Argument Realization

Description

The relationship between verbs and their arguments is a widely debated topic in linguistics. This comprehensive survey provides an up-to-date overview of this important area of research, exploring current theories of how a verb's semantics can determine the morphosyntactic realization of its arguments. Assuming a close connection between verb meaning and syntactic structure, it provides a bridge between lexical-semantic and syntactic research, synthesizing the results of work from a range of linguistic subdisciplines and in a variety of theoretical frameworks. The first part surveys leading theories about event structure and conceptualization, the second part focusing on the mapping from lexical semantics to morphosyntax. The thematic hierarchy is discussed in detail, and the final chapter reviews treatments of multiple argument realization. With useful bibliographic references and clear definitions of relevant terms, this book will be invaluable to students and researchers in syntax and semantics, as well as those in related fields.

Beth Levin is William H. Bonsall Professor in the Humanities at the Department of Linguistics, Stanford University. Malka Rappaport Hovav is Professor in the Department of English, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.