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Article published In: Evolutionary Linguistic Theory
Vol. 5:2 (2023) ► pp.128–161

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Raising to object

A graph-theoretic analysis

 | University of Oxford
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Oxford.

Published online: 26 March 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00050.kri
Abstract
In this paper we provide an introduction to a set of tools for syntactic analysis based on graph theory, and apply them to the study of some properties of English accusativus cum infinitivo constructions, more commonly known as raising to object or exceptional case marking structures. We focus on puzzling extraction asymmetries between base-generated objects and ‘raised’ objects and on the interaction between raising to object and Right Wrap. We argue that a lexicalised derivational grammar with grammatical functions as primitives delivers empirically adequate analyses.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Definitions and formal preliminaries
    • 1.2Some properties of the lexicon
    • 1.3Argument structure and semantic interpretation
  • 2.A case study: Raising to object
    • 2.1RtO without raising
    • 2.2Wrapping around ‘raised objects’
  • 3.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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