Long distance dependencies and the unaccusative/unergative distinction

[Yehuda N. Falk]

Aaron,

I had been intending to answer this earlier, but didn't get around to it.

As you say, if the language using an active mapping, with unaccusative
arguments bearing the OBJ function, your life is made easier. You probably
should see what the possibilities are of pushing that kind of analysis.

The problem with using [-r] is that at f-structure SUBJ and OBJ are both
[-r], since SUBJ is [-r, -o] and OBJ is [-r, +o]. The distinction between
[-r] elements and [-o] elements which is central to the
unaccusative/unergative distinction is an a-structure (or "inherent
classification") distinction.

--Yehuda

                            Yehuda N. Falk
       Department of English, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
                     Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel
                        msyfalk at mscc.huji.ac.il
      Personal Web Site    http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msyfalk/
     Departmental Web Site    http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~english/

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