Esta tese estuda quatro construções que tiveram/estão tendo mudanças em sua sintaxe no português brasileiro (PB). São elas: anticausativas, como em (1) O prato (se) quebrou: médias, como em (2) Essa roupa (se) lava fácil, o membro inacusativo da alternância agentiva, (3) Essa roupa lavou (*se) ontem e impessoais, como (4) Nesse lugar (se) vende bota. Afirmo que as mudanças nas estruturas desses eventos possuem uma origem em comum: a perda de SE que nucleia um tipo de projeção Voice específica. Essa projeção de Voice pode ou não projetar um especificador em que um argumento implícito pro é alocado. Quando essa projeção de Voice tem o especificador projetado, origina-se a interpretação de que um humano é responsável pelo evento. Essa é a interpretação em médias e impessoais com SE. Nos casos em que a projeção de Voice não tem o especificador projetado, a leitura que se tem é de um evento espontâneo que aconteceu sem que um Agente o promovesse, como em anticausativas. Em relação a esse argumento implícito em alguns dos eventos tratados, no Capítulo 2, demonstro que uma série de diferenças dos eventos estudados em relação a outras línguas românicas está relacionada ao tipo de argumento implícito projetado em Voice. O argumento implícito em PB é forte, comportando-se como um DP e funcionando como um interventor em função da sua constituição. Em contraste, o argumento implícito em espanhol, por exemplo, é fraco e não é um interventor em relações de Agree de uma sonda com mais de um argumento (nos casos em que essas relações são lícitas). Essa característica é responsável por diferenças significativas entre os eventos com SE do PB e de outras línguas românicas, algumas das quais foram exploradas nesta tese. Um caminho analítico empregado em vários dos capítulos desta tese é cotejo das variantes marcadas e não marcadas dos eventos estudados acima. No Capítulo 3, lido com anticausativas marcadas e suas contrapartes não marcadas e demonstro que nada mudou na estrutura desse evento com a perda de SE. Isso é esperado, já que anticausativas só possuem um argumento e SE tem o único papel de nuclear Voice. No Capítulo 4, estudo médias marcadas e não-marcadas e demonstro que houve uma alteração substancial na sintaxe desses eventos. Médias não-marcadas não possuem nenhum argumento implícito e são inacusativas para todos os testes relevantes. Isso mostra que as médias não-marcadas em PB se distanciam de médias não-marcadas do inglês, por exemplo, que são descritas como sentenças transitivas. Nesse caso, a perda de SE levou à perda de Voice. No Capítulo 5, estudo o membro inacusativo da alternância agentiva, exemplo em (4), e mostro que, apesar de esse tipo de evento não se combinar com SE, o que aponta que não há Voice nucleada por SE nas sentenças que expressam esse tipo de evento, elas são um subproduto da existência de médias inacusativas não-marcadas no PB. Isto é, sentenças como Essa roupa lavou ontem são uma generalização dos contextos em que uma estrutura como Essa roupa lava fácil pode entrar. Nesse sentido, essas sentenças também estão relacionadas com a perda de um tipo de Voice específico no PB, mas de uma forma indireta. Por último, no Capítulo 6, estudo sentenças impessoais e mostro que a variante não-marcada é talvez um dos eventos estudados nesta tese em que mais houve mudanças, porque essas sentenças sinalizam também uma mudança em TP. Ao contrário de médias e o membro inacusativo da alternância agentiva, todavia, sentenças impessoais necessitam de um argumento externo. Em sentenças como Nesse lugar (se) vende bota, o locativo é o especificador de Voice. Esse elemento é usado nesse tipo de sentença locativa justamente porque locativos geram leituras existenciais. Em suma, este estudo descreve uma série de mudanças em eventos do PB que acontecem, em última análise, em virtude da perda de morfologia nessa língua. O estudo contribui, assim, para dois debates maiores: i) de que forma mudanças de parâmetro podem afetar os eventos da gramática; ii) se eventos são melhor descritos por abordagens lexicais ou sintáticas. Os resultados aqui reportados mostram que mudanças de parâmetros podem afetar eventos, embora não essa não seja uma característica definidora do parâmetro pro-drop, por exemplo. Além disso, os dados do PB mostram que eventos concebidos como fruto de alternâncias lexicais em muitas abordagens atuais, como anticausativas e médias, mudam de acordo com tendências sintáticas da língua e são melhor tratadas em abordagens sintáticas em virtude disso. / In this thesis, I study four constructions that have changed in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), namely anticausatives, as in (1) The plate (se) broke; middles, as in (2) These clothes (se) wash easily; the unaccusative member of the agentive alternation, (3) This cloth (*se) washed yesterday and impersonals, as in (4) In this place (se) sell boots. I argue that all these changes are related to the loss of a Voice projection whose nucleus is the clitic SE. The said projection can or cannot project a specifier, in which pro is merged. When pro is present, the interpretation of an entity responsible for the event originates. This is found in middles and impersonal sentences with SE. As anticausatives are spontaneous events, in this particular case, this type of Voice does not project a specifier. In respect to the implicit argument in some of these events, in Chapter 2, I show that several contrasts among these events in Romance languages can be accounted for if there are different types of implicit arguments. Whereas the implicit argument in BP is strong, i.e. it behaves as a regular DP and intervenes in Agree relations, in Spanish it is a weak implicit argument and does not intervene when the probe enters in a relationship with more than one goal. These constituency differences are responsible for the differences between events with SE in BP and other languages, some of them are treated in this thesis. Throughout the analysis, I compare the SE-variant with its alternative realization without the clitic. In Chapter 3, I deal with marked anticausatives and their unmarked counterparts. I claim that nothing really changed in this case despite the loss of SE. This is expected, since Voiced anticausatives do not project an implicit argument. In Chapter 4, I deal with marked and unmarked middles, showing a substantial change in their structure. There is no implicit argument in unmarked middles and they behave as generic unaccusative for all relevant tests. This shows that unmarked middles in BP differ from English middles, which are normally analyzed as transitive or unergatives. In this case, the loss of SE led to the loss of Voice. In Chapter 5, I study the unaccusative member of the agentive alternation, exemplified by (3). I argue that, although SE is not licensed in this type of event, which shows that there is no Voice in it, they are a byproduct of unmarked middles in BP. In other words, sentences like This cloth washed yesterday (lit.) are a generalization over the contexts in which This cloth washes easily is licensed. For this reason, these sentences are also related to the loss of a specific type of Voice in BP, albeit in an indirect way. Finally, in Chapter 6, I study impersonal sentences. The unmarked variant of this type of event is perhaps the most affected one, since the changes do not affect only Voice, but also T. Unlike middles and the unaccusative member of the agentive alternation, however, impersonal sentences need an external argument. In sentences such as (4), the locative is the specifier of Voice. This element is used because locatives generate existential readings. To sum up, this study describes a series of changes in BP events that happened ultimately due to the loss of morphology in this language. This study contributes to two major debates: i) in which way changes of parameter can affect events; ii) if events are better described by lexical or syntactic approaches. The results reported in this thesis indicate that parametrical changes can affect events, even though this is not a defining property of the pro-drop parameter. In respect to (ii), BP data shows that events traditionally treated by lexical approaches, as anticausatives and middles, are tied in with general morphossyntactic changes in the language and are thus better explained by syntactic approaches.

本論文擬論述臺語述補式結構之語法與語意特性。述補式複合結構由兩個動詞或一個動詞及一個表示此一動詞之時帽組合成。由於臺語文獻中缺乏此類結構之研究，我們瀏灠了漢語中有關術補式複合動詞之研究，並採用張郇慧教授以論旨結構為本之分析模式。此結構之形成與論旨結構及句法上之及物性密切相關。除了此結構之形成外，我們亦討論其句法及語意系統與論旨結構之關聯。我們希望能藉此研究對此結構提供清楚而基本之概念。 / The previous studies on Taiwanese focus on the phonology and written forms, but few on other fields.In the thesis, we adopt a widely usde structure: Verb-Complement Construction to explore the syntax and semantics of the construction.Verb-Complement Constructions consist of two verbs or one verb plus a functional item which specifies verbal of the first verb. Due to the lack of previous studies on the topic, we first review several analyses on Mandarin Verb-Complement Compounds and adopt Chang's (1994) argument-structure-based analysis as the research approach. We propose that two factors contribute to the formation of this construction: syntactic transitivity and argument structure.The argument structure is divided into two categories: full-fledged and degenerated. Verb-complement Constructions, syntactically speaking, are formed by the combinations of transitive-transitive, intransitive-intransitive, and transitive-intransitive. Verb-Complement Constructions with full-fledged argument structure are distinguished into eight types based on the five types of this construction in terms of syntactic transitivity; Verb-complement constructions with degenerated argument structure are classified into four types based on the four kinds of this construction in terms of syntactic transitivity. We argue that different syntactic structures such as middle forms, verb copying constructions, HO construction, and KA construction as well as semantics of the construction can be effectively accounted for by argument structure.By the study, we hope to provide a fundamental and clear picture on the construction.

有關漢語動結式的議題，中心語與論元體現皆呈現了複雜的現象。就中心語這部份，過去研究(Cheng & Huang, 1994; Gu, 1992; Huang & Lin, 1992; Y. Li, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1999; C. Li, 2008, 2009; Shen, 1992; Tai, 2003)的論點相當分歧，顯示漢語動結式中心語的位置仍有討論的空間；至於論元體現方面，由於論元與詞類間的互動會帶出許多不同的語意和句法表現，而先前的研究(Her, 2004, 2007; Li, 1990, 1995)尚未足以完整的解釋這些情形。 本研究主要從詞彙的角度來探討中心語和論元體現這兩個議題。首先，依照Her (2004, 2007)的分析方式，本研究嘗試排列出漢語動結式合法的論元結構，並利用這些論元結構描述各個動結式的論元體現，解釋可能的語意及句法結構。接著，同樣根據所提出的合法論元結構，以顯現的論元為主，並採用有關判斷中心語的假設(Zwicky, 1984; Y. Li, 1990, 1995; Chung, 2006; C. Li, 2008, 2009)，整理出漢語動結式中心語的位置。最後，詞彙功能語法中的詞彙映照理論驗證了本研究前半部分對論元體現與中心語的討論，這個理論也另外解釋漢語動結式處所詞倒置的現象。 / Two issues regarding Mandarin resultative compounds, headedness and argument realization, present a complex phenomenon. For one thing, extensive studies (Cheng & Huang, 1994; Gu, 1992; Huang & Lin, 1992; Y. Li, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1999; C. Li, 2008, 2009; Shen, 1992; Tai, 2003) concerning headedness fail to critically determine the head of a Mandarin resultative compound. For another, despite previous research (Her, 2004, 2007; Li, 1990, 1995), the interaction between arguments and grammatical functions of Mandarin resultative compounds remains inconclusive. To settle the foregoing matters, the purpose of this thesis is to probe into argument realization and headedness from a lexicalist approach, aiming to provide a full account of both issues. In the first part of this thesis, following Her’s (2004, 2007) analysis, the thesis focuses on formulating systematic feasible argument structures for Mandarin resultative compounds, then examining the argument structures of a resultative compound to explain its possible readings and syntactic representations. Based on the available argument structures proposed in the first half, the second part of the thesis investigates the headedness of Mandarin resultative compounds, suggesting that the head can be determined when arguments are overt. The criterion for headedness that is adopted in this thesis involves assumptions proposed by Zwicky (1984), Y. Li (1990, 1995), Chung (2006), and C. Li (2008, 2009). Finally, the thesis demonstrates that both issues of argument realization and headedness are well governed by Lexical Mapping Theory and that Lexical Mapping Theory further clarifies constructions with locative inversion of Mandarin resultative compounds.

The topic of this diploma thesis is Italian causative constructions fare + infinitive. The work is divided into two parts. In the first, theoretical, part the author defines Italian causative constructions then he describes their syntactic and semantic properties. After that the author turns his focus to Czech causative constructions which are followed by the second, practical, part of the work. In that part the author works with itWaC, an Italian web corpus, on the basis of which he makes a list of verbs that enter into causative constructions. Thereafter, the author proposes translations of the most frequent constructions and in case of more possible translations of the same one, he tries to theoretically explain such a situation.

This study focuses on the predicate argument structure (PAS) of a sub-class of verbs in Xitsonga - verbs of change of possession: give, contribute, future having, providing, obtaining and verbs of exchange. It is shown that these verbs select various theta roles to form their PAS in the different alternations allowed in this language. The effects of the applicative {-el-} and causative {-is-} verbal affixes on the PAS of such verbs are also considered. The study confirms the fact that the ordering of objects in ditransitive verbs is determined by an interplay of syntactic and semantic factors. Ambiguity arises in the case of two animate objects. In this case the object with a definite reading will appear adjacent to the verb. / African Languages / M. A. (Arican Languages)

<p>Previous research has shown that the type of ditransitive sentence preferred by English speakers in a particular linguistic context is significantly influenced by the relative ‘givenness’ of the post verbal arguments (i.e. the assumption that the referent of a linguistic expression is known to the speaker/hearer). This ‘givenness constraint’ has also been shown to play a role in the ditransitive sentence preferences of bilingual English speakers. Some have claimed that the realization of the givenness constraint in the ditransitive sentence preferences of bilingual English speakers is significantly influenced by the characteristics of their dominant language; however, no studies that I am aware of have explicitly compared the preferences of speakers whose dominant languages feature different sets of ditransitive sentence types, making this claim difficult to evaluate. Additionally, the effects of task type (i.e. the experimental task(s) employed by a particular study), and variables related to speakers’ experience with English and English proficiency, relative to language background are unclear. This study attempts to clarify the role of language background in the realization of the givenness constraint by recruiting three groups of English speakers: German-English bilingual speakers living in Germany, Spanish-English bilingual speakers living in Mexico, and monolingual English speakers living in the United States. The three groups completed three tasks, all of which were administered over the internet: a scalar acceptability judgement task, a forced choice task, and a self-paced reading task. The results from the two bilingual groups showed significant effects of language background, even after factors related to English proficiency and English experience were taken into account. The results support an interpretation where language background plays a significant role in the realization of the givenness constraint on bilingual speakers’ ditransitive sentence preferences. </p>

The subject of the present thesis is an analysis of the ditransitive verbs envy and forgive in the ditransitive/double-object constructions, i.e., either the S-V-Oi-Od or S-V-O-Oprep argument structure, in which both objects are explicitly expressed. Envy and forgive represents marginal ditransitive verbs, whose accounts in major grammars and various studies are far from uniform. Occasionally considered idiosyncratic, the ditransitive use (i.e., the indirect pattern) of the two verbs is expected to decrease in frequency. Thus, the research aims to investigate the postverbal complementation preference of envy and forgive, and the way the preference changes over time. However, it is not the relative frequency of the S-V-Oi-Od pattern with respect to all remaining constructions that is of interest here, but its ratio to the frequency of the other available double object construction, the prepositional S-V-O-Oprep pattern. Additionally, the thesis provides a systematic overview of syntactic and semantic differences between envy and forgive as well as an account of their shared features and aspects. Particular attention is paid to the Oi/O realisation (e.g., the substantival or pronominal realisation) and the Od/Oprep realisation (namely, the substantival realisation, the pronominal realisation, the...

Diese Dissertation untersucht die Argument- und Ereignisstruktur von Resultativkonstruktion (z.B., Peter wischte den Tisch sauber.) aus der Perspektive zweier serialisierender, wenig untersuchter und bedrohter Ozeanischen Sprachen, Daakaka und Samoanisch, in welchen sowohl die Manner- als auch die Result-Bedeutungskomponente durch verbale Prädikate ausgedrückt wird. Diese Beobachtung steht im Kontrast zu nicht-serialisierenden Sprachen, wie dem Englischem, in welchen nur einer der beiden Bedeutungskomponenten durch das Hauptverb ausgedrückt wird. Im Zuge einer Untersuchung der mor-phosyntaktischen semantischen Eigenschaften zweier Typen von Resultativkonstruktionen, resultative Sekundärprädikation und die means-Konstruktion, entwickelt diese Arbeit einen neuen konfigurationel-len Ansatz innerhalb der Distributed Morphology, in welchem sprachübergreifende Variation als Inter-aktion von morphosyntaktischer und semantischer Komposition der jeweiligen Bedeutungskomponen-ten in Abhängigkeit von sprachspezifischen Restriktionen auf Wurzelbedeutung und Argumentstruktur beschrieben werden kann. Mit Hilfe eigener Feldforschung zeige ich, dass trotz der oberflächlichen Unterschiede zwischen serialisierenden und nicht-serialisierenden Sprachen Ozeanische Resultativkon-struktionen die zugrundeliegende Struktur der means-Konstruktionen aufweisen, in welchen das Man-nerverb an das kausative Hauptverb adjungiert wird und das darin enthaltende, unterspezifizierte kausa-tive Ereignis spezifiziert. Folglich unterscheiden sich beide Sprachtypen nicht signifikant in ihrer mor-phosyntaktischen und semantischen Komposition mit weitreichenden Implikationen für eine sprachübergreifende Typologie von Resultativkonstruktionen. / This dissertation approaches the event and argument structure of resultative construction (e.g., Peter wiped the table clean) from the perspective of two understudied and endangered Oceanic languages, Daakaka and Samoan, in which both the manner and result components are realized by verbal predicates, i.e. resultative serial verb constructions (RSVCs). This observation contrasts with non-serializing languages, such as English, in which only one of the two meaning components is expressed by the main verb. By examining the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of two types of resultative construc-tions, namely resultative secondary predication and means constructions, I develop a novel configurational analysis within the generative framework of Distributed Morphology that models cross-linguistic variation in terms of the morphosyntactic size and the semantic composition of the respective meaning components and their interaction with idiosyncratic requirements on roots and argument structure. Based on original fieldwork, I demonstrate that despite the superficial differences in categorial status, Oceanic RSVCs are an instance of the means construction, in which the manner verb directly adjoins to a causative verb modifying the underspecified causing event entailed in the event structure of the causa-tive predicate. Consequently, serializing and non-serializing languages do not vary significantly in their morphosyntactic and semantic composition with further implications for the typology of resultatives in the world’s languages.

本論文旨在探討「掉」出現在動詞後面時的語意內涵與語法地位。我們認為當「掉」身為結果補語時，它的意思為「被往下移除」；身為動相標誌時，意思為「被移除」；身為動貌標誌時，則標示起始意。「掉」經常與及物和非作格動詞形成複合動詞：與靜態動詞、瞬間動詞及達成動詞構成達成複合動詞，與動作動詞及完成動詞則構成完成複合動詞。雖然V-掉的論元結構經常是其前置動詞與「掉」之論元結構的結合體，但在某些情況下「掉」可能會壓制前置動詞的論元、幫V-掉複合動詞增加新論元或先壓制前置動詞的論元再幫V-掉複合動詞增加新論元。最後，我們採用虛化的理論來解釋為何「掉」具有多重語意及多重語法地位。由於「掉」符合Hopper (1991)所提出的虛化原則，因此我們相信「掉」的確正處在虛化的過程中。 / There are two main questions about post-verbal diao we dealt with in the present study: one is its meanings, and the other is its syntactic status. We argue that when diao acts as a resultative complement, it means ‘to be removed in a downward direction’, when it acts as a phase marker, it means ‘to be removed’, and when it acts as an aspect marker, it bears a grammatical meaning indicating inchoative. Post-verbal diao usually co-occurs with transitive and unaccusative verbs to form compounds. When diao goes with State, Semelfactive and Achievement verbs, the V-diao compounds will be Achievements, when diao goes with Activity and Accomplishment verbs, the V-diao compounds will be Accomplishments. In most cases, the argument structure of a V-diao compound is a composition of the argument structure of the preceding verb and that of diao. However, diao will suppress the Goal argument when co-occurring with three-place transactional verbs; it will create an argument for the V-diao compound when the argument of the preceding verb and that of diao are incompatible; it will suppress an argument of the preceding verb and create a new one for the V-diao compound when occurring with verbs which have an incremental theme. Grammaticalization is taken to account for the polysemy and the multiple syntactic status of post-verbal diao. Because except specialization, diao follows all of the principles (i.e. Layering, Divergence, Persistence, and De-categorialization) proposed by Hopper (1991), we suggest it is in the process of grammaticalization.

<p>Ovim se istraživanjem na primeru osnovnih predikata (glagola) percepcije ruskog i srpskog jezika odgovara na pitanja vezana za sistemske odnose u oblasti leksike, klasifikaciju jezičkih jedinica, definisanje leksema, međusobnu zavisnost značenja leksema i njihovih morfolo&scaron;kih i sintaksičkih obeležja. Osnovni predikati (glagoli) percepcije ruskog i srpskog jezika pozicioniraju se unutar semantičkih paradigmi, zasnovanih na interakciji diferencijalnih i zajedničkih komponenata značenja svojih članova. Članovi paradigmi izdvajaju se na osnovu kriterijuma određenih u skladu s principima organizacije centra i periferije leksičkog sistema. Pozicioniranje izdvojenih predstavnika vizuelne, auditivne, olfaktorne, gustativne i taktilne percepcije, kao i njihovih vidskih korelata, rezultira utvrđivanjem strukture paradigmi i smerova semantičke derivacije u njima.</p> / <p>This dissertation focuses on systemic relationships among the basic predicates (verbs) of perception in Russian and Serbian. It investigates issues related to the lexicon, the classification of linguistic units, the relationships between the meanings of lexemes and their morphological and syntactic features, as well as the definition of the main members of the analysed lexico-semantic group. The basic predicates of perception in Russian and Serbian are positioned within the semantic paradigms, based on the interaction of differential and general components of meaning of their members. The members of the paradigms are selected based on criteria established in accordance with the principle of the organization of lexical systems into core and periphery. The positioning of the selected representatives of visual, auditory, olfactory, gustative and tactile perception, as well as their aspectual correlates, results in determining the structure of the paradigms and the directions of semantic derivation in them.</p>