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Derivational Morphology Mihaela Tănase-Dogaru, Fall semester 2014 Course design: Ileana Baciu (2004). English Morphology. Word formation (EUB) Lecture 9 Argument Structure and Affixation. Syntactic Approaches to inheritance . Roeper

(1987)

1. Implicit arguments - Roeper: a technical device for handling inheritance, linking it with the licensing of implicit arguments. - ‘implicit argument’ = ‘a thematic role that fails to appear in explicit positions but retains syntactic functions’ (Roeper, 1987:267).

1) (a) The ship sank. /*The ship sank by Bill (b) The ship was sunk / The ship was sunk by Bill (c) *The ship sank [PRO to collect the insurance] (d) The ship was sunk [PRO to collect the insurance] (e) The ship was sunk by Bill [PRO to collect the insurance]

- an implicit argument can be detected in two independent ways: a) it can be made explicit by means of a prepositional phrase (as in 1b) ; b) or it can control the null (PRO) subject of a purposive or rationale clause.(as in 1d). c) it can do both (as in 1 e):

- an implicit Agent in (1b); none in (1a). The existence of the implicit Agent is demonstrated by the optional by-phrase which provides a syntactic diagnostic for its presence. - the claim that the implicit Agent is an argument is also demonstrated by its capacity to function as a syntactic controller i.e. the implicit Agent in the passive sentence licenses the rationale clause in (1d). - Roeper argues that the same arguments hold for compounds with -ing, nominalizations, and adjectives in -able where implicit agents also occur and control a rationale clause:

(2) a) meat-eating to gain weight

b) the eating of meat to gain weight c) Goods are exportable to improve profits

- there is a difference between the notion of implicit (thematic) agent and the notion of inferred or ‘cognitive agency’. - implicit arguments (agents) presuppose the existence of a theta grid. Inferred thematic roles (agency) do not presuppose the existence of a theta grid:

(3) a) *the thief of the bank/*the taxman of hidden assets

b) the robber of the bank/the taxer of hidden assets

(4) a) the grammar is learnable by the child/ the view is defendable by anyone b) *John is reliable by anyone/*The view is defensible by anyone.

- the words thief and taxman entail a cognitive notion of agency but do not invoke a thematic grid. - they have no thematic grid so the of phrase makes (4a) ungrammatical.

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- in (4b) the verb tax and rob have a thematic grid that is maintained by the suffix -er, the head; the of phrases are allowed since the thematic role Agent is associated with both robber and taxer, and licenses the complements.

2. Thematic affixes - in Roeper’s view: a) affixes are heads in a sister relation to the base (the complement) they select b) affixes have their own theta grid which percolates to the new categorial node that it creates c) the thematic roles on the theta grid of the affix must match the roles in the theta grid of the base it attaches to. This requirement accounts for the selectional restrictions imposed by the affix on the base it attaches to. b) - evidence for the idea that affix heads can carry thematic information comes from contrasts like (5a) and (5b):

(5) a) John is the writer of these books/ the player of games

b) The grammar is generative *of compounds/*playful of games

- since the suffix -er carries thematic roles and occupies the head position it acts as a governing sister to the thematic PP of games. - the suffix -ful occupies the head position as well, but since it lacks thematic information it cannot license a thematic PP and breaks the sister relation between the thematic grid of the underlying verb and the PP.

c) - the agentive suffix -er, for instance, that creates nouns referring to an Agent will only attach to verb bases which themselves bear the Agent role. -er will bear the theta-grid <Ag,Th> , and it will attach only to verbs that carry the same theta grid. (6) *a trier, *an intender, *a hoper = excluded because the thematic grid of the verb does not match the thematic grid of the affix. -able has the theta-grid <Ag,Th>, so it will attach only to transitive verbs. (7) learnable, defendable, pushable = well-formed because the grid on -able matches the theta-grid on the verb-base

*comeable = excluded because a transitive affix is attached to an intransitive verb.

- percolation of the argument structure of the base is triggered by a phonetically real affix that has a thematic grid. Affixes that carry a theta- grid are called thematic affixes. - the system accounts for the behaviour of three different kinds of affixes, each of which generates a new higher node:

(8) a) Affixes that match the thematic roles on verbs (-able,-er,-ed)

b) Affixes that inherit the thematic roles on verbs (-ing,) c) Affixes that block the thematic roles on verbs (-ive, -ful,-ist)

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(8a) -able, which illustrates the first case, requires a transitive input. -able has its own thematic grid <Ag,Th> which must match the grid of the verb-base. SO it is possible to form readable, pushable but not *comeable, *dieable,* fallable (where the affix is attached to an intransitive verb) or *tryable, *decidable (where the verbs take sentential complements). - it is assumed that the “interaction” between the properties of the affix and the properties of the verb occurs on the node that dominates the affix and percolates to the X’ node; this makes possible the licensing of the thematic PP (by-phrase):

A” (9) A’[Ag,Th]x,y

A[Ag,Th]x,y PP V able [Ag,Th]y by anyone

play [Ag,Th]x

(8b) -ing will accept both transitive and intransitive inputs, as well as inputs that have different subcategorization features: the coming, the putting of men in jail, the reading of books. - these facts can be represented (i.e. accounted for) by assuming that the affix has an empty thematic grid: (-ing [ ]).

(10) N” N’[Ag,Th,Loc]x,y N[Ag,Th,Loc]x,y PP PP V +ing[ ]y of men in jail put[Ag,Th,Loc]x

(8c) -affixes that do not allow any inheritance and therefore prohibit thematic PPs (i.e. prevent the verb’s argument structure from being realized): *generative of compounds, *playful of games, *flautist of good music. - this is represented by a form in which the affix has no grid at all and the thematic roles on the non-head do not percolate at all. - since percolation is blocked, the PP is not c-commanded and hence not licensed. - affixes that do not carry thematic roles are called non-thematic affixes, and though there are a fair number of them (e.g. -ist, -ful,-ive,-some,-like, etc.), they are not generally productive:

(11) A’ A *PP V +ful of games