In the middle, somewhat elevated : the semantics of middles and its crosslinguistic realizations
This study explores the ways in which the semantics of personal middle construc tions is encoded across languages. In Dutch, German and English, middles are syntactically unergative and the implicit Agent is syntactically inert. In Greek and French, middles are syntactically indistinguishable from generic passives: they exhibit a derived subject and a syntactically represented Agent. What unites the two types of middle is the interpretation they receive. The cross-linguistic variation invites the following question: what determines the choice of structure employed to convey the middle interpretation Any attempt to address this question requires a characterization of the mid dle interpretation itself. I make the following novel proposal: middles ascribe a dispositional property to the understood object. Disposition ascriptions are subject-oriented generic sentences. The core properties that middles share across languages follow: the genericity of an otherwise eventive predicate the promotion to subject position by syntactic movement or base-generation, and the interpre tation of the otherwise internal argument: the demotion and interpretation of the otherwise external argument. The crosslinguistic variation
Lekakou, Maria
In the middle, somewhat elevated : the semantics of middles and its crosslinguistic realizations. This study explores the ways in which the semantics of personal middle construc tions is encoded across languages. In Dutch, German and English, middles are syntactically unergative and the implicit Agent is syntactically inert. In Greek and French, middles are syntactically indistinguishable from generic passives: they exhibit a derived subject and a syntactically represented Agent. What unites the two types of middle is the interpretation they receive. The cross-linguistic variation invites the following question: what determines the choice of structure employed to convey the middle interpretation Any attempt to address this question requires a characterization of the mid dle interpretation itself. I make the following novel proposal: middles ascribe a dispositional property to the understood object. Disposition ascriptions are subject-oriented generic sentences. The core properties that middles share across languages follow: the genericity of an otherwise eventive predicate the promotion to subject position by syntactic movement or base-generation, and the interpre tation of the otherwise internal argument: the demotion and interpretation of the otherwise external argument. The crosslinguistic variation
middle somewhat elevate semantics middle crosslinguistic realization study_explore way semantics personal middle encode across_language dutch german_english middle syntactically unergative implicit agent syntactically inert greek french middle syntactically generic passive exhibit derive subject syntactically represent agent unites two_type middle interpretation receive cross_linguistic variation invite follow_question determines choice structure employ convey middle interpretation attempt_address question require characterization mid interpretation itself make follow novel proposal middle ascribe dispositional_property understood object disposition ascription subject oriented generic sentence core property middle share across_language follow genericity otherwise predicate promotion subject_position syntactic_movement base generation otherwise internal_argument interpretation otherwise external argument crosslinguistic variation