Arguments and modifiers in deverbal nominals

This paper addresses the distribution of Genitives and PPs in deverbal nominalizations with a particular focus on Romanian -tor nominals that express agents, e.g., vânzător 'seller', and instruments, e.g., tocător 'shredder'. The issue of the distribution of Genitives is central...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Soare, Elena, Roy, Isabelle|||0000-0003-4294-3077
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:255888
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/255888
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.133
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Deverbal nominals
Agent and instrument-denoting nominals
Argument structure
Event structure
Argument
Modifier
Genitive
PP
Descripción
Sumario:This paper addresses the distribution of Genitives and PPs in deverbal nominalizations with a particular focus on Romanian -tor nominals that express agents, e.g., vânzător 'seller', and instruments, e.g., tocător 'shredder'. The issue of the distribution of Genitives is central to understanding the argumental structure properties of deverbal nominalizations in Romanian, and cross-linguistically. Derived nominals expressing agents and instruments have been and continue to be the subject of much controversy in the literature with respect to whether they (or at least some of them) involve an argument structure. We argue that the existence of an argumental Genitive in Romanian provides strong support for views that propose that (at least a subclass of) agent nominals have argument-structure properties. However, we also show that a proper understanding of the distribution of Genitive case-marked complements and PPs bears upon their interpretive nature, and more particularly on their specific vs. non-specific interpretation.