Lecture 9

Mono-argumental verbs
Last year …
! verbs license arguments
! verbs restrict the number of
arguments which they can
combine with in terms of
category (c-selection) and in
terms of meaning (s-selection)
! argument structure: 1- , 2 -, 3-
argument verbs
Bresnan (1995:1): ‘‘argument structure
has two faces, semantic and
syntactic’’. Semantically, argument
structure represents the information
about the main participants of the
event; syntactically, it is a hierarchical
representation of the arguments
required by the predicate determining
how they are expressed in the syntax.
 Last year
(1) John smiled.
(2) John ran fast.
(3) John arrived early.
(4) *John smiled him.

[DP _ ]
V[DP] = mono-argumental/ monadic/ one-argument V

Are mono-argumental intransitives all alike?

 The Unaccusative Hypothesis
(5) The boys ran to the station.
(6) John smiled.
(7) The children are playing in the park
(8) The child fell down.
(9) The pipes rusted in the bathroom.
(10) The ball rolled down the road in to the
ditch.

some monadic intransitives assign the some monadic intransitives assign

role of Agent to their argument = the role of Patient/Theme to their
unergatives argument = unaccusatives
the argument undergoes a change of
state or location and has no control over
the action denoted by the verb
The Unaccusative Hypothesis

The class a monadic verb belongs to is semantically predictable

[agentivity vs. non-agentivity]
Task
(a) The stone fell down the road.
(b) The child ran to the fence.
© The child stumbled down a stone. He fell down.
(d) The flowers withered in the garden.
(e) John left the country.
(f) He hammered on the table.
(g) We sneezed a lot with hay fever.
(h) The yolk oozes out.
(i) The bells were clanging.
(j) A cluster of stars glowed above us.
(k) He grumbled himself calm.
L Unaccusativity is not fully semantically predictable

! verbs with similar meaning (in and across languages) may be classified
differently with respect to unaccusativity

e.g. die = unaccusative in Italian, unergative in Choctaw

e.g. Italian: aux selection
Mario ha continuato.
Il dibattito è continuato.
Also correre, vivere ...
Unaccusativity is not fully semantically predictable

! e.g. German: weather verbs behave like unaccusatives wrt impersonal

passives (*) but like unergatives wrt auxiliary selection (haben)
! Unaccusativity is not fully
semantically predictable
! Unaccusativity is syntactically
encoded
! Unaccusatives= a particular
syntactic configuration
Unaccusativity is a unified
phenomenon:
all unaccusativeVs share certain
syntactic properties :
selection of an internal argument
no external argument
no case assignment
irrespective of semantic class
The distinction is syntactically encoded

prototypical subject: Agent prototypical object: Patient/Theme

the argument of unergatives: the argument of unaccusatives:
subject-like properties object-like properties

[DP V _ ] [ _ V DP ]
The child ran __ __ roll the stone
The man laughed __ __ fall the child
 Unaccusatives Unergatives

VP VP
3 3
Spec V’ Spec V’
- 3 DP 3
V DP V _
fall the child laughed
the child
! Burzio’s Generalization: a verb which has no external argument cannot assign
Accusative case to the DP in complement position

4unaccusatives do not project an external argument ð they cannot assign

Accusative case, not even to cognate objects:

(11) *They fell a bad fall. [*unaccusative + cognate object]

vs.

(12) She smiled a beautiful smile.

 So far…
Unaccusatives Unergatives
the argument:Pat/Th the argument: Agent
select an internal argument select an external argument
lack an external argument lack an internal argument

one-argument intransitives do not represent a homogeneous class.

unaccusative/unergative: semantically predictable and syntactically encoded
Task

(a) The flowers withered in the garden.

(b) The ice melted.
(c) The children laughed.
(d) The baby burped.
 The causative alternation

(13) Mary melted the butter. The butter melted.

(14) Mary froze the water. The water froze.
(15) Mary broke the window. The window broke.
8 transitive alternation/causative alternation

Vs which have an intransitive and a transitive use

the intransitive denotes a change of state
the transitive: cause to V-intransitive
 The causative alternation

! The intransitive V
inchoatives/
= achievement Telicity
anticausatives

! The transitive V:
Direct Causation (lexical) causatives
= accomplishment

John broke the window. = John caused the window to break/ to become to be in a
‘broken’ state
 The causative alternation

(16) Mary melted the butter. The butter melted.

Patient/undergoer

The subject of the intransitive V has the same theta-role as the object of the
transitive V, i.e. it has the properties of an object; it merges in complement
position, like an internal argument Ö a non-Agentive verb of change of state

(17) *The boy laughed his sister. (cause his sister to laugh)
! Unaccusatives fall into two classes:

(i) Unaccusatives which enter the causative alternation: telic/ change of state
The soup cooled. John cooled the soup.
achievement: BECOME be _ accomplishment CAUSE BECOME be _

(ii) unaccusatives which do not enter the causative alternation : prototypical

unaccusatives (verbs of existence and appearance)

(18) * He appeared a book on the table.

(19) * Her job lived my mother in Boston.
(20) *The thief disappeared the bicycle.
 Unaccusativity diagnostics

o there-sentences
o locative inversion
o resultative phrases
o adjectival past participle
 Unaccusativity diagnostics

There-Ss and Locative inversion Resultative Phrases, adjectival past-participle

= surface unaccusativity diagnostics = deep unaccusativity diagnostics
! diagnostics which show that the ! diagnostics which show that the argument
only argument of V occupies the merged in the complement position of V
complement position of V (it (and then moved to Spec IP)
merged and has remained in a VP-
internal position)
< Q: does the argument occur in the < Q: does the argument have the properties
complement position of V? of a constituent which merges in the
complement position of V?
There-sentences as an unaccusativity diagnostic
There-Ss

— A surface unaccusativity diagnostic

= the argument in the position in which it merged with the
verb, i.e. in situ

(1) There arrived a ship in the harbour.

 The data
(2)
a. There is a book on the desk.
b. There arrived a ship in the harbour.
c. There stood castle in the middle of the forest.
*unergatives cannot occur
(3) in there-sentences
a. *There are working three students in the garden.
b.*There talked three policemen to the crowd.
c. *There barked a dog in the distance.
 The data

(4)
a. *There withered all the flowers in the vase.
b. *There dried all the grapes.
c. *There melted a lot of snow on the streets of Chicago.

*definite change of state unaccusatives (the ones which enter the CA) cannot occur
in there-sentences
Verbs which can occur in there-sentences

4Verbs of existence: be, exist, remain, float, linger, lurk…

Verbs of sound existence: echo, resonate, resound, reverberate,
sound…
Verbs of group existence: abound, crawl, creep …
(5)
a. There lingered an echo of grimness, and an echo of something else…
c. There flourished in the empire a governing ethos which […] was
unmistakably the product of an earlier age.
d. For it seemed to him that behind them there loomed not the familiar
shapes of the black-painted Victorian Cages, but greater shapes that pointed
darkly to the sky
(6)
a. Through my mind there reverberated the words from Portrait of a
Lady.
b. Through the hall there echoed a loud cry.
 Verbs which can occur in there-sentences

4Verbs of appearance: appear, arise, begin, break, burst, dawn, derive,

develop, emanate, emerge, flow, follow, gush, happen, etc.

(7)
a. There appeared a new study by Dr R.E.
b. Gradually there arose a faint humming from outside the tent.
c. In 1542 there began almost a decade of fighting.
Verbs which can occur in there-sentences
+ verbs of sound emission (clink, jingle)
(8) There ticked a grandfather clock in the hall.

+ verbs of light emission (gleam, glitter, glow, shine)

(9) There sparkled a diamond on her finger.
(10)There shone yet another distant sunlit hilltop.

+ verbs of motion (fall, hang, dangle, lie, stretch)

(11) There dangles a shiny new briefcase from his hand.
 There-sentences

]Only unaccusatives which denote existence and coming

into existence ( i.e. existence in a general sense) can appear
in there-sentences

a. There was a book on the table.

b. There remained two students in the room.
 Summing up

There-sentences:

(i) Prototypical unaccusatives, i.e. verbs of existence and verbs of

appearance (no CA) = OK
(ii) Unaccusatives which denote a definite change of state (CA): NO
(iii) Unergatives: NO
 Task: Which of the following sentences are well-formed?

a. There remained three men in the room.

b. There was a moment’s silence.
c. There followed a great flood of indignation in the newspaper.
d. There appeared a shadowy figure in the doorway.
e. There sparkled a magnificent diamond on her finger.
f. There lurked danger in the air.
g. There are working three students in the garden.
h. There talked three policemen to the crowd.
i. There barked a dog in the distance.
Task : Which of the following sentences are well-formed?

a. There are working three students in the garden.

b. There talked three policemen to the crowd.
c. There barked a dog in the distance.
d. There smiled many students.
e. There danced a girl in the street.
There-sentences come in various guises

!There be sentences
! There V sentences
Inside verbals

(12)
a. A group of students arrived.
b. There arrived a group of students.

(13)
a. There arose many trivial objections during the meeting.
b. There developed several objections.
There was a man in the doorway.
There V DP (PP)

inside verbals

4unstressed non-deictic there in sentence-initial position

4an intransitive (unaccusative) verb
4the DP argument is placed in post-verbal position/ adjacent to the verb
Inside verbals

“ [...] accept only a small class of intransitive verbs expressing various

concepts having to do with being or coming into being, e.g. arise,
emerge, develop, ensue, begin, exist, occur.”
(Milsark 1974)
Outside verbals

(14)
a. There walked into the room a fierce-looking tomcat.
b. There stood on the table a lamp.
c. There walked into the bedroom a unicorn.
(Milsark 1974)
There ran into the room a little boy.

There V PP DP

outside verbals

The domain of outside verbals is not restricted to

unaccusatives (also: unergatives of motion)
ð Outside verbals: not an unaccusativity test
Outside verbals
“the outside verbals are a different problem altogether, and can be called
with some justice the outlaws of the ES world.”

“[...] show a bewildering variety of verbs. The list is immense and may in
fact comprise a majority of the intransitive verbs in English. [...] the
judgments are very uncertain in particular cases.” (Milsark 1974)
= intransitives which can occur with locative expressions
Outside verbals

v non-canonical order / the logical subject is in postverbal position

v there: non-deictic, unstressed, in the canonical subject position

v the postverbal DP: information that is unfamiliar/new

 Task.

(1)There came to his mind her beautiful and intelligent face. (Quirk et al.)
(2)There walked into the courtroom two people I had thought were dead.
(3) There swam towards me someone carrying a harpoon.
(4)There danced towards us a couple dressed like Napoleon and Josephine.
(5) Late at night there crept into the village a silent band of soldiers.
 Task

(1)There came to his mind her beautiful and intelligent face. (Quirk et al.)
(2)There walked into the courtroom two people I had thought were dead.
(3)There swam towards me someone carrying a harpoon.
(4)There danced towards us a couple dressed like Napoleon and
Josephine.
(5)Late at night there crept into the village a silent band of soldiers.
 There-sentences: so far..

There-sentences:

(i) Outside verbals : There V PP NP

(ii) Inside verbals : There V NP ...
Task.
(1) There exist a number of similar medieval crosses in different parts of the country.
(2) There once lived a king who had no ears.
(3) There stood an old grandfather clock in the hall opposite the front door.
(4) There occurred a tragic event yesterday.
(5) In the middle of the sea battle there arose a storm which neither side had anticipated.
(6) There sang a tall woman on the stage.
(7) There laughed several students during the lecture.
(8) There played three children in the playground.
(9) There burned a flag in the middle of the room.
(10) There smoldered a flag in a corner of a room.
(11) At the time there flourished in the empire a governing ethos which […] was
unmistakably the product of an earlier age.
 Task.
(12) At that moment there sounded the unmistakable click of the key turning in the front
door.
(13) Gradually there arose a faint humming from outside the tent as people gathered to
talk and speculate.
(14) The results were favourable and there began a series of trials which ‘convinced him
that he had made some valuable discoveries’.
(15) There broke a candle.
(16) There ran into the room a man so handsome that he must have been a movie star.
 Why can’t unergatives occur in there-sentences?

< the different D-structures of the two classes of intransitives

(i) With unaccusatives the argument merges in the complement of V

position
(ii) With unergatives the argument merges in the Specifier of VP position
I
There -sentences

Unaccusatives Unergatives

VP VP
3 3
Spec V’ Spec V’
- 3 DP 3
V DP V _
fall the child laughed
the child
 There-sentences

There remained two students in the room.

ß ß
? Theta-role position

= there is an expletive subject, in the canonical subject position

Expletive subjects: no theta-role from the predicate

There was a student in the room, wasn’t there?

Was there a student in the room?
There-sentences

= a “real” subject occurs lower in the structure = the

associate of there 4 in the position in which it merged
with the verb
 • There merges in Spec IP to
There-sentences satisfy its EPP feature (Infl must
have a Specifier)
•There is a deficient nominal,
IP which does not participate in
3 case-checking
• Infl will assign Nominative
Spec I’ case to the “associate” of there
there 3 with which it enters an AGREE
relationship (Chomsky 2000)
I VP
3
Spec V’
- 3
V DP
AGREE rolled the stone
There-sentences

IP
3
Spec I’
there 3
I VP
3
Spec V’
3
V’ PP
2 5
V DP
stood a glass on the table
 This analysis …
There +V+ DP
! There-sentences accept prototypical unaccusatives (verbs of existence and
appearance)
+ verbs of sound emission
+ verbs of light emission
+ non-agentive verbs of motion

! There-sentences ban unergatives

 .
Challenge 1

(15)
a. Once there ruled a king who had no ears.
b. *Once there ruled a king with an iron hand.

= unergative
reinterpreted as unaccusative 4behaves like an unaccusative
There-sentences

IP
3
Spec I’
there 3
I VP
3
Spec V’
3
V DP
ruled a king who had …
 Challenge 2

(16)
a. There ran three people away from the crime scene.
b. There walked a woman into the room.
c. *There walked a woman in the garden.

q agentive manner of motion verb

q a directional phrase.
! when used with directional phrases, manner of motion unergatives
behave like unaccusatives.
! Their argument 4 Theme
Challenge 3
! There-sentences ban unaccusatives which enter CA
( change of state unaccusatives)

(17) * There rusted all the pipes.

Next week
 Task
a. There gathered a group of students at the fountain.
b. There formed a pile of leaves outside the doorstep.
c. There remained three idiots at Sosoaca’s meeting.
d. Suddenly, there sprang a tiger from the bushes near the path.
e. Once upon a time there lived on the other side of the forest a monster
who demanded yearly tribute.
f. Suddenly there ran out of the bushes a grizzly bear.
g. There walked into the courtroom two people I had thought were dead.
Task
a. There glittered weak stars in the sky.
b. There darted into the room a little boy.
c. There danced a little boy in the room.
d. There ticked a grandfather clock in the hall.
e. There withered all the flowers in the vase.
f. There sang many beautiful girls in that room.
g. There dried all the grapes.
h. There ran a fat lion out of the bushes.
i. There jumped a boy on the bed.
Task
a. There ran three people away from the crime scene.
b. There lived on the other side of the forest a monster who demanded yearly tribute.
c. There smiled many children in the park.
d. There sank a ship in the harbour
e. There walked a student into the room.
f. There disappeared a car from the new garage.
g. There walked two prison guards into the courtroom.
h. There broke a candle.
i. There was heard a rumbling noise.
j. Suddenly there ran out of a hidden crack a very tiny mouse.