse structure see information structure 'dislocation', 279 dissimilation, 251 distributional salience, 55-6 ditransitive, 205-16, 236-44, 252 double-motherhood, 34, 225 double-object construction see ditransitive 'D-structure', 9 Duala, 127 Dutch, 164, 234, 249 Dyirbal, 109, 185-7, 189-91, 195, 200 Early Modern English, 97 ectopicity condition, 313 ectopic placement, 3, 149-50, 193, 281, 309-13 ^-adjectives, 98-100 'empathy', 16, 319 empty abs see abs, unsubcategorised-for empty category, 10, 38, 131, 153 'empty category principle', 247 enough-shift, 78-9 equative, 17-18, 24, 25, 161, 200, 311 Ergative, 183, 185-7, 192 erg(ative) (semantic relation), 169-74, 180, 186-92, 195-7, J 97-8, 202, 207-9, 210, 213-16, 217, 219-22, 233, 236-44, 248-50, 252, 257-8, 263, 295, 319 ergativity, 182-4, 185-91, 197, 198, 199-200 'split', 190-1 erg rule, 176, 180, 188 'exceptional case marking', 175, 178 existential, 195, 309-11, 312-13 see also expletive there existential state, change of, 212-13 exp(eriencer) (semantic relation), 16, 98-9, 170-2, 184-5, J 98-9, 202, 206, 207, 222-4, 233, 236-7 experiencer raising condition, 241 experiencer subjecthood condition, 184-5 expletive, 57, 166-7, 175-6, 182, 200, 218, 254, 257, 259, 270, 276

347

expletive there, 119, 121, 181, 197, 216-17, 224,227,256,312 'external argument', 166, 247 extraction from subject/indirect-object, 237 factivity, 86, 88-9, 275-80 'fake reflexive', 187 Farsi, 305 feature, 13-17 binary, 66-8, 100-1 preponderance of see dependency, internal, intracategorial prosodic, 8, 9, 128-31, 219-20, 243-4 simplex, 7-8, 16 see also partition of features finiteness vs. non-finiteness, 50-61, 69, 102-4, 225, 227, 231, 253-8, 262, 267-8, 277-9, 280-91 positionally marked 287-91 Finnish, 36, 37,45, 51, 56, 58, 59, 62,110, 111, 115, 116, 280, 282, 283, 285, 294, 297 focus, 311 see also prime for(...) to, 263-5 French, 17, 235-6, 293, 296-8, 299, 317-18, 319 functional category, 4, 28, 58-9, 109-32, 127-8 development of, 60 functor, 20, 21, 24-5, 29-31, 36-8, 57-8, 68, 71, 106, 109, 110-13, 137-8, 143, 149, 156, 168-74, 219, 264, 269, 270 Gaelic, Scottish, 97 Gender, 55, 59, 106-7, 109, 110, 113-15, 116-17, I J 8 , 122, 146-7 generative semantics, 5 generic, 309, 311, 318 Genitive, 37, 148-9, 184, 205, 222, 279-80, 297 Georgian, 184 German, 22,42, 60, 164, 173, 179, 237, 261, 287-91, 310 serialisation, 288, 291 Germanic languages, 125, 240, 317 gerund, 53, 85-91, 94-5, 96-7, 102-4, 104-5, 279-80, 285-6 see also Ace Ing gesture see partition of features goal (semantic relation) 112-13, 260 governor see head gradability, 46-7, 133 Grade see Comparison gradience, 65, 73-104, 105 grammaticalisation, 1, 2-3, 193, 196, 206, 219, 285, 291, 294 grammatical relation, 151-3, 174-9, 246, 260

348

Index

'deep', 152-68 see also object, (non-) principal grammatical relations, subject Greek, 15, 17, 24, 286-7, 319 Classical 36, 205, 260 head, 10 as characteristic of its construction, 39 head convention, 33, 39 'head-to-head movement', 284 Hebrew, 206, 208, 209, 211, 214-15, 216, 239-40 Hibena, 204 Hidatsa, 5 Hindi-Urdu, 185 holistic vs. partitive, 157-60, 187, 200-1, 207, 208, 248 Huichol, 205-6, 208, 209, 211, 215, 216, 217 human, 16, 170-1,319 Hungarian, 109-10, 114, 248 Icelandic, 121, 185, 199 idioms, 167-8 Igbo, 44, 62 Ilocano, 25-6, 195, 196-7 immediate precedence, 34 see also linearisation, word order impersonal, 184-5, 222~5> 2 4°, 258, 259, 260, 287 inalterability, 9-10, 33, 145, 153, 157, 165, 176, 182, 219, 227, 261, 284-5, 2 88 inalterability condition, 10 incorporation, 113-32, 137, 201, 245-50, 256-7, 263, 295, 296, 297, 319 rule of, 247-8 indefinites, 296-313, 319 see also Definiteness, Specificity Indo-European languages, 37, 113, 172, 275 Indonesian, 114 inessive (Case), n o inferiority condition, 313 infinitive, 94-5, 108, 227, 231, 259, 261-5, 285,286, 287, 288 'bare', 262 INFL, 101, 284 inflexion see morphology information structure, 3, 9, 15-16, 17, 34, 174, 188 -mg-adjectives, 97-100 instrumental (semantic relation), 139 intensifies 17-18 int(ernal) (semantic relation), 36 interpolation, 204 'interpolation ban', 78, 209-11, 215 interrogatives, 267-75

'inversion', 120, 121, 131, 181-2, 191, 255, 267-8, 270, 274 see also 'locative inversion', 'negative inversion' Irish, 235, 269-70 Italian, 85, 118-21, 130-1, 164, 177-8, 179, 181-2, 191,217-18,222 Jacaltec, 109, n o , 114 Japanese, 100-2, 198-9, 298, 299 Kalkatungu, 54-5 Kanuri, 105-6 Kayardild, 130 K'ekchi, 216 Kikuyu, 206 KinyaRwanda, 205-6, 208, 209, 217 Konkow, 293 Kusaal, 48-9 Kwakiutl, 26 Kwakw'ala, 105 Latin, 57, 95, 105, 109, 111-13, 121, 125, 151, 173, 198, 261, 285, 299 Latvian, 248 lexical functional grammar, 151, 152 lexical incorporation hierarchy('), 247 lexicalisation, 5 lexicalism, 8-9, 93, 147-9 lexical projection condition, 10 linearisation, 33, 118-19, 2 2 I ~ 2 , 22 4~5, 226-7, 2&4 see also German, modifier serialisation, raisee serialisation, specifier serialisation Lithuanian, 300 localism, 139-40, 169-74, 276, 293-5 loc(ative) (semantic relation), 36, 112-13, 157-61, 162, 170-2, 202, 203, 207-10, 213-16, 217, 222-3, 233> 236-40, 242-4, 251,252,257,295 'locative inversion', 273 'long w/z-movement', 120 Maasai, 285 'main clause first strategy', 266 Makah, 24 Maltese, 205, 209 Mandarin, 44, 46, 62 Margi, 127 markedness, 61-4, 68, 184 Mashi, 204 mass, 292, 296-9, 308, 314, 317-18 Mayali, 247 measure expressions, 77-8 metagovernor, 225, 227-8, 231, 232, 237, 310 'metaspecifier', 267 Middle English, 91

Index minimalism, 8-12, 119 minimal system of word classes see class, minimal system of Modality, 108 modal verb, 2, 102-3 modifier, 10 non-complement, 127-8, 132-45, 147-8, 150-1 modifier serialisation, 226, 288, 291 in English, 226-7, 230 Mongolian, 132 morphologisation, 115, 132 partial (vs. full) 113 morphology, 4, 82, 131-2 as interplanar, 6 derivational, 79, 83-91, 123, 125-6, 153, 158, 162-3, 206, 208, 247, 248 see also adjectivalisation; nominalisation; verbalisation inflexional, 36, 76, 79, 104-32, 160, 198, 205,217-24,249-50,252 morphosyntactic locus, 40 morphosyntactic-principal-formation, 220 morphosyntactic-subject-formation', 219, 242, 255, 272 morphosyntactic-subject-formation, 221 move-a, 9, 178 'movement' see ectopic placement Mundari, 293 name, 17-20, 21-8, 59-60, 64, 293, 318-19 natural class 65-73, 87-8 negation, 131 see also Polarity 'negative inversion', 273 n(eu)tr(al) (semantic relation), 29-30, 156, 157-9 neutralisation, 68, 100-1, 218-19 Ngabere, 28, 50-1 Ngamambo, 49, 304-5 NICE properties, 57, 225-6, 281, 282 Niuean, 190-1 nominal, 61, 64, 292-319 nominal adjective see adjective noun nominalisation, 14, 27, 83-91, 94-5, 102-4, 132-3, 147, 202, 248, 250 Nominative, 197, 222, 223 non-asymmetrical combination, 41 non-principal grammatical relations, 197-216 non-projectivity 10, 34, 228, 229, 230, 235, 265,269,271,303-4 primary vs. secondary, 230, 239 non-projectivity condition, 228, 238-9 Nootka, 25-7 North Kimberley languages, 116 Norwegian, 114

349

notionalism, 1-6, 80, 88, 94, 98, 100-2, 106, 107-8, 116,122, 128, 139, 147, 148-9, 149-60, 242, 249, 252, 276, 277-9, 292, 294,313-14,319 noun, 13-20, 21-8, 100-2, 105-7, 115 deauxiliary, 103 mass 292, 296-9, 308, 314, 317-18 predicative, 17-19, 295 proper see name relational, 18, 21, 147, 292-5; inalienable, 292-3, 294-5; kinship, 293, 294-5; partitive, 292, 294-5; collective, 292, 301; 'numeral', 301 transitive, 304-5, 307 verbal, 86-91, 94-5, 102-3, IO4~5 nouniness, 91-5, 101, 256, 279 ntr see n(eu)tr(al) 'null' element see empty category 'null'-subject languages, 118-21, 123, 131, 181-2, 191,217-18,221-2 Number 58, 106, 109, n o , 114, 116,117,118, 129-31, 132,298-301 numeral, 109, 299-301, 308 as adjective/determiner, 301-2, 307-8 object, 164, 167-8, 197-216, 260 direct, 153, 197, 205-6; 'deep', 157-61, 163-5 indirect, 153, 197, 205-6, 207-8, 213-16 see also ditransitive object-formation, 85, 98 object rule, 156-7, 159, 176, 197, 198, 205, 211, 213, 238 object rule', 200-1, 208-9, 213, 238 obligatory subject condition, 191 Old English, 45, 60, 125, 184-5, 198, 204-5, 216, 217, 222-4, 239-41, 245, 246, 258-61,274-5,317 Olutsootso, 204 one-category = one-node principle, 35, 39,41, 81 opacity, 311 paradigmatic (vs. syntagmatic), 106—8 see also secondary categories parsing principles, 266, 267 participant, 138, 140 see also argument, subcategorisation, valency, value participle, 50, 53, 94, 95-100, 102-3, I04> 105, 108 particle, 23, 25, 35, 54, 203, 238-9 'placement of, 209-11,215 partition of features, 42, 108-9 Partitive, 165, 294, 297 p(a)rt(itive) (semantic relation), 295, 296-8, 300-1, 302-4, 308-10, 313-17

350 Index part of speech see class passive, 95-6, 121, 154, 155, 202-6, 209-10, 215, 240, 248-50, 252, 256, 257-8, 279 impersonal, 96, 164, 205, 240, 249 prepositional, 202-4 'patient centrality', 166 see also universality of abs perfect, 96 periphrasis, 108-32 Person, 118, 129-31, 132 Philippine languages, 24 phonology, 6-8,42, 66-7, 69, 70, 91, 130, 132,314 Piro, 293 PLACE (case component), 169-74, 184, 252, 295 plural, 296-8, 317-8 Polarity, 51, 108, 116 Polish, 297 Polynesian languages, 24, 109, 116 Porno, Cental, 192 Porno, Eastern, 122, 160, 192 Portuguese, 121 possession, 125, 140 inalienable (vs. alienable), 107, 292-3, 294-5 postposition see adposition pragmatic structure see information structure predicability, 14-16, 17-18, 20, 41-2, 44, 49, 54 predicator, 9, 15, 17-18, 56, 60 complex, 237, 250-1, 252 'emotive', 277 'existential', 309-13 preposition see adposition prime (principal grammatical relation), 193-7, 200, 290-1 principal (grammatical relation), 188-91, 233 see also absolutive, morphosyntacticprincipal-formation, prime, subject principal formation, 270, 272-3 'pro-drop' see 'null'-subject languages progressive, 96-7, 99, 132 projection principle, 153, 157, 174, 177, 178, 180-93 pronoun indefinite, 319 personal, 19, 22, 23-8, 40, 118, 192, 198, 3i4,3i8 prosody see feature, prosodic {P}-specification principle, 267, 290-1 (a) vs. (b), 289 quantifier, 109, 301, 308 as adjective/determiner, 301-2, 307-8

stranding of, 235-6, 301 universal, 301, 309 quantifier-raising, 310 quantifier scope, 311 'quasipredication', 228 Quechua, 45, 62 raisee serialisation in English, 232-3 in German, 291 raising, 175-9, 180, 181, 183-4, 202, 209, 224, 228, 230-6, 238, 242-4, 260, 262-3, 271, 287, 290 rule of, 233 'to-object', restrictions on, 234-5, 312 'reanalysis' 203-4, 211 rection, 40, 50, 106-7, I Q 8, 123, 130, 193, 314 redundancy, 10-11,42 lexical (derivational), 11, 30, 36,47, 242, 247, 250-2, 276 morphosyntactic, 11, 36, 115, 221, 225, 226, 248-9, 263, 282, 290 syntactic, 11, 26-7, 37, 271, 298, 299, 309 referent vs. reference modification see adjective, intersective vs. non-intersective referentiability, 13-16, 17-20 reflexivisation, 123, 126, 220, 243-4 'fake', 187 relational grammar, 151, 153-4, 157, 177-9, 214-15 relational succession law/principle, 177, 178 relativisation, 108, 188-9 'restructuring' see 'reanalysis' retro-complementation/-valency, 135-45, 201, 229-30, 302, 308, 315, 316 role, 251-2 role criterion, 252 Runyonese, 137 Russian, 22-3, 48, 126 Saker, 293 Salish, 24, 26, 27-8, 60, 64 Salishan languages, 35 Sama, 188-9, r 95 Samoan, 110, 234-5 satisfaction see subcategorisation secondary (vs. primary) category 4, 11-12, 13, 29-30, 50, 54, 55, 59, 104-32, 124 inherent, 106, 108, 113-15, 116-18, 122, 126: paradigmatic, 106, 116 relational, 106-7, 123: concordial, 107, 123; cross-referential, 123; rectional, 106-7, 108, 123, 124, 125 second-order categorisation, 79-82 see also dependency, internal selectional restrictions, 4

Index semantic relation, 9, 168-74 one-instance-per-predicator constraint on, 237,251-2 non-unary assignment of, to an argument, 160 see also abl, abs, agt, erg, exp, loc, ntr, pit sequence see linearisation, word order serialisation see linearisation, word order serial relationship, 93 Sesotho, 109 Sherpa, 214 singular, 296, 297, 299-300, 313, 318 Sinhalese, 45 Son(gh)ray, 248 SOURCE (case component), 169-74, 295 source (semantic relation), 222-3 Specificity, 18, 106 specifier, 134-43, 228-30, 265, 267, 269, 289, 312-13 complemented, 229-30 deadjectival, 135-6 derived, 229-34, 312-13 specifier serialisation, 229-30, 234, 238 'spray paint cases', the, 157-60, 165-6, 187, 200-1 Squamish, 28 squish, 41, 74, 91-5, 100, 115 'S-structure', 152-3 stative, 117 structural analogy, 7-8,42 see also analogism structural syntax, 5 structure-building (rather than -mutating) see inalterability subcategorisation, 15, 29-32, 34, 65, 68-9, 71-2, 113-14, 117-8, 151-3, 155-68, 171-2,252 satisfaction of, 32, 112, 115, 132-3, 146-7, 227, 268-9, 296, 299, 302-5 strong vs. weak, 21-2, 29, 30-1, 147 subject, 16, 38, 178, 188-91, 197, 199-200, 206, 237, 243,256 compositional assignment of semantic relation to, 167-8 configurational definition of, 151-2 morphological, 222 morphosyntactic, 119-20, 122, 131, 181-5, 216-24, 227, 240, 255, 259, 268, 270, 272, 274, 288-9 syntactic, 119-21, 131,181-5,216-8, 224-36, 240, 254, 267-8, 271-2, 273, 274,276-7,289,313 VP-internal, 152, 235-6 subject concord, 220 see also concord subject concord', 221 see also concord subject formation, 85, 88 absence thereof, 121, 174-5, 193-7, 258-61

351

as raising, 232 'cyclic' vs. 'post-cyclic', 119 see also morphosyntactic-subject-formation, syntactic-subject-formation subjecthood criterion, 193 subject-selection hierarchy, 121,154-68,180, 186-7,188, 217, 218, 219, 226, 233, 238, 248-9, 251, 270, 289, 290 subjunction (vs. adjunction), 38-9 see also dependency, internal subjunctive, 108, 124, 277-8, 286-7 subordination, 32, 261--91 subordinator, 20, 261-75 Sundanese, 23 superiority, 227, 311-13 superiority', 312 suppletion, 122, 160 Swahili, 109, 122, 305 Swedish, 114 syntactic ergativity condition 191 syntacticisation, 90,98 syntactic projection, 32, 34, 82, 129-31, 132-45, ch. 3 see also one-category = one-node principle syntactic projection principle, 32, 144 syntactic-subject-formation, 224-5, 255, 256, 257 Tabassarian, 172 Tagalog, 26, 194-7, 200, 290, 293, 312-13 Tai, 115 Tamazight, 216, 217 Tamil, 251 tangling see non-projectivity telicity, 179 Telugu, 23 Tense, 54, 105-6, 116, 117, 130, 131, 132, 285 ^[that-i]filter',120, 182 thematic relation see semantic relation theta criterion 160-1, 171-2, 236 6-grid, 59, 152 theta role, 165 see also semantic relation Tibetan, Lhasa, 192 Tiwa, Southern, 246, 247 Tongan, n o , 183-4 tonic (phonological), 314, 316 topicalisability, 16, 193, 194-6, 219 tree, 33-4 proper, 34 Turkish, 104, 107, 285-6, 300 Tzeltal, 299 Ubykh, 117 Udak, 122 unaccusativity, 163-8, 177-9, J 9 2 , 206, 246-7 Ungarinyin, 116-7,147

352 Index uniformity of theta assignment hypothesis (UTAH), 157, 163 universal alignment hypothesis, 157, 163 unsaturated see abs, unsubcategorised-for

verb-second, 275, 288-91 Vietnamese, 115 visibility of categorisation, 274 'V2' = verb-second

valency, 3, 8-9, 32, 38, 112,115, 119, 135, 138, 139, 144, 146, 149-68, 170, 271, 296 decrease in 126, 245-50 increase in 126 retro- see retro-complementation see also subcategorisation valency grammar, 152 value, 8-9, 38, 135, 144, 146 see also subcategorisation verb 13-18, 21-8, 50-61 deadjectival, 102-3, 162-3 denominal, 102-4 'ergative', 162-8, 176 'surface', 281 see also secondary argument, auxiliary, finiteness, vs. non-finiteness, gerund, infinitive, participle verbal, 61 verbalisation, 14, 25 verb phrase, 38-9, 227

Warrungu, 186, 189 'weather' predicators, 166, 175-6, 178, 182 Welsh, 127,235 wh (semantic relation), 269-75, 291, 311, 313 wild trees, 33 word class see class word order, 33, 34, 142-3, 150, 201, 205, 305, 311-13 as marking subordination, 274, 287 see also linearisation Wunambal, 28, 50, 51, 54, 56, 116 X' theory, 147 Yagua, n o Yalarnnga, 123 Yidiny, 109, 114 Yuma, 109 'zero-conversion' 246