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SUMMARY:The Role of Root Semantics in Determining Argument Alternations - 
 Dr. John Beavers (University of Texas)
DTSTART:20211118T170000Z
DTEND:20211118T183000Z
UID:TALK165997@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Onkar Singh
DESCRIPTION:The central question in the study of verbal meaning are what t
 he basic component's of a verb's meaning are and how they compose together
  into more complex meanings in ways that make predictions about possible a
 nd impossible verbs. Event structural theories have been arguably the domi
 nant approach to the study of verb meaning over the last 50 years. On such
  approaches a verb's meaning is assumed to decompose into an event templat
 e capturing the verb's broad temporal and causal contours that groups verb
 s into semantically unified classes\, and an idiosyncratic semantic root n
 aming specific actions and states for a given verb within a class. A commo
 n assumption is that there is a division of labor in the grammatical prope
 rties of templates vs. roots: event templates largely determine the verb's
  grammatical properties (e.g. its argument structure and derivational morp
 hology) while the root mainly just figures into its idiosyncratic form. On
  such approaches argument alternations are generally thought to reflect a 
 single root that occurs in two templates\, where the variation in template
 s is what derives the morphosyntactic details of the argument structure an
 d its semantic effects.\n\nHowever\, it is well known that roots can condi
 tion what alternations they occur in\, though there is little consensus in
  prior work on how this is done. In this talk I present joint work with Ky
 le Jerro and Andrew Koontz-Garboden on applicatives in Kinyarwanda that ad
 dresses this question directly. Applicatives are standardly thought to int
 roduce additional event structural material into the event structure of th
 e base verb in a fairly monotonic fashion\, always ensuring that the appli
 cativized verb has essentially the same meaning as the non-applicativized 
 variant but with an extra argument bearing an extra role not found in the 
 meaning of the base verb. I show that the applicative responsible for deri
 ving the dative alternation in Kinyarwanda produces a much wider range of 
 argument alternations than expected on that understanding of applicatives\
 , and furthermore that what specific argument structure arises is continge
 nt on the specific root it occurs with\, albeit in predictable ways. I arg
 ue that these patterns can be explained by assuming that roots themselves 
 already contain a considerable amount of semantic templatic information ab
 out the participants in the events they describe. This semantic informatio
 n interacts significantly with applicativized and non-appicativized event 
 structures\, plus independent constraints on Kinyarwanda morphosyntax\, to
  explain the diversity of argument alternation patterns it gives rise to. 
 This analysis in turn supports independent work by Lutz Marten and Kyle Je
 rro showing that applicatives do more than just monotonically add argument
 s\, while also suggesting that roots can entail templatic information some
 times thought to be solely the domain of event templates\, supporting rece
 nt work by myself and Andrew Koontz-Garboden. The overall picture is that 
 argument alternations are not largely template driven\, but instead reflec
 t a complex interactions of roots and templates\, with each playing a sign
 ificant role in the shape of the ultimate alternation.
LOCATION:Online
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