Datives at large

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2003.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cuervo, Maria Cristina
Other Authors: Alec Marantz.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7991
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7991
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author Cuervo, Maria Cristina
author2 Alec Marantz.
author_facet Alec Marantz.
Cuervo, Maria Cristina
author_sort Cuervo, Maria Cristina
collection MIT
description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2003.
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spelling mit-1721.1/79912019-04-12T08:50:11Z Datives at large Cuervo, Maria Cristina Alec Marantz. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. Linguistics and Philosophy. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-211). This dissertation is a study of the syntactic and semantic properties of dative arguments. The main source of data is Spanish, where dative arguments can appear with all types of verbs, and can have a wide range of meanings: goal, possessor, source, experiencer, affected object, causee, location, benefactive, malefactive, ethical dative. The challenge for a theory of dative arguments, which form a natural class morphologically, is to explain both what they have in common and how they differ syntactically and semantically. I argue that dative arguments have structural meanings, i.e., the meaning of a dative DP can be derived directly from the position in which it is licensed. To be able to predict the possible meanings of dative arguments, it is crucial to take into account the details of the syntactic configuration, which include the properties of the head that licenses the dative DP and of the functional heads that construct the event structure. Dative arguments are not direct arguments of the verb; they are, like subjects, licensed syntactically and semantically by a specialized head. This argument introducing head, the Applicative, licenses the dative DP as its specifier and relates this DP to the structure it takes as a complement. The range of possible meanings of a dative DP is predicted from the range of possible complements an applicative head can take (i.e. a DP or a vP), and from the range of heads that the applicative phrase can be a complement of. Applicative heads are also sensitive to the type of event expressed by the vP (e.g., dynamic or stative, activity or causative). The theory provides a set of positions into which an applicative head can merge and license an argument DP, as well as the set of interpretations the argument can get in each position. (cont.) The set of positions is universal, but languages can differ with respect to the positions into which an applicative head is allowed to merge. These predictions generalize to applied arguments in languages in which they are not marked by dative case (e.g., English and Bantu languages). by María Cristina Cuervo. Ph.D. 2008-02-28T16:00:56Z 2008-02-28T16:00:56Z 2003 2003 Thesis http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7991 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7991 53016348 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7991 http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 211 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Linguistics and Philosophy.
Cuervo, Maria Cristina
Datives at large
title Datives at large
title_full Datives at large
title_fullStr Datives at large
title_full_unstemmed Datives at large
title_short Datives at large
title_sort datives at large
topic Linguistics and Philosophy.
url http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7991
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7991
work_keys_str_mv AT cuervomariacristina dativesatlarge