Linking: Syntactic Argument Positions and Aspectual Roles

Abstract

The theory developed in this work is a theory about the interface between syntax and lexical semantics. The existence of an interface implies a limited autonomy, or modularity, of syntax from lexical semantics and vice versa. Different rules and systems may be used to describe each one to a large extent, but these rules and systems interact, or intersect, or are visible to each other through a narrow common vocabulary. However we may choose to think about it, an interface requires that some element of one system be hooked up to some element of the other system. It is a basic thesis of this work that what is hooked up on the lexical semantic side is a set of aspectual properties, related to the particular aspectual property I will call delimitedness. Under this view, the intersection between syntax and lexical semantics is basically an aspectual one. Furthermore, the interactions between the two components are highly constrained, since they are organized around a limited vocabulary of aspectual notions. This theory therefore maintains the basic assumption of the autonomy of syntax, focusing on the locus of the intersection between syntax and lexical semantics.