1. Telicity and Transitivity(1)
Linking theories, such as the Lexical Mapping Theory, account for recurring patterns of grammatical encodings associated with the arguments of predicates cross-linguistically. These proposals are designed to account for the grammatical function status of arguments associated with simple predicates or the alternative grammatical functional encodings associated with related predicates. Alternative function encodings are often divided into two types (cf. Simpson 1982, Ackerman 1990, 1992, and Joshi 1992, Dubinsky and Simango 1996, and Sadler and Spencer 1998, among others):
(i) Morphosyntactic: Lexical semantics preserved; grammatical function assignments altered (e.g. passive,(ii) Morphosemantic: Grammatical function alternation corresponds to a semantic contrast (e.g. causative, locative
locative inversion).
This paper will examine a class of morphosemantic alternations, where the semantic contrast is in terms of telicity, and the encoding alternation is realized on the object argument in affirmative clauses containing personal verb forms.(2) This is exemplified in the following Finnish and Estonian examples:(3)
(1) Finnish:
a. Matti
osti maito-a
(tunni-n).
Matti-sg/n bought milk-sg.p (hour-acc)
'Matti bought milk (for an hour).'
b. Matti osti
maido-n (tunni-ssa).
Matti-sg/n bought milk-sg.a (hour-iness)
'Matti bought the milk (in an hour).
(Kiparsky 1998:279, cf also Heinämäki 1984)
(2) Estonian:
a. Ma ehitasin
endale
suvilat (kaks nädalat).
I-n built-1sg/ipf myself-sg-all cottage-p
(two-part week-part)
'I was building the cottage for myself (for two weeks).'
b. Ma ehitasin
endale
suvila (kahe nädalaga).
I-n built-1sg/ipf myself-sg-all cottage-a
(two-geN week-gen-com)
'I built the cottage for myself (in two weeks).'
(adapted from Erelt M. et. al., 1997:SY36)
The durative adverbials in the (a) examples co-occur with atelic predicates, while the time span adverbials in the (b) examples co-occur with telic predicates. We see that this semantic contrast corresponds to a partitive/accusative encoding alternation within personal affirmative clauses in both languages.
The verbal lexicon of Estonian is commonly divided into two large government classes:
(3) Partitive verbs - verbs that govern partitive case only (cf. Tuldava 1994:187 and Saagpakk 1982:lxvi):
Feelings
Senses
Unresolved Actions
armastama 'love'
kuulama 'listen'
aitama 'help'
rõõmustama
'gladden' kuulma
'hear'
juhtima 'direct'
imetlama
'admire'
maistma 'taste'
jätkama 'continue'
kartma
'fear'
mäletama 'remember'
lööma 'strike'
kiitma
'praise'
nautima 'enjoy'
ootama 'await'
põlgama
'despise' nuusutama
'smell'
otsima 'seek'
tundma
'feel, know' nägema
'see'
segama 'disturb'
(4) Aspectual verbs - verbs that govern either the partitive or accusative case (cf Erelt et. al. 1993:50):
avastama
'discover' looma
'construct' parandama
'improve'
saavutama 'attain'
kujundama 'shape'
koostama 'put together'
keetma
'cook'
voltima 'fold'
moodustama 'form'
These classes, as well as the usage patterns of the relevant verbs form the basis of the following descriptive generalization:
(5) The partitive/accusative alternation in Finnish and Estonian correlates with an atelic/telic contrast.(4)
A generalization such as (5) is consistent with claims by Tsunoda (1981) and Hopper and Thompson (1981) that telicity contributes to the transitivity of a clause. In this paper, we derive (5) from a proto-role theory of argument selection, following Dowty (1991) and a tradition within LFG that dispenses with both atomic thematic roles and thematic hierarchies and recognizes a role for telicity in argument selection. (cf. Ackerman 1990, 1992, Zaenen 1993, and Joshi 1993, Markantonatou 1995). In addition, we propose a new proto-patient property: telic entity. (cf. also Tsunoda 1981, Hopper and Thompson 1981, 1982, Grimshaw 1990, Smith 1991, Krifka 1992, 1998, Tenny 1994, Ramchand 1997, Butt 1998, Kiparsky 1998, Filip 1999, among others.)
2. Telic Entity as a Thematic Proto-Property
2.1. Proto-Properties and Syntagmatic vs. Paradigmatic Selection
Dowty (1991) proposes that the functional encoding of arguments is best formulated in terms of proto-roles, where atomic role labels such as agent and patient are interpreted as proto-type cluster categories based on proto-agent and proto-patient properties:
(6) Proto-Roles and Proto-Properties:
Proto-Agent properties Proto-Patient properties
- volitional involvement
in event or state
- undergoes change of state
- sentience
- incremental theme
- causing an event or change
of state
- causally affected
- movement (relative to
position of other participant) - stationary
(relative to another participant)
- exists independently of
the event
- does not exist independently of the event, or not at all
Under this approach, grammatical function encoding of arguments is regulated by the argument selection principle:
(7) (Syntagmatic) Argument Selection Principle:
In predicates with grammatical
subject and object, the argument for which the predicate entails the greatest
number
of Proto-Agent properties
will be lexicalized as the subject of the predicate; the argument having
the greatest number of
Proto-Patient entailments
will be lexicalized as the direct object (Dowty 1991:576).
Because this selection principle applies to co-arguments of a single predicate, we call it the Syntagmatic Argument Selection Principle. Its operation is illustrated in (8):
(8) The builders
built
the house.
volitional
undergoes change of state
sentient
incremental theme
causing change
of state
<- syntagmatic -> causally affected
movement relative
to OBJ
selection
stationary relative to SUBJ
exists independently
lack of independent existence
most Proto-Agentive:
SUBJ
most Proto-Patientive: OBJ
In Ackerman and Moore (1993, 1995, and 1999), we propose an extension to the Syntagmatic Argument Selection Principle to handle morphosemantic, paradigmatic contrasts. For example the direct/indirect object encoding alternation associated with certain Spanish psych-verbs corresponds to a semantic contrast in terms of the proto-patient property change of state:
(9) Example of Paradigmatic Selection:
a. Los perros lo
molestan siempre que llega ebrio.
'The dogs harass him (DO) every time he comes home drunk.'
b. Los perros le
molestan (* siempre que llega ebrio).
'Dogs bother him (IO) (* every time he comes home drunk).'
(Treviño 1990, 50b & 51b)
This morphosemantic alternation yields a paradigmatic contrast in the degree of proto-patientivity with respect to the experiencer argument:
(10) Change of State more proto-patientive: DO (lo)
paradigmatic selection
no Change of State less proto-patientive: IO (le)
Based on paradigmatic alternations like (10), as well as similar alternations in causative and other constructions, we propose the following selection principle:
(11) Paradigmatic Argument Selection Principle:
In predicates where a 'single'
argument exhibits alternative encodings, the most proto-typical alternant
with respect to a
particular proto-role will
be realized with a less oblique encoding than an argument that is less
proto-typical with respect
to the same proto-role.
The point of the paradigmatic strategy is to provide a theory of morphosemantic encoding alternations, complementing the syntagmatic strategy. The two encoding strategies are well-formedness conditions over the lexicon: the syntagmatic strategy is a condition on well-formed lexical items, while the paradigmatic strategy is a condition on related lexical items. Thus, the lexical entries in (12) are faithful to both selection principles.
(12) a. molestara <agr1
,
arg2>
'harrass' Causer (Proto-Agent)
Sentient (Proto-Agent)
Change of state (Proto-Patient)
SUBJ
DO
b. molestarb
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'bother'
Causer (Proto-Agent) Sentient (Proto-Agent)
SUBJ
IO
Given that the selection principles refer to predicate entailments and lexically specified encoding options, molestara and molestarb must have different entailments which correspond to principled differences in function selection. Therefore, they must represent different, but related predicates.
2.2. The Role of Telicity
As discussed above, Estonian accusative/partitive alternation exhibits a semantic contrast in telicity:
(13) a. Ma ehitasin
endale
suvilat (kaks nädalat).
I-n built-1sg/ipf myself-sg-all
cottage-p (two-part week-part)
'I was building the cottage for myself (for two weeks).'
b. Ma
ehitasin endale
suvila (kahe nädalaga).
I-n built-1sg/ipf myself-sg-all
cottage-a (two-gen week-gen-com)
'I built the cottage for myself (in two weeks).'
This is exactly the type of alternation that the Paradigmatic Argument Selection Principle should account for. However, in order for the alternation in (13) to be accounted for in this way, we need to show that there is (i) an alternation in obliqueness, and (ii) a contrast in proto-patientivity.
2.2.1 Obliqueness
There is evidence that this accusative/partitive alternation corresponds to a case alternation and not a contrast in grammatical function (Uuspõld 1969, Kiparsky 1998).(5) That is, in both cases, the noun phrase is a direct object; the alternation is one of surface case only. Thus, the obliqueness contrast is in terms of case; we express this via the case hierarchy in (14) (cf. Blake 1994:157).
(14) Case Hierarchy: nom > acc/erg > gen > part > dat > loc > abl/inst > other obl
Under this view, then, partitive objects are more oblique than accusative objects. This correctly captures the intuition that the accusative object in (13b) is less oblique than the partitive in (13a).
2.2.2 Contrast in Proto-patientivity
Under the standard set of proto-properties, there is no contrast in degree of proto-patientivity between the objects in (13); both objects bear the same set of proto-patient entailments:
(15) suvila 'cottage-a'
undergoes change of state
(proto-patientive)
suvilat 'cottage-p'
incremental theme
(proto-patientive)
causally affected
(proto-patientive)
stationary relative to SUBJ (proto-patientive)
lack of independent existence (proto-patientive)
The basic problem is that the examples appear to contrast with respect to telicity, but that telicity is not represented in the original set of predicate entailments interpreted as proto-properties. Since some notion of telicity appears to be the only relevant semantic difference, it must be represented as a proto-patient property, if we are to explain the morphosemantic contrast with the Paradigmatic Selection Principle. We call this telicity-related proto-patient property telic entity. Based on the definition of telic predicate in (16), we define telic entity as in (17)
(16) A lexical predicate P is telic
iff for every event e and e', such that P(a1,
…, an, e) and P(a1, …,
an, e'), and where e'
is a subevent
of e, e and e' have the same boundaries (end-points).
(cf. Krifka 1998).
(17) An argument ai of predicate P
is a telic entity iff P is a telic predicate and entails
that a subpart of the denotation of the
entity that
corresponds to ai(under any use of P), expresses
the end-point of any telic event denoted by P and its
arguments.
Given these definitions, we can formalize a contrast in telicity as
a contrast in proto-patientivity, by positing two lexically-related predicates
that contrast in their proto-patient entailments and have different case-government
patterns. (6)
(18) a. ehitamaa <arg1
,
arg2>
'build'
various Proto-Agent props various
Proto-Patient props
telic entity
SUBJ
DO
accusative
b. ehitama b
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'build'
various Proto-Agent props
various Proto-Patient props
(no telic entity)
SUBJ
DO
partitive
The related lexical entries in (18) conform with the Paradigmatic Argument Selection Principle and represent the distinction exhibited by Estonian aspectual verbs.
2.3. Telic Entity vs. Incremental Theme
Before exploring some consequences of our analysis of telicty-induced morphosemantic alternations, we digress to contrast the new proto-patient property telic entity with Dowty's incremental theme property. In (19) we see an example of an incremental theme argument:
(19) Max mowed the lawn.
The lawn is an incremental theme because it measures out the event (the status of the lawn reflects the degree to which the event is completed). Based on Dowty's discussion, we define incremental theme as in (20):
(20) Incremental Theme: The argument
xi of a lexical predicate P(x1,
…, xn) is an incremental theme of P iff
the
denotation of P entails that there is a homomorphic mapping (preserving
the part-of relation ) from the structured
denotation of xi into the event structure structured
denoted by P and its arguments (cf. Dowty 1991).
Thus, the incremental theme property establishes a homomorphic mapping between the structure of an argument and the corresponding event structure. This mapping preserves the part-of relation:
(21) a. Kim drank water.
b.
Kim drank the water.
In both examples, the object is an incremental theme argument. They differ in the structure of the objects. In (21a) the mass-term object (water) is cumulative; that is each subpart of 'water' itself has the property of being water. In contrast, the definite object (the water) in (21b) is quantized; that is, each subpart of 'the water' does not qualify as an instance of the water. These terms follow Krifka (1998), where he shows that the presence of an incremental theme-like homomorphism guarantees a parallel mereology between incremental theme arguments and the structure of the events. In particular, the incremental theme mapping establishes the following relationships:(7)
(22) Structure
of argument
Event structure
cumulative
->
atelic
incremental theme
quantized
->
telic
incremental theme
Thus, while there is a close relationship between incremental themes and telicity, they are distinct. In (21), there are incremental themes, but the events are either atelic or telic. Therefore, a predicate can entail the incremental theme property for one of its argument without entailing the telic entity proto-property.
Conversely, a predicate can entail telic entity, without entailing the property incremental theme:
(23) a. Tunnen
hästi oma sõpra.
know-1sg.pres well own-p friend-p
'I know my own friend well.'
(Vääri 1975:103)
b. Tundsin
selles noormehes
ära olümpiavõitja.
know-1sg.ipf this-in
youngman-in preverb olympic-champ-a
'I recognized an olympic champion in this young man.' (Kippasto,
Nurk, and Seilenthal. 1997)
In (23) there is a stative/achievement contrast. This contrast comes from an alternation in telic entity, not incremental theme:
(24) a. stative
entails
telic object
b. achievement does not entail telic
entity
neither entails incremental theme
We conclude that telic entity and incremental theme are independent proto-patient properties (cf. Ramchand 1997).
3. Telic Entity as a Predicate Entailment
For Estonian aspectual verbs, we posit separate lexical entries on the basis of (i) contrasting case government, and (ii) contrasting lexical entailment of telic entity. This allows us to use the Paradigmatic Selection Principle to account for the direction of the case alternation. In English verbs like drink, there is no case alternation and the alternation in telic entity seems to depend on the semantics of the object argument. Therefore, there is no reason to posit separate lexical entries. This leads to a more general question: given that telicity is often determined by the nature of the object argument, what evidence is there for treating telicity as a predicate entailment, rather than computing it compositionally? We answer this question by surveying some of the cross-linguistic typology with respect to the exponence of telicity.
3.1. Finnish
Filip (1999) proposes a compositional account of telicity for partitive/accusative alternations in Finnish:
(25) a. Kalle lämmittää
saunaa.
Kalle-n warm-3sg.pres sauna-p
'Kalle is warming up the sauna.'
b. Kalle lämmittää
saunan.
Kalle-n warm-3sg.pres sauna-a
'Kalle will warm up the sauna.'
(Karlsson 1983:80)
Filip assumes that accusative objects, when incremental themes, are quantized; partitive objects are underspecified for quantization. Working in a unificational framework, Filip uses the equivalent of an incremental theme function to ensure that the quantized accusative object maps to a telic event structure. Hence, under her analysis, the telicity of the event is determined by the quantization of the object, which, in turn is keyed to case marking.
3.2. Czech
In contrast, Filip (1999) proposes a lexical treatment of telicity for the following Czech contrast:
(26) a. Psal
dopis.
write.past letter.sg.acc
'He wrote (a/the letter)/He was writing (a/the letter).'
b. Pre-psal
dopis. (8)
over-write.past letter.sg.acc
'He rewrote a/the letter.'
The unprefixed predicate is underspecified for telicity, while the prefixed predicate derives a telic, perfective predicate (as well as changing other aspects of the predicate meaning). Following Filip, we can represent the telicity of the prefixed predicate as an aspect of the predicate's lexical semantics. This yields the paradigmatic contrast in (27).
(27) a. Pre-psal
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'rewrite'
various Proto-Agent props various Proto-Patient props
telic entity
SUBJ
DO
accusative
b. Psal
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'write'
various Proto-Agent props various Proto-Patient props
(no telic entity)
SUBJ
DO
accusative
In Czech, morphological means yield lexical verbal predicates which differ with respect to their entailment sets.
3.3. Estonian
In Estonian, there are a number of partitive verbs that only govern the partitive case; these were given in (3). However, some of these verbs may combine with prefix-like adverbs or preverbs, yielding complex verbs that govern only the accusative case (cf. Remes 1982 and Sulkala 1996). As in Czech, this morphological operation yields a contrast in telicity:
(28) a. Madis
joob
teed.
Madis drink-3sg/ind tea-p
'Madis is drinking tea.'
b. Madis joob
oma tee ära.
Madis drink-3sg/ind own
tea-a preverb
'Madis will drink up his tea.'
Thus, Estonian has a preverbal system which functions semantically much like the prefixal system of Czech. In addition, a contrast in telicity yields an encoding alternation with respect to the object case (cf. Hassellblatt 1990 and Pusztay 1994). This suggests that in Estonian, as in Czech, telicity can be a lexical property:
(29) a. ärajooma
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'drink up'
various Proto-Agent props various
Proto-Patient props
telic entity
SUBJ
DO
accusative
b. jooma
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'drink'
various Proto-Agent props
various Proto-Patient props
(no telic entity)
SUBJ
DO
partitive
Given this independent motivation for treating telicity as a lexical property in Estonian, we propose to extend it to aspectual verbs, where there is no contrast in verb morphology, but only a contrast in case government:
(30) a. Laps
voltis
kahte paberlaevukest.
child-n fold-3sg-ipf two-p
paper-boat-p
'The child was folding two paper boats.'
b. Laps voltis
kaks paberlaevukest.
child-n fold-3sg-ipf two-a
paper-boat-a
'The child folded two paper boats.'
(31) a. voltimaa
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'fold'
various Proto-Agent props
various Proto-Patient props
telic entity
SUBJ
DO
accusative
b. voltima b
<arg1 ,
arg2>
'fold'
various Proto-Agent props
various Proto-Patient props
(no telic entity)
SUBJ
DO
partitive
This move allows us to use the Paradigmatic Selection Principle to account for the direction of the case alternation in Estonian, both in partitive and aspectual verb classes.
Given the parallelisms between Estonian aspectual verbs and Finnish concerning semantic contrasts and case-marking alternations, we can extend the analysis in (31) to Finnish. That is, rather than deriving the telicty compositionally, we propose that it be a lexical property, as we have argued is the case with cognate aspectual verbs in Estonian. In other words, we argue that in Czech, Estonian, and Finnish, telicity is treated as an entailment of lexical predicates; that is, telicity has been grammaticized in these languages. In English, on the other hand, there is no evidence for lexical telicity - the contrast has no morphological or case government reflexes. Thus, in English, telicity has not been grammaticized in the same way.
To summarize, the encoding factors that motivate lexical telicity are: (i) verbal morphology (prefixes, preverbs), and (ii) case government. This translates into the well-known typological distinction between head- and dependent-marking:
(32) The expression of telicity:
Czech:
head marking
telicity is
Estonian: head marking
and dependent marking
grammaticized
Finnish:
dependent marking
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English:
determined compositionally
no grammaticization
When telic entity is a lexical entailment and it is expressed by an encoding alternations, then the Paradigmatic Selection Principle correctly predicts the direction of the alternation.
4. Conclusions
In this paper we have argued for the need to posit telic entity as a proto-property entailment of lexical predicates. In expanding the class of grammatically relevant predicate entailments to include telic entity we have explicitly incorporated into Dowty's framework one of the properties hypothesized to be crucial for distinguishing between degrees of semantic transitivity by Tsunoda (1981) and Hopper & Thompson (1982).
The need for a telic entity proto-property only became apparent when faced with a class of telicity-induced encoding alternations. The fact that paradigmatic selection reveals the need for a telic entity proto-property raises a larger point: should additional transitivity factors that are proposed by Hopper and Thompson, but not reflected in Dowty's proto-properties be incorporated into a proto-type theory of thematic roles?
Under our account, it is important that the construct predicate be recognized as an information unit determinative for argument selection (Perlmutter 1979, Mohanan 1995, and Ackerman and Webelhuth 1998, among others). Predicates can be interpreted lexically (Ackerman and Webelhuth 1998 and Frank 1996), or composed of elements in phrasal syntax (see Alsina 1996 and Butt 1998). By appealing to grammatically relevant predicate entailments and an independently motivated notion of obliqueness, one can develop a general theory of morphosemantic alternations. In addition, we have done this without reifying proto-roles, thereby permitting arguments to be compared with one another with respect to their sets of proto-properties. This assures a role for Dowty's original counting procedures as relevant for linking.
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Farrell Ackermanfackerman@ucsd.edu
John Moore moorej@ucsd.edu
1. We wish to thank the following people for helpful discussion; all shortcomings are our responsibility: Chris Barker, Hana Filip, Mark Gawron, C. Hasselblatt, Anu Nurk, Kazuto Matsumura, Maria Polinsky, Eric Potsdam, Gert Webelhuth, and participants of LFG99.
2. We define telicity more precisely below. Since aspect interacts with alternative case marking for objects in the Finnic languages, we restrict our focus here to transitive clauses.
3. We gloss partitive and accusative -p and -a respectively. The accusative label represents a certain abstraction over the data, as there is a degree of case syncretism that obscures the distinction between accusative and genitive case in some instances. See Maling (1993) for discussion of this issue with respect to Finnish data; similar arguments hold for Estonian.
4. An alternative account links the partitive/accusative alternation to a contrast in specificity (cf. de Hoop 1996). Kiparsky (1998) argues against this approach.
5. For example both partitive and accusative arguments participate in Raising to Object.
6. We should emphasize that not all telic eventualities entail telic entity for an argument; in fact, as Filip (1999) points out, telicity can be determined by non-arguments. Furthermore, it is possible that a non-object argument may bear the telic entity entailment, as in:
(i) We put the ball in the bucket.
Unless there is a contrast in the telic entity entailment with respect to a particular non-object, we make no predictions about how these should be encoded.
7. Krifka's formulation differs from Dowty's in the following respect: Dowty (1991, p. 567) defines incremental theme as a homomorphic mapping from object structures to event structures (preserving the part-of relation). Krifka (1998) defines a series of principles that effectively define an isomorphism between event structures and object structures (again, preserving the part-of relation). However, Krifka's proof (p. 214) that a telic event corresponds to a quantized object (and that an atelic event corresponds to a cumulative object) only makes use of the mapping from event structures to object structures - the converse of Dowty's incremental theme. Nevertheless, it is possible, using Krifka's system, to achieve the same results by only referring to the mapping from object structures to event structures. Hence, it appears that a homomorphism in one direction or the other is all that is needed.
8. There should be a
hachek over the r in Pre-psal; the same is true in (27a).