This dissertation examines the interplay of Situation Aspect and Viewpoint Aspect in two classes of constructions in Polish: i) anticausatives with and without Dative subjects, ex. (Jankowi) złamały się okulary John broke the glasses involuntarily / The glasses broke; and ii) Factual Imperfectives, ex. Jadłam obiad I have eaten my dinner. With the first type of construction, the concern is why the unintentional causer reading is obtainable only in telic contexts and how two classes of Polish anticausatives – one with prefixed verbs and one with unprefixed verbs – differ structurally. The question that arises with analyses of Factual Imperfective constructions (FIs) is about the untypical role of imperfective aspect: how is it possible that the imperfective morphemes that the Slavic literature (almost) unanimously pairs with English Progressives do not neutralize telicity as the Progressive does? The dissertation finds evidence supporting the view that Slavic lexical prefixes are telicity markers and secondary predicates (cf. Svenonius 2004, Žaucer 2009). It argues that imperfectives that lack any aspectual morpheme and have the accusative case assigned to a direct object, nonetheless possess a non-overt aspectual operator located in the domain of Viewpoint Aspect. The dissertation enriches the recent discussions concerned with the puzzle of how to account for various readings of the imperfective (Cipria & Roberts 2000, Hacquard 2006, Deo 2009) by providing a semantic analysis of an interpretation not attested in languages like French, Italian and Spanish on which the discussions have focused so far. I argue that the Russian and Polish patterns dubbed as Existential Factual Imperfectives (cf. Grønn 2003) carry a silent Epistemic Modal that selects the imperfective due to its right semantic type: <s,t> in contrast to the <t> type of the perfective. From a cross-linguistic perspective, this study is relevant for syntactic and semantic theories of aspect in natural language especially for the theory of imperfectivity. From a language specific perspective, this study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the particular aspect-related conditions that play a role in licensing oblique (Dative) causers in Polish.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the applicability and suitability of the syntactic decomposition approach to account for the causative and anticausative alternation in Kikongo (Kizombo) in terms of the structural nodes of Voice, vCAUS and Root as posited in this approach to (anti-)causativity (see Alexiadou 2010). In addition, the aspectual approach postulated by Vendler (1957) and further developed by Verkuyl (1972) and Smith (1997) is invoked for the reason that the two alternants in the causative and anticausative alternation in Kikongo (Kizombo) are associated with aspectual verb class differences. Research on the causative and anticausative alternation has long been the focus of extensive work in typological and theoretical linguistics. Two central issues revolve around the debate: first the properties of meaning that determine the alternation and the derivational relationship between the alternants, and second, the relation between the causative alternation and other transitivity alternations, e.g. passives and middles. This dissertation demonstrates that there is a wide range of acceptability judgments associated with anticausative uses of Kizombo in externally and internally caused change of state and change of location/position verbs. The verb root is the element of meaning that allows the Kizombo verbs to alternate irrespective of their verb classes, including agentive verb roots. All the causative variants of externally caused verbs are morphologically unmarked, but all the anticausative variants are morphologically marked. However, all the internally caused change of state verbs are morphologically unmarked. Both the causative and anticausative variants of change of location/position verbs are morphologically unmarked. The anticausative and passive sentences can license an external causer through an implicit argument. While the passive verb sentences can be modified by by-agent, purpose clause and agent-oriented phrases, the anticausative sentences can be modified by instrument, natural force, agent-oriented and by-self phrases. The acceptability of modifiers with anticausatives and passives presupposes a presence of a causer in both constructions. The causative form of change of location/position verbs is syntactically intransitive (i.e. in the locative-subject alternation), but its anticausative variant acquires a transitive-like form. Thus, the concept of causative is related to cause and effect of the argument participating in the process. The study considers competing approaches concerning the derivational direction of the causative and anticausative alternation. Given the data in Kizombo, it is argued that the syntactic decomposition approach is the most appropriate to account for the example sentences in the causative and anticausative constructions. The transitive approach could probably deal with the externally caused change of state verbs, as discussed in chapter 6, but would face a challenge relating to the change of location/position verbs because none of the variants is morphologically marked. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het die toepaslikheid en geskiktheid van die benadering tot sintaktiese ontleding ondersoek ten einde rekenskap te gee van die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling in Kikongo (Kizombo) ten opsigte van die strukturele vertakpunte van Voice, vCAUS en Root soos in hierdie benadering tot (anti-)kousatiwiteit gestel (sien Alexiadou 2010). Daarbenewens is die aspektiese benadering soos voorgestaan deur Vendler (1957) en verder ontwikkel deur Verkuyl (1972) en Smith (1997) gebruik omdat die twee alternante in die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling in Kikongo (Kizombo) met aspektiese verskille in werkwoordklasse geassosieer word. Navorsing oor die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling is reeds lank die fokus van omvangryke werk in tipologiese en teoretiese linguistiek. Twee sentrale kwessies word by die debat betrek: eerstens die eienskappe van betekenis wat die wisseling en die afleidende verband tussen die alternante bepaal, en tweedens, die verhouding tussen die kousatiewe wisseling en ander transitiwiteitswisselinge, bv. passief- en middelkonstruksies. Hierdie verhandeling toon dat daar ʼn wye reeks aanvaarbaarheidsuitsprake is wat met antikousatiewe gebruik van Kizombo by verandering van toestand en verandering van plasing/posisie van werkwoorde wat ekstern en intern veroorsaak word, geassosieer word. Die werkwoordwortel is die betekeniselement wat dit vir die Kizombo-werkwoorde moontlik maak om te wissel ongeag hulle werkwoordklasse, met inbegrip van agenswerkwoordwortels. Al die kousatiewe variante van ekstern veroorsaakte werkwoorde is morfologies ongemerk, maar al die antikousatiewe variante is morfologies gemerk. Al die intern veroorsaakte verandering van toestandswerkwoorde is morfologies ongemerk. Beide die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe variante van verandering van plasing/posisie van werkwoorde is morfologies ongemerk. Die antikousatiewe en passiewe sinne kan ʼn eksterne doener deur ʼn implisiete argument toelaat. Terwyl die sinne met passiewe werkwoorde gewysig kan word deur deur-agent, doel-sinsdeel en agent-georiënteerde frases, kan die antikousatiewe sinne gewysig word deur instrument-, natuurlike krag-, agent-georiënteerde en deur-self-frases. Die aanvaarbaarheid van modifiseerders met antikousatiewe en passiewes voorveronderstel ʼn aanwesigheid van ʼn doener in albei konstruksies. Die kousatiewe vorm van verandering van plasing/posisiewerkwoorde is sintakties onoorganklik (m.a.w. in die lokatief–onderwerp-wisseling), maar die antikousatiewe variant daarvan verkry ʼn oorganklik-agtige vorm. Die begrip van kousatief hou dus verband met oorsaak en gevolg van die argument wat aan die proses deelneem. Die studie neem kompeterende benaderings met betrekking tot die afleidende rigting van die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling in ag. Gegewe die data in Kizombo, word aangevoer dat die benadering van sintaktiese ontleding die geskikste is om rekenskap te gee van die voorbeeldsinne in die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe konstruksies. Die oorganklike benadering sou waarskynlik aan die ekstern veroorsaakte verandering van toestandswerkwoorde, soos in hoofstuk 6 bespreek, aandag kon skenk maar sou voor ʼn uitdaging met betrekking tot die verandering van plasing/posisiewerkwoorde te staan kom aangesien geeneen van die variante morfologies gemerk is nie.

Por sincretismo passivo-reflexivo pode-se compreender a ocorrência de uma mesma marca morfológica em construções reflexivas, passivas e anticausativas. O fenômeno, bastante comum entre as línguas, tem sido tratado pela Teoria Gerativa, principalmente, de duas formas diferentes: por um lado, diz-se que o sincretismo passivo-reflexivo é consequência de uma propriedade sintática em comum compartilhada pelos contextos de inserção e, por outro, que - na verdade - os contextos em que o morfema se insere compartilham de uma mesma representação semântica. Do que se tem visto, ambas as formas de abordar o fenômeno são problemáticas: as explicações que fornecem, além de apresentarem alguns problemas teóricos, não se aplicam a tantas línguas quanto o esperado. Essas abordagens também tem levado pouco em conta importantes observações da linguística comparativa, que vem lidando com fenômenos dessa natureza desde o final dos anos 60. Esta tese investiga o sincretismo em questão em um grupo abrangente de línguas e une suas observações com conclusões da tipologia linguística e teoria gerativa, buscando desvendar duas questões, fundamentalmente: (i) por que o fenômeno é tão comum entre as línguas e (ii) qual o estatuto da marca compartilhada. Essas perguntas puderam ser respondidas levando em conta contribuições clássicas da linguística como a primeira definição de verbos anticausativos (Nedjalkov & Silnickij, 1969) e o estudo dos tipos de alternâncias de valência. Por outro lado, o modelo da Morfologia Distribuída (Halle & Marantz, 1993), desenvolvimento recente da Teoria Gerativa, possibilitou uma abordagem mais transparente da relação entre morfologia e sintaxe, permitindo melhor compreensão dos ambientes estruturais em que ocorre o sincretismo. O fenômeno é considerado um caso de sobreaplicação de anáforas, no sentido de Heinat (2006), na estrutura sintática. Essa sobreaplicação só é possível dadas algumas condições, sendo a principal delas a dependência morfológica da marca sincrética. Essa dependência morfológica é derivada ou durante a derivação sintática, ou após a inserção de material fonológico, conforme prevê a Morfologia Distribuída. As diferentes distribuições que o sincretismo apresenta entre as línguas podem ser explicadas por propriedades sintáticas da língua, assim como pelo momento da derivação em que a anáfora torna-se morfologicamente dependente, o que também diferencia clíticos/pronomes fracos de afixos. / The Passive-Reflexive Syncretism is a term describing the sharing of the same morphological marking in Reflexive, Passive and Anticausative Constructions. The phenomenon is widely seen across languages and Works within the Generative Framework have been attempting to account to it in basically two ways: (i) by understanding the syncretism as a consequence of a common syntactical property among the contexts sharing the morpheme or (ii) by understanding it as a consequence of a common semantic representation among these contexts. It is shown that both approaches are problematic in theoretical and empirical means. Besides this, they have not been taking into account important insights from comparative linguistics, which has been dealing with these phenomena since the end of the 60\'s. The present thesis investigates the syncretism in depth, taking into account a significant number of languages and linking its observations with contributions from Linguistic Typology and Generative Theory, in an attempt to address two fundamental questions: (i) Why this syncretism is so common across languages? (ii) What is the status of the shared marking. These questions could be answered by taking into account classical definitions in linguistics, such as the first definition of anticausative verbs (Nedjalkov & Silnickij, 1969) and the definitions for the different valency alternations. On the other hand, the Distributed Morphology development from Generative Grammar (Halle & Marantz, 1993) allowed for a transparent approach towards the relation between morphology and syntax, contributing to a better understanding of the structural environments involved in the syncretism. The phenomenon is considered a case of superaplication of anaphors, in Heinat\'s (2006) sense, in the syntactic structure. This superaplication is only possible given some conditions, being the main one the Morphological Dependency of the syncretic marking. This dependency is derived either during syntactic derivation or after the insertion of phonological content, as told by the Distributed Morphology\'s view on the Architecture of Grammar. The different distributions shown by the syncretism across languages can be explained by both syntactic properties of the language and the moments described above, when the anaphor becomes morphological dependent, which also helps differentiating clitics/weak pronouns from affixes.

Por sincretismo passivo-reflexivo pode-se compreender a ocorrência de uma mesma marca morfológica em construções reflexivas, passivas e anticausativas. O fenômeno, bastante comum entre as línguas, tem sido tratado pela Teoria Gerativa, principalmente, de duas formas diferentes: por um lado, diz-se que o sincretismo passivo-reflexivo é consequência de uma propriedade sintática em comum compartilhada pelos contextos de inserção e, por outro, que - na verdade - os contextos em que o morfema se insere compartilham de uma mesma representação semântica. Do que se tem visto, ambas as formas de abordar o fenômeno são problemáticas: as explicações que fornecem, além de apresentarem alguns problemas teóricos, não se aplicam a tantas línguas quanto o esperado. Essas abordagens também tem levado pouco em conta importantes observações da linguística comparativa, que vem lidando com fenômenos dessa natureza desde o final dos anos 60. Esta tese investiga o sincretismo em questão em um grupo abrangente de línguas e une suas observações com conclusões da tipologia linguística e teoria gerativa, buscando desvendar duas questões, fundamentalmente: (i) por que o fenômeno é tão comum entre as línguas e (ii) qual o estatuto da marca compartilhada. Essas perguntas puderam ser respondidas levando em conta contribuições clássicas da linguística como a primeira definição de verbos anticausativos (Nedjalkov & Silnickij, 1969) e o estudo dos tipos de alternâncias de valência. Por outro lado, o modelo da Morfologia Distribuída (Halle & Marantz, 1993), desenvolvimento recente da Teoria Gerativa, possibilitou uma abordagem mais transparente da relação entre morfologia e sintaxe, permitindo melhor compreensão dos ambientes estruturais em que ocorre o sincretismo. O fenômeno é considerado um caso de sobreaplicação de anáforas, no sentido de Heinat (2006), na estrutura sintática. Essa sobreaplicação só é possível dadas algumas condições, sendo a principal delas a dependência morfológica da marca sincrética. Essa dependência morfológica é derivada ou durante a derivação sintática, ou após a inserção de material fonológico, conforme prevê a Morfologia Distribuída. As diferentes distribuições que o sincretismo apresenta entre as línguas podem ser explicadas por propriedades sintáticas da língua, assim como pelo momento da derivação em que a anáfora torna-se morfologicamente dependente, o que também diferencia clíticos/pronomes fracos de afixos. / The Passive-Reflexive Syncretism is a term describing the sharing of the same morphological marking in Reflexive, Passive and Anticausative Constructions. The phenomenon is widely seen across languages and Works within the Generative Framework have been attempting to account to it in basically two ways: (i) by understanding the syncretism as a consequence of a common syntactical property among the contexts sharing the morpheme or (ii) by understanding it as a consequence of a common semantic representation among these contexts. It is shown that both approaches are problematic in theoretical and empirical means. Besides this, they have not been taking into account important insights from comparative linguistics, which has been dealing with these phenomena since the end of the 60\'s. The present thesis investigates the syncretism in depth, taking into account a significant number of languages and linking its observations with contributions from Linguistic Typology and Generative Theory, in an attempt to address two fundamental questions: (i) Why this syncretism is so common across languages? (ii) What is the status of the shared marking. These questions could be answered by taking into account classical definitions in linguistics, such as the first definition of anticausative verbs (Nedjalkov & Silnickij, 1969) and the definitions for the different valency alternations. On the other hand, the Distributed Morphology development from Generative Grammar (Halle & Marantz, 1993) allowed for a transparent approach towards the relation between morphology and syntax, contributing to a better understanding of the structural environments involved in the syncretism. The phenomenon is considered a case of superaplication of anaphors, in Heinat\'s (2006) sense, in the syntactic structure. This superaplication is only possible given some conditions, being the main one the Morphological Dependency of the syncretic marking. This dependency is derived either during syntactic derivation or after the insertion of phonological content, as told by the Distributed Morphology\'s view on the Architecture of Grammar. The different distributions shown by the syncretism across languages can be explained by both syntactic properties of the language and the moments described above, when the anaphor becomes morphological dependent, which also helps differentiating clitics/weak pronouns from affixes.

This thesis presents a description and analysis of non-canonical case-marking of core arguments in Lithuanian. It consists of an introduction and six articles, providing historical and/or contrastive perspective to this issue. More specifically, using data from Lithuanian dialects, Old Lithuanian and other languages such as Icelandic, Latin and Finnic for comparison, the thesis examines the development and current state of non-canonical case-marking of core arguments in Lithuanian The present work draws on empirical findings and theoretical considerations to investigate non-canonical case-marking, language variation and historical linguistics. Special attention is paid to the variation in the case-marking of body parts in pain verb constructions, where an accusative-marked body part is used in Standard Lithuanian, and alongside, a nominative-marked body part in Lithuanian dialects. A common objective of the first three articles is to clarify and to seek a better understanding for the reasons for this case variation. The research provides evidence that nominative is the original case-marking of body parts in pain specific construction, i.e. with verbs, with the original meaning of pain, like skaudėti and sopėti ‘hurt, feel pain’. On the contrary, in derived pain constructions, i.e. with verbs like gelti with the original meaning of ‘sting, bite’ and diegti with the original meaning ‘plant’, accusative is the original case-marking of body parts. This accusative is explained by means of an oblique anticausative and it is argued furthermore that it is extended into the pain specific construction. The three last articles focus on the comparative and contrastive perspective. Their main results include the following: Lithuanian and Icelandic differ considerably in the frequency of using accusative vs. dative marking on the highest ranked argument. Accusative is more frequently used in Lithuanian while dative is dominant in Icelandic. The semantic fields of the dative subject construction have remained very stable, suggesting that the dative subject construction is inherited. It has, however, become productive in the history of Germanic, Baltic and Slavic. The similarities in Finnic and Baltic partiality-based object and subject-marking systems are due to Baltic influence. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: In press. Paper 2: In press. Paper 3: In press.</p>