Hierarchy of Two-Place Predicates

[Masahiko Minami]

Tasaku Tsunoda proposed a classification of predicates, in various versions, and its latest (1985) has been referred to as the hierarchy of two-place predicates (‘HTPP’).

My understanding of HTPP is as follows:

When a two-place predicate R(x,y) is used to describe an event involving two participants, usually an agent and a patient, it is of utmost importance to avoid ambiguity as to which noun phrase corresponds to the first argument x (the agent) and which to the second argument y (the patient). For this purpose, case can be used to mark one of the arguments. If one argument is case marked, this already suffices for the purpose of disambiguation. Thus, from the distinguishing perspective, there is no need to case mark both arguments. Neither would it be necessary to case mark the one and only argument of a one-place (intransitive) predicate.

In Tsunoda’s recent paper, he presents the following:
I’m hitting on something.
My feet don’t touch to the ground.

While the above examples do not involve the preposition on or to in adults’ English, children may initially include these prepositions but later abandon these prepositions, in accordance with the grammar of adults’ English.

If there are papers referring to such phenomena, please let me know.

Masahiko Minami
________________________________

From: Tom Roeper <roeper at linguist.umass.edu<mailto:roeper at linguist.umass.edu>>
Reply-To: "info-childes at googlegroups.com<mailto:info-childes at googlegroups.com>" <info-childes at googlegroups.com<mailto:info-childes at googlegroups.com>>
Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 7:24 PM
To: "info-childes at googlegroups.com<mailto:info-childes at googlegroups.com>" <info-childes at googlegroups.com<mailto:info-childes at googlegroups.com>>
Subject: Re: Hierarchy of Two-Place Predicates

Can you be a little more specific about what you mean?
Tom Roeper

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 10:15 PM, Masahiko Minami <mminami at sfsu.edu<mailto:mminami at sfsu.edu>> wrote:
Dear All,

I would like to know whether there are language acquisition studies (either L1 or L2) that refer to the hierarchy of two-place predicates.
Thank you.

Masahiko Minami
**********************************
Dr. Masahiko Minami
Professor, College of Liberal & Creative Arts
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA  94132
(415) 338-7451<tel:%28415%29%20338-7451>
http://online.sfsu.edu/~mminami/<http://online.sfsu.edu/%7Emminami/>

Invited Professor
National Institutes for the Humanities
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
Center for JSL Research and Information
10-2 Midori-cho, Tachikawa City, Tokyo, 190-8561
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Tom Roeper
Dept of Lingiustics
UMass South College
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