NDLI: Reflexive -st verbs in Icelandic

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Wood, Jim
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	The -st morpheme in Icelandic resembles Romance and Slavic reflexive clitics and some Germanic simplex reflexives in that it is associated with a number of different uses on various verbs; this includes, among other uses, a middle/anticausative, a reciprocal, and a reflexive use. The reflexive use of -st is, however, much more restricted than that of typical reflexive clitics. In this article, I discuss in detail one particular class of reflexive -st verb, which I will refer to as the ‘figure reflexive’. With figure reflexive constructions, the subject bears an external agentive Θ-role and is also understood as a ‘figure’ with respect to a spatial ‘ground’, in the sense of Talmy (1985). I discuss two questions that reflexive -st verbs raise for a syntactic view of argument structure: what is the relationship between anticausatives and reflexives, and where does lexical idiosyncrasy arise? For the first question, I propose to analyze -st as an argument expletive, which in figure reflexive constructions is merged in SpecpP (cf. Svenonius 2003, 2007), but in anticausatives is merged in SpecVoiceP. Only in the former case can the Θ-role survive in semantics, which is argued to derive from the fact that VoiceP dominates pP, and not the other way around. For the second question, I argue that there are two separate issues: the first is the syntactic distribution of -st (which limits the kinds of reflexive -st verbs that can exist) and the second is the integration of roots into abstract event structure. This analysis supports a model of grammar where the semantics interprets the syntax, but the syntax operates autonomously from semantics: interpretation is determined ‘late’, just like phonological forms are.
Starting Page	1387
Ending Page	1425
Page Count	39
File Format	PDF
ISSN	0167806X
Journal	Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
Volume Number	32
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	15730859
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2014-06-05
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Icelandic -st verbs Figure reflexive Anticausatives Reflexive verbs Middle voice Argument structure Split pPs Linguistics (general) Language Translation and Linguistics Philosophy of Language
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Linguistics and Language

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Middle Voice and reflexive interpretations: afto-prefixation in Greek

Anticausatives in Sinhala: involitivity and causer suppression

Similatives and the argument structure of verbs

Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity: evidence from Spanish reflexive psychological verbs

Anticausativization

The French reflexive and reciprocal se

Psych verbs in English and Mandarin

Introduction ( Natural Language & Linguistic Theory , Volume 27 , Issue 4 )

Aspectual verbs as functional heads: evidence from Japanese aspectual verbs

Reflexive -st verbs in Icelandic

Similar Documents

Middle Voice and reflexive interpretations: afto-prefixation in Greek

Anticausatives in Sinhala: involitivity and causer suppression

Similatives and the argument structure of verbs

Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity: evidence from Spanish reflexive psychological verbs

Anticausativization

The French reflexive and reciprocal se

Psych verbs in English and Mandarin

Introduction ( Natural Language & Linguistic Theory , Volume 27 , Issue 4 )

Aspectual verbs as functional heads: evidence from Japanese aspectual verbs

Reflexive -st verbs in Icelandic