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I thank everybody who bothered to deal with my question. I learn
from the discussion that, by and large, the model of demotion is the
antipassive construction. Also, while non-saturating incorporation
is clearly a form of verb-compounding - a non-compositional process
that has little to do with syntax -, saturating incorporation may be
compositional and thus stand better chances to be describable by
rules of grammar.<br>
<br>
Both in the antipassive construction and in saturating
incorporation, the direct object/absolutive actant position of the
verb is blocked. The crucial difference is, however, that in the
former case, some formative blocks the position so the undergoer
cannot occupy it, while in the latter case, the undergoer itself
blocks the slot, just as in the syntactically transitive
construction. As I said before, one may ignore this difference, just
concentrate on the fact that in both cases, the undergoer argument
loses its syntactic position, and therefore subsume both under
demotion.<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
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<td>Tel.:</td>
<td>+49/361/2113417</td>
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<td>E-Post:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:christianw_lehmann@arcor.de">christianw_lehmann@arcor.de</a></td>
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<td>Web:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.christianlehmann.eu">https://www.christianlehmann.eu</a></td>
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