Syntactic categories and lexical argument structure

Amritavalli, R.

doi:10.1075/la.108.07amr

In:Argument Structure
Edited by Eric J. Reuland, Tanmoy Bhattacharya and Giorgos Spathas
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 108] 2007
► pp. 49–61

Get fulltext from our e-platform

Download Book PDF

Syntactic categories and lexical argument structure

R. Amritavalli | CIEFL, Hyderabad

Published online: 28 November 2007

https://doi.org/10.1075/la.108.07amr

Differences between languages in the syntactic categories they instantiate may lead to parametric variation, as syntactic categories constrain possible argument structures. The Dravidian language Kannada is argued to be typical of overt case-SOV languages in having only the categories N and V: P and A (argued to be N plus case) develop only as case weakens; as does the verb have (i.e. be plus case). We seek to explain thus the ubiquity of the dative experiencer in Kannada, and its vestigial presence in English; and the absence of have in Kannada. We also explain an observation that languages which have serial verb constructions lack PP structures, showing that English has serial verb constructions with imperfect and negative participles but not with perfect participles. This gap arises from the way case is incorporated into participles in English to form adjectives (and currently explained in terms of the category of these participles); in Kannada, verbal participles uniformly retain their case.

Cited by (20)

Cited by 20 other publications

Order by:

Kobayashi, Masato

2024. Agreement in Malto Conjunctive Participles. In The Oxford Handbook of Dravidian Languages,

Espanol-Echevarria, Manuel

2016. The interplay of silent nouns and (reduced) relatives in Malay adjectival modification. In Biolinguistic Investigations on the Language Faculty [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 235], ► pp. 145 ff.

Acedo–Matellán, Víctor & Jaume Mateu

2014. From syntax to roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 14 ff.

Acquaviva, Paolo

2014. The roots of nominality, the nominality of roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 33 ff.

Alexiadou, Artemis

2014. Roots in transitivity alternations. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 57 ff.

Artemis Alexiadou, Hagit Borer & Florian Schäfer

2014. The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax,

Artemis Alexiadou, Hagit Borer & Florian Schäfer

2014. Introduction. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 1 ff.

Anagnostopoulou, Elena & Yota Samioti

2014. Domains within words and their meanings. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 81 ff.

Borer, Hagit

2014. The category of roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 112 ff.

De Belder, Marijke, Noam Faust & Nicola Lampitelli

2014. On a low and a high diminutive. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 149 ff.

Doron, Edit

2014. The interaction of adjectival passive and Voice. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 164 ff.

Gallego, Ángel J.

2014. Roots and phases. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 192 ff.

Hovav, Malka Rappaport

2014. Building scalar changes. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 259 ff.

Levinson, Lisa

2014. The ontology of roots and verbs. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 208 ff.

Lowenstamm, Jean

2014. Derivational affixes as roots. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 230 ff.

Roßdeutscher, Antje

2014. When roots license and when they respect semantico‐syntactic structure in verbs. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. 282 ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. Notes on contributors. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. viii ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. Copyright Page. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. iv ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. List of abbreviations. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. xi ff.

[no author supplied]

2014. General preface. In The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax, ► pp. vii ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.