Valency morphology in deverbal categories: a study on asymmetries

Abstract

Recent literature in Generative Theory has been providing evidences for an exclusively Syntactic (vs. Lexical) analysis of some processes involving morphological derivation such as nominalizations (Chomsky 1970; Marantz 1997) and valency morphology (Kratzer 1994, Chomsky 1995). Regardless of which structural alternative is used to account for these two morphological phenomena, in the case of a Syntactic analysis, the symmetry between the verbal structure and the nominalization derived from this verb is expected. Following this reasoning, if the valency morphology markings are part of the verbal structure, they are expected to occur also in the structure of nominalized derivations of this same structure. This expected symmetry is only observed in some languages, though. In many languages, the asymmetric behavior of deverbal categories regarding valency morphology is seen. Among the asymmetries observed, it is possible to mention, for instance, the replacement or deletion of the valency marks of the verbs in deverbal nouns or adjectives or the fact that verbs and their nominal/adjectival counterparts undergo different types of valency alternations (cf. Haspelmath, 1993). Therefore, an explanation is needed once there is the need of keeping a syntactic analysis of valency and nominalizations. The research planned in this project aims to explore these asymmetries in order to obtain possible explanations for them, taking into account aspects of the interface between morphology, syntax and phonology. This is done through a cross-linguistic comparative study, followed by the theoretical analysis of the obtained generalizations. Besides the typological considerations, this study also contributes to the understanding of the status of morphological processes/operations in a theory such as Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz, 1993), which derives sentences and words in the same generative component. (AU)