| Description |
1 online resource (xiv, 255 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Oxford linguistics |
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Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics ; 74 |
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Oxford linguistics.
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Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics ; 74.
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| Contents |
Introduction. Lexical semantics and theories of verb meaning ; Thematic roles as a theory of verb meaning ; Event structures as a theory of verb meaning ; Hypotheses about root meaning ; Outline of the study ; Background assumptions: defining causation and change -- Entailments of change in the roots of change-of-state verbs. Two types of change-of-state verbs ; Lexical semantic consequences of Bifurcation ; Morphological consequences of Bifurcation ; Analytical option 1: abandon Bifucation ; Analytical option 2: preserving Bifurcation ; Roots vs. templates in change-of-state verbs -- The roots of ditransitive verbs of caused possession. Roots and templates in ditransitive verbs ; Ditransitive verbs, possession, and co-location ; The meanings of templates: a case for root sensitivity ; Change of state and aspectual properties: root telicity ; Defining and composing template and root meanings ; Root classes ; Further evidence for change of state in roots: root durativity ; The dative alternation: root-determined argument realization ; Root vs. template in ditransitive verbs -- Manner/result complementarity and causation in verbal roots. Manner/result complementarity ; Result entailments in verbs ; Manner entailments in verbs ; Classes of manner+result verbs ; Manner, result, and the architecture of event structure ; The roots of manner+result verbs and Bifurcation ; Roots vs. templates in manner+result verbs -- Conclusion. Summary on conditions on root meaning ; The origins of complex root meanings ; Are there any constraints on root meaning? ; Possible and impossible verbs |
| Summary |
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book explores possible and impossible word meanings, with a specific focus on the meanings of verbs. John Beavers and Andrew Koontz-Garboden adopt the now common view that verb meanings consist at least partly of an event structure, made up of two elements: an event template describing the verb's broad temporal and causal contours, which occurs across lots of verbs and groups them into semantic and grammatical classes; and an idiosyncratic root describing specific, real world states and actions that distinguish between verbs with the same template. While much work has focused on templates, less work has addressed the truth-conditional contributions of roots, despite the importance of a theory of root meaning in fully defining the predictions made by event structural approaches. This book aims to address this gap by exploring two previously proposed constraints on root meaning: The Bifurcation Thesis of Roots, whereby roots never introduce the meanings introduced by templates, and Manner/Result Complementarity, which specifies that roots can describe either a manner or a result state but never both at the same time. Two extended case studies, on change-of-state verbs and ditransitive verbs of caused possession, show that neither hypothesis holds, and that ultimately there may be no constraints on what a root can mean. Nonetheless, the book argues that event structures still have predictive value: it presents a new theory of possible root meanings and their interaction with event templates that produces a new typology of possible verbs, in which systematic semantic and grammatical properties are determined not just by templates, but also by roots |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed September 3, 2020) |
| Subject |
English language -- Verb.
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English language -- Verb
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Koontz-Garboden, Andrew, author.
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| ISBN |
9780191889417 |
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0191889415 |
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