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Linglib.Phenomena.ArgumentStructure.Studies.Pylkkanen2008

@cite{pylkkanen-2008} — Introducing Arguments #

@cite{pylkkanen-2008} @cite{cuervo-2003} @cite{barss-lasnik-1986}

Linguistic Inquiry Monographs 49. MIT Press.

Core Claims #

  1. High vs Low Applicatives: Applicative heads come in two semantic types. Low Appl merges below V, relating the applied argument to the theme (transfer-of-possession): [VP V [ApplP goal [Appl theme]]]. High Appl merges above VP, relating the applied argument to the event (benefactive): [VoiceP agent [Voice [ApplP benef [Appl [VP V theme]]]]].

  2. Semantic type distinction: High Appl denotes an individual-event relation λx.λe. Appl(x,e). Low Appl denotes an individual-individual relation λx.λy.λf.λe. f(e,x) & theme(e,x) & to-the-possession(x,y).

  3. Low recipient vs low source: Low applicatives split into recipient (ApplTo: transfer to applied arg) and source (ApplFrom: transfer from applied arg). English DOC is low recipient; Korean theft constructions and Hebrew possessor datives are low source.

  4. C-command asymmetries: In both configurations, the applied argument asymmetrically c-commands the theme. This derives the @cite{barss-lasnik-1986} binding asymmetries structurally.

  5. Cross-linguistic variation: English, Japanese, and Korean have LOW Appl; Bantu languages (Chaga, Luganda, Venda) and Albanian have HIGH Appl.

Diagnostics (Table 2.1, p. 33) #

TestHighLow
1. Can unergatives be applicativized?YesNo
2. Can static verbs be applicativized?YesNo
3. (If language has English-style depictives) is the
applied argument available for depictive modification?YesNo

Test 3 is conditional on the language having depictive secondary predicates with the English distribution. Korean lacks them entirely, and Venda/Albanian have too-broad depictives — in those languages Test 3 is inapplicable, not "fails." See ApplDiagnosticResult in Theories/Syntax/Minimalism/ApplicativeDiagnostics.lean.

Cross-references #

Ditransitive with low applicative: "John sent Mary a letter"

[VoiceP John [Voice' Voice_AG [VP sent [ApplP Mary [Appl' Appl_LOW [DP a letter]]]]]]

Low Appl merges below V: V takes ApplP as complement. The goal (Mary) is in Spec-ApplP, c-commanding the theme (a letter) in complement of Appl. This derives the @cite{barss-lasnik-1986} asymmetry that IO asymmetrically c-commands DO.

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    High applicative benefactive (Chaga pattern): "he ate food for wife"

    [VoiceP John [Voice' Voice_AG [ApplP wife [Appl' Appl_HIGH [VP eat [DP food]]]]]]

    High Appl merges above VP: Appl takes VP as complement. The benefactive (wife) is in Spec-ApplP, relating to the event (not the theme). High Appl is attested in Bantu languages (Chaga, Luganda, Venda) and Albanian, but NOT in English.

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      Goal c-commands theme — the @cite{barss-lasnik-1986} asymmetry derived structurally from V selecting ApplP.

      The lexical items appl_low_t and appl_high_t correspond to ApplHead instances from Theories/Syntax/Minimalism/Applicative.lean: the ditransitive uses applLowRecipient (English DOC = transfer to); the benefactive uses applHigh (Chaga = individual-event relation).

      @cite{pylkkanen-2008} tests the high/low distinction in six languages using three diagnostics (Table 2.1, p. 33). The diagnostics cluster into two groups, confirming the typological split. The classifier Minimalist.classifyByDiagnostics derives the high/low classification from the diagnostic results; we verify that for each language, the classifier output matches Pylkkänen's annotated classification.

      A language's diagnostic profile and Pylkkänen's annotated classification. The diagnostic results live in Minimalist.ApplDiagnosticBundle; classification records Pylkkänen's analytical conclusion.

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          Pylkkänen's analytical conclusion is derivable from the diagnostics: the cluster classifier returns the same result, modulo the recipient/source distinction (which Table 2.1's three tests don't make — separating low recipient from low source needs additional transfer-directionality diagnostics from §2.2/§2.3).

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            English: low recipient. *I ran him (20a); *I held him the bag (20b); *John told Mary the news drunk (27e).

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              Japanese: low recipient. *Taroo-ga Hanako-ni hasit-ta (21a); *Taroo-ga Hanako-ni kanojo-no kaban-o mot-ta (21b); *Taroo-ga hadaka-de Hanako-ni hon-o yonda (40a).

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                Korean: low recipient. *Mary-ka John-hanthey talli-ess-ta (22a); *John-i Mary-hanthey kabang-ul cap-ass-ta (22b). Korean lacks English-style depictives entirely (§2.1.3.2.2), so Test 3 is inapplicable.

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                  Luganda: high. Mukasa ya-tambu-le-dde Katonga (23a); Katonga ya-kwaant-i-dde Mukasa ensawo (23b); Mustafa ya-ko-le-dde Katonga nga mulwadde (43a).

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                    Venda: high. Ndi-do-shum-el-a musadzi (24a); Nd-o-far-el-a Mukasa khali (24b). Venda postverbal APs have too broad a distribution to qualify as English-style depictives, so Test 3 is inapplicable (§2.1.3.2.4).

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                      Albanian: high. I vrapova (25a); Agimi i mban Drites çanten time (25b). Albanian "depictives" can also modify implicit external arguments and DPs inside PPs, so they don't qualify as English-style depictives — Test 3 is inapplicable (§2.1.3.2.5).

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                        Hebrew possessor datives: low source applicative (book §2.2, eq. 82a). Hebrew possessor datives are low applicatives, so they fail Tests 1 and 2 by the same logic as English low recipient. Pylkkänen does not test depictive modification with Hebrew possessor datives in §2.1.3, so Test 3 is .inapplicable here. Note: Table 2.1's three tests don't distinguish recipient from source — derivationConsistent accepts the cluster classifier's .lowRecipient output for Hebrew's actual .lowSource classification (the recipient-vs-source distinction needs the additional transfer-directionality diagnostics from §2.2).

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                            Seven languages classified (six from Table 2.1 + Hebrew from §2.2).

                            For each language, Pylkkänen's annotated classification is derivable from the diagnostic results via the cluster-based classifier. The classification isn't stipulated and verified against itself — it's derived from the data and proved consistent with the analytical conclusion.

                            Anchor verifications for the two clusters. The aggregate all_classifications_derive_from_diagnostics covers all seven languages; these two anchor the cluster behavior at each pole.

                            Hebrew possessor datives are classified as .lowRecipient by Table 2.1's three tests (all-fail cluster), but Pylkkänen's actual classification is .lowSource. The two are both low; the recipient-vs-source distinction requires additional diagnostics not in Table 2.1. derivationConsistent accepts this case.

                            @cite{larson-1988}'s VP shell is the precursor of the modern Voice + Applicative decomposition. While the tree shapes differ (Larson uses one VP-shell layer; modern theory uses Voice and Appl heads), the c-command hierarchy among DP arguments is identical: agent > goal/IO > theme/DO.

                            @cite{larson-1988}'s DOC and the modern Voice + low-Appl derivation produce the same c-command hierarchy: IO asymmetrically c-commands DO.

                            This proves that @cite{larson-1988} and @cite{pylkkanen-2008}, despite different decompositions, converge on the same structural prediction for @cite{barss-lasnik-1986} asymmetries.

                            §7. Voice as the head that introduces the external argument #

                            (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} Ch. 3 §3.2 + Ch. 4 §4.2)
                            

                            @cite{pylkkanen-2008}'s central claim about Voice (Ch. 4 §4.2, "Eliminating Linking"): the external argument is not projected by the verb itself but by a separate Voice head, following @cite{kratzer-1996}. Voice combines with VP via Event Identification (Event Identification, Ch. 1; -- UNVERIFIED: eq. number), introducing the external argument and relating it to the event described by the verb.

                            This is one of the two competing views of Voice surveyed in Theories/Syntax/Minimalism/VoiceProjection.lean. The other view, defended by @cite{collins-2005} and @cite{storment-2026}, treats Voice as a structural head (the smuggling projection) and assigns external-argument introduction to v instead. The two views are orthogonal — see VoiceProjection.lean for the substantive contrast.

                            Pylkkänen's view applied to the canonical agentive Voice: it satisfies IsExternalArgIntroducer (it does the job Pylkkänen attributes to Voice).

                            §8. Voice-bundling for the English zero-causative #

                            (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} Ch. 3 §3.3; -- UNVERIFIED: eq. number)
                            

                            A second contribution of Ch. 3: the difference between English (which lacks unaccusative causatives) and Japanese/Finnish (which have them) reduces to whether the language bundles Cause and Voice into a single morphological head. English bundles ([Cause, Voice]); Japanese and Finnish do not.

                            The VoiceBundlingChoice enum + CauseSelection axis + the full 2 × 3 typology cells (Pylkkänen Table 3.1) are defined in §13 below, since this is the only Pylkkänen-derived consumer in the codebase. The two canonical-instance affirmations (english_zero_is_bundled, japanese_lexical_is_independent) live alongside the cell definitions in §13.

                            §9. Cause is not a θ-role (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} Ch. 3 §3.2) #

                            Pylkkänen's other major Ch. 3 argument: the causative head Cause introduces a causing event, not a θ-role on the external argument. Evidence: Japanese adversity causatives (eq. 19–25) have causative morphology and meaning but no external argument. The bieventive analysis (Cause = relation between two events) is required by such data; the θ-role analysis (Cause = relation between a causer and a caused event) cannot accommodate them.

                            Formalizing the bieventive vs. θ-role contrast at the level of detail Pylkkänen offers requires event semantics infrastructure beyond this study file's scope; the substantive claim is recorded here for cross-reference.

                            §10. Hebrew possessor datives as low source applicatives #

                            (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} Ch. 2 §2.2, Table 2.2 p. 60)
                            

                            The second major Chapter 2 contribution: possessor datives in Hebrew (and German, French, Korean) are low source applicatives — not double object constructions, not possessor-raising. The relation is reversed directionality: the dative argument is the source (former possessor) of the direct object, not the recipient.

                            Pylkkänen's Table 2.2 contrasts the predictions of the possessor- raising analysis (Landau 1999, Ura 1996, Kubo 1992) with the low applicative analysis on six properties. The contrast is the paper's own argument — Pylkkänen explicitly compares the two analyses.

                            The two competing analyses of possessor dative constructions (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} §2.2).

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                                Property of possessor dative constructions tested in Table 2.2. quantifierBindingContrast is named to make the encoded property explicit: "qbind possible from DOC IO but NOT from possessor dative" (Landau's contrast claim).

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                                    A 3-valued verdict for what an analysis says about a property: predicts (analysis says the property holds), antipredicts (analysis says the property does not hold), noCleanPrediction (analysis is silent or doesn't make a sharp claim).

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                                        Pylkkänen's Table 2.2 verdict: which analysis predicts each property. The qbind row is the most subtle: possessor-raising predicts the Landau contrast (qbind from possessor dative but not from DOC), while the low-applicative analysis predicts no contrast (both should permit qbind). Pylkkänen empirically vindicates the low-applicative side: "when pragmatics is controlled for, contrast disappears" (Ch. 2 §2.2.5, p. 56–57).

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                                          The 5 properties where the low source analysis predicts the property holds. (Excludes quantifierBindingContrast, where LA antipredicts: it says no contrast exists — empirically vindicated in §2.2.5.)

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                                            On the qbind row, the two analyses make opposing predictions. Pylkkänen's empirical argument (§2.2.5) is that the contrast Landau claimed disappears when pragmatics is controlled — so LA's .antipredicts (no contrast) wins, PR's .predicts (contrast exists) loses.

                                            §11. Japanese adversity passives: high vs low split #

                                            (Kubo's 1992 work (cited by @cite{pylkkanen-2008}; not yet in linglib bib) diagnostics, reanalyzed in
                                            @cite{pylkkanen-2008} Ch. 2 §2.3)
                                            

                                            Japanese adversity passives split into gapped (low source applicative) and gapless (high applicative). The gapped/gapless distinction itself is Kubo's 1992 work (cited by @cite{pylkkanen-2008}; not yet in linglib bib)'s; @cite{pylkkanen-2008}'s contribution is the reanalysis as a low-source vs. high applicative typology. Both share the -rare- morphology, but only the gapless type carries an obligatory adversative entailment (Kubo's 1992 work (cited by @cite{pylkkanen-2008}; not yet in linglib bib)). The diagnostic bundle distinguishing the two types is not formalized here; this section records the type-level split for cross-reference.

                                            The two types of Japanese adversity passive (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} §2.3).

                                            • gappedLowSource : JapaneseAdversityType

                                              Gapped: low source applicative. The affected DP is inside VP, with a transfer-of-possession relation to the underlying object.

                                            • gaplessHigh : JapaneseAdversityType

                                              Gapless: high applicative. The affected DP is outside VP, relating to the event as a whole.

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                                                §12. Spanish static low applicatives (@cite{cuervo-2003}, #

                                                discussed in @cite{pylkkanen-2008} §2.1.4.2)
                                                

                                                @cite{cuervo-2003}'s thesis proposes a three-way split of low applicatives in Spanish: low-to (recipient, dynamic), low-from (source, dynamic), and low-AT (static possession). The static type is Cuervo's contribution; Pylkkänen briefly endorses it in §2.1.4.2 as compatible with her event-vs-state distinction. The static applicative combines with small clause predicates (e.g. Pablo le admira la paciencia a Valeria "Pablo admires Valeria's patience"), unlike English low recipients which require event-creating verbs.

                                                Cuervo's three-way split of low applicatives. The third type (staticPossession) is @cite{cuervo-2003}'s extension; it is not in the canonical ApplType taxonomy because it requires static rather than dynamic semantics, and (per Cuervo) it specifically takes a small-clause complement.

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                                                    Both of Pylkkänen's two low types correspond to dynamic transfer; Cuervo's third is static.

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                                                      The static low applicative is not one of Pylkkänen's two types — it requires the event-vs-state generalization in §2.1.4.2.

                                                      §13. Causative typology (Pylkkänen Table 3.1, §3.4) #

                                                      Pylkkänen Table 3.1 (§3.4) is a 2 × 3 typology of causative constructions parameterized by Voice-bundling × selection. The inventory (VoiceBundlingChoice, CauseSelection, MorphologyAccess, CausativeCell + 6 canonical instances + 4 prediction theorems) lives here; Pylkkanen2008 is the sole writer in the codebase, so substrate promotion is unwarranted (per CLAUDE.md "promote when ≥2 consumers").

                                                      Orthogonal to @cite{song-1996}'s expression-style typology in Phenomena/Causation/Studies/Song1996.lean: Song classifies the morphosyntactic packaging of a causative (compact / and / purp); Pylkkänen classifies the underlying syntactic configuration (Voice-bundled vs independent; selecting root, verb, or phase). A language is characterized along both axes (English is COMPACT in Song, bundled-root in Pylkkänen).

                                                      If Wood 2015 / Cuervo 2003 / Folli-Harley 2005 get formalized later as generative-side updates of this typology and re-use these cells, they should consume them from here. The earlier extracted-to-Causation/Typology plan was overengineering for n=1 writer; the file relocates here when the natural single home turns out to be the only home.

                                                      @cite{pylkkanen-2008} §3.3: whether Cause and Voice are bundled into one morphological head. English bundles ([Cause, Voice]); Japanese and Finnish do not.

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                                                          @cite{pylkkanen-2008} §3.4: what does Cause select for?

                                                          • root : CauseSelection

                                                            Cause + √Root: causes a category-free root (English zero-causative).

                                                          • verb : CauseSelection

                                                            Cause + v + √Root: causes a category-defined verb (Bemba -eshya, Finnish -tta).

                                                          • phase : CauseSelection

                                                            Cause + (something at least as big as a phase, can include external args): causativizes unergatives and transitives (Luganda -sa, Venda -is).

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                                                              Three levels of root-Cause morpheme intervention. The three-way distinction is essential — collapsing to Bool would lose §3.4's central typological claim.

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                                                                  A causative-typology cell: Voice-bundling × selection. bundling is Option because Pylkkänen Table 3.1 footnote a explicitly states the Voice-bundling properties of Bemba, Luganda, and Venda causatives are not known.

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                                                                    def Pylkkanen2008.instDecidableEqCausativeCell.decEq (x✝ x✝¹ : CausativeCell) :
                                                                    Decidable (x✝ = x✝¹)
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                                                                        Table 3.1 prediction (1): can a language have unaccusative causatives? Bundled → no (Voice forces ext arg); independent → yes; unknown → no clean prediction. (Reuses the PredictsVerdict enum defined in §10 above for PossessorDativeAnalysis.predicts.)

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                                                                          Table 3.1 prediction (2): can the language causativize unergatives and transitives? Only phase-selecting Cause can.

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                                                                            Table 3.1 prediction (3): what morphology can intervene between root and Cause?

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                                                                              English zero-causative: Voice-bundling root-selecting.

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                                                                                Japanese lexical causative: non-Voice-bundling root-selecting.

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                                                                                  Bemba -eshya causative: verb-selecting; bundling unknown (Table 3.1 footnote a).

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                                                                                    Finnish -tta causative: non-Voice-bundling verb-selecting.

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                                                                                      Luganda -sa causative: phase-selecting; bundling unknown.

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                                                                                        Venda -is causative: phase-selecting; bundling unknown.

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                                                                                          §11 Voice-bundling cross-references. English bundles, Japanese does not — the two canonical affirmations §11 promised live here alongside the Cell definitions they consume.

                                                                                          §14. Broader Voice taxonomy under Pylkkänen's view #

                                                                                          Pylkkänen's Voice = external-argument introducer. Per Theories/Syntax/Minimalism/VoiceProjection.lean, this is one of two competing views of Voice (the other being Collins/Storment's smuggling projection). Test Pylkkänen's view against the broader VoiceHead taxonomy in Theories/Syntax/Minimalism/Voice.lean: which Voice flavors do introduce external arguments?

                                                                                          Pylkkänen's view of Voice tested against all 8 named canonical flavors: voiceAgent, voiceCauser, voiceReflexive, and voiceExperiencer introduce external arguments; voiceMiddle (expletive), voiceImpersonal, voiceAnticausative, and voicePassive do not. The Pylkkänen-coherent Voice flavors are exactly the θ-assigning ones. (.antipassive is defined as a flavor in the Voice taxonomy but lacks a canonical voiceAntipassive constant in Voice.lean.)

                                                                                          §15. Transitivity restriction grounded in EntailmentProfile #

                                                                                          (@cite{pylkkanen-2008} Diagnostic 1; semantic argument at eq. 103 /
                                                                                          p. 55; -- UNVERIFIED: eq. 17 number)
                                                                                          

                                                                                          Pylkkänen's predicted generalization (book Ch. 2 §2.1.1, Diagnostic 1): "Only high applicative heads should be able to combine with unergatives. Since low applicative heads denote a relation between the direct object and the indirect object, a low applicative head cannot appear in a structure that lacks a direct object."

                                                                                          The semantic argument (eq. 103, p. 55): combining low Appl (λx.λy.λf.λe. f(e,x) ∧ theme(e,x) ∧ HAVE(x,y)) with an unergative VP (λe. agent(e, Mary) ∧ run(e)) yields agent(e, x) ∧ theme(e, x) when both arguments bind the same variable — a thematic-uniqueness contradiction (Carlson, Parsons).

                                                                                          Status of this formalization: The composition predicate below uses Core.Verbs.EntailmentProfile.pPatientScore to check whether a verb has theme-like Proto-Patient entailments. An unergative has either no object profile (objectEntailments = none) or an empty one (pPatientScore = 0). The composition theorem is structural — it does not re-derive the type clash from event-semantic λ-calculus (that requires the compositional type-driven semantics in Theories/Semantics/Composition/, not yet wired in here). The substantive content captured: "low Appl needs a theme; unergative provides none; composition fails."

                                                                                          A verb has an unsaturated theme argument iff its object entailment profile (if any) carries Proto-Patient entailments. Unergatives have objectEntailments = none; transitives have pPatientScore ≥ 1.

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                                                                                            A composition of an applicative head with a verb's object profile is well-formed iff either the applicative doesn't require a theme (high) or the verb's object profile provides one (transitive).

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                                                                                              Pylkkänen's Diagnostic 1: low applicatives cannot combine with unergative verbs (whose object profile is none). The composition theorem follows from ApplType.RequiresThemeInComplement for low types and the empty object profile of an unergative.

                                                                                              Note: this is structural, not a re-derivation of the eq. 103 type contradiction from event-semantic composition. The substantive semantic argument requires λ-calculus infrastructure not present in Theories/Semantics/Composition/ for applicatives. The theorem captures the empirical content (low + unergative fails) without proving it from event-semantic types.

                                                                                              High applicatives can combine with unergatives — the empirical finding for Luganda/Venda/Albanian (PDF eq. 23a/24a/25a, all verified). Follows from ¬ ApplType.high.RequiresThemeInComplement.

                                                                                              A toy theme-bearing object profile: Proto-Patient with incrementalTheme set. Used to demonstrate transitive composition in the next two theorems.

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                                                                                                Low recipient applicatives can combine with verbs providing a theme — the canonical English DOC pattern (I baked him a cake).

                                                                                                Low source applicatives also combine with theme-providing verbs — Hebrew possessor datives (book §2.2).

                                                                                                §16. Voice × Appl licensing matrix #

                                                                                                (`Theories/Syntax/Minimalism/Applicative.lean.licensedWith`)
                                                                                                

                                                                                                ApplHead.licensedWith (in Applicative.lean) checks whether a particular Appl head is licensed with a given Voice head: high applicatives require event-introducing Voice (hasSemantics = true); low applicatives are licensed with any Voice. Cross @cite{pylkkanen-2008}'s high/low Appl typology with the VoiceHead taxonomy: which Voice flavors license high Appl, and which don't?

                                                                                                This connects §14's Pylkkänen-Voice partition with the @cite{pylkkanen-2008} Appl typology in a single matrix.

                                                                                                High Appl requires Voice with event semantics. The named Voice flavors split: voiceAgent/voiceCauser/voiceMiddle/ voiceImpersonal/voiceReflexive/voiceExperiencer carry event semantics and license high Appl; voiceAnticausative/voicePassive do not (they're event-semantically inert in this Voice taxonomy) and so don't license high Appl.

                                                                                                §17. WALS-vs-Pylkkänen divergence on English/Japanese applicatives #

                                                                                                The WALS Ch 109 typology classifies English and Japanese as having "no applicative" (no overt valence-increasing morphology). Pylkkänen's analysis classifies the English double-object construction (DOC) and the Japanese -ni recipient construction as low recipient applicatives (structural Appl head merged below V relating recipient to theme).

                                                                                                The divergence is not empirical — both accounts agree on the same constructions. It is a methodological choice about what counts as an "applicative." WALS counts overt verbal applicative morphology; Pylkkänen counts the structural ApplP projection regardless of morphological exponent. The substrate is designed to make this kind of cross-framework editorial disagreement visible.

                                                                                                WALS Ch 109 (per Studies/Polinsky2013.lean's english.applicative) and Pylkkänen's analysis (english_appl.classification) make contradictory predictions about English: WALS says no applicative, Pylkkänen says low recipient. Same for Japanese. The disagreement is about the criterion for "applicative," not about the data.