Dative: The heterogeneity of the mapping among morphological case, grammatical functions, and themat

Author:Maling, J

Article Title:Dative: The heterogeneity of the mapping among morphological case, grammatical functions, and thematic roles

Abstract:
This paper examines the mappings among morphological case, grammatical functions and thematic roles, focusing on dative as a place where the mapping between the morphosyntax and semantics is often assumed to be particularly regular. Evidence is provided from three Germanic languages, English, German and Icelandic, which shows that the mappings are more heterogeneous than is generally acknowledged. An investigation of both co-occurrence restrictions and the lexical restrictions on adnominal genitives, middle formation and secondary predication suggests that the linking of dative case to a verbal argument does not play a role in restricting lexical rules. Accusative goals are shown to behave in most respects just like dative goals, and dative themes just like accusative themes. Since the objects of transitive verbs do not all behave alike, theme cannot be treated as the default theta-role on verbal objects, and lexical rules may need to refer to the content of theta-roles, not just their relative position in a verb's theta-grid. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:  case; dative; grammatical functions; thematic roles; secondary predicates; adnominal genitives; middle formation; Icelandic

DOI: 10.1016/S0024-3841(00)00039-5

Source:LINGUA 

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