agent

one of the thematic or theta-roles, where the argument deliberately performs an action, as Jamie in Jamie sang a song or Robert in Robert kicked the cat. In terms of the UTAH the agentive theta-role is assigned to the specifier position of vP, similarly to experiencer arguments.

bound morpheme

a morpheme that has to attach to another morpheme, it cannot stand on its own, e.g. ed, ment, un . See also free morpheme

determiner phrase (DP)

a phrase headed by a central determiner or the possessive ’s morpheme. The complement of a DP is an NP, the specifier the DP the possessive ending attaches to.

ergative verb

a verb that can appear in a VP either (a) with a single theme argument functioning as the subject of the clause (The ship sank), similarly to unaccusative structures or (b) in the presence of a light verb together with an agentive subject (They sank the ship), when the structure is similar to the structure of transitive verbs. As opposed to unaccusative verbs, ergative verbs cannot appear in the existential there construction (unless they are ambiguous between the two readings), and they are typically verbs expressing a change of state, like break, explode, grow.

experiencer

one of the thematic or theta-roles where the argument experiences some physical or mental state, like Mary in Mary was afraid of dogs. The experiencer theta-role is assigned in the specifier position of vP, similarly to the agent role. If both an agent and an experiencer argument are selected by the verb there are two vPs projected and the experiencer occupies the specifier position of the lower vP.

grammar

(a) a (finite) set of rules which tell us how to recognise the infinite number of expressions that constitute the language that we speak. (b) a linguistic hypothesis about these rules.

intransitive verb

a verb without a nominal complement (the object), e.g. ski. Its subject is either an agent or an experiencer, i.e. one of the theta-roles assigned to the specifier of a vP. Occasionally intransitive verbs appear with a cognate object.

light verb

a verb occupying the head of a vP used in combination with another element, typically a noun or verb, where the light verb’s contribution to the meaning of the whole construction is less than that of a fully thematic main verb, e.g. to take a shower=to shower. Certain verbs expressing aspectual (be, have) or modal (let) meaning also belong here. According to the proposals in the present book the following constituents can appear within the vP in a visible or abstract form (see also vP-shells):

– agentive arguments in the specifier positions

– experiencer arguments in the specifier position

– goal arguments in the double-object construction as specifiers

– the passive -en morpheme in the head of vP

– the aspectual morphemes -en and -ing in the head of vP

– the tense morpheme in the head of vP

object

a DP complement immediately following the verb. It can move to the subject position in passive sentences. See also direct object, indirect object.

patient

one of the thematic or theta-roles where the argument is affected by the action described by the verb, e.g. in Peter stroked the cat the cat is directly affected by this activity.

predicate

the part of the clause excluding the subject giving information about the subject: Mary [is clever/likes chocolate/is waiting for Jamie/was in bed/is a university student].

specifier position

a position defined by X-bar Theory. The specifier is sister to X', daughter of XP. It is a phrasal position, the nature of the phrase depends on what it is the specifier of. E.g. the specifier of IP is the subject, the specifier of DP is the possessor in possessive structures.

subcategory

a category under a main category, e.g. the category of intransitive verbs is a subcategory of the verbal category.

tense

a syntactic category with the help of which we can locate an event or situation in time. In syntactic representation information about tense can be found within the vP appearing directly under the IP in the form of -s, -ed or the zero tense morpheme.

theme

one of the thematic roles where the argument is not affected by the action described by the verb e.g. in Peter saw John nothing directly happens to John as a result of being seen. In terms of the UTAH the theme theta-role is assigned to the specifier position of the VP.

there-construction: see existential there-construction.

theta role

the semantic role of the participants as required by the predicate. E.g. verbs define what kind of semantic relationship is to be established between the verb itself and the arguments of the verb, and arguments are selected accordingly. The verb kick calls for an agent subject, so its subject position cannot be occupied by e.g. my CD-player.

transitive verb

a verb with a nominal complement, e.g. read, buy. The agentive subject occupies the specifier position of vP, the theme object occupies the specifier position of VP.

Uniform Theta-role Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH)

a Θ-role is assigned in the same structural position in all structures in which it is present.

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Basic English Syntax with Exercises

5.2.4 Transitive verbs

It is time we turned our attention to those verbs that traditional grammars seem to consider more central: transitive and intransitive verbs. What we have said so far has far reaching repercussions for the analysis of these verbal subcategories. We will start discussing these with respect to the transitives.

A transitive verb is one that has an object, i.e. a DP complement, and a subject. The subject may be agent and the object patient, or the subject could be an experiencer and the object theme. Patient and theme, from this perspective, differ in terms of a notion of affectedness: a patient is affected by the action described by the verb while a theme is unaffected by it:

(72)aSam sawed the wood (to pieces)
bSam saw the wood (*to pieces)

In (72a) we have the past tense form of the verb to saw, Sam is an agent and the wood is patient. In this cases a resultative modifier like to pieces can be used to describe the state of the object after being acted upon. In (72b) we have the past tense form of the verb to see, Sam is an experiencer and the wood is an unaffected theme. Obviously in these cases the resultative is inappropriate because nothing directly happens to the object as a result of being seen. We will put the case of the experiencer–theme type transitives to one side for the moment and start our discussion with the agent–patient type.

Above we found that the agent Θ-role was assigned by a light verb which takes a VP complement. If we assume that the patient is a kind of theme, we might expect that it is assigned to the specifier of a main verb:

(73)

Again, if this were the final analysis of the construction we would derive the wrong order with the verb following its object. Once again, however, we might assume that the main verb raises to the light verb, presumably because of its bound morpheme status:

(74)

Thus the transitive receives the same analysis as the causative construction, which is not surprising as causatives are the transitive use of ergative verbs.

What is the light verb in this case and how is the main verb related to the subject? We might try the assumption that the empty light verb in this case is the same as the one in causative constructions. From this point of view we would have the following correspondence:

(75)aMark made the bed=Mark made the bed be made
bHarry hit Bill=Harry made Bill be hit
cRichard wrote the letter=Richard made the letter be written

But while the transitive statements in (75) do entail the relevant causative, in that if Mark makes the bed, then the bed comes to be made and Mark had a hand in causing this to come about, the two are not exactly the same. Particularly, it is not only the case that subjects in (75) caused the event described by the verb to take place, but that the subjects are the ones who actually did it! In other words, these subjects are not just agents, they are agents of the relevant predicates. This might therefore argue that the relevant structure should be:

(76)

But then the Θ-roles are assigned to different structural positions and the UTAH cannot be maintained.

 

 

                 5.2.4.1 Evidence from passives

                 5.2.4.2 Extended projections

                 5.2.4.3 Agent and experiencer subjects

                 5.2.4.4 Multiple light verbs

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