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Saturation and reification in adjectival diathesis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2009

IDAN LANDAU
IDAN LANDAU*
Affiliation:
Ben Gurion University
*
Author's address: Department of Foreign Literatures & Linguistics, Ben Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israelidanl@bgu.ac.il
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Abstract

The study of adjectival diathesis alternations lags behind the study of verbal diathesis and nominalization. This paper aims to diminish the gap by applying to the adjectival domain theoretical tools with proven success elsewhere. We focus on evaluative adjectives, which display a systematic alternation between a basic variant (John was rude) and a derived one (That was rude of John). The alternation brings about a cluster of syntactic and semantic changes – in the semantic type of the predicate, its valency and the mode of argument projection. We argue that the adjectival variants are related by the joint application of two operators: a lexical saturation operator (also seen in verbal passive) and a syntactic reification operator (also seen in nominalization). The analysis straightforwardly extends to similar alternations with Subject- and Object-Experiencer adjectives (proud, irritating). Among its important implications are (i) lexical saturation is not restricted to external arguments (internal ones may also be saturated), and (ii) ‘referential’ (R) roles are not restricted to nominal predicates (adjectives may assign them as well).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , July 2009 , pp. 315 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

[1]

Material from this paper has been presented in the Syntax, Lexicon and Event Structure Workshop in the Hebrew University (July 2006) and in the NORMS Workshop on Argument Structure in Lund University (February 2008). I thank the audiences at these workshops and two JL referees for their useful feedback. Special thanks to Heidy Harley, who made valuable comments on an earlier draft. The usual disclaimers apply.

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