Unergatives as Copular Verbs; Locational and Existential Predication

Very Exceptional Case Marking

“…In the weten te wonen-construction, the locative predicate is contained in a Small Clause, embedded under a positional verb (wonen, zitten, etc.). The raising of the predicate to the subject position is therefore comparable to locative inversion as analyzed in Hoekstra and Mulder (1990).…”

“…We have pointed out that the embedded verb is always an intransitive positional verb (hangen `hang', liggen `lie', staan `stand', wonen `live', zitten `sit'). Mulder and Wehrmann (1989) and Hoekstra and Mulder (1990) have shown that when combined with a locative secondary predicate, these basically unergative verbs may shift to ergativity. In this analysis, the relevant verbs take a locational small clause (SC) complement, consisting of a locative predicate and a subject, which shows up as the surface subject of the sentence.…”

“…However, this restriction was seen not to apply if the embedded clause contains an 8 In this respect, weten te wonen-constructions resemble there-constructions, under the analysis of Hoekstra & Mulder (1990) and Moro (1993), in which there is a Small Clause predicate which raises to the subject position (continued...) empty locative predicate, as in (1). (27) shows that the exception only holds if the embedded verb does not have an external argument.…”

“…(27) shows that the exception only holds if the embedded verb does not have an external argument. In Hoekstra and Mulder's (1990) analysis of locative inversion, there is an intimate connection between the presence of a locational predicate and the absence of an external argument. In their analysis, not only the Small Clause subject, but also the locational predicate of the Small Clause may raise to the structural subject position:…”

“…This predicate raising is illustrated in the following well-known case of locative inversion: In the analysis of Hoekstra and Mulder (1990), the locative predicate down the hill moves to the structural subject position. This movement makes it possible for the subject of the SC (the baby carriage) to be assigned nominative Case indirectly, via the trace of the raised predicate.…”