Preverbs in Complex Denominal Verbs : Lexical Adjuncts or Core Predicates?

Abstract In this paper I argue that certain complex denominal verbs in Germanic languages (cf. Germ. vergärtnern (‘to away-garden’)) do not involve a lexical adjunction of a preverb to a denominal base (Stiebels (1998)), but are better analyzed as instantiations of a lexical subordination process (Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998)). Accordingly, the preverb is to be regarded as part of the main thematic structure, the denominal verb being the subordinate predicate. Unlike Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998), I argue that the lexical subordination process involves a syntactic operation, rather than a semantic one. Basically, the empirical evidence in favor of the present lexical-syntactic approach (cf. Hale and Keyser (1993, ff.)) to the formation of complex denominal verbs is drawn from Talmy’s (1985, 1991) typological work on conflation processes. Adopting such a typological perspective I put forward a syntactic explanation of why Romance languages lack those complex denominal verbs involving a lexical subordination process. Key words: lexical syntax, argument structure, conflation processes, complex denominal verbs. Resum. Preverbs en verbs denominals complexos: Adjunts lèxics o predicats principals? En aquest article defenso que determinats verbs denominals complexos de les llengües germàniques (cf. al. vergärtnern) no impliquen una adjunció d’un preverb a una base denominal (Stiebels (1998)) sinó que més aviat es poden veure com el resultat d’un procés de subordinació lèxica (Spencer i Zaretskaya (1998)). D’acord amb aquesta darrera anàlisi, el preverb forma part de l’estructura argumental principal mentre que el verb denominal és el predicat subordinat. A diferència de Spencer i Zaretskaya (1998)), defenso que el procés de subordinació lèxica implica una operació sintàctica, més que no pas una operació semàntica. Bàsicament, l’evidència empírica a favor de l’enfocament lexicosintàctic (cf. Hale i Keyser (1993, ss.)) de la formació dels verbs denominals complexos prové de la classificació tipològica dels processos de conflació de Talmy (1985, 1991)). Des d’aquesta perspectiva tipològica, proposo que cal donar una explicació * I am indebted to Anna Bartra, Gretel de Cuyper, Oele Koornwinder, and Andrew McIntyre for fruitful discussion on derivational morphology. I am also grateful to Sabine Schulte for her native judgements on German data. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. Usual disclaimers apply. This research has been made possible through projects funded by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (PB96-1199-C04-02), by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (BFF2000-0403-C02-01), and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (1999SGR00113). CatWPL 9, 2001 37-51 Preverbs in Complex Denominal Verbs: Lexical Adjuncts or Core Predicates?* Jaume Mateu Fontanals Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Catalana 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona). Spain [email protected] Received: January 15th 2001 Accepted: June 6th 2001 CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 37 sintàctica al fet que les llengües romàniques no tinguin verbs denominals complexos que impliquin un procés de subordinació lèxica. Paraules clau: sintaxi lèxica, estructura argumental, processos de conflació, verbs denominals complexos. 1. Introduction The main goal of this paper is to provide a new analysis of those complex denominal verbs whose formation has been said to involve the lexical adjunction of a preverb to the base denominal verb: see the German examples in (1a,b) drawn from Stiebels (1998: 285-286).1 (1) a. Er ver-gärtner-te sein gesamtes Vermögen. (German) he VER(away)-gardener-ed his whole fortune ‘In gardening, he used up all his fortune.’ b. Sie er-schreiner-te sich den Ehrenpreis she ER-carpenter-ed herselfDAT the prize der Handwerkskammer. of the trade corporation ‘She got the prize of the trade corporation by doing carpentry.’ Stiebels (1998: 285-286) The present paper is organized as follows: Section 1 reviews Stiebels’s (1998) lexical-semantic analysis of complex denominal verbs in German. Section 2 presents an alternative lexical-syntactic analysis (cf. Hale and Keyser (1997, ff.) (hence38 CatWPL 9, 2001 Jaume Mateu Fontanals 1. Following Stiebels (1998: 278), I will use the notion preverb to subsume both prefixes and particles, and the notion complex verbs to refer to all preverb-verb combinations. According to Stiebels (1998: 277), «both prefixes and particles belong to the category of prepositions, but they form different morphological objects (...) prefixes are morphologically minimal ([+min]) in that they form complex verb stems that can never be separated, while particles in the particle-verb combination are morphologically maximal ([+max]) in that they must be separated from the stem in all derivations (including inflection) as well as in sentences that display finite verb movement (verb-first structures, i.e.: main clauses).» Although both prefixes and particles have different morphological properties, they have been shown to behave very similar semantically: their argument structure properties are essentially the same (cf. Wunderlich (1997b)). Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. A Lexical-Syntactic Subordination Approach to Complex Denominal Verbs 3. Conflation Processes and Complex Denominal Verbs 4. Conclusions References CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 38 forth HK)), which is inspired by Spencer and Zaretskaya’s (1998) lexical subordination analysis of verb prefixation in Russian. In Section 3 I give the main evidence in favor of a lexical-syntactic subordination analysis, which comes from the parameterization of Talmy’s (1985, 1991) conflation processes (cf. Mateu (2000b, 2001), Mateu and Rigau (1999, 2000)). Section 4 summarizes the main conclusions and puts forward an agenda for further research. Basing her analysis on Wunderlich’s (1997a,b) framework of Lexical Decomposition Grammar (LDG), Stiebels (1998) argues for a semantically based morphological derivation of complex denominal verbs like those in (1): for example, in (2) are depicted the derivational steps that she proposes to account for examples like (1a).2The ARG-operation in (2c) is a semantic argument extension operation, which is posited in order to allow the semantic integration of the prefix into the verb (cf. Wunderlich (1997b)). In (2) the prefix verwhich functions as a lexical adjunct turns out to affect the argument structure of the base denominal verb by adding one argument, «the consumed object» (sic). (2) a. [ ]VλQ λx λs Q (x) (s) b. [gärtner]Vλx λs GARDENER (x) (s) c. ARG (gärtnern): λR λx λs [GARDENER (x) (s) & R (s)] d. ver-λu λs CONSUME (u) (s) e. [ver[gärtner]V]Vλu λx λs [GARDENER (x) (s) & CONSUME (u) (s)] Stiebels (1998: 286) Stiebels assumes that in the unmarked or default case, complex denominal verbs are formed from simple denominal verbs with subsequent preverb addition (see (3)). (3) P + N + [ ]V →P + [N]V →[P+ [N]V ]VStiebels (1998: 278) As can be inferred from her LDG analysis in (2), Stiebels posits that in complex denominal verbs, the preverb and the denominal base have distinct lexical entries, this being in accordance with the «methodological requirement of semantic composition» (Stiebels (1998:285)). Quite crucially, Stiebels (1998) argues that HK’s syntactic approach appears to be problematic when confronted with complex denominal verbs like those in (1a,b). Her main criticism is based on the fact that complex verbs with an integrated adjunct (e.g., cf. the prefixes verand erin (1a,b)) should not occur accordPreverbs in Complex Denominal Verbs CatWPL 9, 2001 39 2. In LDG-based work, the S(emantic) F(orm) level (formultated in Categorial Grammar terms) is to be taken as that representation encoding all grammatically relevant information of meaning. It comprises the lexico-semantic decomposition of lexical items that may combine general templateforming predicates with idiosyncratic atomic predicates. As shown in (2), the theta roles are represented by λ-operators that abstract over the argument variables in SF according to their depth of embedding in SF (cf. Wunderlich (1997a, b)). CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 39 ing to a syntactic approach like that of HK, since adjunct incorporation is argued to be impossible in l(exical)-syntax.3Stiebels (1998: 269-270) points out that «unless adjunct projections are integrated into lexical structure, adjunct incorporation cannot be handled within HK’s approach (...) complex denominal verbs (<like those in (1a-b)> JM) constitute an important touchstone for HK’s proposal.» Furthermore, she expresses her suspicion that «as with complex denominal verbs in German, HK might have problems to account for complex denominal verbs in English (e.g., nail down, brick over the entrance, pencil out the entry, brush out the room) for which the role of the preverb should be clarified» (p. 298). 2. A Lexical-Syntactic Subordination Approach to Complex Denominal Verbs The present paper can be regarded as a reply to Stiebels’s (1998: 285-287) lexical adjunction analysis of preverbs in complex denominal verbs. My reply to her criticisms of the syntactic approach starts with the following remark: Stiebels’s (1998: 285) requirement that the verbal prefixes in (1a,b) be «lexical adjuncts» (sic) is not to be taken for granted. Following the ‘lexical subordination approach’ (cf. Levin and Rapoport (1988); Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998)), it can be claimed that it is precisely the preverb element (e.g., verin (1a)) that must be considered as part of the main thematic structure, the surface head element (e.g., [gärtner]Vin (1a)) being a subordinate predicate. Let us see why this is the correct analysis.4 Our point of departure is to be found in Spencer and Zaretskaya’s (1998) analysis of verb prefixation in Russian. They argue that some verb prefixation constructions in this language (e.g., cf. (4a)) can be given the same L(exical) C(onceptual) S(tructure) analysis as that assigned by Levin and Rapaport (1988) to English resultative constructions like They drank the pub dry. Both constructions are explained by making use of a ‘lexical subordination operation’ to be introduced by the semantic operator BY: cf. (4b). Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998: 17-18) interpret (4a) «to mean that the pen became ‘exhausted’ (in some sense that is defined in part semantically and in part pragmatically) by virtue of writing activity. This is then completely parallel to the analysis given for They drank the pub dry».5 40 CatWPL 9, 2001 Jaume Mateu Fontanals 3. Cf. HK (1993) for the distinction between l(exical)-syntax and s(entential)-syntax. Cf. HK (1993, ff.) for an explanation of why the conflation operation fails to access the {specifier/adjunct} position in l(exical)-syntax. 4. For the moment notice that it is not coincidental that the subordination analysis goes hand-in-hand with the English analytic translations of the examples in (1). 5. The English resultative construction is assigned the following LCS by Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998: 7): [[CAUSE [ACT (they)], BECOME [DRY (pub)]], BY [DRINK (they)]], i.e., ‘they caused the pub to become dry by drinking.’ This parallelism accepted, I will not enter into discussing whether the LCS in (4b) should be replaced by the following, perhaps more appropriate one: [[CAUSE [ACT (she))], BECOME [IZ (pen)], BY [WRITE (she)]], i.e., ‘she caused her pen to become «exhausted» by writing’. Suffice it to say that the latter analysis is indeed more in tune with Levin and Rapoport’s (1988) analysis in the sense that the BECOME operator turns out to be unavoidable in those resultative constructions involving lexical subordination. CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 40 (4) a. Ona is-pisala svoju ruku (Russian) she IZ(out)-write her pen.ACC ‘Her pen has run out of ink’. b. [[CAUSE [ACT (she)], IZ (pen)], BY [WRITE (she)]] Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998: 17) According to them, the core predicate (i.e., the semantically primary predicate) corresponds to the preverb (e.g., IZ-), or to the resultative phrase (e.g., dry),6while the subordinate predicate (i.e., the semantically secondary predicate) corresponds to the verb (e.g., {write/drink}). To be sure, one of the most important advantages that can be attributed to the lexical subordination analysis is that it can provide an elegant explanation of socalled ‘unselected object constructions’.7For example, the unselected kind of direct object in (4a) is due to the fact that it is only with the prefix IZ- (‘out’) that the basic verb pisat’ (‘to write’) can take such an object. As Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998: 17) correctly point out, «the best way of regarding this case is to take the izprefix as the core predicator in a complex predicate, with the activity verb pisat’ as a subordinate predicator». Given this, notice that a unified analysis of unselected object constructions such as those in (5) appears to be possible (the Russian examples in (5d,e) come from Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998: ex. (74, 83))): indeed, as shown by Levin and Rapoport (1988), it is precisely this unification what the lexical subordination analysis can account for in quite an elegant way. (5) a. He drank the night *(away).8 b. She laughed her way *(into the room).9 c. He laughed himself *(silly).10 d. On pro-pil vsju svoju zarplatu (Russian) he PRO-drank all his wages ‘He’s drunk his way through all his wages.’ e. Rebënok do-krial-sja do xripoty baby DO-cried-SJA(itself) to hoarseness ‘The baby cried itself hoarse.’ Preverbs in Complex Denominal Verbs CatWPL 9, 2001 41 6. Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998: 18) point out that «the main difference is that the adjective dry in the English resultative can be semantically more specific than the rather vague prefix in the Russian (though it is important not to overemphasize the degree to which secondary predicating adjectives actually express a meaning beyond that of an end point of some kind).» 7. See Goldberg (1995), Wunderlich (1997b), Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998), or Mateu (2001), among others. 8. See Jackendoff (1997) for an in-depth analysis of the so-called ‘time-away construction’. 9. See Jackendoff (1990) or Goldberg (1995) for two analyses of the so-called ‘way construction’. 10. See Hoekstra (1988, 1992), Jackendoff (1990), Carrier and Randall (1992), Goldberg (1995), Levin and Rappaport Hovav (1995), or Wunderlich (1997b), among many others, for different analyses of «intransitive» resultative constructions. CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 41 Rebus sic stantibus, it is interesting to notice that Spencer and Zaretskaya’s (1998) lexical subordination analysis of verb prefixation can be extended naturally to explain the German complex denominal verbs in (1), which are also examples of unselected object constructions: (1a) could then be argued to be assigned the LCS analysis in (6), whose structural semantics is essentially identical to that in (4b), the differences being reduced to those having to do with their idiosyncratic semantics.11 (6) [[CAUSE [ACT (he)], {VER-/«AWAY»} (all his fortune)], BY [GARDEN (he)]] (i.e., ‘he caused all his fortune to go away by gardening’) This said, although I am very sympathetic with Spencer and Zaretskaya’s (1998) analysis of verb prefixation as lexical subordination, I disagree with their claim that «resultatives are complex predicates formed at a semantic level of representation and not constructions formed in the syntax» (p. 4; emphasis mine: JM) (...) «One indication that we need to form the complex predicate at a lexical level comes from the fact that many types of resultative are lexically restricted, in that only certain types of lexeme can serve as the syntactic secondary predicate» (p. 11; emphasis mine: JM). This notwithstanding, with Marantz (1997), I believe that behind such statements is a false dichotomy which is usually found in current lexicalist theories (e.g., Bresnan (1996) or Spencer (1991)): i.e., ‘lexical formation’ vs. ‘syntactic formation’.12 Therefore, with Marantz (1997), I strongly disagree with Spencer and Zaretskaya when they point out that showing that a process has arbitrary lexical restrictions is an inevitable sign that syntactic formation is not involved. Moreover, with HK (1993, ff.), what we do not accept is Spencer and Zaretskaya’s following equivalence: «lexical level» = «semantic (i.e., non-syntactic) level» (see their above statements). To be sure, we can speak of a lexical semantics, but we maintain that there is nothing incoherent in speaking of a lexical syntax as well. As shown by HK (1993, ff.), it appears to be the case that syntax is crucially involved in the lexical formation of denominal or deadjectival verbs. To put it in HK’s (1999: 453) words: «Conflation is a lexical matter in the sense that denominal verbs and deadjectival verbs as well must be listed in the lexicon. Although their formation has a syntactic character, as we claim, they constitute part of the lexical inventory of the language. The two characteristics, the syntactic and the lexical, are in no way incompatible» (emphasis mine: JM).13 42 CatWPL 9, 2001 Jaume Mateu Fontanals 11. See Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998) for a principled distinction between the structural vs. idiosyncratic components of lexical meaning. 12. For reasons of space I cannot enter into discussing Marantz’s (1997) crucial point that all derivational morphology is syntactic. According to him, nothing is gained by positing a difference between «lexical» and «syntactic» derivation. See Marantz (1997: 214-215) for a criticism of Spencer’s (1991) interpretation of Chomsky’s «Remarks on Nominalization» (1970) which is often identified as the birthplace of Lexicalism. 13. See HK’s (1993: 94-99) discussion on why lexical processes are not to be seen as radically opposed to syntactic processes. Their following statement is clearly representative of this: «In reality, all verbs are to some extent phrasal idioms, that is, syntactic structures that must be learned as the conventional ‘names’ for various dynamic events» (p. 96). CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 42 According to the present argumentation, I want to claim that complex predicates like those in (1) (and by extension those in (4a) and (5)) are not to be formed at a lexical-semantic/conceptual level of representation (i.e., LCS), but at HK’s lexicalsyntactic level, the latter level being regarded as the locus of parameterization of morphosyntactic facts affecting argument structure. It should be clear that my assuming that syntax is involved in the formation of those complex denominal verbs in (1) is not simply grounded on purely theoretical reasons discussed by HK (1993, ff.) or Marantz (1997), which lead to the conclusion that derivational morphology is syntactic. In the following section it will also be shown that there appears to be empirical evidence pointing to the fact that the kind of lexical-syntactic variation examined by Mateu (2000b, 2001) and Mateu and Rigau (1999, 2000) plays a crucial role in accounting for the formation of the data in (1): to the extent that this kind of parametrized variation cannot be explained in purely lexical-semantic/conceptual terms, it will be argued to be regarded as natural to transfer the responsibility of the formation of these complex denominal verbs to the realm of syntax. In particular, in the following section I will show why these complex verbs can be properly explained from the perspective adopted by Mateu (2000b), where I provide a lexical-syntactic account of both complex path of motion constructions (e.g., cf. John danced into the room) and complex resultative constructions (e.g., cf. They wiped the slate clean), both of them involving one conflation process described by Talmy (1985, 1991).14 Before doing so, let me present my lexical-syntactic analysis of the data in (1). Following HK’s (1997, 1998, 1999) configurational theory of argument structure,15 I claim that the lexical-syntactic analysis of complex verbs like that in (1a) involves the syntactic composition of two different lexical-syntactic structures (called Lexical Relational Structures (LRSs)), the main one being transitive (cf. (7a)), and the subordinate one being unergative (cf. (7b)). Preverbs in Complex Denominal Verbs CatWPL 9, 2001 43 14. See Mateu and Rigau (2000) for a minimalist account of those conflation processes described by Talmy. 15. See Mateu (2000b) for a revision of HK’s (1998, 1999) theory of argument structure. For reasons of space, I will not review their theoretical framework here. (7) a. V b. V VP VN [ ] N P [ ] gärtner PX verCatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 43 The LRS in (7a) corresponds to the typical transitive structure expressing a caused change of location (i.e., ‘to cause something to go away’),16 while the LRS in (7b) corresponds to an unergative structure expressing an activity (i.e., ‘to garden’). Following HK (1993, ff.), I assume that unergative verbs are properly regarded as denominal verbs, which involve conflation of a nominal root into a phonologically empty verbal matrix. Moreover, notice that the external argument (i.e., er ‘he’) is not present at l-syntax, but is to be introduced by the relevant functional projection (cf. HK (1993, ff.) or Kratzer (1996)). On the other hand, I assume that preverbs (i.e., both prefixes and particles) belong to the category of prepositions (see footnote 1). In HK’s framework prepositions are always to be regarded as birelational elements. Accordingly, directional/resultative preverbs like ver- (i.e., ‘away’) and PPs involving a ‘terminal coincidence relation’ like to (cf. HK (1993)) can be argued to be assigned the same argument structure (both contain a birelational Path element), the difference being that the former involve the conflation of a non-relational element X(i.e., an abstract Ground) into a directional relational element P(i.e., the Path). Nin (7a) is to be interpreted as ‘Figure/Theme’.17 Following HK’s (1997: 228-229) analysis of examples like Rizzuto slid into third base (i.e., ‘Rizzuto got into third base sliding’), we posit that complex verbs like that in (1a) can also be analyzed by means of a generalized transformation (Chomsky 1995)), the verb of (7a) being replaced by the denominal verb in (7b): see (8). As in Hoekstra’s (1988, 1992) or Mulder’s (1992) Small Clause (SC) approach, the directional/resultative prefix (e.g., ver-) is assumed to be the head of the inner «SC» projection (i.e., P), which turns out to be adjoined to the superior verbal head because of its affixal status. 44 CatWPL 9, 2001 Jaume Mateu Fontanals 16. See HK’s (1998) analysis of so-called ‘location verbs’ like to shelve. Unlike them, I have argued elsewhere that both (caused) change of location verbs and (caused) change of state verbs (e.g., to break) share the same syntactic argument structure (cf. Mateu (in press)). 17. ‘Figure’ and ‘Ground’ are notions borrowed from Talmy (1985). See Mateu (1999, 2000a) for a reinterpretation of these notions within a framework similar to that put forward by HK (1993). (8) V VP VNNP gärtner PX verCatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 44 I would like to emphasize here that the semantic intepretation involved in the so-called ‘lexical subordination process’ depicted in (6), is to be read off the complex lexical-syntactic structure in (8): roughly, ‘[(he) [[DO-garden]-CAUSE] [all his fortune away]]’. Indeed, the present analysis of lexical subordination as syntactic should be regarded as in full tune with HK’s (1993) particular interpretation of the deeply honored tradition of interpretivist semantics, which is condensed in their following words: «these semantic roles, like the elementary semantic interpretations in general, are derivative of the lexical syntactic relations» (p. 72).18 Next I will show that the empirical justification of my lexical-syntactic account is to be mainly drawn from Talmy’s (1985, 1991) typologically-oriented work on so-called ‘conflation processes’. 3. Conflation Processes and Complex Denominal Verbs In this section I want to argue that a semanticocentric approach to verb prefixation like that pursued by Spencer and Zaretskaya (1998) can be granted descriptive validity but it cannot provide a principled explanation of some important parameterizable morphosyntactic facts put forward by Snyder (1995) or Mateu and Rigau (1999, 2000), among others. Relevant to our present concerns is the fact that the semantic approach cannot explain why complex verbs like those in (1) exist in some languages (e.g., in German or Russian) but not in others (e.g., in Romance languages). More generally, semantic accounts of lexical subordination cannot explain why unselected object constructions like those in (5) exist in some languages, but not in others. To be sure, to say that the relevant LCS operation holds for some languages but not for others is not an explanation but a mere stipulation. In particular, one could ask why some languages (e.g., those of the Romance family) lack the particular type of LCS operation described in (6). It is precisely this point that semanticocentric analyses cannot deal with: that is, the linguistic variation involved in lexical subordination processes like that depicted in (6).19 Our claim is that (morpho)syntax has an important role to play here. As pointed out by Mateu and Rigau (1999, 2000), among others, it should be clear that there is a morphosyntactic reason involved in Talmy’s (1991) distinction between ‘satellite-framed languages’ like English, German, Dutch, or Russian, and ‘verb-framed languages’ like Catalan, Spanish, French, or Japanese.20 The former languages are called ‘satellite-framed’ in virtue of the fact that the Path relation is not conflated into the verb, but remains as a ‘satellite’ around the verb (e.g., cf. John went out of the prison). As a result, a ‘manner’ component (e.g., that expressed Preverbs in Complex Denominal Verbs CatWPL 9, 2001 45 18. For a substantially different view of the syntax-semantics interface, see Jackendoff (1990, 1997) or Bresnan (1996). See Mateu (1999) for an attempt to reconcile both positions. 19. See Mateu (2000b, 2001) for a review of some problems found in semanticocentric approaches to resultative constructions. 20. For reasons of space, the following discussion will be quite sketchy. The interested reader can take a look at Mateu and Rigau (2000) in order to get a better perspective. CatWPL 9 001-145 24/1/2002 09:45 Página 45