Verb Phrases

What is a Verb Phrase? Like a noun phrase, a verb phrase consists of a verb and all the words and word groups that belong with the verb and cluster around it. The verb is called the headword or head, and the other words are the modifiers (as in the case of the noun phrase) and the auxiliaries, and complements of the verb. The word auxiliaries may be familiar to you since you have studied this structure class in your morphology course. As for the word complements, it is a generic (or general) term which covers all completers of the verb. These complements are the direct object, the indirect object, the objective complement, and the subjective complement, all of which we shall know about later in the present book.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar a representação sintática do aspecto perfect. Assumiu-se a existência de tipos distintos de perfect: perfect universal / situação persistente, perfect existencial / resultativo, perfect existencial / experiencial e perfect existencial / passado recente. Para tanto, foi investigada uma possível perda linguística desse aspecto associado ao tempo presente em sujeitos portadores da Doença de Alzheimer, tanto na variante clássica (DA), quanto na variante frontal, conhecida como Afasia Progressiva Primária Logopênica (APPL). A metodologia elaborada para este trabalho consistiu na realização de um estudo duplo de caso, tendo participado uma paciente portadora da DA e outra da APPL, ambas falantes nativas do português do Brasil. Foram aplicados dois testes de funcionalidade, dois testes neuropsicológicos e dois testes linguísticos e foi realizada também uma análise de fala espontânea. Os resultados indicaram que ambas as pacientes apresentaram declínio funcional e comprometimento cognitivo, ainda que o déficit na paciente com DA fosse maior do que o da paciente com APPL. A análise referente à expressão linguística, resultante da comparação dos resultados dos dois testes linguísticos e da análise de fala espontânea, revelou que a paciente com DA apresentava um déficit que incide sobre os quatro tipos de perfect, tempo presente e aspecto imperfectivo, enquanto que a paciente com APPL apresentava um déficit que incide sobre perfect existencial / passado recente e tempo presente. Observou-se, então, que o perfect existencial / passado recente está dissociado na gramática mental, havendo um sintagma referente a esse conhecimento na representação sintática, o RecPerfP, que domina os demais sintagmas de perfect. Além disso, discutiu-se que TP encontra-se acima dos sintagmas de perfect na hierarquia sintática, ao passo que AspP encontra-se abaixo. Foi proposto, dessa forma, que a hierarquia entre sintagmas de perfect, tempo e aspecto perfectivo/imperfectivo na representação sintática seja a seguinte: TP > RecPerf > ExPerfP > UPerfP > ResPerfP > AspP. ////// Abstract: This research aims to investigate the syntactic representation of the perfect aspect. Different types of perfect were assumed to exist: universal perfect / persistent situation, existential perfect / resultative, existential perfect / experiential and existential perfect / recent past. Therefore, a possible linguistic impairment of this aspect associated with the present tense was investigated in subjects with Alzheimer's disease, both in the classic variant (AD) and in the frontal variant, known as Logopenic Primary Progressive Aphasia (LPPA). The methodology developed for this study consisted of a double case study, involving one patient with AD and one with LPPA, both Brazilian Portuguese native speakers. Two functionality tests, two neuropsychological tests and two language tests were applied and a spontaneous speech analysis was also performed. The results indicated that both patients presented functional decline and cognitive impairment, although the deficit in the AD patient was greater than that of the LPPA patient. The analysis of the linguistic expression, resulting from the comparison of the results of the two linguistic tests and the spontaneous speech analysis, revealed that the patient with AD presented a deficit that affects the four types of perfect, present tense and imperfective aspect, while the patient with LPPA had a deficit that affects existential perfect / recent past and present tense. It was observed, then, that the existential perfect / recent past is dissociated in mental grammar, and there is a phrase referring to this knowledge in syntactic representation, RecPerfP, which dominates the other perfect phrases. In addition, it has been argued that TP is above the perfect phrases in the syntactic hierarchy, whereas AspP is below. Thus, it was proposed that the hierarchy between perfect, tense and perfective / imperfective aspect phrases in syntactic representation is as follows: TP> RecPerf > ExPerfP > UPerfP > ResPerfP > AspP.

This is a grouped bibliography of literature on complex verb constructions (serial verbs, coverbs, complex predicates, etc.). Please feel free to use it, comment on it, or send me feedback of anything I might have missed. If you make extensive use of my list for academic publication, I would appreciate an acknowledgement.

The linguistic-cultural image of the Polish rak ‘crayfish’
The article attempts to reconstruct the Polish linguo-cultural image of rak ‘crayfish’ (Astacus astacus). Following the model of Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols, the data taken into account include the word’s etymology, its lexicographic treatment (including phraseology) in dictionaries of contemporary Polish, in dialectal dictionaries and in dictionaries of former stages of Polish, texts of folklore, and ethnographic accounts. The following definition of the crayfish has been proposed accordingly: “The crayfish (rak) is a small, hairless and featherless animal of little value, its body being protected by
a carapace. It has long antennae, two prehensile and sharp chelipeds that are used for
protection, many legs and eyes located in the back of the body. It lives in water (rivers
and ponds), in holes it builds for itself. It isn’t known where it spends the winter. It can pinch, moves backwards in an ungainly and slow manner, makes no sound and kills its victims by biting into their bodies. It is closest to fish. Crayfish are sought for their meat, of which they have very little – they are then roasted or cooked. They are considered
exquisite food. Parts of the crayfish’s body are used as medicine for various ailments. The crayfish is thought to be connected with the underworld”.

Since Chomsky (2001) suggested that head movement might be a PF operation, there has been debate about the proper place of head movement in the grammar. The interaction of verb movement with verb phrase fronting can shed light on how and when head movement occurs. This paper looks at cases where verb phrase fronting generates two copies of the verb (as in Portuguese or Hebrew), one in the fronted vP and one in an inflectional position, showing how a PF approach to head movement can explain this pattern while addressing some potential problems in other languages.

This paper examines category shifts in the translation of verb phrases in English cookbook into Indonesian. Some theories are used to support the analysis, the theory of translation shift by Catford (1965) and also verb phrases by Quirk (1976) and Brinton (2010). The data source was taken from English cookbook entitled The Essential Book of Sauces & Dressings from Murdoch Books published by Periplus, Singapore and its translation into Indonesian titled Saus dan Dressing yang Esensial by Hadyana P. published by Periplus, Indonesia. This study is descriptive qualitative method, and the method of data collection is documentation. The finding of the analysis shows that there are two category shifts occur in the cookbook namely unit shift and class shift

Timothy Osborne argues that phrase structure grammars (PSGs) postulate unnecessarily complex structures, and that Dependency Grammar (DG) is to be preferred on grounds of simplicity (1:1 word-to-node ratio) and empirical adequacy (capturing the results of constituency tests). In this reply, I argue that, while some of Osborne's criticisms of PSGs are justified, there are both empirical and theoretical problems with his major claims. In particular, his version of DG is too restrictive with respect to certain constituency facts (modified nouns, verbal phrases), and what it gains in simplicity qua number of nodes, it loses in requiring a more complex interface between syntax and other linguistic components (phonology, semantics). I argue that Mirror Theory, a framework that is in a sense intermediate between DG and PSGs, answers Osborne's justified criticisms while not suffering from the problems of his version of DG.

I point out that there are two different government patterns for Russian verbs of movement, one of which is prima facie associated with prefixation. However, as I show, there are verbs for which there are no unprefixed correlates but the same pattern obtains. I argue for a model of aspect, recently advocated by Tatevosov, where verb morpology is not rigidly tied to aspectual projections in the syntax, and offer a sketch of ab Distributed Morphology-like approach to the competition of correlated verbal lexemes which differ in actionality and aspect.

The kinds of analysis that can be provided for selection and agreement phenomena depend significantly on the choices made about the underlying features. In this paper, we review the features that have been used in LFG for the analysis of English verb forms, and propose a motivated alternative which has the consequence that all selection and agreement can be handled through unification. *

Dans cet article, nous examinons la phrase finale trouvée dans des dédicaces puniques k šmc qlɔ brkɔ, habituellement traduite « parce qu’il a entendu sa voix, il l’a béni » selon que les verbes expriment l’aspect ou qu’ils expriment la modalité.

In this paper, I argue in favor of the view that a generative lexicon, as advanced in lexicalist theories, might not be needed to derive verbal’s argument structure. Instead, I support the hypothesis that verbs’ meaning emerges as a result of the syntactic structure in which they are merged and that the role of lexical items/roots reduces to their idiosyncratic encyclopedic content. These two assumptions are executed via adopting the proposal that splits the traditional VP structure into two main functional heads, namely VoiceP and vP, and via endorsing the architectural assumptions advanced in the framework of Distributed Morphology. The main empirical support to this claim comes from verbs that appear in syntactic structures that are not in consonance with their semantic-conceptual content, Arabic varieties that lost their vocalic melodies that otherwise encode thematic roles, and spray-load alternation. This paper concludes by exploring language-particular processes whose non-applicability goes beyond morphology, the analysis of which supports the role of the Encyclopedia.

This paper investigates the use of ellipsis diagnostics to determine whether deletion has occurred in as-parentheticals. As-parentheticals look as though they contain verb phrase ellipsis, but Potts (2002) argues that they do not. A number of diagnostics that have been used to distinguish ellipsis from null pro-forms are discussed in some detail. These diagnostics show that the deletion process in as-parentheticals is distinct from canonical verb phrase ellipsis. Instead, it shares properties with comparative deletion (Kennedy 2002). Thus, I argue that once a broader range of facts is considered, we need to include some manner of deletion in the derivation as-parentheticals.

The paper concentrates on the word order in Evenki, in particular, in the verb phrase: verb (V) and direct object (O). The original order of V and O in Evenki (an Altaic language) is OV. This word order was rather strict in the beginning of the XX-th century. Since then, the word order has continually been getting more and more variable. Based on spontaneous oral stories recorded in the beginning of the XXI-th century, we compare contexts with OV and with VO and try to formulate conditions, under which each of the orders is preferred. According to the authors of grammars and monographs on Evenki and Evenki syntax, the VO order emerges in case of focus or emphasis on V or on O. Alternatively, V or O can be focalized by focus particles =dV̅, =kA, etc. Our results partially support those claims. When V is focused, it is often placed close to the beginning of the sentence, and its arguments, including O, are post-verbal. When O is contrastively focalized, it can follow V. If V or O are focalized, focalizing particles can be added to them. There are, however, other cases of VO that can be found in a story (narrative). When the narrator just lists sequential events, the OV order is used. The VO order is used when the sequence of event is broken because of a turning point in the development of the plot, or because the narrator retreats from the main line of the story, or in concluding sentences that do not belong to the narrative itself. These cases do not fall under the focusing O/V explanation mentioned above. Also, if the whole predicate (the whole V+O constituent) is emphasized, the VO order is preferred. We list examples supporting the rules mentioned. These rules are consistent with a discourse-oriented approach rather than with a derivational approach, in which OV would be regarded as basic, whereas each case of VO would be derivable from OV based on grammatical or information structure rules. So we conclude that a shift to two word orders (OV (unmarked) and VO (marked)) is emerging in the spoken language. We mention some other shifts to VO order in the narrative in the speech of young narrators.

I will use the syntactic distribution of intensional contexts in VP to probe the structure of double object constructions and double object alternations in English and French. I conclude that such alternations are indeed underlied by double object structures, but that these are different from surface double object structures. I also conclude that French does display both underlying and surface double object structures.

In this paper, I investigate the syntax of inverting as-parentheticals, a subclass of parenthetical as-clause that is anaphorically dependent on a previously uttered predicate that, in addition, exhibits properties of certain kinds of discourse inversion identified by Birner (1994). I argue that these constructions contain deletion, following recent work on predicate as-parentheticals. I go on to show that some of the unusual syntactic properties in inverting as-parentheticals are shared with other sorts of discourse inversion constructions (as seen in recent work by Bern Samko), and that these properties can be explained if we provide the constructions similar derivations.

This paper investigates different ways in which the aspectual category of the verb phase is manifested in the English and Serbian languages, aiming to establish the linguistic nature of the different modes of phasal realizations. More specifically, following Hansen and Drobnjaković’s (2010) principles for identifying grammaticalized items, the analysis provides a preliminary account of main phasal properties, investigating whether the phasal realizations in the investigated languages belong in the areas of grammatical or lexical semantics. It has been observed that the principal phasal markers in both languages are phase verbs, while phasal features can also be observed at the morphological level, namely in the aspectual particles of English phrasal verbs and the prefixes with aspectual properties in Serbian derivatives. In both Serbian and English, the investigation has shown that structural and semantic properties of phase verbs point to the presence of grammatical features, while morphological markers of the phase remain within the territory of lexical semantics. The obtained results indicate that phase verbs connect the grammatical and conceptual domains of aspectual systems in both languages, setting the ground for further typological and contrastive studies on the topic.

This squib discusses Modal Complement Ellipsis (MCE in the following), and more specifically Antecedent Contained Deletion (ACD in the following) in this type of ellipsis. While in English ACD is widely studied and quite well understood (e.g. Sag 1976, Williams 1977, and much subsequent work), ACD has not been observed in Standard German. However, Upper Austrian differs from Standard German in this respect (Bettina Gruber, p.c., Zobel 2007).