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This paper explores the role of metonymy in determining a syntactic argument alternation ("conductor-vehicle alternation") which occurs in English and Portuguese: o piloto acelerou a Ferrari "the driver speeded up the Ferrari"/a Ferrari acelerou "the Ferrari speeded up/sped away". Since the verbs in the conductor-vehicle alternation have conductor and vehicle arguments (controller and controlled entities), a metonymic process can occur, allowing the vehicle expression to provide access to the conductor participant. To explain how metonymy allows a verb with two participants to be integrated into a construction with a single argument, we assume that metonymy gathers information about both entities involved; the vehicle expression provides mental access to both vehicle and conductor ("fusion"). We also discuss cognitive and pragmatic factors involving the choice of a construction over another. Constructions with vehicle expressions as subject are used when the vehicle is salient or the conductor is unknown. This also explains why dirigir "drive" does not alternate in Portuguese, contrarily to prediction and differently from English drive. We provide a comparative account of the behavior of this verb in both languages. Dirigir, differently from drive, conceptualizes semantic components incompatible with a situation in which the agent/conductor is not salient or is unknown. This research adds to the ongoing body of literature on the role of metonymy in grammar and is a contribution to the understanding of the metonymic process, as a fusion, and also to argument alternation processes and lexical-constructional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There exists a clear association between animacy and the grammatical function of transitive subject. The grammar of some languages require the transitive subject to be high in animacy, or at least higher than the object. A similar animacy preference has been observed in processing studies in languages without such a categorical animacy effect. This animacy preference has been mainly established in structures in which either one or both arguments are provided before the verb. Our goal was to establish (i) whether this preference can already be observed before any argument is provided, and (ii) whether this preference is mediated by verbal information. To this end we exploited the V2 property of Dutch which allows the verb to precede its arguments. Using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm we presented participants with V2 structures with either an auxiliary (e.g. Gisteren heeft X ... 'Yesterday, X has ...') or a lexical main verb (e.g. Gisteren motiveerde X ... 'Yesterday, X motivated ...') and we measured looks to the animate referent. The results indicate that the animacy preference can already be observed before arguments are presented and that the selectional restrictions of the verb mediate this bias, but do not override it completely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze argument structure of whole-entity and handling classifier predicates in four sign languages (Russian Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, German Sign Language, and Kata Kolok) using parallel datasets (retellings of the Canary Row cartoons). We find that all four languages display a systematic, or canonical, mapping between classifier type and argument structure, as previously established for several sign languages: whole-entity classifier predicates are mostly used intransitively, while handling classifier predicates are used transitively. However, our data sets also reveal several non-canonical mappings which we address in turn. First, it appears that whole-entity classifier predicates can be used unergatively, rather than unaccusatively, contrary to expectations. Second, our data contain some transitive uses of whole-entity classifier predicates. Finally, we find that handling classifier predicates can express various complex event structures. We discuss what these findings imply for existing theories of classifier predicates in sign languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument structure of verbs is pretty uniform across languages. Thus, verbs of 'falling' involve a Theme and an optional Causer and verbs of 'working' an Agent. Aspect is relevant to that uniformity as well since the former verbs will be telic and the latter durative. Stative verbs form a third main class. I first show that, when (spoken/written) languages change, the basic argument structure and aspect don't change for most unaccusatives and unergatives. There are, however, systematic reports (e.g. Rosen 1984; Keller & Sorace 2003; Randall et al 2004) that certain verbs are unergative in one language and unaccusative in another and that verbs alternate between different aspects (e.g. Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2014). I examine a few verbs diachronically that are ambiguous in the Keller & Sorace work, i.e. verbs of continuation and of controlled motional process, and conclude that a more fine-grained system is helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I give an analysis of the syntax of the antipassive construction in the Eskimo-Aleut language family. In this account, I follow previous works, such as Benua (1997), Basilico (2004, 2012), Aldridge (2012), and Johns and Kučerová (2017) and posit that the antipassive, oblique argument occupies a different position than the transitive, absolutive object. However, I do not argue that the absolutive direct object argument and the oblique antipassive object occupy the same base position. Instead, I analyze the antipassive marker as an element which creates an argument position: it turns the verb to which it is attached from a predicate of events into a relation between an event and an entity, introducing the undergoer thematic role predicate and its argument. By considering that the antipassive morpheme introduces an argument, rather than saturating or demoting one, we explain a number of interesting phenomena: why 'agentive' verbs do not appear with an antipassive morpheme while 'patientive' verbs do, why the antipassive is associated with the inchoative as well as the applicative, and why transitive impersonal verbs do not undergo antipassivization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the processing correlates of core verb features used to generate verb typologies. The aim was to contrast the effects of verb inter-nal structure (as in semantic/conceptual features e.g., Jackendoff [1991]; Levin and Rappaport Hovav [2005]) with argument structure and argument realization in sentence processing. To this end, we designed a self-paced reading task with internal structure and argument realization as variables in verb processing. Re-sults showed that absence of a prototypical Agent or mismatch between thematic hierarchies and argument realization yields longer processing times possibly due to some form of thematic reanalysis or as a reaction to a "surprise" effect by the human processor while detecting a non-expected thematic assignment. No ef-fects of verb internal structure were found. We take this result as an indication that argument structure and argument realization play an important role in verb recognition during sentence processing. We further propose that this reflects their prominent role in verb representation and we suggest that this finding could give additional support to verb classifications based on verb argument structure features compared to those based on internal structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]