Cognate Objects in LFG

[John Peterson]

Hello!

I'm sending this inquiry on behalf of a friend who is not a member of this
list.
Is anyone aware of literature in an LFG-format which deals with "cognate
objects" or "figura etymologica" with intransitive verbs of the type in
the following examples:

Er ist den Heldentod gestorben. (German)
He died a heroic death / a hero's death.

(Note: The object need not derive from the same lexical morpheme as the
verb, as in the German sterb- 'die' and Tod 'death' as long as the two are
semantically very similar to one another.)

At issue here is how to deal with these apparent "objects", since the verb
in this case the verb is intransitive. Note that, at least in general, if
the "object" is not modified, the construction is not grammatical:

*He died a death. / *Er ist den Tod gestorben.

This makes them look more like adverbs than objects (e.g. "He died
heroically") so that they could be considered adjuncts. Any ideas?

All the best,
John


--
John Peterson
FB 7, Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Osnabrück
D-49069 Osnabrück
Germany
Telephone: (+49) (0)541-969 4252
Telefax: (+49) (0)541-969 4256
Homepage: http://www.SouthAsiaBibliography.de/