Polyvalente Verben koennen mit unterschiedlichen Konstituentenmengen kombiniert sein, wobei deren Zahl und Art variieren. In den meisten Grammatikschulen sind Verben zentral fuer syntaktische Gestalt und semantische Interpretation von Saetzen. Sie bestimmen ueber ihre Subkategorisierungsrahmen, wieviele Komplemente welchen Typs im Satz realisiert werden. Daher ist Polyvalenz ein unerwartetes Phaenomen. Eine Diskussion verschiedener Ansaetze der generativen Grammatik ergibt, dass Subkategorisierung fuer die Erklaerung von Polyvalenz ungeeignet ist. Im zweiten Kapitel wird ein Modell fuer die konzeptuell-semantische Interpretation von Verben und Saetzen entwickelt, das dem Rechnung traegt: In Saetzen mit polyvalenten Verben bedingen die Komplemente des Verbs zusammen mit dem Verb die konzeptuell-semantische Interpretation. Die thematische Interpretation wird als inferentieller Prozess angesehen, der keinen Spezialfall allgemeiner konzeptuell-semantischer Interpretationsprozesse darstellt, sondern vielmehr in diese eingebunden ist. / Polyvalent verbs can be combined with different sets of complements. The variation concerns both number and type of the complements. In most grammar theoretical frameworks, verbs are of crucial importance for the syntactic structure and semantic interpretation of clauses. They determine via subcategorization frames how many complements of which type are realized. Polyvalence is therefore an unexpected phenomenon. A discussion of several approaches in generative grammar results in the claim that subcategorization is not very useful for the explanation of polyvalence. In the second chapter, a model for the conceptual-semantic interpretation of verbs and clauses is developed that takes polyvalence into account: the conceptual-semantic interpretation of clauses with polyvalent verbs is determined by the verb and complements together. Thematic interpretation is viewed as an inferential process that is embedded within the general conceptual-semantic interpretation processes, not their prerequisite.

O objetivo maior deste trabalho é argumentar em favor de que a informação sobre a estrutura argumental das nominalizações está codificada em núcleos funcionais, os quais podem possuir sabores diferentes, isto é, propriedades diversas como causatividade, eventividade, reflexividade etc., em vez de tal informação estar codificada nas raízes abstratas como assumem autores como: Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), entre outros. O objetivo específico deste trabalho, por sua vez, é analisar como é formado um grupo de padrões do hebraico, o qual forma nomes de ações (cf. GLINERT, 1989), e mostrar que nem todas as nominalizações são formadas por uma camada verbal, contra Hazout (1995) e Shlonsky (2004). Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico do presente trabalho a Morfologia Distribuída (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), uma teoria não-lexicalista, a qual propõe que tanto palavras, quanto sentenças são formadas pelas mesmas operações durante a derivação sintática. De modo especial, utilizamos a noção de fase dentro de palavras (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003), para explicar que alguns nominais possuem padrões vocálicos que não são atômicos (contra ARAD, 2005), mas são formados em duas fases: uma fase verbal e outra nominal, enquanto outros nominais são formados em apenas uma fase: a nominal. Em nossa análise, privilegiamos quatro padrões vocálicos formadores de nominais de ação: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, de modo que encontramos restrições diferentes para cada um dos padrões. Tais restrições dizem respeito a: (i) modificação por adjetivos e advérbios; (ii) possibilidade de alçamento dentro de DPs; (iii) obrigatoriedade de interpretação de um argumento agente e (iv) obrigatoriedade de interpretação reflexiva. Além disso, analisamos os possíveis contextos sintáticos em que são encontrados esse nominais, isto é, analisamos quais são as possibilidades de interação desses nominais com o Construct State, o Free State, a Marca Diferencial de Objeto et e com a presença de uma by phrase. Como resultado da análise, defendemos que o padrão CCiCa seja um padrão formado por apenas uma fase nominal, o que explica a sua impossibilidade de modificação por advérbios genuínos, isto é, advérbios que possuem uma morfologia típica de advérbio. Por sua vez, o padrão CiCuC é formado por duas fases: uma fase verbal, que aceita a modificação por advérbios genuínos; e uma fase nominal, que permite a modificação por adjetivos. Já o padrão haCCaCa foi analisado como formado por apenas uma fase nominal, tanto por causa da sua morfologia, que não apresenta resquícios de uma morfologia verbal, quanto pela sua semântica obrigatoriamente agentiva, que o diferencia do padrão verbal ao qual ele está relacionado. Por fim, consideramos que o padrão hitCCaCut é formado por duas fases, o que está de acordo com a presença de uma morfologia verbal que compõe o padrão e com o tipo de argumento interno que é licenciado. / The main goal of this work is to argue that information over argument structure of nominalizations is coded in functional heads, which can have distinct flavors, that is, distinct properties, such as causativity, eventivity, reflexivity, etc., instead of that information being coded in the abstract roots, as assumed by Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), among others. The specific object of this work, on the other hand, is to analyze how a certain group of patterns that generates action nouns in Hebrew is formed, and to show that not all nominalizations are formed by a verbal layer, contra Hazout (1995) and Shlonsky (2004). We use, in this work, the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), a non-lexicalist theory which claims that both words and sentences are formed by the same operations, within the syntactic derivation. In a special way, we use the notion of phases within words (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003) in order to explain that some nouns possess vocal patterns that are not atomic (contra ARAD, 2005), but are formed in two separate phases: a verbal one, and a nominal one, while other nouns are formed only by the nominal phase. In our analysis, we privilege four noun formation vocal patterns: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, each one of them bearing a distinct set of restrictions. Such restrictions concern: (i) modification by adjectives and adverbs; (ii) possibility of raising within DPs; (iii) mandatory interpretation of an agentive argument and (iv) mandatory reflexive interpretation. Furthermore, we analyzed the possible syntactic contexts in which these nouns are found, that is, we analyzed which are the possibilities of interaction between these nouns and the Construct State, the Free State, the Differential Object Marker et a the presence of a by phrase. As a result of the analysis, we defend that the pattern CCiCa is formed by only a nominal phase, which explains its impossibility of being modified by genuine adverbs, that is, adverbs that possess adverbial morphology. On the other hand, the pattern CiCuC is formed by two phases: a verbal phase, which accounts for the modification by genuine adverbs; and a nominal phase, which allows for the modification by adjectives. The pattern haCCaCa, in its turn, was analyzes as formed by a nominal phase alone, both because its morphology, which does not present traces of verbal morphology, as for its obligatory agentive semantics, which differentiates it from the verbal pattern to which it is related to. Last, we considered that the pattern hitCCaCut is formed by two phases, which is compatible to the presence of verbal morphology, that composes the pattern, and to the type of argument that is licensed by it.

O propósito deste estudo é descrever e analisar o comportamento de sentenças médias no português do Brasil (PB), tais como Dissertação de mestrado não se escreve fácil e Cachecol tricota rápido. Muito têm-se discutido a respeito das construções médias, em diversas línguas, visto que elas agregam em si uma complexa relação entre a sintaxe, a semântica e, para alguns, o léxico. Foi a extensa bibliografia e a sempre presente discordância entre autores a respeito dessas construções que despertou nosso interesse em trabalhar com esse tema. Entretanto, descrever as construções médias do português Brasileiro revelou-se uma tarefa das mais árduas. Explica-se: há dois fatores de grande importância para a descrição dessas sentenças que estão em aparente mudança nesse idioma. O primeiro desses fenômenos é a mudança no uso dos clíticos que, de modo geral, está diminuindo em nossa língua (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000). O segundo fenômeno é o fato de o português do Brasil estar passando por um processo generalizado de mudança na classe dos verbos de alternância transitiva, já apontado na literatura (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Negrão (2006)). Tendo como perspectiva teórica a Morfologia Distribuída, um dos recentes desenvolvimentos da Gramática Gerativa, acreditamos poder dar um tratamento unicamente sintático, mais enxuto e uniforme do que as propostas de análise até hoje sugeridas. Fundamentando-nos no trabalho de Marantz (1997), no qual o autor propõe que uma interpretação agentiva de um determinado sintagma pode ser devida, não somente à presença de um núcleo verbal, mas também a informações sintático-semânticas da própria raiz participante da construção. além de baseando-nos na combinação das características sintático-semânticas das raízes envolvidas na construção. Também, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou e Schäfer (2005) hipotetizam, seguindo Kratzer (2002), em favor de decompor os verbos alternantes em uma raiz, um núcleo de causa e um núcleo de voz. Os dados do PB, vistos pela perspectiva da Morfologia Distribuída, nos permitirão ir adiante nas pesquisas sobre o tema específico que desenvolveremos neste trabalho e, ao mesmo tempo, trarão novas evidências e questionamentos a respeito da teoria que apóia este projeto / The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the Middle Construction in Brazilian Portuguese, such as Dissertação de mestrado não escreve fácil and Cachecol tricota rápido. Linguists, working with data form several languages, have discussed extensively about these constructions, because they aggregate in them a complex relationship between syntax, semantics and, in some analysis, the lexicon. It was the comprehensive bibliography and the presence of great discrepancy between authors - about these constructions that awakened our interest in working with this theme. However, describing these constructions in Brazilian Portuguese proved to be one of the most arduous task, since there are two factors of great importance to the description of those sentences that are in apparent change in our language. The first of these phenomena is the change in the use of clitics, which, in general, is decreasing in Brazilian Portuguese (Tarallo (1983), Nunes (1990, 1995), Cyrino (1992, 2003), Fernandes (2000)). The second phenomenon is the fact that this language is going through a process of widespread change in the class of alternating transitive verbs, already identified in the literature (Whitaker-Franchi (1989), Chagas (2000), Viotti & Pollini (2006)). Having as theoretical framework a theory of the architecture of grammar known as Distributed Morphology, one of the recent developments of Generative Grammar (Chomsky, 1960, 1965), we believe we can offer a syntactic treatment, more economical and more uniform than the proposals of analysis suggested so far. Our analysis is fundamented in the proposal from Marantz (1997), who argues that an agentive interpretation for a given phrase may be due, not only to the syntactic presence of a verbal head, but also to the presence of relevant syntactic-semantic features of the root. Also, Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2005) hypothesizes, along with Kratzer (2000), in favor of decomposing verbal meaning in a root, a causation head and a Voice head. The data coming from Brazilian Portuguese middle constructions, seen by the perspective of Distributed Morphology, can help the research on this specific topic to develop and, at the same time, bring new evidence and questioning about the theory that supports this project

O objetivo maior deste trabalho é argumentar em favor de que a informação sobre a estrutura argumental das nominalizações está codificada em núcleos funcionais, os quais podem possuir sabores diferentes, isto é, propriedades diversas como causatividade, eventividade, reflexividade etc., em vez de tal informação estar codificada nas raízes abstratas como assumem autores como: Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), entre outros. O objetivo específico deste trabalho, por sua vez, é analisar como é formado um grupo de padrões do hebraico, o qual forma nomes de ações (cf. GLINERT, 1989), e mostrar que nem todas as nominalizações são formadas por uma camada verbal, contra Hazout (1995) e Shlonsky (2004). Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico do presente trabalho a Morfologia Distribuída (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), uma teoria não-lexicalista, a qual propõe que tanto palavras, quanto sentenças são formadas pelas mesmas operações durante a derivação sintática. De modo especial, utilizamos a noção de fase dentro de palavras (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003), para explicar que alguns nominais possuem padrões vocálicos que não são atômicos (contra ARAD, 2005), mas são formados em duas fases: uma fase verbal e outra nominal, enquanto outros nominais são formados em apenas uma fase: a nominal. Em nossa análise, privilegiamos quatro padrões vocálicos formadores de nominais de ação: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, de modo que encontramos restrições diferentes para cada um dos padrões. Tais restrições dizem respeito a: (i) modificação por adjetivos e advérbios; (ii) possibilidade de alçamento dentro de DPs; (iii) obrigatoriedade de interpretação de um argumento agente e (iv) obrigatoriedade de interpretação reflexiva. Além disso, analisamos os possíveis contextos sintáticos em que são encontrados esse nominais, isto é, analisamos quais são as possibilidades de interação desses nominais com o Construct State, o Free State, a Marca Diferencial de Objeto et e com a presença de uma by phrase. Como resultado da análise, defendemos que o padrão CCiCa seja um padrão formado por apenas uma fase nominal, o que explica a sua impossibilidade de modificação por advérbios genuínos, isto é, advérbios que possuem uma morfologia típica de advérbio. Por sua vez, o padrão CiCuC é formado por duas fases: uma fase verbal, que aceita a modificação por advérbios genuínos; e uma fase nominal, que permite a modificação por adjetivos. Já o padrão haCCaCa foi analisado como formado por apenas uma fase nominal, tanto por causa da sua morfologia, que não apresenta resquícios de uma morfologia verbal, quanto pela sua semântica obrigatoriamente agentiva, que o diferencia do padrão verbal ao qual ele está relacionado. Por fim, consideramos que o padrão hitCCaCut é formado por duas fases, o que está de acordo com a presença de uma morfologia verbal que compõe o padrão e com o tipo de argumento interno que é licenciado. / The main goal of this work is to argue that information over argument structure of nominalizations is coded in functional heads, which can have distinct flavors, that is, distinct properties, such as causativity, eventivity, reflexivity, etc., instead of that information being coded in the abstract roots, as assumed by Marantz (1997), Embick (2004), Harley (2008), among others. The specific object of this work, on the other hand, is to analyze how a certain group of patterns that generates action nouns in Hebrew is formed, and to show that not all nominalizations are formed by a verbal layer, contra Hazout (1995) and Shlonsky (2004). We use, in this work, the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (cf. HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993; MARANTZ, 1997; SIDDIQI, 2009), a non-lexicalist theory which claims that both words and sentences are formed by the same operations, within the syntactic derivation. In a special way, we use the notion of phases within words (cf. MARANTZ, 2001 e ARAD, 2003) in order to explain that some nouns possess vocal patterns that are not atomic (contra ARAD, 2005), but are formed in two separate phases: a verbal one, and a nominal one, while other nouns are formed only by the nominal phase. In our analysis, we privilege four noun formation vocal patterns: CCiCa, CiCuC, haCCaCa, hitCCaCut, each one of them bearing a distinct set of restrictions. Such restrictions concern: (i) modification by adjectives and adverbs; (ii) possibility of raising within DPs; (iii) mandatory interpretation of an agentive argument and (iv) mandatory reflexive interpretation. Furthermore, we analyzed the possible syntactic contexts in which these nouns are found, that is, we analyzed which are the possibilities of interaction between these nouns and the Construct State, the Free State, the Differential Object Marker et a the presence of a by phrase. As a result of the analysis, we defend that the pattern CCiCa is formed by only a nominal phase, which explains its impossibility of being modified by genuine adverbs, that is, adverbs that possess adverbial morphology. On the other hand, the pattern CiCuC is formed by two phases: a verbal phase, which accounts for the modification by genuine adverbs; and a nominal phase, which allows for the modification by adjectives. The pattern haCCaCa, in its turn, was analyzes as formed by a nominal phase alone, both because its morphology, which does not present traces of verbal morphology, as for its obligatory agentive semantics, which differentiates it from the verbal pattern to which it is related to. Last, we considered that the pattern hitCCaCut is formed by two phases, which is compatible to the presence of verbal morphology, that composes the pattern, and to the type of argument that is licensed by it.

Dans le cadre des approches constructionistes, cette thèse étudie les verbes labiles de l’anglais, qui peuvent manifester des configurations syntaxiques variées sans changer de forme. L’étude de la complémentation de ces verbes montre que leur catégorisation en familles sémantiques est pertinente mais pas suffisante pour expliquer leur comportement. La thèse défend une approche syncrétique de la complémentation du verbe qui rend compte de son importante productivité et de ses limites parfois arbitraires. Une analyse montre que les verbes ont tous une configuration syntaxique par défaut, qui n’est pas signifiante et qui permet simplement au verbe d’exprimer ses arguments de façon non marquée, en accord avec certains principes de cohérence conceptuelle. À l’inverse, lorsque la complémentation du verbe a un apport sémantique identifiable, l’existence de schémas de complémentation pleinement signifiants est postulée. Il s’agit d’ensembles de compléments dont le sens est distinct de celui du verbe auquel ils sont associés et se retrouve de façon régulière avec des verbes de catégories diverses. Il est démontré que les schémas de complémentation doivent être considérés comme des unités linguistiques de plein droit de l’anglais. Cela implique qu’en synchronie, ces schémas sont emmagasinés par les locuteurs plutôt que le résultat d’un processus d’analogie avec des constructions existantes. Leur statut d’unité linguistique permet d’étudier leur sémantisme de la même façon que des unités lexicales plus classiques. S’ils sont en majorité polysémiques, certains schémas ont des emplois difficiles à relier sémantiquement et doivent donc être considérés comme des homonymes. / Within a constructionist framework, this thesis studies English labile verbs, which can enter into various syntactic configurations without changing form. A study of their complementation shows that categorizing them into semantic families is relevant but not sufficient to explain their behavior. The thesis defends a syncretic approach to verb complementation to that accounts for its important productivity and its sometimes arbitrary limits. It is shown that all verbs have a default syntactic configuration, which is not meaningful and which simply allows the verb to express its arguments in an unmarked way, in accordance with certain principles of conceptual coherence. Conversely, when the complementation of the verb has an identifiable semantic contribution, the existence of fully meaningful patterns of complementation is posited. These are defined as sets of complements, whose meaning is distinct from that of the verb with which they are associated and is found regularly with verbs of diverse categories. It is shown that patterns of complementation should be considered fully-fledged English linguistic units. This implies that synchronically, these patterns are mentally stored by speakers rather than the result of a process of analogy with existing constructions. Their status as linguistic units makes it possible to study their meaning in the same way as more classical lexical units. Although most of them are polysemic, some patterns of complementation exhibit uses that are difficult to link semantically and must therefore be viewed as homonyms.

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal discutir e analisar a possibilidade de se avaliar a expressão obrigatória de argumentos de verbos como índice de manifestação do Déficit Especificamente Lingüístico (DEL) em Português do Brasil (PB) e de prover uma marca clínica para o diagnóstico do DEL com base nessa análise. Tem ainda como objetivo ampliar a amostra de crianças com queixas de linguagem submetidas a uma avaliação lingüística teoricamente embasada, na construção do banco de dados do projeto MABILIN (Módulos de Avaliação de Habilidades Lingüísticas) do LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolingüística e Aquisição da Linguagem), com vistas a verificar os aspectos lingüísticos mais atingidos no PB. Participaram desse estudo crianças com suspeita de DEL e crianças com desenvolvimento normal de linguagem com 3 e 5 anos. Foram realizados sete experimentos de produção eliciada que avaliam, particularmente, a expressão de argumentos externo (sujeito) e internos (objeto direto, objeto indireto), assim como de adjuntos. Os resultados obtidos sugerem um comprometimento na condução da computação sintática da estrutura argumental de verbos em crianças DEL, o que resulta particularmente na omissão do sujeito em contexto sintaticamente obrigatório. Conclui- se que a omissão do sujeito no contexto obrigatório aqui caracterizado pode ser tomada como um índice do DEL no PB. / [en] This dissertation aims at examining the possibility of taking the obligatory expression of verbs arguments as an index of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and at providing a clinical criterion for SLI diagnoses on the basis of this analysis. A further goal is to enlarge the sample of children with language problems whose linguistic performance is assessed by means of a set of tests (Modules for the Evaluation of Linguistic Abilities) that has been developed in LAPAL (Laboratório de Psicolingüística e Aquisição da Linguagem), in order to identify those aspects of language that are particularly affected in BP. Children with a probable diagnosis of SLI and normally developing children from 3 to 5 years of age constitute the sample. Seven experiments were carried out by means of an elicited production task, which aimed at evaluating the expression of the arguments of the verb -- external argument (subject) and the internal arguments (direct object, indirect object), as well as adjuncts. The results suggest that children in the SLI group have difficulty in the syntactic computation of the verbs argument structure, which is particularly manifested in the omission of the subject argument in an obligatory context. It is concluded that subject omission in the obligatory context characterized here can be taken as an index of SLI in BP.

This dissertation investigates whether transitivity distinctions are manifest in the phonetics of linguistic and paralinguistic manual actions, namely lexical verbs and classifier constructions in American Sign Language (ASL) and gestures produced by hearing non-signers without speech (i.e., pantomime). A positive result would indicate that grammatical features are (a) transparent and (b) may thus arise from non-linguistic sources, here the visual-praxic domain. Given previous literature, we predict that transitivity is transparent in pantomime and classifier constructions, but opaque in lexical verbs. <div><br></div><div>We first collected judgments from hearing non-signers who classed pantomimes, classifier constructions, and ASL lexical verbs as unergative, unaccusative, transitive, or ditransitive. We found that non-signers consistently judged items across all three stimulus types, suggesting that there is transitivity-related information in the signed signal. </div><div><br></div><div>We then asked whether non-signers’ judging ability has its roots in a top-down or bottom-up strategy. A top-down strategy might entail guessing the meaning of the sign or pantomime and then using the guessed meaning to assess/guess its transitivity. A bottom-up strategy entails using one or more meaningful phonetic features available in the formation of the signal to judge an item. We predicted that both strategies would be available in classing pantomimes and classifier constructions, but that transitivity information would only be available top-down in lexical verbs, given that the former are argued to be more imagistic generally than lexical verbs. Further, each strategy makes a different prediction with respect to the internal representation xv of signs and pantomimes. The top-down strategy would suggest signs and pantomimes are unanalyzable wholes, whereas the bottom-up strategy would suggest the same are compositional. </div><div><br></div><div>For the top-down analysis, we correlated lexical iconicity score and a measure of the degree to which non-signers ‘agreed’ on the transitivity of an item. We found that lexical iconicity only weakly predicts non-signer judgments of transitivity, on average explaining 10-20% of the variance for each stimulus class. However, we note that this is the only strategy available for lexical verbs. </div><div><br></div><div>For the bottom-up analysis, we annotate our stimuli for phonetic and phonological features known to be relevant to transitivity and/ or event semantics in sign languages. We then apply a text classification model to try to predict transitivity from these features. As expected, our classifiers achieved stably high accuracy for pantomimes and classifier constructions, but only chance accuracy for lexical verbs. </div><div><br></div><div>Taken together, the top-down and bottom-up analyses were able to predict nonsigner transitivity judgments for the pantomimes and classifier constructions, with the bottom-up analysis providing a stronger, more convincing result. For lexical verbs, only the top-down analysis was relevant and it performed weakly, providing little explanatory power. When interpreting these results, we look to the semantics of the stimuli to explain the observed differences between classes: pantomimes and classifier constructions both encode events of motion and manipulation (by human hands), the transitivity of which may be encoded using a limited set of strategies. By contrast, lexical verbs denote a multitude of event types, with properties of those events (and not necessarily their transitivity) being preferentially encoded compared to the encoding of transitivity. That is, the resolution of transitivity is a much more difficult problem when looking at lexical verbs. </div><div><br></div><div>This dissertation contributes to the growing body of literature that appreciates how linguistic and paralinguistic forms may be both (para)linguistic and iconic at the same time. It further helps disentangle at least two different types of iconicities (lexical vs. structural), which may be selectively active in some signs or constructions xvi but not others. We also argue from our results that pantomimes are not holistic units, but instead combine elements of form and meaning in an analogous way to classifier constructions. Finally, this work also contributes to the discussion of how Language could have evolved in the species from a gesture-first perspective: The ‘understanding’ of others’ object-directed (i.e. transitive) manual actions becomes communicative.</div>

This study investigates how power relations are organised in conversation between two sets of characters from the HBO-series Succession. The aim has been to analyse how power can be exercised, shifted or struggled over in conversation. The main method has been conversation analysis; particularly Hutchby’s methods and concepts (2013) have been applied both for this study’s use of the concept of power and for this study’s understanding of argumentative structures and Action-Opposition sequences in conversation. There has also been a significant focus on swearing, especially with the first research question, where the instances of swearing were analysed in terms of their function and type and whether they contributed to a shift in power relations. The study found asymmetrical relations of power with both sets of characters and that one can use the conversational possibilities at one’s disposal to exercise, resist or shift the power that is omnipresent in all contexts. The findings supported the theory that the second position in an argumentative structure generally has more power. However, the findings also suggested ways in which this can be avoided, for example by using the practical implications of one’s statement in particular contexts to overpower the opposition or to selectively choose which counter statements or questions to respond to to control the outcome of the conversation.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This study explores semantic analysis of motion verb-hamba in IsiXhosa. In chapter 1 I have stated the aim of the study. I have discussed properties related to the lexical semantic analysis of the verb-hamba as well as Pustejovsky’s theory of the Generative Lexicon. The theoretical framework and the organization of study are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 2 addresses in more detail the type system for semantics. A generative theory of the lexicon includes multiple levels of representation for different types of lexical information needed. These levels include Argument Structure, Event Structure, Qualia Structure and Lexical Inherent Structure. In this chapter there is a more detailed structure of the qualia and the role they play in distributing the functional behavior of words and phrases in composition. In chapter 3 I have examined the lexical semantic analysis of the verb-hamba to account for the range of selectional properties of the NP phrase subject argument of the verb-hamba and various interpretations that arise in terms of composition with its complement arguments. The polysemous behavior of the verb-hamba is examined in sentence alternation constructions with respect to the properties of the event structure. I have also investigated the lexical representation in terms of argument structure and the event structure of the verb-hamba in different sentences. Chapter 4 is the conclusion, summarizing the findings of all the previous chapters in this study on lexical semantic analysis of the motion verb-hamba in IsiXhosa. This is followed by word lists that contain meanings of words in the context in which they are used.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the properties of selected monotransitive verbs in Northern Sotho as regard their argument structure and event structure. These Northern Sotho verbs will be examined within the general theoretical framework of Generative Lexicon Theory postulated by Pustejovsky (1996). This theory is in essence concerned with the account of word meaning as it relates to lexical semantic properties of lexical items in composition with other lexical items in a sentence. The arguments of the Northern Sotho verbs examined will include an agentive subject argument, the external argument, and a patient/theme object argument, the internal argument. In addition, a locative internal argument occurs in the sentences, which may have the status of a true argument, a shadow argument, or a default argument, in Pustejovsky’s classification of arguments. The Northern Sotho verbs examined demonstrate accomplishment events in that they entail a change of state and are telic (i.e. they have a logical culmination or endpoint). This telicity property of the verb is often the result of the occurrence of the internal arguments, i.e. the patient/theme argument and locative argument of the verb. The verb classes examined for Northern Sotho include (i) verbs of putting, (ii) verbs of removing, (iii) verbs of sending and carrying, (iv) verbs of exerting force/push/pull verbs), (v) verbs of change of possession, (vi) learn verbs, (vii) verbs of throwing, (viii) verbs of contact by impact, (ix) verbs of cutting, (x) verbs of separating and disassembling, (xi) verbs of creation and transformation, (xii) verbs of communication, (xiii) verbs of ingesting, (xiv) verbs of change of state, and (xv) verbs of motion.