Constraints on the Resultative Construction: An Aspectual Perspective

結果結構(resultative construction)以其包含之結果述語(resultative phrase)來描述句中名詞受動詞影響而呈現之後續狀態，如例句The baby cried her throat dry。本文探討使用結果結構之限制，尤其著重於不合法的句子，如*He talked hoarse和*We believed the idea powerful。從動貌(aspect)觀點來觀察結果結構中的動詞屬性，可歸納出以下原則：結果結構中的謂語(predicate)必須帶有「封閉」(telicity)及「延時」(durativity)兩種屬性。此原則得以解釋使用結果結構的各種句法及語意限制，並有助於了解整個結果結構所蘊含的時空概念。

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This paper investigates the resultative construction (as in (1)) from an aspectual perspective. (1) The baby cried her throat dry. According to Levin (1993), the resultative phrase in (1) is dry, which describes the state achieved by the referent of the noun phrase (throat) as a result of the action named by the verb (cried). Of great interest to many researchers is the restriction on the types of verbs used in a resultative construction. For instance, Jackendoff (1990) observes that a resultative phrase cannot occur with a ”stative” verb believe: (2) *He believed the idea powerful. Another well-known restriction in a resultative construction is the obligatory use of ”fake object” as a reflexive when the verb is an intransitive unergative one, such as ”talk”. (3) a. He talked himself hoarse. b. *He talked hoarse. The paper offers an aspectual account to explain the above restrictions. I propose that the type of predicate fitted into a resultative construction must entail a bounded event. A bounded event presents a situation where its initial and final endpoints are closed. Under this view, both (2) and (3a) are ruled-out as a result of failing to provide a bounded predicate, as the stative believe the idea and the activity talk are unbounded. Following from my proposal, the fake object ”himself” appears to alter the predicate from an unbounded to a bounded one. I also argue that this syntactic device is language-specific to English, not applicable to other languages such as Chinese. In other words, (morpho) syntactic devices vary among languages with respect to how the event can be bounded in a resultative construction. Lastly, the paper provides the detailed discussion of the aspectual meaning and temporal schema of resultative construction.

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參考文獻

Bybee, Joan,Revere Perkins,William Pagliuca.(1994).The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World.Chicago:The University of Chicago Press.