The post-verbal subject position of Italian unaccusative verbs of inherently directed motion

1999 ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Tortora
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs

Argument realization of psychological verbs

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Li
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Physical Force ◽  
Single Argument ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
Argument Realization ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Psychological Verbs

Abstract By using data from nearly thirty languages of various families and regions, this paper examines the argument realization of three types of psychological verbs (i.e. causative bivalent, non-causative bivalent, and monovalent). It finds that, when compared with the argument realization of core transitive verbs like BREAK, causative bivalent psych verbs show crosslinguistic uniformity in that they pattern with core transitive verbs in argument realization. The same comparative approach finds that the argument realization of non-causative bivalent psych verbs shows a lot of crosslinguistic variation. As for monovalent psych verbs, the paper finds that they almost always pattern with the argument realization of unaccusative verbs. The findings of the paper are accounted for by using the Force-Control-Causality (FCC) model of verb meaning. Under this model, the uniformity in argument realization with respect to causative bivalent psych verbs is due to the prominence of the causative relationship expressed and the directionality of the causality from the Causer to the Causee. The variation in argument realization with respect to non-causative bivalent psych verbs can be attributed to the fact that such verbs express neither causation nor transmission of physical force. As for the near uniformity in argument realization with respect to monovalent psych verbs, it is due to the fact that they involve only one argument (thus no competition for the subject position) and this single argument shares the [−control] feature with the single argument of unaccusative verbs. This study points to the need of recognizing Causer and Causee as two core and highly-ranked thematic roles in a global thematic hierarchy.

scholarly journals Stages rather than ages in the acquisition of movement structures: Data from sentence repetition and 27696 spontaneous clauses

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naama Friedmann ◽  
Julia Reznick
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Crossing Over ◽  
Syntactic Movement ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Repetition Task

This study explored the order of acquisition of various types of syntactic-movement and embedding structures in Hebrew, using a sentence-repetition task, in which 60 children aged 2;2-3;10 repeated 80 sentences (with a total of 4800 sentences), and an analysis of the spontaneous speech of 61 children aged 1;6-6;1 (27,696 clauses). The sentence repetition task revealed a set order of acquisition of the various types of syntactic movement: A-movement is acquired first, then A-bar-movement, and finally movement of the verb to C. The analysis of spontaneous speech revealed the same order: A-movement of the object of unaccusative verbs to subject position appears first, together with simple SV sentences; then, wh-questions appear, then relative clauses and topicalization, which appear together with embedding of finite clauses, and lastly, V-to-C movement. Previous studies have shown that Hebrew speakers under age six have difficulty comprehending and producing sentences with A-bar-movement in which a lexically-restricted object crosses over a lexically-restricted subject. And indeed, whereas children produced A-bar structures very early (wh-questions from age 1;6, relative-clauses and topicalization from age 2;6), until age 5;8 these structures never included a lexical DP crossing over another lexical DP. Both tasks indicated that the order of structure acquisition is fixed, creating Guttman scales between structures, but different children acquire the same structure at very different ages. It seems that whereas the syntactic path and the stages of structure acquisition along it are constant between children, each child walks this path in their own pace.

How are Lexical-Semantic Differences Represented in L2 Syntax? A Study of the Unaccusative/Unergative Distinction in L2 Chinese

1996 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 201-215
Author(s):  
Boping Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Single Argument ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

It has been proposed that intransitive verbs can be divided into two subgroups, unaccusative verbs, such as break and arrive, and unergative verbs, such as laugh and swim. The former type has an internal argument, but no external one, whereas the latter type has an external argument but no internal one. Unaccusative verbs are verbs of change of state or location, while unergative verbs are a set of agentive monadic verbs including verbs of manner of motion. In English, the internal argument of the unaccusative verb has to move to subject position to be Case-marked. In Chinese, however, the internal argument can remain in object position and get inherent partitive Case as long as it is an indefinite NP. External arguments of unergative verbs in both English and Chinese are in preverbal position whether they are definite or indefinite. The study reported in this paper was aimed at finding out whether the lexical-semantic distinction between the unaccusative verb and the unergative verb could be properly represented in English-speaking learners' L2 syntax of Chinese and whether the learner would only allow the single argument of the unaccusative verb but disallow that of the unergative verb to be in object position. The results indicate that the unaccusative/unergative distinction is acquired very late by English-speaking learners, and that the acquisition does not proceed in a linear fashion.

The Neural Correlates of Linguistic Distinctions: Unaccusative and Unergative Verbs

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 2306-2315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Einat Shetreet ◽  
Naama Friedmann ◽  
Uri Hadar
Keyword(s):  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Left Posterior ◽  
Unaccusative Verbs ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Conjunction Analysis

Unaccusative verbs like fall are special in that their sole argument is syntactically generated at the object position of the verb rather than at the subject position. Unaccusative verbs are derived by a lexical operation that reduces the agent from transitive verbs. Their insertion into a sentence often involves a syntactic movement from the object to the subject position. To explore the neurological reality of the distinction between different verb types and to identify the cortical activations associated with the lexical and syntactic operations, we compared unaccusative verbs with verbs that do not undergo such operations—unergatives (verbs with one argument, an agent) and transitives (verbs with two arguments). The observed pattern of activation revealed that the brain distinguishes between unaccusative and unergative verbs, lending neurological support for the linguistic distinction. A conjunction analysis between the comparisons between unaccusatives and the other verb types revealed activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus. These, together with previous neuroimaging results, suggest that the inferior frontal gyrus may be involved with the execution of the syntactic operation, whereas the middle temporal gyrus may be responsible for the lexical operation that derives unaccusative verbs.

Theory is for everybody

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athena Elafros
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Bell Hooks ◽  
Concrete Reality

In Feminism is for Everybody, bell hooks states, “[t]o be truly visionary we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality” (hooks, 2000, p. 110). Drawing on this insight, I offer one possible future for teaching theory in sociology based on my own subject position and experiences that seeks to imagine how social theory needs to change regarding a fundamental reorganization of what counts as theory, who counts as a theorist, who teaches theory, and how theory is taught.

The Fluctuating Lattice Boltzmann

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sauro Succi
Keyword(s):  
Brownian Motion ◽  
Fluid Flow ◽  
Lattice Boltzmann ◽  
Thermal Fluctuations ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Statistical Fluctuations ◽  
Lattice Boltzmann Models ◽  
Motion Versus ◽  
The Way

Fluid flow at nanoscopic scales is characterized by the dominance of thermal fluctuations (Brownian motion) versus directed motion. Thus, at variance with Lattice Boltzmann models for macroscopic flows, where statistical fluctuations had to be eliminated as a major cause of inefficiency, at the nanoscale they have to be summoned back. This Chapter illustrates the “nemesis of the fluctuations” and describe the way they have been inserted back within the LB formalism. The result is one of the most active sectors of current Lattice Boltzmann research.

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