LINGUIST List 21.2228 Sat May 15 2010 Diss: Syntax: Richa: 'Unaccusativity, Unergativity and the ...' Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfonlinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Richa Richa, Unaccusativity, Unergativity and the Causative Alternation in Hindi: A minimalist analysis Message 1: Unaccusativity, Unergativity and the Causative Alternation in Hindi: A minimalist analysis Date: 13-May-2010 From: Richa Richa <rsrishtigmail.com> Subject: Unaccusativity, Unergativity and the Causative Alternation in Hindi: A minimalist analysis E-mail this message to a friend Institution: Jawaharlal Nehru University Program: Ph.D in Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2008 Author: Richa Richa Dissertation Title: Unaccusativity, Unergativity and the Causative Alternation in Hindi: A minimalist analysis Linguistic Field(s): Syntax Subject Language(s): Hindi (hin) Dissertation Director: Ayesha Kidwai Dissertation Abstract: This thesis investigates unaccusatives, unergatives and the transitive and causative alternation in Hindi within the minimalist framework. Chapter 1 raises the question of gaps in apparent regularity in Hindi causative alternation - in particular internally caused verbs do not have either transitive or causative variants. Another issue raised is regarding the instrumental/ablative Case -se in Hindi that appears on the causee in causative construction, on the external argument in the Hindi inabilitative passive construction, on instrumental adjunct phrases, as well as source noun phrases. Chapter 2 surveys the existing research on unaccusativity and unergativity. It starts with the early approaches to transitivity, and examines the progression to an articulated VP structure. The chapter demonstrates that one of the most important research questions in the history of generative grammar has been the determination of the domains in which the Case and the Theta Theory hold/apply as distinct, related or disjoint. The main concern is whether Case is parasitic/derivative of thematic configurations, or whether Case and Thematic relations involve different projections/configurations altogether. Chapter 3 investigates the notional verb classes in Hindi. It shows that the vocabulary of Hindi language contains mostly tatsam (borrowed from Sanskrit and preserved intact) and tadbhav (derived from Sanskrit and modified) words. Irrespective of etymology, however, most of the verb roots would end up being listed as intransitives if one were to make reference to morphology alone in decisions about what constitutes the base form of a Hindi verb. Therefore, on the basis of the proposals by Levin & Rappaport Hovav (1995), the chapter provides a semantico-syntactic classification of Hindi verb classes. Chapter 4 explores the diagnostics that identify unaccusative and unergative verb classes crosslinguistically. These diagnostics are not valid cross linguistically. They tend to yield different results in different languages. With this note of caution in mind, the chapter considers possible diagnostics (mostly based on Bhatt 2003) for unaccusatives in Hindi. It then applies these diagnostics to Hindi verb classes. Chapter 5 focuses on another important argument structure alternation - passives. It reviews Collins (2004)'s approach to passives and presents my proposal for Hindi passives arguing that in Hindi regular passives the auxiliary verb ja 'go' is the Voice head that selects a VP as its complement and its accusative Case features are inherited by V in active clauses, whereas in passives it is withheld by Voice and not absorbed. Chapter 6 explores various syntactic and lexicalist approaches to the causative alternation and existing research crosslinguistically, as well as in Hindi. It argues for the syntactic approach to the causative alternation as it is far more convincing. Chapter 7 analyses the causative alternation in Hindi based on transitives. The observations about transitives also reveal that the specifier position of VP in Hindi is strongly constrained by the animacy requirement. The chapter looks at the issues of the grammatical status of the causee in the causatives and the morphological realization of the transitiver -aa and the causativizer -wa. Extending the Voice-based passive analysis, I propose here that causative is a Voice that introduces an event with a -se argument as causee. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the main results of the thesis and its implications for Case and binding in Hindi. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 15-May-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.