Discrete Entailment-Based Linking and -EENouns in English

• Authors: Luis González
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Barker (1998) argues that since the referent of an -ee noun can be an indirect object, a direct object, a prepositional object, or a subject, -ee nouns cannot be described as a syntactic natural class. Portero Muñoz (2003) concurs and offers a semantic analysis based on Logical Structure (LS) in the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). This article proposes that RRG's macroroles (Actor and Undergoer) can be derived with two entailments and without any need for LS. Its analysis improves Portero Muñoz's, presenting additional evidence that subjects that allow -ee noun formation are Undergoers. It also explains why most -ee nouns are direct objects in spite of the fact that the suffix originated as a referent for indirect objects. Finally, it offers an explanation for nouns like amputee, pluckee, twistee, benefactee, malefactee, biographee, catapultee, razee, standee, attendee.

Keywords

EN

argument structure; benefactee; dative overriding; linking theory; malefactee; macroroles; Proto-Roles; theta-roles; unaccusativity

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Research in Language
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 5
• Pages: 51-79

Dates

published

2007-01-01

online

2007-12-18

Contributors

author

Luis González

• Wake Forest University

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10015-007-0002-6