query: Inventory of unaccusative verbs

[Peter Cole]

I'd suggest looking at Christina Tortora's 1998 Univ Delaware dissertation.
She has a very interesting discussion of the properties of various types of
unaccusatives in Northern italian dialects, where the morphology reveals
the properties of the different classes of verbs.  It does not seem to be a
unified group.  Christina Tortora now teachers at U Michigan.  I think the
Delaware email address still works though: "Tortora, Christina"
<tortora at brahms.udel.edu>.  PC


At 5:11 PM -0800 3/27/98, bingfu wrote:
>Dear netters,
>
> 	The semantic scope of unaccusative verbs varies
>from language to language. In Chinese, it contains tree
>types of verbs: presence verbs ('to be'
>'exist'), appearance verbs ('come' 'arrive') and
>disapearance verbs ('disappear', 'vanish', 'die').
>
>	If there-construction is taken as one
>criterion for unaccusative verbs,  then,
>dissapearance verbs are not unaccusative verbs, as
>shown below:
>
>	There appeared a man in the hill.
>But	* There disappeared a man in the hill.
>
>
>	Now, my question is:
>
>	How about in other languages? Does your native
>language patterns with Chinese or English?
>
>	Any information will be most welcome
>and I will make a summary after I get sufficient corresponses.
>
>	Thanks!
>
>			Bingfu Lu
>			USC