A head movement approach to Talmy's typology

Folli Raffaella, Heidi Harley

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Abstract

We propose that the well-known verb-framed/satellite-framed variation observed by Talmy (1975 et seq.) is a true syntactic parameter of a well-understood type: a head movement parameter. We claim that it depends on an uninterpretable feature bundled with the particular v head used in change-of-state constructions which forces the head of the Res(ult)P complement of v to head-move to v in Italian. The technical apparatus employed is a feature-driven head movement parameter, of the same kind that accounts for the familiar V-to-T or T-to-C variation cross-linguistically. We argue that in Talmy’s class of ‘verb-framed’ languages, head movement of the embedded Res head to change-of-state v is mandatory, just as head movement of v to finite T is mandatory in V-to-T languages. Unlike previous proposals, this approach does not ascribe a deficiency to verb-framed languages, either in their semantic composition inventory or in their inventory of structural operations, both of which are prima facie implausible from a biolinguistic/Minimalist perspective.
LanguageEnglish
JournalLinguistic Inquiry
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 18 Apr 2019

Fingerprint

typology
language
semantics
Head Movement
Language
Verbs
Change of State

Keywords

  • manner of directed motion
  • telic-pair formation
  • verb-framed
  • satellite-framed
  • head movement parameter
  • Path
  • typology

Cite this

Raffaella, Folli ; Harley, Heidi. / A head movement approach to Talmy's typology. In: Linguistic Inquiry. 2019.
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Raffaella, F & Harley, H 2019, 'A head movement approach to Talmy's typology', Linguistic Inquiry.

A head movement approach to Talmy's typology. / Raffaella, Folli; Harley, Heidi.

In: Linguistic Inquiry, 18.04.2019.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

TY - JOUR

T1 - A head movement approach to Talmy's typology

AU - Raffaella, Folli

AU - Harley, Heidi

PY - 2019/4/18

Y1 - 2019/4/18

N2 - We propose that the well-known verb-framed/satellite-framed variation observed by Talmy (1975 et seq.) is a true syntactic parameter of a well-understood type: a head movement parameter. We claim that it depends on an uninterpretable feature bundled with the particular v head used in change-of-state constructions which forces the head of the Res(ult)P complement of v to head-move to v in Italian. The technical apparatus employed is a feature-driven head movement parameter, of the same kind that accounts for the familiar V-to-T or T-to-C variation cross-linguistically. We argue that in Talmy’s class of ‘verb-framed’ languages, head movement of the embedded Res head to change-of-state v is mandatory, just as head movement of v to finite T is mandatory in V-to-T languages. Unlike previous proposals, this approach does not ascribe a deficiency to verb-framed languages, either in their semantic composition inventory or in their inventory of structural operations, both of which are prima facie implausible from a biolinguistic/Minimalist perspective.

AB - We propose that the well-known verb-framed/satellite-framed variation observed by Talmy (1975 et seq.) is a true syntactic parameter of a well-understood type: a head movement parameter. We claim that it depends on an uninterpretable feature bundled with the particular v head used in change-of-state constructions which forces the head of the Res(ult)P complement of v to head-move to v in Italian. The technical apparatus employed is a feature-driven head movement parameter, of the same kind that accounts for the familiar V-to-T or T-to-C variation cross-linguistically. We argue that in Talmy’s class of ‘verb-framed’ languages, head movement of the embedded Res head to change-of-state v is mandatory, just as head movement of v to finite T is mandatory in V-to-T languages. Unlike previous proposals, this approach does not ascribe a deficiency to verb-framed languages, either in their semantic composition inventory or in their inventory of structural operations, both of which are prima facie implausible from a biolinguistic/Minimalist perspective.

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KW - satellite-framed

KW - head movement parameter

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Raffaella F, Harley H. A head movement approach to Talmy's typology. Linguistic Inquiry. 2019 Apr 18.