160150 SE Seminar on the Theory of Grammar (2020S)

It is well known that there are robust regularities in the syntactic realization of arguments which reveal a tight connection between argument realization and verb meaning. This course will investigate which aspects of verbal meaning are relevant to argument realization, how they are grammatically encoded, how much is contained in the meaning of individual words and how much comes from the syntactic configuration in which they occur. I will focus on theories that decompose verbal meaning into a core lexical meaning encoded in roots which combine with primitive predicates that define event structures (see Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005 for an overview of the literature).
The class will concentrate on three broad topics at the interface between Syntax and the Lexicon, namely adjectival participles, the representation of manners and results and the syntax of experiencer object predicates addressing the nature of the algorithms that determine the mapping between what is traditionally called ‘lexicon’ and syntax.
If time permits, I might also discuss differential case marking phenomena, linking their appearance to the selection properties of Voice and V (v + Root).