The Case for Split Unaccusativity Hypothesis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the previous treatments of English unaccusative verbs in English syntactic theories and to propose a new hypothesis, in which the conventional unaccusatives should be split into unaccusatives proper (i.e., unaccusatives) and unaccusative hybrids (i.e., ergatives). To make a case for the split unaccusativity hypothesis, ergatives are redefined in terms of four syntactic and semantic properties, and supporting evidence from the areas of syntax, lexical semantics, and psycholinguistics is presented. The projected theoretical relevance is that the separate treatment of unaccusatives and ergatives will help to resolve some issues in the puzzle of unaccusatives and mismatches, as well as contribute to highlighting the interface between syntax and semantics in explaining linguistic phenomena.