An Event Semantic Structure Analysis of Shona Causative Constructions

Mugari, Victor

doi:10.5296/ijl.v4i2.1488

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Our findings confirm Mugari's (2012a) argument that chiShona morphological causative constructions are complex predicates that are constrained by time-participant connectedness, where the time difference between the first and second sub-events may be simultaneous or overlapping with varying degrees depending on the base verb and the effect perceived on the theme. Our observation that periphrastic causatives are complex predicates corroborates with other requirements for complex predicatehood concluded on morphological constructions.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

ChiShona periphrastic causatives as syntactic complex predicates: An HPSG analysis

Mugari

Kadenge

2014

South African Journal of African Languages

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

ChiShona periphrastic causatives as syntactic complex predicates: An HPSG analysis

Mugari

Kadenge

2014

South African Journal of African Languages

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“…The major objectives are to establish the typology of chiShona passives and to determine whether or not they involve complex predication. This research was prompted by the conclusions made on causative constructions (Mugari 2012a;2012b;Mugari and Kadenge 2014) that they constitute complex predication. It became necessary to scrutinise a fellow valence altering morpho-phono-syntactic process with the view of drawing parallels, especially against a background that causatives are valence increasing while passives are valence decreasing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical aspects of the chiShona passive

Mugari¹

2015

Language Matters

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This paper analyses passivisation in chiShona within the Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) theoretical framework. We treat passives as operations on the argument structure of a verb, represented as a nested list just like causatives. We describe passive typology and explicate its morpho-syntactic characteristics with regards to complex predication. We conclude, in contradistinction to the valence altering causative counterpart that, though passives are complex morphologically, on the overall, they are not complex predicates. Our conclusions are based on the unavailability of aktionsart alternations, lack of event modification and the inability to be accounted for through argument composition. We reveal that chiShona intransitives passivise, which is evidence that passivisation is a backgrounding rather than foregrounding operation. We examine the relationship between passives and causatives, discovering that different passivisation possibilities are available, which depend on whether the causative type is morphological or periphrastic. Wellformed constructions are accounted for through HPSG formalism and the semantic meta-theory Lexical Resource Semantics constraint satisfaction mechanisms.

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On the Causative/Anti-Causative Alternation as Principle of Affix Ordering in the Light of the Mirror Principle, the Lexical Integrity Principle and the Distributed Morphology

Kosta

2015

Zeitschrift Für Slawistik

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This contribution is organized as follows: in section 1, I propose a formulation of the Mirror Principle (MP) based on syntactic features; the examples will be taken from Causatives and Anti-Causatives that are derived by affixes (in Russian, Czech, Polish, German, English as compared to Japanese and Chichewa) by head-to-head movement. In section 2, I review some basic facts in support of a syntactic approach to Merge of Causatives and Anti-Causatives, proposing that theta roles are also syntactic Features that merge functional affixes with their stems in a well-defined way. I first try to give some external evidence in showing that Causatives and Anti-Causatives obey a principle of thematic hierarchy early postulated in generative literature by Jackendoff (1972; 43), and later reformulated in terms of argument-structure-ordering principle by Grimshaw (1990:chapter 2). Crucial for my paper is the working hypothesis that every syntactic theory which tries to capture the data not only descriptively but also explanatively should descend from three levels of syntactic representation: a-structure where the relation between predicate and its arguments (and adjuncts) takes place, thematic structure where the theta-roles are assigned to their arguments, and event structure, which decides about the aspectual distribution and division of events.

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An Event Semantic Structure Analysis of Shona Causative Constructions

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

ChiShona periphrastic causatives as syntactic complex predicates: An HPSG analysis

ChiShona periphrastic causatives as syntactic complex predicates: An HPSG analysis

Theoretical aspects of the chiShona passive

On the Causative/Anti-Causative Alternation as Principle of Affix Ordering in the Light of the Mirror Principle, the Lexical Integrity Principle and the Distributed Morphology

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