The Syntax of Non-Verbal Causation: The Causative Apomorphy of 'From' in Greek and Germanic Languages
Item
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Title
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The Syntax of Non-Verbal Causation: The Causative Apomorphy of 'From' in Greek and Germanic Languages
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:295c51c8143d:11499
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identifier
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11966
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Creator
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Ioannidou, Alexandra,
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Contributor
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Marcel den Dikken | Christina Tortora
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Linguistics | Causation | from | Germanic | Greek | non-verbal | Spatial
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Abstract
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This is a study of the meaning and syntax of non-(lexical)verbal causation. Macroscopically, it examines the preposition 'from' as attested in contexts like "X is/comes from Y". Syntactic diagnostics are applied to formally distinguish the causative from the spatial interpretations of 'from'-PPs in Greek, English, Dutch, and German. The syntactic landscape of causative 'from' will turn out to be very minimal with 'from' directly selecting the Cause-DP, in contradistinction to its spatial counterpart, where 'from' always selects for another PP layer. More microscopically then I focus on the causative interpretations only, which are particularly revealing because (i) they give an in-depth view of CAUSE, stripped of all verbal layers---traditionally considered the locus of CAUSE---suggesting that the source of causation in non-(lexical)verbal environments has to be the preposition per se and (ii) they single-handedly provide a rudimentary structure for causation, where 'from' introduces the Cause in its complement and is predicated of the Causee. Finally, with a basic predicational structure in place, I offer a detailed cross-linguistic account for the syntactic mechanism that forces the use of particle verbs in causative 'from'-less environments.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Linguistics
