On the Internal Argument(s) of Unaccusative [Verb+Preposition] Structures

In this paper I use the feature [+/–animate] to distinguish unaccusative [verb+preposition] structures where the verb projects the internal argument from structures where the preposition projects the internal argument. On the proposed approach, which aims to be a refinement on the original work by H...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Castillo Orihuela, Concepción
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Alicante (UA)
Repositorio:RUA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante
OAI Identifier:oai:rua.ua.es:10045/27462
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10045/27462
http://dx.doi.org/10.14198/raei.2012.25.21
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Unaccusative structures
Verb
Preposition
Internal argument
Filología Inglesa
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper I use the feature [+/–animate] to distinguish unaccusative [verb+preposition] structures where the verb projects the internal argument from structures where the preposition projects the internal argument. On the proposed approach, which aims to be a refinement on the original work by Hoekstra (1988), the preposition selects for the internal argument whenever the latter is [–animate]. The analysis is supported by the observation that unaccusative prepositional structures are typically [–animate], by contrast with their non-prepositional counterparts, and by a principled analysis of the differences existing between sequences with march-type verbs vs. sequences with verbs like whistle or eat. By contrast with current works in the literature, the preposition is argued to project two Spec positions in eat-type sequences, and a pP-shell configuration is proposed to match the derivation of unaccusative [verb+preposition] structures that feature one or two arguments internal to the prepositional projection.