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Applying and Expanding Role and Reference Grammar

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Applying and Expanding Role and Reference Grammar Applying and Expanding Role and Reference Grammar Rolf Kailuweit, Lisann Künkel, Eva Staudinger NIHIN Studies This volume is released under the terms of the Creative Commons Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Website links in this book All website links mentioned in this book were operational at the time of publishing. Publica- tions available on the Role and Reference Grammar website are referenced as “available on RRG website”, and no links are provided. At the time of publication, the RRG website was accessible at http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rrgpage/rrg.html. List of abbreviations ABS absolutive case DET determiner ACC accusative case DIR directional ADJ adjective DM discourse marker ADV adverb DL dual AFFIR affirmative DOB direct object ALL allative case DOM differential object marking ANTI antipassive ERG ergative case ARG argument EVQ event quantification ART article EXL exclusive ASP aspect F feminine AUX auxiliary verb FOC focus CH case hierarchy FUT future CLD clitic left dislocation GEN genitive case CLI clitic IF illocutionary force CLM clause linkage marker INT intensifier COM comitative IO indirect object COMP comparative IMP imperative COMPL completive IPFV imperfective aspect COND conditional IMPS impersonal CONJ conjunction INAN inanimate CONT continuous INC inclusive COP copula INE inessive case DAT dative case INF infinitive DCA domain of case assignment INGR ingressive DCM differential case marking INS instrument/instrumental DEIC deictic INT intensifier DEM demonstrative KP kontrast position DES desiderative LDP left detached position LOC locative PRES.PASS present passive participle LS logical structure PRET preterite LSC layered structure of the clause PRO pronoun LSNP layered structure of the noun PROC process phrase PROG progressive aspect LWDP leftward detached position PRT particle M masculine PRV preverb MR macrorole PSA privileged syntactic argument N noun PSRR principle of the separation of NEG negation reference and role NEUT neuter PSTP/PPLE past participle NFUT non-future PST.PASS past passive participle NM noun marker PTCP participle NMR non-macrorole argument PURP purpose NOM nominative case Q question word/particle NPFP noun phrase final position QD quantitative determinacy NPIP noun phrase initial position QTY quantity NPST non-past RDP reduplication NSO non-specific object REFL reflexive NUC nucleus REL relativizer O object RES result OBL oblique RP reference phrase P preposition S subject PART partitive case SG singular PASS passive TNS tense PAST/PST past tense TOP topic PASTC past continuous U undergoer PFV perfective aspect V verb PL plural VBLZ verbalizer POSS possessive VER version POT potential VN verbal noun PrCS pre-core slot PRED predicate PREP preposition PRES/PRS present tense PRES.ACT present active participle Contents Acknowledgements . 11 Introduction Eva Staudinger & Rolf Kailuweit .......................... 13 I. Syntactic structure: Layered structure of the clause and operators 21 Toward Extending the Scope of the Left Periphery in RRG – Evidence from the Clitic Left-Dislocation in Persian Farhad Moezzipour & Haleh Cheraghi ....................... 21 The Encoding of Negation in Modern Irish: Negation at the Layered Structure of the Clause and Noun Phrase Brian Nolan ..................................... 45 II. Aktionsart 71 Some Issues Regarding (Active) Accomplishments Robert D. Van Valin Jr. ............................... 71 Aspect and Aktionsart in Slavic, Inflection and Derivation in RRG Ranko Matasovi´c .................................. 95 Spanish Llover in RRG Lisann Künkel ....................................111 III. Macroroles, linking and case assignment 139 The Second Dative in Russian: A Case for the Last-Resort Case Assignment Wataru Nakamura ..................................139 A Role and Reference Grammar Description of the Finnish Partitive Koen Van Hooste ..................................153 The Syntax-Semantic Interface in Italian Result-Oriented Argument Structures Anna Riccio .....................................175 Activity Hierarchy and Argument Realization in (R)RRG Rolf Kailuweit ....................................189 Commercial Event Verbs in Spanish. A Corpus Based Study Sergio Ibáñez ....................................213 French and Spanish ‘MAKE/GIVE FEAR’-Type LVCs – an RRG Constructional Account Eva Staudinger ...................................237 IV. Complex sentences 263 Yaqui Adverbial Clauses and the Interclausal Relations Hierarchy Lilián Guerrero ...................................263 Motion Verb Integration and Core Cosubordination in Modern Greek Soteria Svorou ....................................281 The Syntax of the Directed Motion Subtype of the Spanish Gerund Construction Luis París ......................................305 V. Computational implementation 325 On the Application of Conceptual Graphs in RRG – First Steps towards a Functional Computational Processing Model Judith Gottschalk & Nicolai Winther-Nielsen . 325 Towards a Formalization of Role and Reference Grammar Rainer Osswald & Laura Kallmeyer . 355 Acknowledgements An edited volume is always the product of a joint effort. We would therefore like to thank all those who supported us in one way or another. First of all, we are grateful to the Freiburg In- stitute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS), and in particular its director Bernd Kortmann, for their generous support of the present volume. We are also indebted to the anonymous peer review- ers and all those who have helped us to prepare the manuscript, especially Chelsea Brooks, Hannah Davidson, Christa Hohendahl, Anabel Martín, Carmen Pietropaolo and Vanessa Tölke. Finally, we would like to thank Christina Meuser, who guided us through the publishing pro- cess. Introduction Eva Staudingera & Rolf Kailuweitb Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburga Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorfb Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) is a theory adopting a functionalist approach to lan- guage. As such, RRG focuses on the analysis of grammatical structures in relation to their semantic and communicative functions. What further characterises RRG is its commitment to typological adequacy (Van Valin & La Polla 1997; Van Valin 2005). Due to its typological bias, RRG is “traditionally” concerned with the description of general characteristics of lin- guistic systems and their interaction with semantics and pragmatics. The application of RRG in the context of increasingly detailed analyses of linguistic phenomena, however, leads to proposals for further elaborations of various components of the theory. The present volume gathers a series of contributions that apply and expand RRG in different respects. The book comprises 16 articles divided into five thematic parts: Syntactic structure (layered structure of the clause and operators, Part I), Aktionsart (Part II), Macroroles, linking and case assignment (Part III), Complex Sentences (Part IV) and Computational Implementation (Part V). Part I comprises two papers on different aspects of syntactic structure. In RRG, clause structure is represented in the layered structure of the clause (LSC), which includes different levels of analysis: the constituent and the operator projections. While elements with referential content are part of the constituent projection, non-referential morphemes such as tense, mood, aspect, definiteness, negation etc. are represented in the operator projection. The constituent structure of sentences is represented by means of syntactic templates. Some aspects of syntax, such as the distinction between the nucleus, core and periphery, are considered to be universal (Van Valin & La Polla 1997: 27), but the syntactic inventory is also subject to cross-linguistic variation (e.g. not all languages have a post-core slot and a corresponding syntactic template, cf. Van Valin & La Polla 1997: 37). Farhad Moezzipour examines to which extent left-dislocation in Persian can be described by means of the syntactic templates provided in RRG. Persian has double possessor con- 14 E. Staudinger & R. Kailuweit structions with two left-dislocated possessors. RRG proposes a left-detached position (LDP) for left-dislocated pre-clausal elements. However, the LDP can only host one element, which poses a problem for the description of Persian double possessor constructions. In a similar vein, neither the LDP nor the pre-core slot (PrCS) position prove apt to adequately capture the status of the left periphery in Persian clitic left-dislocation constructions. Farhad Moezzipour proposes a more detailed distinction of constituents in the left periphery within RRG and provides a detailed pragmatically motivated justification for this. Brian Nolan examines the encoding of negation in Irish and its representation in the layered structure of the clause (LSC) and the layered structure of the noun phrase (LSNP). Nolan proposes a taxonomy that represents the different cases of negation found in Modern Irish, and analyses their different scope levels. Modern Irish features nuclear, core and clausal negation. In addition to the forms of negation provided at the different levels, Nolan examines the ways in which negation interacts with indefiniteness and quantification. Part II consists of three papers on Aktionsart. In RRG, predicates are classified according to six different Aktionsart classes, each of which has a causative counterpart. Robert D. Van Valin Jr. discusses the logical structure (LS) of the Aktionsart class of active accomplish- ments. He revises the representation proposed in Van
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