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(In)transitivity and object marking: some current issues

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Romance Objects
This chapter is in the book Romance Objects
(In)transitivity and object marking: some current issues Michela Cennamo 1. Introduction In this paper we discuss the relationship between the degree of (In)transitivity of the clause and the marking of one of its nuclear argu-ments, the Ο participant (actant Y in Lazard's terminology (Lazard 1984, 1994, 1997, 2002).' In particular, we consider some aspects of the coding of Ο in the intermediate area between prototypical transitive and intransi-tive clauses, exemplified by the various types of object incorporation, anti-passive/middle morphology, direct vs. oblique case patterns, and we inves-tigate whether and to what extent they can be insightfully accounted for within an 'event structure' perspective on Transitivity, following recent work by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998), Levin (1999), an approach also put forward, within different frameworks, in Croft (1998), (2000), Van Valin (1993), (2002), Van Valin and La Polla (1997), among others. Building on a recent proposal by Levin (1999), we show that bringing together the insights from typological research on Transitivity and Actancy (Hopper and Thompson 1980, Tsunoda 1981, 1985, 1994, int. al.), with some current views on argument structure and linking, allows for a better understanding and a principled, unified account of some aspects of the cod-ing of Ο cross-linguistically. The discussion is organized as follows. Section 2 illustrates the notion of (In)transitivity and the approaches to event structure put forward in Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998), Levin (1999), Van Valin and La Polla (1997), Van Valin (2002), Croft (1998), (2000), providing the general background for the issue to be investigated. Section 3 reviews the varying encoding of Ο crosslinguistically, and the semanto-pragmatic and some syntactic factors involved in it. Section 4 places the crosslinguistic varia-tion in the marking of Ο within the event structure perspective developed

(In)transitivity and object marking: some current issues Michela Cennamo 1. Introduction In this paper we discuss the relationship between the degree of (In)transitivity of the clause and the marking of one of its nuclear argu-ments, the Ο participant (actant Y in Lazard's terminology (Lazard 1984, 1994, 1997, 2002).' In particular, we consider some aspects of the coding of Ο in the intermediate area between prototypical transitive and intransi-tive clauses, exemplified by the various types of object incorporation, anti-passive/middle morphology, direct vs. oblique case patterns, and we inves-tigate whether and to what extent they can be insightfully accounted for within an 'event structure' perspective on Transitivity, following recent work by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998), Levin (1999), an approach also put forward, within different frameworks, in Croft (1998), (2000), Van Valin (1993), (2002), Van Valin and La Polla (1997), among others. Building on a recent proposal by Levin (1999), we show that bringing together the insights from typological research on Transitivity and Actancy (Hopper and Thompson 1980, Tsunoda 1981, 1985, 1994, int. al.), with some current views on argument structure and linking, allows for a better understanding and a principled, unified account of some aspects of the cod-ing of Ο cross-linguistically. The discussion is organized as follows. Section 2 illustrates the notion of (In)transitivity and the approaches to event structure put forward in Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998), Levin (1999), Van Valin and La Polla (1997), Van Valin (2002), Croft (1998), (2000), providing the general background for the issue to be investigated. Section 3 reviews the varying encoding of Ο crosslinguistically, and the semanto-pragmatic and some syntactic factors involved in it. Section 4 places the crosslinguistic varia-tion in the marking of Ο within the event structure perspective developed

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Preface IX
  4. Introduction XI
  5. Section 1: Object marking in cross-linguistic perspective
  6. What is an object in a crosslinguistic perspective ? 1
  7. Nominal and/ or verbal marking of central actants 17
  8. (In)transitivity and object marking: some current issues 49
  9. Section 2: Transitivity and objects in Romance languages
  10. The object clitic pronoun in Italian: a functional interpretation 105
  11. Prepositional objects in Neapolitan 117
  12. From subject to object and from object to subject: (de)personalization, floating and reanalysis in presentative verbs 153
  13. Changes of valence and their effect on objects 187
  14. Transitivity and Grammaticalization of Object. The diachronic struggle of direct and indirect object in Spanish 217
  15. Non-diachrony of ditransitivity in Spanish 261
  16. Argument structure of perception verbs and actance variation of the Spanish direct object 299
  17. Subject Index 323
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110919837.49

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Preface IX
  4. Introduction XI
  5. Section 1: Object marking in cross-linguistic perspective
  6. What is an object in a crosslinguistic perspective ? 1
  7. Nominal and/ or verbal marking of central actants 17
  8. (In)transitivity and object marking: some current issues 49
  9. Section 2: Transitivity and objects in Romance languages
  10. The object clitic pronoun in Italian: a functional interpretation 105
  11. Prepositional objects in Neapolitan 117
  12. From subject to object and from object to subject: (de)personalization, floating and reanalysis in presentative verbs 153
  13. Changes of valence and their effect on objects 187
  14. Transitivity and Grammaticalization of Object. The diachronic struggle of direct and indirect object in Spanish 217
  15. Non-diachrony of ditransitivity in Spanish 261
  16. Argument structure of perception verbs and actance variation of the Spanish direct object 299
  17. Subject Index 323
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