Cover not available

In:Advances in Iranian Linguistics II
Edited by Simin Karimi, Narges Nematollahi, Roya Kabiri and Jian Gang Ngui
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 361] 2023
► pp. 263–281

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 10
Semi-anticausatives

 | Seoul National University
Published online: 14 April 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.361.10kas
Abstract
Based on data from Persian, this study argues that what I refer to here as “semi-anticausatives” behave like a canonical unmarked anticausative with respect to the agentivity tests. However, further investigation shows that they appear with a voice head. This is contrary to the previous assumption that unmarked anticausatives do not constitute a voice head (Schäfer 2008; Alexiadou et al. 2015). I argue that semi-anticausatives, among other things, may license hidden “agentive causers”.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1voice and voice typology
    • 1.2Problems with current accounts of anticausatives in Persian
  • 2.Semi-anticausatives in Persian
  • 3.Proposal and analysis
    • 3.1Topic -râ in semi-anticausatives
    • 3.2Unintentional adverbs in semi-anticausatives
    • 3.3Intentionality and indirectness of causation in semi-anticausatives
    • 3.4Analysis
  • 4.Summary of results
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (32)
References
Alexiadou, Artemis, Elena Anagnostopoulou & Florian Schäfer. 2015. External arguments in transitivity alternations: A layering approach. Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. The properties of anticausatives crosslinguistically. In Mara Frascarelli (ed.), Phases of Interpretation, 187–211. Berlin: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blanco, Mercedes Tubino. 2011. Causatives in minimalism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A Life in Language, 1–52. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dabir-Moghaddam, Mohammad. 1982. Syntax and semantics of causative construction in Persian. Urbana: University of Illinois dissertation.
Dowty, David. 1979. Word meaning and Montague grammar: The semantics of verbs and times in generative semantics and in Montague’s PTQ. Dordrecht: Reidel. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67. 547–619. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Family, Neiloufar. 2006. Explorations of semantic space: The case of light verb constructions in Persian. Paris: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales dissertation.
. 2014. Semantic spaces of Persian light verbs: A constructionist account. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ganjavi, Shadi. 2007. Direct objects in Persian. Los Angeles: University of Southern California dissertation.
Grimshaw, Jane. 1990. Argument structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. More on the typology of inchoative/causative verb alternations. In Bernard Comrie & Maria Polinsky (eds.), Causatives and Transitivity, 87–120. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray S. 1992. Semantic structures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karimi, Simin. 2005. A minimalist approach to scrambling: Evidence from Persian. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kasraie Kilakjani, Davood. 2021. Direct and indirect causation: syntax and semantics of monophasal causatives. Seoul: Seoul National University dissertation.
Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In Johan Rooryck & Laurie Zaring (eds.), Phrase Structure and the Lexicon, 109–137. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Legate, Julie Anne. 2003. Some interface properties of the phase. Linguistic Inquiry 34(3). 506–516. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, Beth. 1993. English verb classes and alternations: A preliminary investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav. 1995. Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantic Interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marantz, Alec. 1984. On the nature of grammatical relations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Fabienne. 2020. Aspectual differences between agentive and nonagentive uses of causative predicates. In E. A. Bar-Asher Siegal & N. Boneh (eds.), Perspectives on Causation, 257–294. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Studies in Philosophy and History of Science. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pylkkänen, Liina. 2008. Introducing arguments. Cambridge, MA: MIT press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Introducing arguments. Cambridge, MA: MIT dissertation.
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of English language. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rasekh Mahand, Mohammad. 2007. Inchoative in Persian. Language and Linguistics. 3(5), 1–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rezai, Vali. 2014. Govahnamayi dar zaban-e Farsi-e emruz [Evidentiality in contemporary Persian]. Journal of Linguistic Researches. 5(1), 21–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Negahi taze be saxt-e mæjhul dær zæban-e Farsi [Persian passives form a new perspective]. Journal of Linguistic Researches. 2(2), 19–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shojaei, Razieh & Gholam Hossein Karimi Doostan. 2015. Factors affecting causative alternation in Persian. Language Related Research 6(5). 261–283.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Stechow, Arnim. 1996. The different readings of wieder ‘again’: A structural account. Journal of Semantics 13. 87–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomason, Richmond H. & Robert C. Stalnaker. 1973. A semantic theory of adverbs. Linguistic Inquiry 4 (2). 195–220.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue