Linking The Geometry of Argument Structure [Paperback]

Linking is one of the challenges for theories of the syntax-semantics interface. In this new approach, the author explores the hypothesis that the positions of syntactic arguments are strictly determined by lexical argument geometry. Through careful argumentation and original analysis, her study provides a framework for explaining the linking patterns of a range of verb classes, leading to a number of insights about lexical structure and a radical rethinking of many verb classes.

Linking  how semantic arguments map to the syntax  is one of the challenges?invloved with?theories of the syntax-semantics interface. The text explores the hypothesis that the positions of syntactic arguments are strictly determined by lexical argument geometry.

Linking  how semantic arguments map to the syntax  is one of the challenges for theories of the syntax-semantics interface. In this new approach, Janet Randall explores the hypothesis that the positions of syntactic arguments are strictly determined by lexical argument geometry. Yielding novel  if sometimes surprising  conclusions, her Isomorphic Linking Hypothesis establishes the linking patterns of a wide range of verbs and, with those results, shows how to reason backwards from how a given verb's arguments link to what its lexical representation must be. Along the way, the investigation takes on thorny lexical issues  reformulating the Theta Criterion, revisiting the multiple lexical-entry debate, eliminating indirect arguments and redefining unaccusativity. It offers new insights into how arguments are represented, assembles a host of argument/adjunct diagnostics, and re-examines the relation between arguments and predicates. The result of this incisive study is a simple and consistent account of linking, integrated with a radical rethinking of the nature of arguments and argument structure.

AcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction.- A Phenomenon and a Principle: The IsomorlL