Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: The role of information structure in argument distribution

Adele E. Goldberg

doi:10.1016/S0388-0001(00)00034-6

Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: The role of information structure in argument distribution

Adele E. Goldberg

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper offers an examination of the distributional range of causative verbs. Contra many claims in the literature that these verbs have highly circumscribed distributions, we demonstrate that they readily appear in a wide variety of argument structure frames. The appearance of causative verbs with omitted patient arguments is analyzed in particular detail and an account is offered in which properties of information structure play a critical role. Constructional influences and lexical semantic factors are shown to be relevant as well, both in the case of omitted arguments and in licensing resultative and path phrases.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	503-524
Number of pages	22
Journal	Language Sciences
Volume	23
Issue number	4-5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/S0388-0001(00)00034-6
State	Published - Jul 9 2001
Externally published	Yes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Language and Linguistics
Linguistics and Language

Keywords

Causative verbs
Information structure
Omitted arguments
Resultatives

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10.1016/S0388-0001(00)00034-6

Cite this

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title = "Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: The role of information structure in argument distribution",

abstract = "This paper offers an examination of the distributional range of causative verbs. Contra many claims in the literature that these verbs have highly circumscribed distributions, we demonstrate that they readily appear in a wide variety of argument structure frames. The appearance of causative verbs with omitted patient arguments is analyzed in particular detail and an account is offered in which properties of information structure play a critical role. Constructional influences and lexical semantic factors are shown to be relevant as well, both in the case of omitted arguments and in licensing resultative and path phrases.",

keywords = "Causative verbs, Information structure, Omitted arguments, Resultatives",

author = "Goldberg, {Adele E.}",

note = "Funding Information: I would like to thank Giulia Bencini, Christiane Fellbaum, Nik Gisborne, Paul Kay, Laura Michaelis, Woo-hyoung Nahm, Gregory Ward and an anonymous reviewer for very helpful discussion and feedback. Knud Lambrecht deserves special mention for his energetic and very helpful comments. I am also very grateful to Zsuzsanna Nagy for her insightful analysis of the Hungarian data for my course at the 1999 Linguistic Institute, which is discussed in Section 5 . Of course none of these researchers necessarily endorses all of the views expressed here. This work was supported by NSF Grant SBR-9873250.",

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language = "English (US)",

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T2 - The role of information structure in argument distribution

AU - Goldberg, Adele E.

N1 - Funding Information: I would like to thank Giulia Bencini, Christiane Fellbaum, Nik Gisborne, Paul Kay, Laura Michaelis, Woo-hyoung Nahm, Gregory Ward and an anonymous reviewer for very helpful discussion and feedback. Knud Lambrecht deserves special mention for his energetic and very helpful comments. I am also very grateful to Zsuzsanna Nagy for her insightful analysis of the Hungarian data for my course at the 1999 Linguistic Institute, which is discussed in Section 5 . Of course none of these researchers necessarily endorses all of the views expressed here. This work was supported by NSF Grant SBR-9873250.

PY - 2001/7/9

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N2 - This paper offers an examination of the distributional range of causative verbs. Contra many claims in the literature that these verbs have highly circumscribed distributions, we demonstrate that they readily appear in a wide variety of argument structure frames. The appearance of causative verbs with omitted patient arguments is analyzed in particular detail and an account is offered in which properties of information structure play a critical role. Constructional influences and lexical semantic factors are shown to be relevant as well, both in the case of omitted arguments and in licensing resultative and path phrases.

AB - This paper offers an examination of the distributional range of causative verbs. Contra many claims in the literature that these verbs have highly circumscribed distributions, we demonstrate that they readily appear in a wide variety of argument structure frames. The appearance of causative verbs with omitted patient arguments is analyzed in particular detail and an account is offered in which properties of information structure play a critical role. Constructional influences and lexical semantic factors are shown to be relevant as well, both in the case of omitted arguments and in licensing resultative and path phrases.

KW - Causative verbs

KW - Information structure

KW - Omitted arguments

KW - Resultatives

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JO - Language Sciences

JF - Language Sciences

IS - 4-5

ER -

Patient arguments of causative verbs can be omitted: The role of information structure in argument distribution

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Keywords

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