Abstract
In this paper, we discuss the restriction on the realization of non-agentive causers in nominalizations (see Adultery separated Jim and Mary. vs. ??the separation/*the separating of Jim and Mary by adultery). By comparing English to German and Romanian, we show that this restriction may have two sources: the event complexity of the nominalization or the lexical semantics of the preposition that introduces the external argument. First, the realization of non-agentive causers requires the presence of a result state component that is absent in German nominal infinitives and English ing-of gerunds. This leads to the inability of these nominalizations to host non-agentive external arguments. Second, the prepositions that introduce external arguments have a restricted distribution in Romanian and English nominalizations with the effect that the restriction appears in all Romanian nominalizations and in English derived nominals. The corresponding preposition in German is unrestricted, which explains why -ung nominals, which project a result state component, can realize non-agentive external arguments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 73-95 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 2-3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Acknowledgments We would like to thank the editors of this volume, two anonymous reviewers and Terje Lohndal for insightful criticism and valuable suggestions that led to a complete re-organization of the empirical basis and the theoretical approach in this paper. We thank Nils Hirsch for help with the final formatting, as well as Daniel Altshuler, Angela Baggarley, Benjamin Bruening, Bridget Copley, Amanda Kahrsch, Lisa Levinson, Andrew McIntyre, Neil Myler, Chris Piñón, Gillian Ramchand, Linnaea Stockall, Thomas Weir, Jim Wood and our German colleagues Niels Heindl, Nils Hirsch, Matthias Jilka, Kaliopi Kottas, Susanne Lohrmann, Daniela Marzo, Sabine Mohr, Marcel Pitteroff, and Birgit Umbreit, who provided us with their judgments. Alexiadou, Iordăchioaia, Martin and Schäfer’s research was supported by grants to the projects B1, B5 and B6 within the Collaborative Research Center 732 at the University of Stuttgart. Cano’s research was supported by the project FFI 2011-23829 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and a grant FPU (AP 2008-00996).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad | FPU (AP 2008-00996 |
| Universität Stuttgart | FFI 2011-23829 |
Keywords
- Causation
- Direct/Indirect participants
- English
- Event complexity
- External argument
- German
- Nominalization
- Romanian