Causativity in zero and overt nominalizations: An experimental study

• Authors: Iordăchioaia Gianina , Darby Jeannique
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

We experimentally evaluate three patterns of deverbal nominalizations derived by means of zero, -ing and Romance suffixes (i.e., -(at)ion, -ment, and -ance) in English as to whether they can express causativity and anticausativity like their base verbs. We report the results of a first study which uses native speaker judgments to test the acceptability of these competing nominalizing suffixes (-ing vs. zero and -ing vs. Romance suffixes) in realizing event readings with argument structure inherited from their causative, and respectively, anticausative base verbs. While previous literature claims that zero cannot realize the structurally more complex causative readings, and -ing cannot realize anticausative readings, our current results indicate that all three suffixes may realize both types of readings. This is in line with data attested in natural text corpora and suggests that zero suffixes are not necessarily structurally simpler than overt suffixes as often claimed in previous literature.

Keywords

EN

anticausativity; causativity; -ing suffix; nominalization; Romance suffixes; zero suffix

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Linguistica Pragensia
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 33-53

Contributors

author

Iordăchioaia Gianina

• University of Graz

author

Darby Jeannique

• University College Volda