Kratzer (1996): Severing the External Argument from its Verb #

This file formalizes Kratzer's proposal that the external argument is not an argument of the verb. A transitive verb denotes a relation between its internal argument and an event, and the external argument is introduced by a separate functional head, Voice, whose denotation is a thematic relation such as Agent. Voice and the verb phrase combine by Event Identification, which conjoins the two at the event and leaves the introduced participant open, so that the sentence Mittie fed the dog denotes the events that are feedings of the dog and of which Mittie is the agent. Syntactically the external argument is the specifier of VoiceP, above the verb phrase that contains the verb and its internal argument.

Because the external argument enters by Event Identification, the kind of event the verb phrase describes constrains the role Voice can assign: an agent head is restricted to actions, a holder head to states, and Event Identification of an agent head with a stative verb phrase such as own the dog yields nothing (agent_stative_eq_bot).

Implementation notes #

Event Identification is ArgumentStructure.eventIdentification, and the agentive Voice head is Voice.agentive; the derivation is stated for an arbitrary agent relation and verb. Kratzer's Event Identification is undefined on inputs with disjoint sorts of events; the library's is total, so the clash comes out as the empty relation. The tree is built from planar leaf tokens, and the paper's structural claim is its c-command relations.

References #

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def Kratzer1996.mittieFedTheDog {Entity : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} (agent feed : Entity → E → Prop) (mittie dog : Entity) :

E → Prop

In the denotation of Mittie fed the dog, Voice, denoting the agent relation, combines with the verb phrase by Event Identification, so the agent enters above the verb.

Equations

Kratzer1996.mittieFedTheDog agent feed mittie dog = ArgumentStructure.eventIdentification agent (feed dog) mittie

Instances For

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theorem Kratzer1996.mittieFedTheDog_iff {Entity : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} (agent feed : Entity → E → Prop) (mittie dog : Entity) (e : E) :

mittieFedTheDog agent feed mittie dog e ↔ agent mittie e ∧ feed dog e

The sentence holds of an event iff Mittie is its agent and it is a feeding of the dog; the verb contributes no agent.

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theorem Kratzer1996.mittieFedTheDog_congr {Entity : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} (agent feed feed' : Entity → E → Prop) (mittie dog : Entity) (h : ∀ (e : E), feed dog e ↔ feed' dog e) (e : E) :

mittieFedTheDog agent feed mittie dog e ↔ mittieFedTheDog agent feed' mittie dog e

Two verb phrases with the same events are indistinguishable once Voice adds the external argument, whatever the agent relation: the agent is severed from the verb.

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theorem Kratzer1996.agent_stative_eq_bot {Entity : Type u_1} {E : Type u_2} (IsState : E → Prop) {agent : Entity → E → Prop} {P : E → Prop} (hagent : ∀ (x : Entity) (e : E), agent x e → ¬IsState e) (hP : ∀ (e : E), P e → IsState e) :

ArgumentStructure.eventIdentification agent P = ⊥

An agent head, whose events are not states, and a stative verb phrase such as own the dog (25), whose events are states, combine by Event Identification to the empty relation.

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def Kratzer1996.voice :

Minimalist.LexicalItem.Token

voice is agentive Voice, which subcategorizes for the verb phrase.

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