Journal articles
Mental states via possessive predication: the grammar of possessive experiencer complex predicates in Persian
Link to published paper at Natural Language Semantics
Persian possesses a number of stative complex predicates with dâshtan ‘to have’ that express certain kinds of mental state. I propose that these possessive experiencer complex predicates be given a formal semantic treatment involving possession of a portion of an abstract quality by an individual, as in the analysis of property concept lexemes due to Francez & Koontz-Garboden (2015; 2016; 2017). Augmented with an analysis of prepositional phrases introducing the target of the mental state and an approach to gradability in terms of measure functions (Wellwood, 2014), the analysis explains various properties of possessive experiencer complex predicates, including the behavior of target phrases, the ability of the non-verbal element to be modified by a range of adjectives, the direct participation of the non-verbal element in comparative constructions, and the ability of degree expressions to modify both the non-verbal element and the VP containing the complex predicate. Theoretically, the analysis ties transitive mental state expressions to the grammar and semantics of property concept sentences, which are expressed via possessive morphosyntax cross-linguistically, and connects with syntactic proposals that independently argue for a universal underlyingly possessive morphosyntax for mental state predicates (Noonan 1992; Hale & Keyser 2002). The work here also motivates modifications to Francez and Koontz-Garboden’s original proposal, and opens new questions in the original empirical domain of the analysis of possessive predicating strategies for the expression of property concept sentence
States and changes of state in the semantics of result roots (with Josep Ausensi and Jianrong Yu)
Link to published paper at Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
A major challenge for event structural theories that decompose verbs into event templates and roots relates to the syntactic distribution of roots and what types of event structures roots can be integrated into. ONTOLOGICAL APPROACHES propose roots fall into semantic classes, such as manner versus result, which determine root distribution (Rappaport Hovav and Levin 1998, 2010). FREE DISTRIBUTION APPROACHES, in contrast, hold that root distribution is not constrained by semantic content and roots are free to integrate into various types of event structures (Borer 2005; Acedo-Matellán and Mateu 2014). We focus on two different classes of verbs classified as result verbs in Rappaport Hovav and Levin’s (1998, 2010) sense and their ability to appear in resultative constructions. We build on Beavers and Koontz-Garboden’s (2012, 2020) proposal that the roots underlying these verbs fall into two classes: property concept roots, which denote relations between individuals and states, and change-of-state roots, which on our proposal, denote relations between individuals and events of change. We show that change-of-state roots, but not property concept roots, are able to appear in the modifier position of resultative constructions by providing naturally occurring examples of such resultatives. Combining the proposed lexical semantics of these two classes of roots with a reformulation of an ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH solely dependent on a root’s semantic type, we show that this analysis makes novel and accurate predictions about the possibility of the two classes of roots appearing in resultative constructions and the range of interpretations available when change-of-state roots are integrated into resultative event structure templates
Agentless presuppositions and the semantics of verbal roots (with Jianrong Yu)
Link to published paper at Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
Bale (2007) proposes that agentive intransitives differ semantically from agentive transitives, in that while the agent of a transitive is introduced by a functional projection and composes with its verb via Event Identification (Kratzer 1996), intransitives lexically encode their agent arguments and compose with them via Function Application. This is based on the availability of agentless repetitive presuppositions with again, with transitives permitting a repetitive presupposition excluding the agent while intransitives do not. In this paper, we challenge Bale’s claim and show that typically intransitive verbs like dance and bark, which do not usually allow agentless presuppositions, permit agentless presuppositions when they appear with an optional internal argument. To account for this, we propose that verbal roots possess an underspecified thematic role argument, along with individual and event arguments. Combined with a conservative syntax for introducing agents via VoiceP (Kratzer 1996), the analysis captures the dependence of agentless presuppositions on the presence of an internal argument without recourse to any distinction between transitive and intransitive eventive verb roots. The analysis contributes a new theory of roots lying between two theoretical poles, one that argues that roots take internal arguments (e.g., Harley 2014) and one that severs internal arguments syntactically and semantically from the verb (e.g., Schein 1993; Borer 2003, 2005). The analysis further advances agentless presuppositions with again as a diagnostic for internal argumenthood, with the consequence that certain arguments of ditransitive verbs (i.e. of the donate class) fail this diagnostic, and thus should be analyzed as distinct from other arguments.
Agent entailments and the division of labor between functional structure and roots (with Josep Ausensi and Jianrong Yu)
Link to published paper at Glossa
An influential proposal about the status of a verb’s agent argument maintains they are severed from the verb’s argument structure and introduced as external arguments via functional heads in the syntax (Kratzer 1996). Nonetheless, there are various conceptual and empirical arguments against this view (e.g., Dowty 1989; Wechsler 2005; Bale 2007; Müller & Wechsler 2014; Wechsler 2020). In this paper, we build on Bale’s (2007) arguments that transitivity plays a role in whether a verb’s external argument can be introduced outside the domain of the verb. Specifically, he argues based on sub-lexical modification with again that only eventive transitive verbs have their external arguments severed from the verb, and stative transitive and intransitive verbs do not. We present empirical evidence against this macro-classification, showing that particular classes of eventive transitive verbs, namely verbs of killing like murder, slay, slaughter, massacre, and assassinate in fact do not permit what Bale calls subjectless (agentless) presuppositions. Given an understanding of again’s presupposition being uniquely determined by the structural constituent it attaches to (Dowty 1979; von Stechow 1996; Beck & Johnson 2004; Bale 2007), this must mean that these verbs cannot have their external arguments severed, contra Bale’s generalization. Further we claim that intentionality entailments, which are often taken to be entailments of an Agent thematic role (Dowty 1991; Kratzer 1996), can in fact be dissociated from the syntactic introduction of the agent argument, and that certain verbs can lexically introduce them without directly introducing their agents. This is argued for by examining what we call manner of forced taking verbs like confiscate, snatch, and seize, which permit agentless presuppositions with again but still impose intentionality requirements on their subjects. We provide a compositional semantics for these two classes of verbs capturing these facts, and close with some speculations about the nature of intentionality entailments in regard to Rappaport Hovav & Levin’s (2010) MANNER/RESULT COMPLEMENTARITY.
Similative plurals and the nature of alternatives
Link to published paper at Semantics and Pragmatics
This paper investigates the properties of similative plurals, focusing on m-reduplication in Persian and -toka and -tari in Japanese. Although these expressions are associated with what I refer to as a non-homogeneous plural inference in upward-entailing contexts, I demonstrate that this inference is not an entailment of sentences with these morphemes, but is merely implicated, much like the multiplicity condition associated with English bare plurals (Krifka 2004; Spector 2007; Zweig 2009; de Swart & Farkas 2010, a.o.). I propose an analysis of similative plurals as mereological mixtures of a set with a set of contextually similar objects, and derive the non-homogeneous plural reading via scalar implicature. I demonstrate that deriving this implicature requires both the calculation of implicature at a subsentential level (Chierchia 2004; Chierchia 2006; Zweig 2009) and appeal to an abstract alternative (Chemla 2007; Charlow 2019; Buccola et al. 2020). This latter point provides a challenge for theories of alternative generation based on structural replacements and deletions (Katzir 2007).
Papers in Edited Volumes
Another look as Persian -râ (with Simin Karimi)
Link to published paper in Advances in Iranian Linguistics
The morpheme -rā has typically been analyzed as an instance of differential object marking, appearing on direct objects that are definite or in some sense specific. In this chapter, we discuss several cases in which -rā may appear on DPs that are not direct objects. Building on insights from dependent case theory (Marantz 1991; Baker & Vinokurova 2010, Preminger 2011, 2014, Kornfilt & Preminger 2014), we develop an analysis of -rā, according to which it is the realization of accusative case, treated as a dependent case assigned in syntax, and a specificity feature. In addition to accounting for the facts discussed in the context of Modern Persian, we show how an extension of our analysis can account for the distribution of -rā in Classical Modern Persian.
Handouts
Growth and improvement: a quality semantics for result state nouns Handout
The syntactic and argument structural properties of deverbal nominalizations have been explored in great detail (Lees 1960; Chomsky 1970; Grimshaw 1990; Borer 2003; Alexiadou 2010, inter alia). However, though propositional and eventive readings of deverbal nominalizations have been the subject of serious investigation (Zucchi 1993; Grimm & McNally 2015), less attention has been paid to the semantics of nominals encoding change of state, particularly the stative component of such nominals. In this talk, I will show that a subclass of change of state nouns possess stative readings, in addition to their eventive uses. These nouns, which I will refer to as result state nouns, behave like quality nouns of the sort studied by Tovena (2001) and Francez & Koontz-Garboden (2017). I propose a semantics for result state nouns that explains their behavior as quality nouns, building on Francez & Koontz-Garboden’s approach, which treats quality nouns as predicates of portions of abstract qualities. This is accomplished by taking advantage of the mereological properties of portions; in particular, the portion argument of the result state noun is analyzed as the mereological remainder (Casati & Varzi 1999) of the portion possessed at the end of an event and the portion possessed at the beginning of that event. Change of state nominals thus inherit the properties of the qualities from which they are derived, including their mass noun status and orderings based on parthood and size.
Possessive experiencer complex predicates in Persian as possessed property concepts Handout
Persian possesses a number of stative complex predicates with dâshtan ‘to have’ that denote mental states. I propose that these possessive experiencer complex predicates be analyzed as possessed qualities, in which a portion of an abstract mass substance is possessed by an individual, as in Francez & Koontz-Garboden’s (2015; 2017) analysis of property concept lexemes. The analysis not only explains the ability of the non-verbal element of such complex predicates to be modified by a range of adjectives and to participate in comparative constructions, but further ties transitive mental state expressions to the grammar and semantics of property concept sentences cross-linguistically.
Cross-categorial half as a proportional modifier of individual-event relations Handout
I develop an analysis of proportional modifiers, such as half, partially, and completely, as cross-categorial partitive modifiers, which apply to relations between individuals and eventualities (equivalently, functions of type <e,<v,t>>). In combination with an analysis of adjectives as relations between individuals and stative eventualities (Wellwood 2014, 2015), I show that the approach yields a unified analysis of proportional modification of absolute gradable adjectives, non-gradable adjectives, and VPs, and improves on previous analyses (Caudal & Nicholas 2005; Piñón 2008; Bochnak 2010). My analysis makes no direct use of degrees, and I close with discussion of how the approach can be leveraged to explain the impossibility of proportional modification of relative adjectives (Kennedy & McNally 2005).