Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

Psychological verbs, especially Object Experiencer verbs, are widely discussed in the linguistic literature because of their peculiar syntactic and semantic properties. Two main issues regarding Object-Experiencer verbs are often raised: their aspectual nature and an alternation process (with the ex...

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Main Authors: Cançado Márcia, Amaral Luana, Meirelles Letícia, Foltran Maria José
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2024-01-01
Series:Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0024
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author Cançado Márcia
Amaral Luana
Meirelles Letícia
Foltran Maria José
author_facet Cançado Márcia
Amaral Luana
Meirelles Letícia
Foltran Maria José
author_sort Cançado Márcia
collection DOAJ
description Psychological verbs, especially Object Experiencer verbs, are widely discussed in the linguistic literature because of their peculiar syntactic and semantic properties. Two main issues regarding Object-Experiencer verbs are often raised: their aspectual nature and an alternation process (with the experiencer in subject position). This article analyzes Brazilian Portuguese Object Experiencer verbs, focusing on these issues. Based on a study of 170 verbs, we claim that Object Experiencer verbs constitute a verb class whose members describe a complex stage-level state in which a stimulus state activates (in a causative relation) a mental state in an experiencer. In addition, we argue that Object-Experiencer verbs appear in an inverse form: the experiencer as subject, and the stimulus as oblique. We claim that such an inverse form does not result from the causative alternation. In the inverse structure, different from an inchoative form of a change-of-state verb, both arguments are strongly preferable, and the verbs still denote a stative situation. We also provide a representation for the event structure of those verbs, using predicate decomposition, that is associated with their syntactic properties.
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spelling doaj.art-d58f2b5e4063499aa641b9723e3c1fd42024-04-15T07:41:57ZengDe GruyterLinguistics0024-39491613-396X2024-01-0162112115810.1515/ling-2022-0024Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian PortugueseCançado Márcia0Amaral Luana1Meirelles Letícia2Foltran Maria José3Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, BrazilUniversidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, BrazilUniversidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, BrazilUniversidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, BrazilPsychological verbs, especially Object Experiencer verbs, are widely discussed in the linguistic literature because of their peculiar syntactic and semantic properties. Two main issues regarding Object-Experiencer verbs are often raised: their aspectual nature and an alternation process (with the experiencer in subject position). This article analyzes Brazilian Portuguese Object Experiencer verbs, focusing on these issues. Based on a study of 170 verbs, we claim that Object Experiencer verbs constitute a verb class whose members describe a complex stage-level state in which a stimulus state activates (in a causative relation) a mental state in an experiencer. In addition, we argue that Object-Experiencer verbs appear in an inverse form: the experiencer as subject, and the stimulus as oblique. We claim that such an inverse form does not result from the causative alternation. In the inverse structure, different from an inchoative form of a change-of-state verb, both arguments are strongly preferable, and the verbs still denote a stative situation. We also provide a representation for the event structure of those verbs, using predicate decomposition, that is associated with their syntactic properties.https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0024alternationbrazilian portuguesecausative statesevent structurepsych verbs
spellingShingle Cançado Márcia
Amaral Luana
Meirelles Letícia
Foltran Maria José
Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese
Linguistics
alternation
brazilian portuguese
causative states
event structure
psych verbs
title Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese
title_full Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese
title_fullStr Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese
title_full_unstemmed Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese
title_short Psych verbs: the behavior of ObjExp verbs in Brazilian Portuguese
title_sort psych verbs the behavior of objexp verbs in brazilian portuguese
topic alternation
brazilian portuguese
causative states
event structure
psych verbs
url https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2022-0024
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AT amaralluana psychverbsthebehaviorofobjexpverbsinbrazilianportuguese
AT meirellesleticia psychverbsthebehaviorofobjexpverbsinbrazilianportuguese
AT foltranmariajose psychverbsthebehaviorofobjexpverbsinbrazilianportuguese