Cognate arguments and the Transitivity Requirement in the history of English

• Authors: Nikolaos Lavidas
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Starting with the Transitivity Requirement hypothesis [the direct object counterpart of Extended Projection P rinciple (EPP)], we examine the development of cognate objects and cognate subjects in English. We show that English extended the range of both cognate objects - which are now also possible with activity/event nouns - and cognate subjects - cognate subjects became an option for impersonal verbs. However, we argue that a correlation between the development of cognate arguments and the changes in null arguments should be excluded, whereas the development of the cognate arguments appears to be related to aspectual changes.

Keywords

EN

cognate arguments; transitivity; English; diachronic syntax

• Publisher: Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk
• Journal: Lingua Posnaniensis
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 56
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 41-59

Dates

published

2014-12-01

online

2015-07-24

Contributors

author

Nikolaos Lavidas

• Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

References

• Aarts, Bas 1995. Secondary predicates in E nglish. In A arts, Bas & Meyer, Charles F. (eds.), The verb in contemporary English: Theory and description, 75−100. Cambridge: Cambridge U niversity P ress.
• Alexiadou, A rtemis & A nagnostopoulou, E lena. 1998. P arametrizing agr: W ord order, verb-movement and EPP - checking. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16(3). 491−539.
• Allerton, D.J. 2002. Stretched verb constructions in English. L ondon-New York: Routledge.
• Basilico, David. 1998. O bject position and predication forms. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16. 541−595.
• Borer, H agit. 1994. T he projection of arguments. In Benedicto, E lena & Runner, Jeffrey (eds.), Functional projections. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers 17, 19−46. A mherst: U niversity of Massachusetts, GL SA.
• Bowers, J ohn. 2002. T ransitivity. Linguistic Inquiry 33. 183−224.
• Cummins, Sarah & Roberge, Yves. 2004. N ull objects in French and E nglish. In: A uger, J ulie & Clements, Clancy & Vance, Barbara (eds.), Contemporary approaches to Romance linguistics: Selected papers from the 33rd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), 121−138. A msterdam-Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins.
• Cummins, Sarah & Roberge, Yves. 2005. A modular account of null objects in French. Syntax 8(1). 44−64.
• Denison, David. 1993. English historical syntax: Verbal constructions. L ondon-New York: L ongman.
• DOE : Dictionary of Old English: A to G on CD-ROM. Cameron, A ngus et al. (eds.). T oronto: P ontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies for the Dictionary of O ld E nglish P roject 2008.
• Erteschik-Shir, N omi & Rapoport, T ova R. 2004. Bare aspect: A theory of syntactic projection. In G uéron, J acqueline & L ecarme, J acqueline (eds.), The syntax of time, 217−234. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P ress.
• Frascarelli, Mara & H interhölzl, Roland. 2007. Types of topics in German and Italian. In Schwabe, K erstin & W inkler, Susanne (eds.), On Information Structure, Meaning and Form, 87−116. A msterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• García Velasco, Daniel & P ortero Muñoz, Carmen. 2002. Understood objects in functional grammar (Working Papers in Functional Grammar 76). U niversity of A msterdam.
• Gelderen van, Elly. 2000a. A history of English reflexive pronouns: Person, self, and interpretability. A msterdam- Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins.
• Gelderen van, Elly. 2000b. T he role of person in the loss of verbal agreement and of pro-drop. In Fischer, O lga & Stein Dieter (eds.), Pathways of change: Grammaticalization processes in Older English, 187−206. Berlin: Mouton de G ruyter.
• Gelderen van, Elly. 2004. Grammaticalization as economy. A msterdam-Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins.
• Gelderen van, Elly. 2010. “Pro-drop and pronominal subjects: Reanalyzing features in the history of E nglish. P aper presented at the W orkshop “Subjects in Diachrony”, Regensburg. http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/Regensburg-talk.pdf.
• Giannakidou, A nastasia & Merchant, J ason. 1997. O n the interpretation of null indefinite objects in G reek. Studies in Greek Linguistics 17. 141−155.
• Gummere, Francis B. (ed.). 1910. Beowulf (The H arvard Classics 49). N ew York: P .F. Collier & Son.
• Höche, Silke. 2009. Cognate object constructions in English. A cognitive-linguistic account. T übingen: N arr.
• Horrocks, G eoffrey & Stavrou, Melita. 2003. A ctions and their results in G reek and E nglish: T he complementarity of morphologically encoded (viewpoint) aspect and syntactic resultative predication. Journal of Semantics 20. 297−327.
• Horrocks, G eoffrey & Stavrou, Melita. 2007. G rammaticalized A spect and Spatio-temporal Culmination. Lingua 117. 605−644.
• Horrocks, G eoffrey & Stavrou Melita. 2010. Morphological aspect and the distribution of cognate objects across languages. In Rappaport H ovav, Malka & Doron, E dit & Sichel, Ivy (eds.), Lexical semantics, syntax, and event structure, 284−308. O xford: O xford U niversity P ress.
• Huang, J ames C.-T. 1984. O n the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 15. 531−574.
• Jones, Michael A llen. 1988. Cognate objects and the case filter. Journal of Linguistics 24. 89−111.
• Killie, K ristin. 2008. From locative to durative to focalized? T he E nglish progressive and ‘PROG imperfective drift’. In G otti, Maurizio & Dossena, Marina & Dury, Richard (eds.), English historical linguistics 2006. Vol. 1: Syntax and morphology, 69−88. A msterdam-Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins
• Kranich, Svenja. 2010. The progressive in Modern English. A corpus-based study of grammaticalization and related changes. A msterdam-New York: Rodopi.
• Kroch, A nthony. 1989. Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1. 199−244.
• Kroch, A nthony & T aylor A nn. 2000. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English (PPCME2). Department of L inguistics, U niversity of P ennsylvania. CD-ROM, second edition. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/histcorpora.
• Kroch, A nthony & Santorini, Beatrice & Delfs, L auren. 2004. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English (PPCEME). Department of L inguistics, U niversity of P ennsylvania. CD-ROM, first edition. http:// www.ling.upenn.edu/hist-corpora.
• Kroch, A nthony & Santorini, Beatrice & Diertani, A riel. 2010. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Modern British English (PPCMBE). Department of L inguistics, U niversity of P ennsylvania. CD-ROM, first edition. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/hist-corpora.
• Lambrecht, K nud & L emoine, K evin. 1996. Vers une grammaire des compléments zéro en français parlé. In Chuquet, J ean & Fryd, Mare (eds.), Travaux linguistiques du CERLICO 9. Absence de marques et représentation de l’absence, 279−306. Rennes: P resses universitaires de Rennes.
• Larjavaara, Meri. 2000. Présence ou absence de l’objet. Limites du possible en français contemporain. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.
• Larson, Richard. 1988. O n the double object construction. Linguistic Inquiry 19. 335−391.
• Lavidas, N ikolaos. 2013a. U naccusativity and the diachrony of null and cognate objects in G reek. In G elderen van, Elly & Barðdal, Jóhanna & Cennamo, Michela (eds.). 2012. Argument Structure in Flux: The Naples- Capri Papers. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins.
• Lavidas, Nikolaos. 2013b. N ull and cognate objects and changes in (in)transitivity: E vidence from the history of English. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 60(1). 69−106.
• Los, Bettelou & K emenade, A ns van. 2012. Discourse and information structure in the history of E nglish. In Bergs, A lexander & Brinton, L aurel (eds.), Historical Linguistics of English (HSK 34.2), 1475-1490. Berlin: Mouton de G ruyter.
• Macfarland, Talke. 1995. Cognate objects and the argument/adjunct distinction in English. N orthwestern University. (Ph.D. dissertation) Massam, Diane. 1990. Cognate objects as thematic objects. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 35. 161−190.
• MED: Middle E nglish Dictionary, XXII vol. 1956-1999. K urath, H ans & K uhn, Sherman M. (eds.). A nn A rbor: University of Michigan P ress. http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/m/mec.
• Mittwoch, Anita. 1998. Cognate objects as reflections of Davidsonian event arguments. In Rothstein, Susan (ed.), 309−332. Events and Grammar. Dordrecht: K luwer.
• Nevalainen, Terttu & Raumolin-Brunberg, H elena & K eränen, J ukka & N evala, Minna & N urmi, A rja & P alander- Collin, Minna. 1998. Corpus of Early English Correspondence (CEE C). Department of E nglish, U niversity of H elsinki. http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/CoRD/corpora/CEEC.
• OE D: T he O xford E nglish Dictionary [Online]. Simpson, J ohn A . (ed.). O xford: O xford U niversity P ress. http://www.oed.com.
• Panagiotidis, P hoevos. 2003. E mpty nouns. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21. 381−432.
• Pereltsvaig, A sya. 1999. T wo classes of cognate objects. In: Shahin, K imary & Blake, Susan & K im, Eun-Sook (eds.), The Proceedings of the WCCFL XVII, 537−551. Stanford: CSLI P ublications.
• Pintzuk, Susan. 2002. Morphological case and word order in O ld E nglish. Language Sciences 24. 381−395.
• Pirvulescu, Mihaela & Roberge, Yves. 1999. O bjects and the structure of imperatives. In: A uthier, J .-Marc & Bullock, Barbara E . & Reed, L isa A . (eds.), Formal perspectives on Romance linguistics, 211−226. A msterdam- Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins.
• Roberge, Yves. 2002. T ransitivity requirement effects and the EPP . P aper presented at the W estern Conference on Linguistics (WE COL ), N ovember 2002, Vancouver.
• Sigurðsson, H alldór Ármann. 2007. A rgument features, clausal structure and the computation. In Reuland, E ric & Bhattacharya, T anmoy & Spathas, Giorgos (eds.), Argument Structure, 121−158. A msterdam-Philadelphia: J ohn Benjamins.
• Sigurðsson, H alldór Ármann. 2011. Conditions on argument drop. Linguistic Inquiry 42. 267−304.
• Taylor, A nn & W arner, A nthony & P intzuk, Susan & Beths, Frank. 2003. The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose (YCOE). Department of L anguage and L inguistic Science, U niversity of York. Available through the O xford T ext A rchive. Tenny, Carol. 1987. Grammaticalizing Aspect and Affectedness. MIT. (Ph.D. dissertation) Tenny, Carol. 1994. Aspectual roles and the syntax-semantics interface. Dordrecht: K luwer.
• Travis, L isa. 1994. E vent phrase and a theory of functional categories. In K oskinen, Paivi (ed.), Proceedings of the 1994 Canadian Linguistic Association Meeting at the University of Calgary, 559−570. T oronto: T oronto Working Papers in L inguistics.
• Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria & P apadopoulou, Despina. 2006. A spect and argument realization: A study on antecedentless null objects in G reek. Lingua 116. 1595−1615.
• Visser, Frederikus T heodorus (1963) [2002]. An historical syntax of the English language. Vol. 1. L eiden: E.J. Brill.
• Walkden, George. 2011. N ull arguments in Old English. Paper presented at the LAG B 2011. http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~gw249/Walkden_2011_LAGB.pdf.
• Williams, A lexander. 2000. N ull subjects in Middle E nglish existentials. In Pintzuk, Susan & T soulas, G eorge & W arner, A nthony (eds.), Diachronic syntax: Models and mechanisms, 164−188. O xford: O xford U niversity P ress.
• Zaefferer, Dietmar. 2002. T he puzzle of the autoantonymous argument role. U nraveling the polysemy of risk/ riskieren. In Restle, David & Z aefferer, Dietmar (eds.), Festschrift for Theo Vennemann on the occasion of his 65th birthday, 413−437. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/linpo-2014-0013