Grammaticalizing Aspect and Affectedness
, C. L. Tenny 1987
This thesis is an investigation of the interaction of aspect and syntax. More particularly, the syntactic repercussions of the aspectual property of delimitedness are examined. Delimitedness – the temporal boundedness of an event – is shown to a have an effect on a wide range of syntactic phenomena, including resultative secondary predicates, verb-particle contructions, and certain case phenomena. Affectedness is also shown to depend on delimitedness. The interaction between affectedness and syntax is proposed to take place in the Case module of the grammar.
An analysis of the property of affectedness in aspectual terms leads to a theory in which the direct argument of a verb ‘measures out’ the event described by the verb over time, as if on a scale. Affected arguments are direct arguments that delimit the event on that scale. Non-affected direct arguments also ‘measure out’ the event, though they do not delimit it.
This aspectual property of direct arguments is the first of a set of aspectual principles of argument structure. Three additional principles are proposed: an event may be delimited only by its internal arguments – arguments within the verb phrase at deep structure. Indirect arguments may delimit the event parasitically through the direct argument, while external arguments may not delimit the event at all. Secondly, there may be only one ‘delimiting’ to a verb phrase. And finally, secondary objects are always delimiting elements.
Two specifically syntactic issues are addressed. First, it is proposed that aspect is a syntactic category, and several possible instantiations of aspect in phrase structure are discussed. Secondly, the aspectual principles of argument structure are applied to verb-particle constructions, resultative secondary predicates, and double object constructions; and these principles are shown to shed some light on the syntactic behavior and structure of these constructions. The usefulness of aspect as a tool for syntactic investigations is demonstrated.
The aspectual principles of argument structure place constraints on the kind of event participants that can be internal arguments. In this way these principles provide a principled mapping between the ‘meaning’ of verbs and their syntactic representations. The Aspectual Interface Hypothesis is proposed, which maintains that the two systems ‘communicate’ only through a common aspectual vocabulary. Under this view only the aspectual information in thematic roles is visible to the syntax, and thematic hierarchies are not necessary in the mapping between ‘meaning’ and syntax. The Aspectual Interface Hypothesis is consonant with a highly autonomous syntax.
Thesis supervisor: Kenneth Hale
Title: Ferrari P. Ward Professor in Linguistics
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 9
1.1 Introduction 9
1.2 Aspect 12
1.3 Delimitedness 17
Appendix Overview of literature on aspectual verb classes 28
Chapter 2 The grammatical reality of affectedness and delimitedness 36
2.1 English verb-particle combinations 36
2.2 English resultative secondary predicates 42
2.3 Finnish accusatives and partitive case 47
2.4 Morphological aspect 51
2.5 Affectedness 58
2.5.1 English middles and noun phrase passivization 59
2.5.2 Japanese numeral quantifiers 63
2.5.3 Total affectedness 66
2.5.4 Affectedness and transitivity 69
Chapter 3 An aspectual theory of affectedness 75
3.1 Affectedness as an aspectual property 75
3.1.1 Verbs of consumption and creation 76
3.1.2 Verbs of change of physical state 87
3.1.3 Verbs of abstract change of state 99
3.1.4 Achievement verbs 100
3.1.5 Verbs of motion 102
3.1.6 Affectedness as an aspectual property 105
3.2 Lexical entries for affectedness verbs 107
3.3 Affectedness and the compositionality of delimitedness 112
3.3.1 Translation of spatial delimitedness into temporal
delimitedness 112
3.3.2 Parallels between the count/mass and delimited/non-
delimited distinctions 120
3.3.3 Some semantic approaches to the compositionality of
delimitedness: Verkuyl, Hinriche, Dowty 125
3.4 Total affectedness 137
3.5 Delimitedness and case 142
Chapter 4 Aspectual principles of argument structure 147
4.1 Introduction 147
4.2 Direct arguments 149
4.2.1 Verbs of imparting motion 151
4.2.2 Unergatives, reflexives and cognate objects 153
4.2.3 Verbs describing events with no change in the internal
argument 155
4.2.4 Conative and antipassive alternations 158
4.3 External arguments 162
4.3.1 External arguments and thematic roles 162
4.3.2 External arguments and the translation of spatial
delimitedness into temporal delimitedness 174
4.3.3 Summary 179
4.4 Oblique arguments 179
4.4.1 Delimiting oblique arguments 180
4.4.2 A delimiting requirement on secondary arguments 185
4.5 Summary 189
Chapter 5 Syntax of a theory of aspect 191
5.1 Introduction 191
5.2 Aspect and phrase structure 193
5.2.1 Semantic independence of tense/modality and aspect 194
5.2.2 Syntactic independence of tense/modality and aspect 202
5.2.3 Against a purely featural approach to aspect 206
5.2.4 Possible instantiations of aspect in phrase structure 209
5.3 Aspectual particles, resultatives, and double object constructions 215
Chapter 6 Aspect and the mapping of cognitive structure into syntax 245
6.1 Introduction The Aspectual Interface Hypothesis 245
6.2 Unaccusatives and unergative verbs 250
6.2.1 Introduction 250
6.2.2 Review of the syntactic approach to unaccusatives and
unergatives 252
6.2.3 Semantic differences between unaccusatives and
unergatives 259
6.2.4 The aspectual distinction between unaccusatives and
unergatives 267
6.3 The locative alternation 277
6.4 The body part/possessor alternation 284
6.5 Psych verbs 286
6.6 UTAH and thematic roles 294
6.7 Thematic hierarchies and the mapping of cognitive structure into
syntax 297
6.8 The ATH and learnability 310