The syntax of intransitive alternations: asymmetries across languages

MANGIALAVORI RASIA, MARÍA EUGENIA

Glossa: a journal of general linguistics

Open Library of Humanities

Año: 2024

2397-1835

This paper analyzes intransitive alternatives in distinct verb types. The focus is oncrosslanguage productive asymmetries between Romance, Greek and English, where a majordifference is created by the (un)availability of monadic constructions featuring a stative causeas single participant (e.g. Caffeine dehydrates; Covid kills). These constructions, severelyrestricted in some languages (English), but fully available in others (Greek/Romance), arecontrasted with intransitive alternates traditionally considered(unexpressed/unspecified/ARBpro object, Characteristic Property of Agent Alternation, Levin1993, e.g. This dog bites). Criteria like eventivity, episodicity, agentivity, andintentionality/volitionality are examined. We find that the contrasted types correspond to twostructurally distinct kinds of alternation, with distinct configurational and semanticproperties. Specific differences thus emerge between originally transitive structures wherethe object, even if unexpressed/unspecified, is assigned a place in the configuration (the typetraditionally explored) vs. basic monadic atransitive variants only featuring the external-argument-licensing head, imposing different aspectual, selectional and interpretiverestrictions in consequence.This allows us to (re)consider intransitivity alternations in psych verbs. We observe thatcertain verbs, even if eligible for psych predication like bother, have other uses, related tomanner-of-behavior predications. We identify central conditions (eventivity,animacy/agenthood, defeasibility) regulating argument/event realization, coherent with thedistribution of objectless frames analyzed above. We find that, whereas structurally monadicvariants with an (inadvertent) cause(r)subject are generally blocked in languages like English(*Caceres bewitches/fascinates), manner-type intransitive alternatives are generally allowed for verbs with nonpsych (manner-type) uses and canonical transitivity, offering less-constrained conditions for object drop/nonspecification accordingly. This asymmetry is notseen in Romance and Greek.