<OT> New Posting: ROA-976

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 976-0608

Deriving Pairedness in vP structure: Minimalist yet Optimal

Kyle Wade Grove <grovekyl at msu.edu>
Michael Putnam <mputnam at cn.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=976


Abstract:
Minimalist accounts lack a natural theory of markedness,
whereas Optimality-Theoretical accounts lack derivational
procedure. We argue, then, that neither standard Minimalist
nor standard Optimality-Theoretical frameworks enable straightfor
ward, parsimonious accounts of what we call pairedness behavior,
where a given language exhibits multiple forms occupying
the same niche. We adopt a hybrid OT/MP account, first,
to explain the unmarked/marked dichotomy of anticausatives
in German, and, second, to explain why languages often exhibit
direct and indirect causatives.

Comments: 
Keywords: argument structure, anticausatives, minimalism, unaccusativity, event structures
Areas: Syntax,Semantics,Morphology
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=976