Investigating Diathesis Alternations

Diathesis alternations are variations for a single lexical entry of a verb in semantic argument structure or its mapping to syntactic form. This broad definition incorporates the alternations which result from a variety of operations: (a) arity (valency-changing) operations such as causativisation (e.g. telic unaccusative to causative), (b) transformation operations such as passivisation (e.g. causative to transitive passive), and (c) argument omission operations such as object drop (e.g. causative to intransitivised). The conditions under which these alternations are licensed or blocked from occurring have not yet been holistically or adequately addressed, especially with respect to the application of alternation operations to already alternated lexical entries. Furthermore, the notion and degree of lexical decomposition and lexical semantic features believed to be accessible in lexical entries vary from linguist to linguist. This project may therefore shed light on the nature of the lexicon in addition to the syntax-semantics interface, by determining the scope and content of lexical entries on the basis of what information is found to be necessary for determining licensing of diathesis alternations.