The phrase structure of phase verbs: An initial contrastive analysis of English and Russian
The phrase structure of phase verbs: An initial contrastive analysis of English and Russian
Author(s): Jonathan MacDonaldSubject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Syntax
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: phase verbs; English; Russian; verb phrase structure; event structure; aspectual class;
Summary/Abstract: This squib carries out an initial contrastive analysis of English and Russian phase (a.k.a. aspectual) verbs. Following Fukuda’s (2008; 2009) syntactic account of English, I assume English phase verbs can head one of two aspectual functional projections: H-AspP, located immediately above vP; or L-AspP, located between vP and VP. Applying the same diagnostics to Russian, it appears that Russian phase verbs head only L-AspP. The relation between L-AspP and another structurally similar aspectual projection, AspP, proposed by Mac- Donald (2008a;b), is discussed. We see that L-AspP has a subset of the aspectual properties of AspP. Finally, I note how this approach to Russian phase verbs leads to the expectation that semantic properties of Russian phase verb complements play a role in some of the phase verb complement (in)compatibility patterns. In concrete, I suggest that the aspectual class of the complement plays a role.
Journal: Acta Linguistica Hungarica (Since 2017 Acta Linguistica Academica)
- Issue Year: 58/2011
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 261-276
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English