[parislinguists] conference Jeff Lidz

[lea nash]

L'équipe 'Axe Minimaliste'
de l'UMR 7023 'STRUCTURES FORMELLES DU LANGAGE'
a le plaisir d'annoncer la prochaine séance de son séminaire:

Jeffrey Lidz
(Northwestern University)

Complex predicates and the role of function composition in licensing 
objects



Date : lundi 29 mars 2004
Lieu : locaux de l'UMR 7023, 15 rue Catulienne, 93 Saint-Denis - salle 
205
Heure : 11h-13h
Métro : 'Basilique de Saint-Denis'
RER : 'Saint-Denis'


Abstract

This talk addresses two puzzles concerning the distribution of Kannada  
reflexives. First, in Kannada ECM constructions, as in transitives,  
verbal reflexive marking (VRM)  occurs when the subject binds an  
anaphor that is a syntactic coargument.
	(1) 	hari tann-annu puNyavantanendu nambi-koLL-utt-aane
    		Hari self-ACC   wealthy                     believe-VRM-NPST-3SM
    		'Hari believes himself to be wealthy.'
However, this marking is obligatorily absent in reflexive resultatives  
(suggesting minimally that resultatives have a structure distinct from  
ECM).
	(2) 	hari tann-annu chappateyaagi taTTi-(*koND)-a
    		Hari self-ACC   flat                      hammer-(*VRM.PST)-3SM
    		'Hari hammered himself flat.'
Second, whereas ditransitives can occur with optional benefactive  
marking (BEN) on the verb (3), if the dative argument is a locally  
bound anaphor, the verbal reflexive (VRM) must occur and the  
benefactive cannot (4).
	(3)	a.	Hari Rashmi-ge    pustaka-vannu kalis-id-a
			Hari Rashmi-DAT book-ACC         send-PST-3SM
			‘Hari sent a book to Rashmi.’

		b. 	Hari Rashmi-ge pustaka-vannu kalisi-koTT-a
			Hari Rashmi-DAT book-ACC      send-BEN.PST-3SM
			‘Hari sent a book to Rashmi.’

	(4)	a.	Hari tann-age pustaka-vannu kalisi-koND-a
			Hari self-DAT book-ACC        send-VRM.PST-3SM
			‘Hari sent a book to himself.’

		b.   *	Hari tann-age pustaka-vannu kalisi-(koNDu)-koTT-a
			Hari self-DAT book-ACC         send-(VRM)-BEN.PST-3SM

I argue that these facts follow from a novel theory of locality based  
on the semantic types of the syntactic phrases that intervene between a  
DP and its case licensor (Lidz and Williams 2002, 2004). The intuition  
behind this notion is that two nodes X and Y are in a local relation if  
X is an argument of Y. In turn, if every node that intervenes between X  
and Y is a function over its sister, then those nodes can undergo  
function composition, making X an argument of the novel complex  
function including Y. In addition to solving the empirical puzzles (in  
a way to be made precise in the talk), this theory of locality is both  
natural and explanatory in that it aligns complex structural relations  
with the basic semantic relation of function to argument.
*****
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