prepositional adjuncts

[Ulrich Koch]

Hi everybody,

for languages like German, there is a further argument
in favor of the head-marker analysis of some "PPs":

It is commonly assumed that in a PP, the preposition selects
the case of its NP sister.  This actually works for many
prepositions, but there are counter-examples:

(1) Hans verlaesst sich auf einen Freund.
    Jack relies    self on  a-ACC friend
    `Jack relies on a friend.'
(2) Die Loesung  beruht auf einem neuen Ansatz.
    The solution rests  on  a-DAT new   approach
    `The solution is based on a new approach.'

Both "verlaesst" and "beruht" select "auf" (i.e. you can't
use any other preposition instead), but in (1), the sister
of "auf" must be in the accusative case, whereas in (2),
it must be in the dative.

With the head-complement analysis, we have to posit two
lexical entries for "auf" that differ in a feature called,
say, OBJ-CASE. Then each verb selects the preposition with
the correct OBJ-CASE value. This solution seems quite ad hoc.

If we adopt a head-marker analysis, however, the data are
accounted for naturally: "verlaesst" selects an NP[auf,acc]
(where auf is the MARKING value), and "beruht" selects an
NP[auf,dat].

Greetings,
--
Ulrich Koch, comp. science and comp. ling. student
http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~koch/ (Deutsch/English/esperante)