The Syntax of Non-Verbal Causation: The Causative Apomorphy of 'From' in Greek and Germanic Languages

<p>This is a study of the meaning and syntax of non-(lexical)verbal causation. Macroscopically, it examines the preposition 'from' as attested in contexts like "X is/comes from Y". Syntactic diagnostics are applied to formally distinguish the causative from the spatial interpretations of `from'-PPs in Greek, English, Dutch, and German. The syntactic landscape of causative 'from' will turn out to be very minimal with 'from' directly selecting the Cause-DP, in contradistinction to its spatial counterpart, where 'from' always selects for another PP layer. More microscopically then I focus on the causative interpretations only, which are particularly revealing because (i) they give an in-depth view of CAUSE, stripped of all verbal layers--traditionally considered the locus of CAUSE--suggesting that the source of causation in non-(lexical)verbal environments has to be the preposition <em>per se</em> and (ii) they single-handedly provide a rudimentary structure for causation, where 'from' introduces the <em>Cause</em> in its complement and is predicated of the <em>Causee</em>. Finally, with a basic predicational structure in place, I offer a detailed cross-linguistic account for the syntactic mechanism that forces the use of particle verbs in causative 'from'-less environments.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Ioannidou, Alexandra

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Marcel den Dikken

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Christina Tortora
• William McClure
• Thomas Leu

• Linguistics

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-5332