English and Dutch middle verbs have a grammaticalsubject that is the corresponding transitive verb's object. In this paper we will account for this fact by invoking the properties of a presyntactic level of semantic representation and its interplay with syntax proper. We will argue that the grammatical subject of a middle is its actual external argument, and we will propose a model of projection of arguments that allows for this. We will show that other special properties of middle constructions follow from the way the verbs logical subject is represented at the presyntactic level of representation.In particular, it will be shown that the Affectedness Condition on middle formation is not a condition on the type of argument that can apperlr as the middle verb's grammatical subject, but that its effects and some exceptions to it naturally follow from this representation. Our model will also allow an account of Dutch impersonal and 'adjunct' middles.
Kong (2011). We thank the respective audiences for useful questions and comments. We would also like to thank Valentina Bianchi, Antonio Fábregas, David Lobina, Andrew Nevins, Hans van de Koot, and Edwin Williams for discussion, as well as two anonymous reviewers and the editor of this special issue, Jochen Trommer.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.