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This paper deals with the morpho-syntactic properties of Spanish verbs formed by - ear affixation (EAV henceforth). These include deadjectival (e.g. amarillear ‘to go yellow’), denominal (e.g. fanfarronear ‘to behave like a boaster’), and deverbal verbs (e.g. bailotear ‘to dance in an irregular manner’), which do not form a natural semantic class. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a unified morpho-syntactic analysis of EAV within Hale and Keyser's (1993) approach to argument structure – as developed in Mateu (2002) and Acedo-Matellán and Mateu (2011, 2013) – and Distributed Morphology; second, to take this proposal as a basis to account for cross-dialectal variation in the productivity of EAV. We group EAV into three basic syntactic classes that share a core structure v + P. We argue that a large subset of unergative verbs must be analyzed as events with a specifier that select for a relational/predicative complement, a type of structure that is shown to underlie verbs with an adverbial argument. - Ear is further checked against unmarked - ar , the default verb-forming suffix in Iberian Spanish. We show that an underspecified analysis of EAV is compatible with cross-dialectal variation in that it accommodates the (non-)predictable range of meanings found across American varieties where - ear has become the default verbalizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports on the discovery of a new type of exocentric word structure in Japanese which consists of two “dependent” (rather than “head”) elements and whose category is determined by the collaboration of the category features of the two dependents in conjunction with their internal semantic relationship. A representative example is huto-ppara lit. ‘fat stomach/big heart’, which semantically denotes the subject''s property of being big-hearted or generous rather than the physical entity ‘stomach, heart’, and which bears the lexical category of Adjectival Noun [AN], corresponding neither to the Adjective category of huto- ‘fat, big’ nor to the Noun category of -ppara [variant of hara] ‘stomach, heart’. This is entirely distinct from the familiar types of metaphor- and metonymy-based exocentric compounds like redhead and pickpocket, which are always nouns. In analyzing the novel type of Japanese compound, a mechanism called “bilateral category projection” is proposed, which fuses together the category features of the two dependent constituents by invoking their semantic structure. The assignment of a category to the new type of exocentric compound thus requires simultaneous reference to both morphological and semantic structure. This analysis lends support to the “parallel-representation” model of grammar in which form and meaning are represented separately but work in tandem with each other to determine the grammaticality of a given expression (). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reanalysis, as understood in traditional historical linguistics, lacks explanatory force as a mechanism of language change, because the assumption that reanalysis works through ambiguity is logically flawed, and because reanalysis postulates a shift from an old to a new representation without specifying the source of the new representation. Therefore, two cases of syntactic reanalysis are examined to produce a more convincing picture of how reanalysis operates. One is the development of the English adjectives worth and worthwhile when used with gerund clauses. The other is the emergence of the English for…to-infinitive. On the basis of these case-studies it is shown that reanalysis can be decomposed into more basic mechanisms of change. These mechanisms involve ‘category-internal change’ resulting from semantic change, ‘categorial incursion’ through analogy, and ‘automation’. Each of these underlying mechanisms obtain additional plausibility from the fact that they are firmly based in synchronic language use as understood in current usage-based models. One consequence is that reanalysis itself becomes to some extent epiphenomenal to the more basic mechanisms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper I address two main issues in the semantics of deadjectival verbs. First, I review alternative accounts of the nature of the telos associated with a deadjectival verb on a telic interpretation. Traditional accounts gloss the telic sense of a deadjectival verb as ‘become A’: for example, the telic interpretation of The sky cleared is ‘The sky became clear’. On this account, the telos of the event denoted by telic clear is the onset of the state denoted by The sky is clear. An alternative account by Hay et al. (1999) is based on the property scale associated with an adjective and its derived verb. Property scales may be open, with no maximal degree of the property (i.e. no upper bound), or closed, in which case the property has a maximal possible degree beyond which no higher degrees of the property exist, and the maximal degree of the property constitutes the upper bound of the scale. Hay et al. argue that a telic interpretation arises where a deadjectival verb is interpreted with reference to a closed property scale. In the event denoted by a telic deadjectival verb, the theme of change traverses the property scale to the upper bound, the maximal possible degree of the property. For example, in The sky cleared on a telic interpretation, the sky is understood to traverse the scale of increasing degrees of clearness until the maximum possible degree of clearness is reached. On this account, the telos is the onset of the state in which the sky is maximally clear, such that it could not be clearer. I argue in favour of the traditional view that a telic deadjectival verb denotes ‘become A’, and against the alternative account that a telic deadjectival verb denotes ‘become maximally A’. By way of clarification preparatory to the main discussion, I show that deadjectival verbs have two types of telic sense, an achievement sense and an accomplishment sense. The telic sense at issue in the traditional telic/atelic contrast is the accomplishment sense. I also argue that the availability of telic and atelic senses of deadjectival verbs is generally predictable from characteristics of the state denoted by x is A. The telic (accomplishment) sense of a deadjectival verb is available only if the property region that counts as ‘A’ has a lower bound (i.e. the least degree that counts as ‘A’) which is accessible to modification. The telic (accomplishment) sense is the strong default reading where x is A entails that x bears the maximal possible degree of the relevant property. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]