The oblique causer construction in Lezgian
Shushurin F. G. Konstruktsii s kosvennym
kauzatorom v lezginskom yazyke (na angliyskom yazyke). Acta
Linguistica Petropolitana. 830.
This paper discusses the oblique causer
construction (OblCC) in Lezgian: in this construction the causer is
realized as an oblique argument and is interpreted as an
unintentional agent. Unlike better studied languages (German,
Icelandic etc.) OblCCs in Lezgian allow transitive predicates. I
propose that in Lezgian oblique causer constructions are instances
of light verb constructions. The light verb may form an inchoative
structure or take a subjectless non-finite clause as a complement.
The oblique causer, in this system, is a non-local realization of
the Initiator semantic role. In this respect, oblique causer
constructions can be compared to possessor raising structures and
other constructions where external arguments are realized higher in
the structure than the assigners of the semantic roles that they
get.
Keywords
References
A. Alexiadou, E. Anagnostopoulou, F.
Schäfer. The properties of anticausatives crosslinguistically //
Phases of Interpretation 91, 2006. P. 187–211.
S. Bosse, B. Bruening, M. Yamada.
Affected experiencers // Natural Language Linguistic Theory 30(4),
2012. P. 1185–1230.
Chr. Collins. A smuggling approach to
the passive in English // Syntax 8(2), 2005. P. 81–120.
O. Demirok. Dative subjects in Laz: A
modal approach. Manuscript. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2017.
R. Folli, H. Harley. Teleology and
animacy in external arguments // Lingua 118(2), 2008. P.
190–202.
R. Folli, H. Harley, S. Karimi.
Determinants of event type in Persian complex predicates // Lingua
115(10), 2005. P. 1365–1401.
D. Ganenkov, T. Maisak, S. Merdanova.
Non-canonical agent marking in Agul // H. de Hoop, P. de Swart
(eds.). Differential Subject Marking. Dordrecht: Springer,
2008.
H. Harley. The morphology of
nominalizations and the syntax of vP // M. Rathert, A. Giannankidou
(eds.). Quantification, Definiteness and Nominalization. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009. P. 320–342.
M. Haspelmath. A Grammar of Lezgian.
Berlin — New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993.
N. Ilkhanipour, A. Sugawara. On the
Semantics and Syntax of Persian ‘become’ // University of
Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 22(1), 2016. P.
17.
K. Kim. High applicatives in Korean
causatives and passives // Lingua 121(3), 2011. P. 487–510.
N. Myler. Building and interpreting
possession sentences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016.
S. Kittilä. A typology of involuntary
agent constructions // Word 56(3), 2005. P. 381–419.
K. J. Sæbø. An analysis of the
anticausative alternation. Ms. Universitetet i Oslo, Oslo,
2001.
F. Schäfer. The oblique causer
construction across languages // Proceedings of NELS 38, 2009. P.
297–308.
F. Schäfer. Two types of external
argument licensing — the case of causers // Studia Linguistica
66(2), 2012. P. 128–180.
M. Sugimura. A study of Japanese
light verb construction and its implications for nominal
architecture Mina Sugimura // Proceedings of ConSOLE XVII 289,
2012. P. 298.
P. Svenonius. Structural
decomposition of spatial adpositions. Work. pap., Dep. Linguist.,
Univ. Tromsø, 2012.
S. Tatevosov. Causative in Ossetian:
a complex predicate analysis. ICIL5 handout. 2013.
J. Wood, A. Marantz. The
interpretation of external arguments // R. D’Alessandro, I. Franco,
Á. J. Gallego (eds.). The Verbal Domain. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2017. P. 255–278.
J. Wood. The unintentional causer in
Icelandic // Proceedings of the Forty-First Annual Meeting of the
North East Linguistic Society. Vol. 2, 2013. P. 273–286.
