This thesis introduces a Dutch construction, called the Transition to Location Construction (TLC). The TLC is parallel to the way-construction in English. A second Dutch equivalent of the way-construction, called the weg-construction, is investigated in this thesis as well. The two Dutch constructions have a different meaning and syntax: the weg-construction is ditransitive and denotes motion along a path, whereas the TLC is transitive and denotes a transition to a location, which does not involve the traversal of a path. This thesis gives a detailed description of both Dutch constructions and demonstrates that they represent a mismatch in the syntax-semantics mapping: the verb has two syntactic complements, but these are not semantic argument of the verb. Moreover, the syntactic head of the sentence is not the semantic head, because the main verb is subordinate to a GO or CAUSE function. Both constructions are very productive and should therefore be taken seriously by any theory of syntax. The Minimalist Program currently does not incorporate constructions. In the Minimalist account offered here, several additional assumptions are made to account for the fact that it is not the verb that determines the complement configuration of the weg-construction and the TLC. In the literature, the English way-construction is considered to denote motion along a path. Based on the two Dutch constructions investigated here, the way-construction will be shown to be in fact ambiguous between a motion along a path reading and a transition to a location reading. Furthermore, this path/transition distinction is present in other Germanic languages as well, which has previously not been recognised.

The principal aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive account of the meaning of keep V-ing constructions, see (1a) and (1b). (1) a. Mary kept winning (again and again). (1) b. John kept running (for another ten minutes). On the basis of a systematic study of combinations of keep with predicates of different aktionsarts, it is shown that keep can give rise to two different readings which share the overall meaning of ‘continued activity’. It is argued that the two readings of keep V-ing arise from different aspectual properties of the predicate in the complement clause. Under the first reading, labelled the continuative-iterative reading, (1a), the event in the complement clause is telic, and the interpretation is an iterative reading. Under the second reading, labelled the continuative reading, (1b), the event in the complement clause is atelic, and the interpretation is a reading of nonstop continuation. It is argued that keep combines with activity predicates in the relevant construction type, that is, with dynamic, durative and atelic events, and that keep has the ability to induce aspect shift when combining with predicates that are not inherent activities. Thus, in (1a), a punctual and telic winning event is iterated, creating a series which in itself is durative and atelic. In (1b), the running event is already durative and atelic. By comparing keep V-ing with the progressive construction be V-ing, (2), and with two other continuative constructions, continue V-ing, (3), and V on, (4), it is shown that keep readily shifts a telic predicate into an atelic reading by taking scope over the entire event, (1a), but cannot take scope over an internal part of a telic event. Both be V-ing, (2), and continue V-ing, (3), are able to take scope over an internal part of a telic event. (2) John was building the house. (3) John continued building the house. (4) John ran on. In addition, unlike continue V-ing and V on, keep V-ing does not necessarily denote continuation of an event which has already been initiated.

Denne masteroppgaven tar for seg to ulike sterke fortidspartisipper i nordnorsk (hovedsakelig Troms-mål), der man i intransitive verb har ei veksling mellom vanlig supinumsending -e og det som antakelig opphavlig har vært hankjønnsforma -en, uavhengig av kjønn. Disse to fortidspartisippa opptrer også med ulike hjelpeverb, henholdsvis ha og være. Vekslinga blir analysert semantisk som ei aspektuell markering av hendelsesstruktur, der være + -en koder det som blir kalt resultativt aspekt, mens ha + -e koder perfektivt aspekt. Resultativt aspekt forutsetter at hendelsesstrukturen består av to distinkte hendelser, en aktivitet og en tilstand som blir forårsaka av denne aktiviteten. Det blir også forsøksvis vist hvordan hendelsesstrukturen og aspektet oppstår i derivasjonen av ei setning, og gjennom dette framgår det dessuten hva betydningsbidraget til de to ulike morfema og til hjelpeverba er.

Postulamos una estructura sintáctica unitaria para las construcciones con verbos parasintéticos de los tipos a-…-ar y en-…-ar mediante cuatro hipótesis: ambos esquemas verbales tienen una estructura sintáctica básica común en relación con Sv y SV, cuyos núcleos son CAUSE y BECOME, respectivamente; la diferencia entre ambos radica en que, dentro de la escala de afectación (Beavers 2011), en relación con a-…-ar, se especifica (composicionalmente) el estado resultante del tema, mientras que, en relación con en-…-ar, ello no tiene lugar. Proponemos que la afectación es un operador ubicado en una proyección externa a Sv, el cual cuantiza el evento determinando la especificidad del estado resultante para el objeto;y la forma morfológica del operador es a- o en- en caso de que su valor seapositivo o negativo respectivamente. / I postulate an unitary syntactic structure for constructions with a-…-ar and en-…-ar parasynthetic verbs through four hypothesis: both patterns have a common basic syntactic structure regarding vP and VP, whose heads are CAUSE and BECOME,  respectively; the difference between the patterns lies on, within a scale of affectedness (Beavers 2011), the fact that a-…-ar assigns (compositionally) a result state to the theme, while this does not happen with en-…-ar. I claim that affectedness is a binary operator located higher than vP that quantizes the event determining the specificity of the result state for the object; and the morphological form of the operator is a- (if its value is positive) or en- (if its value is negative).

This study analyzes the syntactic structure of motion predicates in Mandarin, with a specific focus on how the language expresses paths of motion and telicity. It adopts a generative-constructionist model called the Exo-Skeletal Model. Data were gathered from three native speakers of Mandarin living in Taiwan, using video prompts depicting various types of motion events. Upon seeing a prompt, the speakers produced a sentence or sentences describing the event in the prompt. Based on the data, this study points out a number of syntactic patterns unique to Mandarin, and it proposes an explanatory account of these patterns.

This paper deals with the semantic and constructional variation of the Spanish verb hablar and offers a description of the multiple contexts in which this verb can appear, based on the study of the focalization semantics of its root and the temporal configuration of the event in the model of Wotjak (2010, 2012).

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.

The aim of this thesis is to define the essential syntactic-semantic properties of three types of objectless sentences in present-day Swedish. The three types of objectless sentences are labeled descriptively as follows: Implicit Object Read type (IOR) with pseudo-transitive verbs like läsa ‘read’; Implicit Object Open type (IOO), which involves various sets of transitive verbs like öppna ‘open’ and bära ‘carry’; and Implicit Object Kill type (IOK), which typically involves destruction verbs like döda ‘kill’. The study is framed within Ramchand’s (2008) syntactic model with a three-partite decomposed verb phrase, which distinguishes between two types of objects: RHEMES, which are inserted into a complement position in the verb phrase, and UNDERGOERS, which are inserted into a specifier position. In this work, IOR is argued to be an objectless version of pseudo-transitive verbs with optional RHEMES, whereas IOO and IOK are argued to involve ‘true’ transitive verbs with omitted UNDERGOER objects. As a consequence, the IOR verbs are analyzed as sharing their structure with some verbs usually regarded as intransitive, such as springa ‘run’ and arbeta ‘work’, which can also marginally take RHEME objects. This opens up for a discussion on the transitive- intransitive distinction and the object status of RHEMES, as well as a discussion of lexical knowledge versus encyclopedic knowledge. The distinction of optional RHEMES and syntactically obligatory UNDERGOER objects is argued to arise from event structural differences among sets of verbs, as well as from different verb-object relations that are made possible within the three-partite verb phrase. The structural verb-object relations are argued to be influenced further by encyclopedic associations of particular verbs and by knowledge about the world. In contrast to IOR, IOO and IOK are both argued to involve the omission of an UNDERGOER object of a true transitive verb. In the case of IOO, the object referent is salient and specific, whereas for IOK, the object referent is non-specific. Thus, the restriction on IOO as well as on IOK can be informally phrased in terms of the object only being omissible if it is interpretable, or somewhat more formally, if the free variable can be bound. However, the variable binding is assumed to occur in two distinct ways, further motivating the distinction of IOO and IOK. Whereas the free variable of an IOO object is pragmatically bound, the variable of an IOK object is instead bound by an existential operator above the VP.

This study investigates the use of reduplication with predicative signs in Swedish Sign Language (SSL), and also the related phenomena doubling and displacement. Reduplication in SSL typically expresses plurality of events and/or referents, but may also express intensification, ongoing event or generic activity. There is a distinction between external and internal events with reduplication: external reduplication expresses some event happening over and over at different points in time and/or with different referents, and is associated with a frequentative/habitual reading; internal reduplication expresses some event consisting of several e.g. movements/actions and is associated with an ongoing reading. Only external expression seems to be applicable to stative constructions, as one would expect. The study also found a phenomenon not previously described: oral reduplication without manual reduplication. This process is found to have the ongoing functions with telic predicates, such that it focuses on the telic predicate as a single event in progress, and thus replaces the function of manual reduplication, which, with telic predicates, would instead express several events. The reading of reduplicated signs is associated with the semantics of the sign reduplicated, and it is also associated with the phonological citation form of the sign—monosyllabic signs tend to get pluractional reading; bisyllabic signs tend to get an ongoing reading. Also, the reading expressed by reduplication is connected to the presence/absence of oral reduplication. Reduplication generally does not occur in negative constructions. This study shows that inherently negative signs may be reduplicated, but reduplicated predicates are negated according to other strategies than for non-reduplicated predicates, thus reduplication has the largest scope. Doubling and displacement are both associated mainly with plural referents, and it is in this respect that they are related to reduplication, and they both occur frequently with reduplication.