Word Meaning and Syntax Approaches to the Interface 1st Edition by Stephen Wechsler 0199279888 9780199279883

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ISBN 10: 0199279888 

ISBN 13: 9780199279883

Author: Stephen Wechsler

This book examines the nature of the interface between word meaning and syntax, one of the most controversial and elusive issues in contemporary linguistics. It approaches the interface from both sides of the relation, and surveys a range of views on the mapping between them, with an emphasis on lexical approaches to argument structure. Stephen Wechsler begins by analysing the fundamental problem of word meaning, with discussions of vagueness and polysemy, complemented with a look at the roles of world knowledge and normative aspects of word meaning. He then surveys the argument-taking properties of verbs and other predicators, and presents key theories of lexical semantic structure. Later chapters provide a description of formal theories and frameworks for capturing the mapping from word meaning to syntactic structure, as well as arguments in favour of a lexicalist approach to argument structure. The book will interest scholars of theoretical linguistics, particularly in the fields of syntax and lexical semantics, as well as those interested in psycholinguistics and philosophy of language.

Table of contents:

1: The role of word meaning in syntax

1.1 The syntax-lexicon interface

1.2 Predicate argument structure and its discontents

1.3 Organization of the book

2: Word meaning

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Words and senses

2.2.1 Homonymy, polysemy, and generality

2.2.2 Linguistic tests for distinguishing senses

2.2.3 Caveats and complications

2.2.4 Disjunctive and conjunctive senses; facets

2.3 Polysemy and sense extension

2.3.1 Systematic polysemy

2.3.2 Pragmatic roots of polysemy

2.3.3 Sense extension in the grammar

2.3.3.1 Sense enumeration

2.3.3.2 Lexical rules

2.3.3.3 Lexical licenses

2.3.3.4 Coercion

2.3.3.5 Type presupposition accommodation

2.3.4 Copredication and dotted types

2.4 Vagueness and related problems

2.4.1 Aristotle and Eubulides

2.4.2 Semantics of gradable predicates

2.4.3 Approaches to vagueness

2.4.4 Prototypes and their relation to vagueness

2.4.5 Normative aspects of word meaning

2.4.6 Sense spectra and gradient senses

2.4.7 Probabilistic grammar and mixed categories

2.5 World knowledge in word meaning

2.6 Conclusion

3: Argument alternations and cognates

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Argument selection

3.2.1 Variable polyadicity and subject-object asymmetry

3.2.2 Object selection

3.3 Object omission and demotion

3.3.1 Object drop

3.3.2 Antipassive

3.3.3 The conative alternation

3.3.4 Dependencies between an object and its co-complement

3.4 Causative, inchoative, and result state alternations

3.4.1 Introduction

3.4.2 Causativization and anti-causativization

3.4.2.1 Non-directed causative alternations in English

3.4.2.2 Anticausatives

3.4.2.3 Middles and passives

3.4.2.4 Morphological causativization

3.4.3 Inchoatives and statives

3.5 Alternations involving multiple arguments

3.5.1 Direct and oblique arguments

3.5.2 Locative alternations

3.6 Unaccusativity

3.6.1 Properties of unaccusatives

3.6.2 Auxiliary selection

3.6.3 Split ergativity

3.6.4 Syntactic accounts of unaccusativity

3.7 Lexicalization of events

3.7.1 Typology of motion and manner lexicalization

3.7.2 Manner-result complementarity

3.8 Category conversion

3.8.1 Deverbal nominals

3.8.2 Denominal verbs

3.9 Conclusion

4: Lexical semantic structure

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Thematic roles

4.2.1 Basics of thematic roles

4.2.2 Pini´s krakas

4.2.3 Thematic roles in modern generative grammar

4.3 Proto-roles

4.4 Decomposition approaches

4.4.1 Ontology of meaning units

4.4.2 Situation aspect (Aktionsart classes)

4.4.3 Aspectual-causal decomposition

4.4.4 Argument mapping based on aspectual-causal decomposition

4.4.4.1 Role and Reference Grammar

4.4.4.2 Systems based on depth of embedding

4.4.4.3 A templatic approach

4.4.5 The lexical decomposition controversy

4.5 Mereologies, scales, and affectedness

4.6 Conclusion: the problems of polysemy and vagueness

5: Argument mapping approaches

5.1 Introduction: lexical and phrasal approaches to argument realization

5.2 Lexical approaches to mapping

5.2.1 The LFG lexicon

5.2.1.1 Predicate argument structure

5.2.1.2 Early LFG valence-changing rules

5.2.1.3 Lexical Mapping Theory

5.2.1.4 Syntacticized argument structure

5.2.2 The HPSG lexicon

5.2.2.1 Basics of the formalism

5.2.2.2 Valence and argument structure

5.2.2.3 Passive and lexical rules in HPSG

5.2.2.4 Lexical rules in Sign-Based Construction Grammar

5.2.2.5 Word meaning and argument linking in HPSG

5.2.2.6 Diathesis alternations in HPSG and SBCG

5.3 Constructional approaches

5.3.1 Introduction

5.3.2 Lexical mapping with argument structure constructions

5.4 Abstract light verbs in the syntax

5.5 Conclusion

6: The lexical-constructional debate

6.1 Introduction

6.2 The pendulum of lexical and phrasal approaches

6.2.1 GPSG as construction grammar

6.2.2 Problem 1: morphological derivation

6.2.3 Problem 2: partial fronting

6.2.4 Problem 3: cross-linguistic comparison

6.3 Arguments for constructional models

6.3.1 Usage-based theories of language

6.3.2 Coercion

6.3.3 Simplicity and polysemy

6.3.4 Retaining the input in the representation

6.4 Language acquisition

6.4.1 The acquisition of patterns

6.4.2 Challenges for patterns: discontinuities and unexpressed arguments

6.4.3 The acquisition of dependencies

6.5 Abstract light verbs

6.5.1 Neo-Davidsonianism

6.5.2 `Little v´ and idiom asymmetries

6.5.3 Deverbal nominals

6.5.4 Idiosyncratic syntactic selections

6.5.5 Is there an alternative to lexical valence structure?

6.6 Evidence for lexical approaches

6.6.1 Valence and coordination

6.6.2 Valence and derivational morphology

6.7 Arguments based on (the lack of) interactions with syntax

6.7.1 Introduction

6.7.2 want + HAVE and other verbs of possession

6.8 Conclusion

7: Some battlegrounds in the theory wars

7.1 The dative and benefactive alternations

7.2 Resultatives

7.2.1 Explananda

7.2.2 Complex predicate accounts

7.2.3 Complex predicates with scalar semantics

7.2.4 Light verbs and small clauses

7.3 German applicatives

8: Postscript

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Tags: Stephen Wechsler, Meaning, Word, Approaches