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a. VP b. VP
e V DP V
V DP V
Burzios generalization:
VP VP VP
NP V NP V
NP V [+ V NP [- V NP
[+ V +Nom] [+, +Nom] [+
+Nom] +Acc] -Acc]
Jai achete des cahiers Je suis arrive(e). Jai bien dormi
Course 7: Unergatives
3. Unergatives
3.0. Change of location verbs
Verbs that indicate change of location: jump,
march, run, skip, swing, turn, walk, travel,
hurry, rush, dash are treated as being single-
layered thematic specifier verbs, which is the
traditional unergative structure given below,
again:
VP
DP V
Bill V XP
walk
These verbs can be transitivized with null
(causative) morphology:
a. Bill ran his dog in the park.
b. Mary walked his guests to the door .
Two more properties: they admit cognate objects:
a. Bill ran five miles in the race.
B . Mary walked a quiet walk in the woods.
They admit passive formation:
a. A long walk was walked in the woods.
b. Five miles were run by Bill in the race.
The external argument of unergatives is assigned
the Agent- theta role and is the initiator of
some event, the controller and protagonist of the
event, therefore, it controls or monitors the
action and it may also interfere with the
respective activity.
3.1. Unergative verbs with particle
(lexically complex verbs, selecting one argument,
traditionally called complex phrasal verbs).
They evince a high degree of idiomaticity. The pa
rticle conflates with the lexical verb and
together they form an adjoined structure: V ->
V^Prt
e.g. stump across=move across heavily, often in
anger/irritation; break in, sit in, take off,
walk out, come down.
Besides locative and directional particles, we
should also mention the aspectual particles,
which refer to a temporal dimension of the event.
Aspectual Prts may render the ingressive
(incipient) character of an event:
1. a. We set forth on the last stage of our
climb.
b. They set out to win support for their
scheme.
c. She set about the job of putting her
things in good order. (cf. Serban, D., 1982)
The durative aspect is rendered by on and away
which are specialized for indicating the
continuation of the event. Most verbs combine
freely with on. Away is more limited
contextually. (She was
grumbling/muttering/laughing away (cf. Serban,
p.163).
Other examples: get up, pass away, go out, die
out, warm up, cheer up. Up indicates
intensification of an action (The runners were
warming up before the race).
- Insertion of adverbial modifiers (intensifiers)
such as right, straight may occur with context
where the Prt has a Locative or Directional
meaning:
e.g. The electricity supply went straight off
when the cable was cut. The dwarfs rushed
straight inside.
- Nominalization of these verbs results in
hiphenated noun forms: break-in, make-up, sit-in,
take-off, or in fully inked forms such as:
flypast, splashdown.
Nominalizations commonly occur in two possible
patterns:
- a possible transitive configuration predicted
by a very general activity verb (do, stage, make,
take and the relatively dummy have) followed by a
nominalized form functioning as DO (of the non-
contrastive type). The sentence is in a
paraphrase relationship to the basic string
predicated by the Verb^Prt adjunction:
do ones make-up, do a break-in, stage a sit-in,
have a quick warm-up, make a smooth take-off.
- Stylistic preposing of the particle:
( ) Away flew the remnants of her tattered hat.
( ) In the sun went.
- Inherent reflexives
Another class of simple intransitives
(unergatives) which evince lexical complexity
includes verbs which are inherently reflexive:
absent onself, bestir oneself, avail oneself
of smth. pride oneself on something (Vi+Refl.
+PO).
Course 7 (II)
(1) TP
e T
T vP
-s NP v
v VP
NP V
V
Mary sleep e t
(2) TP
e T
T vP
NP v
v VP
-ed NP V
V NP
(3) TP
e T
T vP
-ed NP v
v VP
NP V
V NP
DP T
A cry of anguish T vp
DP v
t v VP
came DP V
t V PP
t from inside the
house
(6) TP
D T
There T vp
D v
t
v VP
came DP V
a cry of anguish V PP
t from inside
the house
We might suppose that a cry of anguish in the
structure above is in Spec-VP, that came
originates in V and raises to v, and that
there originates in the non-thematic spec-
vp position and from there it raises to
spec-TP. TP has the subject a cry of
anguish and vp has a trace of there as its
subject and TP has there as its subject. We
might suppose that the case/agreement
properties of the subject a cry of anguish
and the agreement properties of the verb
came are attracted to T, and there checked
(so that came is singular because its
subject is singular). This would allow us
to account for the fact that the
unaccusative verb agrees with its
postverbal argument, as we see from
sentences such as: Every so often, there
comes a cry of anguish from inside the
house.
Ergative predicates
Thus far, the verb phrase structure contained
verbs with a single complement. such verbs can
easily be acocmodated within the binary branching
framework adopted here, since all we need say is
that a verb merges with its complement to form a
binary branching V-bar constituent. However, a
particular problem for the binary branching
framework is posed by the three-place predicates
like run the ball down the hill, fill the bath
with water, break the vase into pieces, put the
ball on the table, etc.
Let us now consider the following pairs of
sentences:
(7) a. We rolled the ball down the hill.
b. The ball rolled down the hill.
(8) a. He filled the bath with water.
b. The bath filled with water.
(9) a. They withdrew the troops from the
occupied territories.
b. The troops withdrew from the occupied
territories.
Such verbs that can be used either with three or
with two arguments are called ergative verbs.
Moreover, these verbs can also be used as a one-
place predicate:
(10) The ball rolled.
The bath filled.
The troops withdrew.
The ship sank.
The vase broke.
In all these cases, whether we have to do with
one, two or three place predicates, the Theme
role is always played by the same argument, i.e.
the ball, the bath, the troops, the ship, the
vase. That is these NPs, even if placed before
the verb, not after it, are interpreted as Theme,
while the doer or Agent of the action is always
the same as well, when it surfaces at S-structure
(in the a cases above). If we adopt Larsons VP
shell theory, according to which the verb moves
from its original (post-subject) position into a
higher position to the left of the Theme NP.
Following Larson (1988, 1990), Keyser&Hale (1991,
1993, 1994) and Chomsky (1995b), let us suppose
that the b examples are simple VPs, but the a.
examples are complex double-VP structures which
comprise an outer vp shell with an inner VP core
embedded within it. In the sentence:
The ball rolled down the hill,
the V rolled is merged with its PP complement
down the hill to form the V-bar rolled down the
hill ; this is then merged with the DP the ball
to form a VP with the structure:
(11) VP
DP V
V PP
(12) TP
DP T
the ball T VP
DP V
t V PP
( ) vp
D v
we v VP
V v DP V
TP
D T
we T vp
D v
t v VP
V v DP V
Course 8