Causality, Modality and Contextual Argument Interpretation: Lessons from Teochew
Zhuosi Luo
April 2024 

This dissertation investigates the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of Teochew periphrastic causatives, and specifically the means by which the so-called causee interpretation of the intermediate external argument is derived. I show despite the same embedded predicate, causees in these causatives demonstrate different patterns when diagnosed by many linguistics tests targeting the argument interpretations. Comprehensive syntactic analysis shows that these causatives are very similar in their syntactic argument structures, e.g., recursive VoiceP and vP. I argue that the listing approach, treating argument interpretations as syntactic primitives and listing them with specific verbs or syntactic layers, cannot account for the different causee interpretations. The alternative contextual approach, contextualizing argument interpretations as post-syntactic derivatives through syntactically-oriented event structures, is more favorable. All the previous contextual studies on external argument interpretations exclusively focus on the eventuality of the syntactic complement of the argument-introducing head. However, causees are traditionally viewed as shared arguments between the embedding causative verbs and the embedded predicates. Based on Teochew data collected in fieldwork research and insights from philosophy, I develop a formal modal semantics analysis of each causative verb to account for the encoded multidimensional causal relations that cannot be captured by the monolithic CAUSE operator. For complex causer interpretations, I demonstrate a fine-grained implementation of the complement-oriented approach not discussed before. I also develop a novel formalization of the relationship between different modules of the grammar that constrains the possible causee interpretations in a two-step way. More specifically, I show that the causee interpretation depends on the structure of event in which the argument occurs, first the eventuality of the embedded predicate and then that of the embedding causative verb with modal properties. I further explore the nature of many so-called agentive diagnostics widely adopted in recent literature, showing a fine distinction between intuitive AGENT and grammatical AGENT is required to be drawn. Building on the different properties of each type of AGENT, I showed how the final causee interpretations map to their compatibilities with different linguistics diagnostics, which solves the causee interpretation puzzle. In its focus on causee, this dissertation sheds light on the linking between syntax and semantics in argument interpretation with a focus on external arguments. It also provides implications for complex causal event structure, research on argument structure (e.g., the introduction of arguments and argument licensing), and the phasehood or domain sensitivity at LF.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008077 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Georgetown University Ph.D. dissertation
keywords:	causee, argument interpretation, causative, modality, argument structure, event structure, semantics, syntax
Downloaded:	298 times

 

[ edit this article | back to article list ]