Argument marking in Baltic and Slavonic pain-verb constructions
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Axel Holvoet
Abstract
Pain verbs are often mentioned in publications on non-canonical marking of grammatical relations. In this article I look at the specific features of pain-verb construction that induce such non-canonical behaviour. Various types of non-canonicity result from marking strategies such as the external-possessor construction or the ‘agent-demoting construction’ undergoing construction-specific modifications which often make it difficult to treat pain-verb constructions as routine applications of productive patterns functioning elsewhere in a language. The non-canonical behaviour of pain-verb constructions results from a specific low-transitivity configuration of experiencer and stimulus arguments standing in a whole-to-part relationship and arranged in a prominence (obliqueness) cline often disturbing the patterns of grammatical relations inherited from the source constructions.
Abstract
Pain verbs are often mentioned in publications on non-canonical marking of grammatical relations. In this article I look at the specific features of pain-verb construction that induce such non-canonical behaviour. Various types of non-canonicity result from marking strategies such as the external-possessor construction or the ‘agent-demoting construction’ undergoing construction-specific modifications which often make it difficult to treat pain-verb constructions as routine applications of productive patterns functioning elsewhere in a language. The non-canonical behaviour of pain-verb constructions results from a specific low-transitivity configuration of experiencer and stimulus arguments standing in a whole-to-part relationship and arranged in a prominence (obliqueness) cline often disturbing the patterns of grammatical relations inherited from the source constructions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Case marking and case alternations
- Long-distance Genitive of Negation in Lithuanian 37
- Argument marking in Baltic and Slavonic pain-verb constructions 83
- Variable argument realization in Lithuanian impersonals 107
- The nominative case in Baltic in a typological perspective 137
- Differential Argument Marking with the Latvian debitive 199
- Contexts for the choice of genitive vs. instrumental in contemporary Lithuanian 259
- The directive/locative alternation in Lithuanian and elsewhere 333
-
Extending argument structure
- Verbal prefixation and argument structure in Lithuanian 363
- Resultative secondary predicates in the Baltic languages 403
- On periphrastic causative constructions in Lithuanian and Latvian 427
-
Nominalizations and their arugument structure
- Argument realization in Latvian action nominal constructions 461
- Lithuanian nominalizations and the case marking of their arguments 523
- Language index 551
- Name index 553
- Subject index 555
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Case marking and case alternations
- Long-distance Genitive of Negation in Lithuanian 37
- Argument marking in Baltic and Slavonic pain-verb constructions 83
- Variable argument realization in Lithuanian impersonals 107
- The nominative case in Baltic in a typological perspective 137
- Differential Argument Marking with the Latvian debitive 199
- Contexts for the choice of genitive vs. instrumental in contemporary Lithuanian 259
- The directive/locative alternation in Lithuanian and elsewhere 333
-
Extending argument structure
- Verbal prefixation and argument structure in Lithuanian 363
- Resultative secondary predicates in the Baltic languages 403
- On periphrastic causative constructions in Lithuanian and Latvian 427
-
Nominalizations and their arugument structure
- Argument realization in Latvian action nominal constructions 461
- Lithuanian nominalizations and the case marking of their arguments 523
- Language index 551
- Name index 553
- Subject index 555
