28.4591, Qs: Unaccusative and Unergative Usage of Verb in Joke

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-4591. Thu Nov 02 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.4591, Qs:  Unaccusative and Unergative Usage of Verb in Joke

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Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2017 17:59:16
From: Tamás Biró [biro.tamas at btk.elte.hu]
Subject: Unaccusative and Unergative Usage of Verb in Joke

 
There is a (really bad) joke in Hungarian:

– Which animal turns around two hundred times after its death?
– I don’t know.
– Well, it’s the grilled chicken.

My proposed analysis of this joke is that the listener automatically believes
that the speaker asks for an agent of the verb ''to turn around'', which, by
definition, cannot be a dead animal. Then, the solution is that the same verb
can also take a patient or theme as its subject. In short, the default usage
of the verb is unergative, but it also has an unaccusative usage.

I am looking for languages to which this joke *cannot* be translated, because
the two usages would require two different verbs, or two different verbal
forms, or two different syntactic constructions. Other remarks are also most
welcome, such as the joke (or a similar joke) would work with certain verbs,
but not with others. Criticism of my above analysis is also very much
appreciated.

Please send your replies to:

Tamas Biro
tamas.biro at btk.elte.hu
 

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax



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