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UNIVERSITA’ DI PISA
Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Linguistica
TESI DI LAUREA
Towards an Italian VerbNet: a descriptive analysis of argument alternations.
Candidata: Relatore: Veronica Viola Prof. Alessandro Lenci Correlatore: Prof. essa Giovanna Marotta Esperto Esterno: Dott. Gianluca Lebani
ANNO ACCADEMICO 2012-2013
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“In the world “out there,” there are no verbs, no speech events, and no adjacency pairs.
There are particles of matter moving around in certain recurrent and yet not fully
predictable patterns. We interpret such experiences as and through symbolic means,
including linguistic expressions. That’s what it means to be human.”
(Alessandro Duranti)
To Emmet, for standing by my side while I face the daily challenges of being human.
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Contents
Contents ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 5
Chapter 1. Analysing verbs at the syntax-‐semantics interface .................................... 7
1.1. The necessity of an integrated syntactic-‐semantic framework ......................... 7
1.2. Lexical semantic representation ................................................................................ 10
1.2.1. The meaning-‐based approach .............................................................................................. 12
1.2.2 Aktionsart: Vendler’s verb classes ....................................................................................... 13
1.2.3 Verb valency and argument structure ............................................................................... 16
1.2.4 Fillmore’s case frames and Thematic Roles ..................................................................... 20
1.2.5 From verb meaning to the underlying event structures ............................................ 26
Chapter 2. VerbNet: a verb classification based on argument alternations ......... 29
2.1. Argument Alternations: what they are and why they matter ........................... 29
2.1.2. Traditional argument alternations ..................................................................................... 31
2.1.3. Event Composition .................................................................................................................... 33
2.2. Verb classes ........................................................................................................................ 35
2.3. VerbNet: a computational verb lexicon for English .............................................. 36
Chapter 3. Towards a classification of argument alternations in Italian .............. 40
3.1. Subcategorisation frames for a sample of Italian verbs ..................................... 40
3.1.1. Resources ....................................................................................................................................... 40
3.1.2. Carving verbs subcategorisation frames ......................................................................... 43
3.2. Data extraction ................................................................................................................. 45
3.2.1. Automatic extraction of argument alternation candidates ...................................... 46
3.2.2. Manual identification of Italian frame alternations .................................................... 47
Chapter 4. A descriptive analysis of argument alternations in Italian .................. 48
4.1. Alternations that involve argumental sentences .................................................. 48
4.1.1. Alternations involving argumental sentences in a complement position ......... 49
4.1.2. Alternations involving argumental sentences in the subject position ................ 59
4.2. Alternations that involve noun or prepositional phrases (NP or PP) ............ 62
4.2.1. Alternations causing a change in the transitivity of the verbs ............................... 63
4.2.2. Alternations involving two intransitive variants ......................................................... 79
4.2.3. Alternations involving verbs with predicative complements ................................. 82
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4.3. Alternations involving an argumental sentence and a phrase complement
(NP or PP) ................................................................................................................................... 83
4.3.1. Alternations affecting a complement position .............................................................. 83
4.3.2. Alternations taking place in the subject position ......................................................... 94
4.3.3. Alternations requiring predicative complements ........................................................ 96
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 99
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................. 105
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 107
APPENDIXES ............................................................................................................................. 116
APPENDIX A – List of Subcategorisation Frames in Il Sabatini & Coletti (2012)
...................................................................................................................................................... 116
APPENDIX B – List of the 1000 Top Frequent Italian Verbs Analysed in our
Sample (see CD-‐ROM) ........................................................................................................... 117
APPENDIX C – List of Subcategorisation Frames identified in the annotation
procedure ................................................................................................................................. 118
APPENDIX D – Argumental Sentence Alternations ..................................................... 124
APPENDIX E – Alternations involving Noun or Prepositional Phrases (NP or PP)
...................................................................................................................................................... 127
APPENDIX F – Alternations involving an argumental sentence and a phrase
complement (NP or NP) ....................................................................................................... 130
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Introduction
In this thesis we explore the linguistic phenomenon known as “argument alternations”
(Levin & Rappaport 2005) in relation to Italian. Given its widespread diffusion in natural
languages and the intellectual challenges it encourages, the study of this particular
aspect has interested all researchers involved in both syntax and semantics, regardless
of the theoretical framework in which they place their work.
Unfortunately, as is the case with many other linguistic phenomena, the vast
majority of the research conducted so far on argument alternation has concentrated
almost exclusively on English, paying very little or no attention at all to other languages
(DeLancey 1995; Guerssel et al. 1985).
In relation to Italian, argument alternations have been the object of dedicated
research only in the last decade and quite sporadically; also, most of the time, these
works focus only on few specific different alternations (Cennamo (forthcoming); Jezek
2003; Lenci 2009; Lenci (in press)), while a complete and detailed classification of all
the ones allowed in Italian, comparable to that available for English (Levin 1993), is still
lacking.
This thesis represents a first attempt to fill this gap, providing a descriptive
analysis of argument alternations in Italian based on a sample of the 1000 top frequent
Italian verbs, derived from a lexicographic resource and manually annotated, and semi-‐
automatically extracted.
In Chapter 1 we outline a brief history of the major theories of lexical semantic
representation, highlighting their strong points, but also the issues that each of them
inevitably raises and the problems they left unsolved. We also argue in favour of a
theoretical framework that should embrace syntax and semantics at once, as
demonstrated by the inherent incompleteness and poor predictive power of all those
approaches that have focused on only one of these linguistic levels of investigation.
In Chapter 2 we present the phenomenon investigated in this thesis, namely
“argument alternations”, which we describe with a specific focus on the theoretical
challenges they posit, particularly in relation to two of the most recent and debated
contributions in the field, put forward by Roland & Jurafsky (2002) and Beavers (2006)
respectively. In order to provide the most complete framework possible, we also briefly
explore a similar and equally intellectually demanding phenomenon, commonly referred
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to as “event composition”. Lastly, we describe VerbNet (Kipper et al. 2000; Kipper-‐
Sculer 2005), the computational lexical resource available for English that not only has
proven to be extremely valuable in both linguistics and Natural Language Processing
(NLP) research, but that has also inspired this work.
In Chapter 3 we show the methodology used to, on one hand, collect our data,
illustrating in detail the lexical resources exploited (Il Sabatini & Coletti 2012; Lenci et al.
2012) and the annotation procedure, and, on the other, to semi-‐automatically extract
what we had set out to investigate, namely argument alternations in Italian.
In Chapter 4 we provide a descriptive analysis of our findings, describing in
depth each and every alternation we found: for most of them, we also attempt a first and
necessarily partial semantic classification of Italian verbs, mainly following Levin’s
(1993), but also proposing novel classes when it was felt that none of the ones available
in her seminal work were compatible with our verbs. Moreover, it was thought best to
divide our results into three major groups, according to the type of argument realisation
allowed by each alternation, which could consist of: 1) two argumental sentences, 2) two
noun or prepositional phrases, and 3) an argumental sentence and a noun or
prepositional phrase.
Hence, in order to build an Italian VerbNet, the necessary first step to undertake
was the investigation and the consequent identification of argument alternations
allowed by Italian verbs, and this is exactly what we tried to achieve with this thesis.
Moreover, taking into consideration the complexity of the linguistic phenomenon we
explored and the difficulties intrinsic to such an ambitious purpose, it is worth stressing
that the semantic classification proposed is only a first attempt to organise Italian verbs
and future research will most certainly have to focus on this aspect.
These necessary premises notwithstanding, we hope that this work will
encourage the Italian research community, and whosoever would like to conduct their
work on Italian verbs, to carry out further research on argument alternations in Italian,
not only extending the sample we used, but also basing the analysis on sources of
information different from the ones we exploited. In fact, it is only with the collection of
more corpus-‐based evidence that the claims made in this thesis could be fully validated
for Italian.
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Chapter 1
Analysing verbs at the syntax-‐semantics interface
1.1. The necessity of an integrated syntactic-‐semantic framework
The study of meaning in language, known as semantics, has interested the greatest
thinkers and philosophers for a very long time, deeply fascinated and intrigued by the
unique ability of mankind to interpret the world around them and express it through
words. However, it was not until the second half of the last century that semantics truly
became a central aspect in the description of the language faculty proposed not within
philosophical traditions, but within proper linguistic frameworks (Berruto 1976; Cann,
Kempson & Gregoromichelaki 2009).
In modern linguistics, the interest in the way words represent meaning, or lexical
semantics, can be traced back to Ferdinand de Saussure (Geeraerts 2010), whose
intuitions have resulted in the so-‐called “structural semantics”, a branch of the broader
approach known as “structural linguistics”. In particular, De Saussure (1916) put
forward a model according to which a linguistic sign or unit is a double entity consisting
of a signifier (its phonic component realised as a sequence of either graphemes or
phonemes) and a signified (the mental image evoked by the signifier), distinguishing
thus between form and substance (De Saussure 1916, pp 97-‐100). In an attempt to
provide semantics with a formal and rigorous descriptive apparatus, Saussure’s model
was first developed by Hjelmslev (1957), who not only renamed signifier and signified as
expression plane and content plane respectively, but also proposed for the first time ever
to adapt the analysis in distinctive features and phonemes used in phonetics to
semantics, introducing the semantic features (Hjelmslev 1961). This theoretical
framework was subsequently enriched by the work of Greimas (1966), who applied to
semantic analysis the specular terms seme (the smallest unit of meaning recognisable)
and sememe (a semantic unit made up by the combination of two or more semes).
This interest for lexical semantics as a main topic of linguistic research was partly
overshadowed by the advent of the transformational-‐generative model, considered by
many “the most radical and important change in direction in descriptive linguistics and
in linguistic theory that has taken place in recent years” (Robins 1967, p. 226). This
approach was inaugurated in 1957 with the publication of Chomsky’s Syntactic
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Structures and became the dominant theoretical model in linguistics when his second
main work, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, was published in 1965. As the titles of
Chomsky’s seminal works themselves would suggest, his original theory was built on the
premise that syntax was the core component (or module: see Fodor 1983) of the
language faculty and that the analysis of syntactic behaviour in different languages was
the key to understanding it, thus giving very little prominence to other linguistic levels
such as lexicon.
As a partial reaction to the wide spread of Chomsky’s model, since the 1970s,
over the past forty years we have witnessed a shift in the general focus of theoretical
linguistics, from merely looking at how words can and do combine with each other
(syntax) to the study of how actual meaning is represented in those words (lexical
semantics), giving rise to many different theoretical frameworks which have since been
put forward, such as Lexical Functional Grammar (Bresnan 1982), Functional Grammar
(Dik 1978, 1989, 1997; Vossen 1995; Olbertz et al. 1998), Role and Reference Grammar
(van Valin & Foley 1984) and the Generative Lexicon (Pustejovsky 1995). Moreover,
notwithstanding the syntax-‐centered nature of the generative school, generative
linguists themselves begun to take lexicon more seriously in the light of the newly
collected evidence, and Chomsky himself presented a revised version of his theory in
which semantics was finally incorporated and its key role in understanding the nature of
the language faculty recognised (Chomsky 1981).
It is precisely in this renovated interest for semantics that one must place all the
attempts made to study and understand verbal behaviour. The category of verbs has in
fact drawn attention since ever and Plato himself viewed verbs as one of the “two kinds
of vocal indication of being” (Plato 1921, 261.e), along with nouns, underlying how
linguistic meaning does not truly emerge:
Theaet. “In what way?”
Str. “ For instance, “walks”, “runs”, “sleeps”, and the other verbs which denote action, even if you utter all there are of them in succession, do not make discourse for all that.” Theaet. “No, of course not.” Str. “And again, when “lion”, “stag”, “horse”, and all other names of those who perform these actions are uttered, such a succession of words not yet make discourse; for in neither case do the words uttered indicate action or inaction
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or existence of anything that exists or does not exist, until the verbs are mingled with the nouns; then the words fit, and their first combination is a sentence, about the first and shortest form of discourse”
[Plato 1921, 262b-‐c]
It is worth stressing how this passage of Plato’s Sophist seems to have anticipated the
field of research known today as “linguistic interfaces”, by which we commonly refer “to
the informational connections and communication among putative modules within the
grammar” (Rachmand & Reiss 2007, p. 2): this new approach has been proving so fertile
and successful for the understanding of the architecture of language that it does not
come as a surprise that, in recent years, a significant part of the most intellectually
engaging and challenging research has come precisely from the study of interfaces.
Amongst the many possible interfaces, the syntax-‐semantics one has received
great attention, and for obvious reasons: not only it bridges a gap which for so long was
considered unbridgeable, but it also deals with one of the most intriguing facts about
language, namely the rising of meaning through the combination of lexical items,
primarily that of verbs and nouns, as Plato’s aforementioned quote stresses.
Hence, linguists have been facing the difficult task of elaborating models of lexical
representation that would encompass both semantic and syntactic aspects at once, and,
even though the theoretical frameworks so far proposed vary substantially in relation to
one other, they all agree on the key role of verbs and of the mechanisms through which
they project their lexical information onto the nouns they combine with: an apparently
basic yet fundamental linguistic match, which has been defined –and rightly so – “the
backbone of language and thought” (Moro 2012, p. 20).
It has long been known that every single verb “evokes a certain number of
elements in respect to which something is predicated” (Jezek 2003, p. 18): these
elements commonly go under the name of arguments and they are syntactic realisations
of the lexical-‐semantic information that each and every verb carries. The operations
through which this information is passed from the semantic level onto the syntactic one
is an issue known in linguistics as mapping, and the analysis of the possible syntactic
expressions of a verb’s arguments is called argument realisation:
(1) a. Leslie swept
b. *Kelly broke [Levin & Rappaport Hovav 1998, p. 102]
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As the examples in (1) shows, a verb like to sweep is grammatically acceptable with only
one argument (the subject), even in the absence of any context, whereas a verb like to
break is not, unless we add a second argument (the object) that must be always
syntactically realised:
(2) Kelly broke the dishes/the glasses/her finger/the TV
Because of its inherently twofold nature, this area of linguistics has appealed to many
scholars and researchers, who turned it into the leading field for the study of the
interaction between the syntactic level and the semantic one.
In fact, as we briefly mentioned above, “since the 1980s, many theories of
grammar have been built on the assumption that the syntactic realisation of arguments
– their category type and their grammatical function – is largely predictable from the
meaning of their verbs” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 7), which means that every
theoretical model of argument realisation has to feature at least a theory of lexical
semantic representations of verbs and, moreover, a theory of how these representations
are mapped onto the relevant syntactic representations.
1.2. Lexical semantic representation
If there is a general agreement on interpreting the semantic representation of verbs as
articulated in different levels (also called structures1), there is definitely less agreement
on which are the levels, how many of them there are and how semantic information
distributes among them. In fact, once we have established that “the semantic content of
a lexical entry determines to a large extent its syntactic contexts of occurrence or
subcategorization properties2” (Koening & Davis 2006, p. 71), and that this “semantic
content” is organized at different levels, we still have to determine which facets of a verb
meaning influence and, at the same time, limit its syntactic structure.
Since verbs are, like any other lexical items, linguistic symbols that codify
complex events happening in the world, it is easily understandable why they should, and
indeed do, display an equally complex set of semantic properties. However, as
1 See 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 for the description of the different structures. 2 See 2.3.1. and 2.3.2.
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crosslinguistic differences show, not all of these properties play a role in determining
the syntactic realisation of verbs and their arguments, therefore leading us to assume
that “there is a set of semantic elements and relations that is much smaller than the set
of cognitively available and culturally salient distinctions, and verb meanings are
organised around them” (Pinker 1989, p. 166). According to this view then, it seems to
be more accurate to interpret verbs as predicate of events, rather than as events
themselves, namely as complex happenings in the world decomposable into the smaller
and delimited phases of which they consist (subatomic semantic decomposition of events;
see Parsons 1990, Arsenijević et al. 2013).
Also, this assumption about verbs allows us to fully understand why languages
vary greatly in relation to argument structure: in each and every one of them, verbs
exhibit an idiosyncratic sensibility only to a selected subset of the wide range of
semantic features associated with the event they describe, making every language a
unique depiction of the world (Steiner 1975).
Hence, following Levin & Rappaport (2005), we believe that only those aspects of
meaning that determine argument realisation must be included in the lexical semantic
representation of verbs, whereas all the others, being irrelevant for the set purpose, can
be left out.
Consequently, in providing verbs with a proper lexical semantic representation
one should first analyse verbs and their syntactic realisations, trying to divide them into
classes accordingly to their behaviour. Then, one should carefully look at the semantics
of those verbs that fall into the same group, seeking out the underlying semantic
properties that can be held responsible for their common argument realisation. The
outcome of this thorough analysis should be the identification of verbs semantic classes
present in a given language.
However, as soon as many different -‐ yet all seemingly plausible -‐ semantic
parameters arose as means to classify verbs, it became clear that “the isolation of
meaning components appropriate to the characterisation of verbs in a particular
semantic class presents a real challenge” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 15), the
failure of which can not only compromise the results, but also bring into question the
reliability of the methodology itself employed to obtain them.
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In the next paragraphs we briefly illustrate the main approaches so far put
forward to organise verbs into different classes. Given the scope and purpose of this
thesis we thought it best to give more space and pay more attention to those aspects
related to the so-‐called “argument structure” and, of course, to the models based on
them: for the sake of completeness we will still present some of the other existing
frameworks, which, however, will not be dealt with in depth but only touched on.
1.2.1. The meaning-‐based approach
The most basic and naïve verb classification is certainly the one based on the “analysis of
the type of event expressed by a verb from a semantic point of view” (Jezek 2005, p.
107) namely its denotative meaning3, which is also responsible for the so-‐called
“prototypical meaning” of verbs (and also nouns). This is precisely the basic and broad
meaning conveyed by any given lexical item and that, even in the case of polysemy or
figurative language, can still be identified as the typical semantic content of that specific
word. According to this parameter, verbs naturally fall into various categories, such as:
-‐ movement verbs (to walk, to run, to stroll) / verbi di movimento (camminare,
correre, passeggiare);
-‐ perception verbs (to hear, to see, to smell) / verbi di percezione (sentire, vedere,
annusare);
-‐ throwing verbs (to throw, to toss, to hurl) / verbi di lancio (buttare, gettare,
scagliare).
Even though this way of classifying verbs is clear-‐cut and theoretically plausible, as
extensively discussed above, the semantics of verbs is more complex than this and, as
further empirical research demonstrated, there is much more to verbs and verbal
behaviour than just “knowledge of idiosyncratic word-‐specific properties” (Levin 1993,
p. 1).
3 “Denotation. The relation between a lexical unit and whatever objects, etc. it is used to refer to. E.g. bull denotes (in one account of its meaning) a class of animals, brown a property of individuals or objects, etc.” (Matthews 2007, p. 97).
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1.2.2 Aktionsart: Vendler’s verb classes
A different way of classifying verbs is based on a semantic parameter known as
Aktionsart. Even though its first use dates back to the beginning of the XX century (Agrell
1908), it was not until the publication of Vendler’s famous article Verbs and Times
(1957) that this level of verb meaning became widely known and used.
The German term Aktionsart is commonly translated into English with the phrase
“lexical aspect” and, in this framework, it refers to “different ways of viewing the
internal temporal constituency of a situation” (Comrie 1976, p. 3). As we already argued,
verbs are lexical items that describe structured events: since every happening in the
world necessarily takes place over the course of a more or less defined length of time,
looking at how the unfolding through time is represented by every verb can cast some
light on its syntactic behaviour.
Vendler bases his analysis of verbs behaviour on a parameter that he calls “time
schemata”, indicating with it the internal temporal structure of a verb, regardless of any
other time-‐point that may refer to an external situation. According to this semantic
property then, four different classes can be individuated, which are believed to refer to
as many types of events:
1. States (or statives): to believe, to own, to exist, etc.;
2. Activities: to cook, to dance, to study, etc.;
3. Accomplishments: to build, to heal, to cut;
4. Achievements: to find, to become, to lose.
Not only do they differ in relation to which tenses they allow and which temporal
modifiers they can be paired with, but they also present different logical implications.
Stative verbs typically go on for a certain period of time, during which the event
described does not show any modification or any further decomposition into smaller
sub-‐phases. Activity verbs have certain duration, just like States, but contrary to them
they can be analysed as a sequence of different stages, all of which are equally true.
Accomplishment verbs have duration, just like the previous two classes, but they “have a
climax, which has to be reached if the action is to be what it is claimed to be” (Vendler
1957, p. 145).
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If verbs normally ascribed to the three classes presented so far all share the
durativity element, those belonging to the fourth one do not: Achievement verbs
typically describe so-‐called punctual events, namely those events whose inherent
temporal endpoint consist of just one short phase that corresponds to an instantaneous
culmination, and before which there is no preparation phase.
Vendler’s time schemata have thus been interpreted as an internal temporal
structure articulated in binary aspectual features, the combination of which determines
to which class a verb belongs (Fig. 1). Traditionally, there are three types: durativity,
dynamicity and telicity4. The first one draws a fine line between events that happen
overtime and events that are perceived as instantaneous; the second distinguishes
dynamic events -‐ typically processes -‐ from states; the third is the least intuitive one and
it describes events that tend towards a completion, the reaching of which is essential in
order to consider the action completed (telic), in opposition to those that do not imply
such an internal final point (atelic).
DURATIVITY DYNAMICITY TELICITY
States + -‐ -‐
Activities + + -‐
Accomplishments + + +
Achievements -‐ + +
Table 1: Combination of aspectual features in Vendler's classification
As briefly mentioned above, the most striking fact about these features – which is also
what has made them so widely used– is that they only allow for specific syntactic
structures, the presence of which in a given class can then be inferred by looking at its
characteristic features.
Durative and dynamic verbs (Activities and Accomplishments) allow continuous
tenses (“I am running”, “She is cutting the bread”), whereas the lack of just one of these
two features (States and Achievements) is enough for a verb to not have such a structure
(*“I am owing two houses”, *“He is finding the keys”). Moreover, atelic predicates (States
and Activities) can be paired with the adverbial phrase “for x time” (“He was in college
4 These three are the most widely known and used, but not the only ones; some models include other aspects, such as: iterativity, ingressivity, egressivity, and so on.
15
for two years”, “ We cooked for an hour”), while telic ones (Accomplishments and
Achievements) can’t (*“They built a bridge for three months”, *“We found the hotel for a
day”). Lastly, only durative, dynamic and telic verbs (Accomplishments) can appear with
the phrase “in x time” (“The wound healed in a week”), and only non-‐durative, dynamic
and telic verbs (Achievements) are compatible with the phrase “at time x” (“You arrived
at 4PM”). Vice versa, the possibility for a verb to exhibit a certain syntactic behaviour is
taken as a test to establish whether a verb belongs to a class or not (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Syntactic tests for Vendler's verb classes [ Jezek 2003, p. 33]
Given the analysis we propose in this thesis, it is important to stress the value of
actionality for the consequences it bares in relation to syntactic valency. In particular,
the presence of the telicity feature seems to be responsible for the possibility of
intransitive Activity verbs (3a) to become transitive Accomplishment verbs (3b), by
means of introducing a direct object and, therefore, of effecting the syntactic valence of
the verbs in question:
(3) a. Chiara sings / Chiara canta
b. Chiara sings a cake / Chiara canta una canzone
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that a significant application of Vendler’s
classification is that conducted by Bertinetto for Italian (1986): even though it is limited
to the indicative mood, it is still today an invaluable piece of work and, by far, the most
complete and thorough actionality-‐based analysis of the Italian verb system.
After Vendler’s classification, the most renowned contribution in the description of
verb behaviour based on aspectual properties was that of Dowty (1979), who proposed
a representation of the four classes established by Vendler expressed through the aid of
16
logical terms. These “logical terms” consist of the following three semantic primitives,
namely semantic basic concepts that are innately understood, but cannot be expressed
in simpler terms:
1. BECOME: it indicates inchoativity, which is the instantiation of a change of state
taken to be spontaneous and not attributable to a specific agentive entity;
2. DO: it reflects agentivity, namely the firm intention of a specific entity to act on a
certain situation or other entity;
3. CAUSE: it establishes a causal relation between two otherwise separate events,
which are put into correlation by either a spontaneous or an intentional event.
When these primitives are applied to what Dowty considers “atom predicates” that
cannot be further decomposed, namely Statives, they give rise to the other three classes
of verbs and the processes through which they emerge are called by Dowty “logical
structures” (Dowty 1979). So, for instance, a typical achievement verb such as to die, can
be analysed as ‘(BECOME) dead (x)’, which means that “the entity (x) has undergone a
change of state that has led it to now be dead”.
1.2.3 Verb valency and argument structure
A third way of studying verbs and their syntactic behaviour is based on the semantic
level now known as “argument structure”, which was first proposed by Tesnière
(1959)5.
According to this framework – and the ones which followed –, every sentence is
built around a verb, which, just like an atom with its surrounding sub-‐particles, is
capable of exerting a force upon a variable number of phrasal elements, called first
“actants”, then “arguments”, and defined as “les personnes ou choses qui participent à
un degré quelconque au procès” (Tesnière 1959, p. 105). Also, the traditional concept of
“government” or “rection” is replaced with that of “valence” or “verb valency”, clearly
derived from the definition and use of this term in chemistry.
5 Other models based on this semantic level are Grimshaw (1990) and Lazard’s “actantial model” (1994).
17
Thus, depending on the number of arguments that a verb needs in order for its
meaning to be fully realised, four classes of verbs have been identified6:
1. Avalent verbs (0 arguments): “It7 rains a lot”;
2. Monovalent verbs (1 argument): “She1 has aged”;
3. Divalent verbs (2 arguments): "The mother1 hugged the little boy2”;
4. Trivalent verbs (3 arguments): “He1 showed us2 the house3”.
However, calculating the valence of a verb proved to be not as straightforward as it may
seem at first sight.
As Tesnière himself noted, a verb can also be accompanied by phrasal elements,
known as adjuncts, that are not its arguments but still express “les circonstances de
temps, lieu, manière, etc. dans lesquelles se déroule le procès” (Tesnière 1959, p. 102),
as seen in the following examples:
(3) a. My dad left on Tuesday
b. I met my friend Julian the other day in a nice café in town
Moreover, under particular circumstances certain verbs can leave one of their
arguments syntactically unexpressed, which is therefore said to be optional:
(4) a. “My boss takes ages to park [his car/motorbike/van/etc. > vehicles]
b. “Amanda has finally come back [home/to work/etc. > places]
As one can assume from these sentences, these verbs have two equally possible and
acceptable syntactic structures, depending on the presence or not of one of their
arguments (precisely those in italics).
6 A fifth class of tetravalent verbs (4 arguments: “They moved the couch from the sitting room to the bedroom”) has been proposed, but the debate is still quite far from being settled (Jezek 2005). 7 Here, “it” is what is normally called a “dummy subject”, namely a mere syntactic placeholder used in non-‐pro-‐drop languages, such as English, when the argument of a verb is semantically nonexistent and has no real reference, but it is still syntactically required. In pro-‐drop languages, such as Italian, avalent verbs have in fact no subject at all (*“Il cielo piove”).
18
Another case is that of verbs like to cut, the meaning of which semantically and
logically implies the use of a sharp manageable tool; however, the argument that should
refer to it is actually never syntactically realised, as demonstrated by the sentences in
(5):
(5) a. “My brother always cuts the bread [with a knife]”
b. “The hairdresser cut my hair nicely [with a pair of scissors]”
Such arguments are referred to as default arguments (Pustejovsky 1995, p. 63).
A similar yet slightly different case is that of verbs like to brush, whose meaning
already incorporates one of its arguments: it differs from the previous scenario because,
in order for this argument to be syntactically expressed, it needs to be further specified:
(6) a. *“My mum always brushed my hair with the brush”
b. “My mum always brushed my hair with my favourite Barbie’s brush”
Such arguments commonly go under the name of shadow arguments (Pustejovsky 1995,
p. 63).
The examples discussed above show that “if it is true that the scene elicited by a
verb evokes a certain number of elements in relation to which something is ‘predicated’,
it is just as true that these such elements are not all equally and necessary realised at the
syntax level” (Jezek 2003, p. 18). This striking evidence inevitably led to a much-‐needed
distinction between syntactic valence, which refers to the pattern of syntactically
necessary arguments of a verb – else the sentence is ungrammatical – and semantic
valence, which corresponds to the set of all the arguments implied by a verb at a logical
level.
Selectional restrictions
Once the number of arguments that a verb needs to create well-‐formed sentences has
been established, it is necessary to validate their semantic content. If it is true that
predicates select their arguments in terms of numbers, it is equally as true that,
precisely because of their meaning, they also constrain them in terms of semantics.
19
Even though the first to systematically note that co-‐occurring words always show
some relations of semantic context was Porzig (1934), we owe the first extensive
discussion about selectional restrictions to Chomsky, who talks about “strict
subcategorisation rules” on one hand, and “selectional rules” on the other (Chomsky
1965). The latter is precisely what we commonly refer to as semantic-‐selection (or s-‐
selection: Chomsky 1986), and it is responsible for the restrictions between predicates
and the semantic type of their complements.
As for how to represent these restrictions and the semantic content of the
arguments they allow, since the work of Hjelmslev (1961) within the structural
theoretical framework, linguists have adapted the formalism of binary semantic
features, which is briefly illustrated in the examples in (7):
(7) a. to eat (2 arguments): [+ animate] _ [+edible];
b. to sleep (1 argument): [+ animate].
This aspect of argument structure is fundamental for whoever wishes to undertake a
complete analysis of verbs because it shows how sentences can be syntactically well-‐
formed, therefore grammatical, but still thoroughly unacceptable for any speaker of a
given language, since they entail a violation of a semantic restriction. Once again,
Chomsky gave a brilliant example of this when he drew a distinction between the two
following sentences:
(8) a. “Colourless green ideas sleep furiously”’
b. *“Furiously sleep ideas green colourless”
As a matter of fact, he simply noticed that (8a) “though nonsensical, is grammatical,
while (8b) is not grammatical” (Chomsky 1957, p. 15), which demonstrates how the two
levels in question, namely syntax and semantics, must be kept separated in the study of
language faculty (see also Moro 2006).
20
Subcategorisation restrictions
Lastly, it is important to note that verbs influence their arguments in one more way,
namely through another set of restrictions that work together with the semantic ones
discussed in the previous paragraph. This property of verbs is called subcategorisation
(or c-‐selection: Chomsky 1986) and it “expresses restrictions between predicates and
the syntactic category of their complements” (Grimshaw 1979, p. 279).
Verbs can in fact allow the same number of arguments, but restrict their syntactic
realisation in a different way. For instance, the verb “to rent” is divalent, just like the
verb “to live”: however, while the former one allows only a direct object as second
argument (NP), the latter one requires the same second argument to be expressed as an
indirect object, realised as a prepositional phrase (PP).
Such evidence is clearly what prompted Chomsky to recognise the necessity for a
verb (V) to be categorised “in terms of a certain set of frames in which V occurs”
(Chomsky 1965, p. 96): this set of arguments has been thus called subcategorisation
frame ever since and, along with the set of semantic selectional restrictions, it is believed
by many linguists to be part of the lexical entry of a verb (Grimshaw 1990).
1.2.4 Fillmore’s case frames and Thematic Roles
A considerably different way of looking at arguments and their structure was first
introduced by Charles Fillmore in his seminal paper “The case for case” (1968), which
can indeed be considered the origin of the modern interest in semantic role lists.
Moving from a syntactical perspective, Fillmore’s focus is on the transformational
mechanisms that make it possible for the deep structure (DS) to turn into the surface
structure (SS) of a language. Even though he obviously borrows the word case from the
tradition of studies based on such “case languages” as Latin, Greek or Sanskrit, he does
not use it to refer to grammatical categories, but to semantic functions.
Given sentences like the following ones:
(9) i. He hit the ball
ii. He received a blow
iii. He received a gift
21
iv. He loves her
v. He has black hair [Fillmore 1968, p. 6]
Fillmore notes how the same subject “He”, thus realised in the same syntactic position,
takes part in the actions described by the verbs above in very different ways. Moving
from this observation, he believes that such differences have to be ascribed to the
semantic relations that each argument establishes with the verb. On this account,
Fillmore posits the existence of a limited and presumably universal set of what he calls
deep cases8 , which aim to represent precisely all the possible semantic relations
responsible for the heterogeneity of argument realisation.
The interesting aspect of Fillmore’s model (later called case grammar) is that,
even though it emerged from a strongly syntactic tradition, it is based on the assumption
that the argument structure of a verb – namely its syntactic realisation – depends on the
deep cases associated with it – namely a semantic relation –, and not the other way
around. Every verb is then identified with a so-‐called case frame (Fillmore 1968), which
is construed as a configuration of its deep cases from which one can derive the argument
realisation.
Hence, according to this framework, “the full combinatory description of a verb
would consist […] of a pairing of a case frame with the manner in which the phrases
representing the individual cases are realized in the syntax” (Fillmore 2008, pp. 5-‐6).
In the following years, Fillmore’s case grammar received so much attention –
along with mixed reviews – that even Chomsky, after including the subsystem “lexicon”
as a base of the Universal Grammar (UG), postulated what he called Θ-‐theory, namely a
set of principles “concerned with the assignment of thematic roles such as agent-‐of-‐
action” (Chomsky 1981, p. 5). The principle that bears particular relevance in this
context is the θ-‐criterion, according to which every verb is bound to each of its
arguments by a specific semantic relation, called θ-‐role, assigned on the basis of the θ-‐
position it occupies in the LF (“Logical Form”). Moreover, the information concerning
this projection mechanism is coded in what Chomsky calls θ-‐grid, which is thought to be
part of the lexical entry of every verb (Chomsky 1981, pp. 34-‐36). So, for instance, in the
8 For similar concepts, see Gruber (1965) and Jackendoff’s (1983) thematic relations, and Davidson’s (1984) primitive notions.
22
following sentences, Chomsky identified the θ-‐positions in brackets and, depending on
the specific θ-‐grid of the verb in question, they will be assigned a certain θ-‐role:
(10) a. [They] persuaded [John] [that [he] should leave]
b. [We] hold [that [these truths] are [self-‐evident]]
c. [We] hold [these truths] to be [self-‐evident]] [Chomsky 1981, p. 36]
Semantic Role lists
Over the past decades, many linguists have tried to describe the semantic relations
between verbs and arguments, usually formalising them in what has been called a
semantic role list9, namely “a predetermined set of labels that identify arguments
according to the semantic relation they bear to their verb” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav
2005, p. 35). The following one is a typical example of what they look like:
a. Agent (A): the instigator of the event;
b. Counter-‐Agent (C): the force or resistance against which the action is carried out;
c. Object (O)10: the entity that moves or changes or whose position or existence is in
consideration;
d. Result (R): the entity that comes into existence as a result of the action;
e. Instrument (I): the stimulus or immediate physical cause of an event;
f. Source (S): the place from which something moves;
g. Goal (G): the place to which something moves;
h. Experiencer (E): the entity which receives or accepts or experiences or
undergoes the effect of an action. [Fillmore 1971b, p. 376]
In spite of the fact that many semantic role lists have been so far proposed (see also
Gruber 1965; Jackendoff 1972, 1976), as a matter of fact they all begin from the same
9 Semantic roles refers here to what early accounts (such as the ones described in the previous paragraph) call case frame (Fillmore 1968), thematic roles, θ-‐roles or theta-‐grid (Stowell 1981). 10 The role “Object” in Fillmore includes both the semantic roles of “Patient” and “Theme”, distinguished in the majority of semantic role lists proposed afterwards.
23
basic assumptions: first, they all see semantic roles as entities that cannot be
semantically analysable; moreover, being predetermined, they are defined
independently of verb meaning and, lastly, even though the lists vary in terms of both
composition and size, they are all considerably small.
Thus, the aim of a theory of semantic roles is to identify a universally acceptable
canon of semantic roles that can be applied to any argument of any verb: the
consequence of such a goal is that assigning semantic roles is taken as a means to bring
out similarities and differences in verb meaning that are reflected in argument
realisation. Therefore, it is possible to identify, for each role, a natural class of
arguments, whose members not only establish the same relation with their verbs, but
also allow the same morphosyntactic expression. For instance, the break class and the
hit class examined by Fillmore in The Grammar of Hitting and Breaking (1970) show
specific morphosyntactic behaviour, systematically shared by all the members of the
respective class (see Chapter 2, §1). In order to explain the differences between the two
types of class, Fillmore proposes distinct semantic role lists for the break verbs and the
hit verbs, taken to be responsible for the superficial syntactic variances:
(11) a. break: Agent, Instrument, Object
b. hit: Agent, Instrument, Place [Fillmore 1970, p. 131]
Since Fillmore’s breakthrough, approaches based on semantic role lists have received
ample and, perhaps, predictable criticisms.
The first issue related to such approaches concerns their basically syntactic
nature: as noted by Ravin (1990), the fact that only the semantic aspects that have a
syntactic realisation are taken into account is very limiting because, as discussed above
(2.3), part of the semantic content of a verb can remain syntactically unrealised, but
undoubtedly crucial for understanding and determining its actual syntactic behaviour
when put in the context of a sentence. A solution to this issue was proposed by Dowty
(1991), who maintained that semantic roles are not universal, but strictly defined in
relation to the verbs they are selected by: every verb, in fact, influences the semantic
roles that it assigns to its arguments by virtue of what Dowty calls lexical entailments,
thus claiming that “the implication follows from the meaning of the predicate in question
24
alone” (Dowty 1991, p. 552), originating then L-‐thematic roles (Lexical-‐thematic roles) of
that particular verb. According to this view, “establishing what semantic role an
argument of a verb bears, then, requires a careful examination of the meaning of the
verb and, in particular, the identification of the lexical entailments which the verb
specifies for that argument” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 39).
However, another problem that seems to stem directly from this revised
approach is the possibility for more semantic roles to emerge at a deeper analysis of
verbs and their argument realisation, an issue known as role fragmentation, the most
famous case of which is that of the role Agency: if Jackendoff (1983, p. 179-‐183) divides
it into Agent and Actor, and D. A. Cruse (1973, pp. 18-‐21) split it in four ways (Volitive,
Effective, Initiative, Agentive), Lakoff (1977, p. 244) goes as far as to propose fourteen
different Agent roles, depending on their supposedly distinctive characteristics. Dowty
fears that the adoption of “finer categorization of roles to achieve certain distinction”
might lead to the inability to appreciate “generalizations by not being able to refer to the
grosser Agent category” (Dowty 1991, p. 554). At the same time, extending the same
semantic role to clearly different arguments is equally as undesirable, since they would
prove to have little predictive power, consequently failing to appreciate differences in
the behaviour of arguments11 of various verbs.
One more issue concerning the interaction between the thematic level and the
syntactic level is related to the possibility shown by verbs to realise, on one hand, the
same thematic role in different syntactic fashions (argument alternation), and, on the
other, different thematic roles with the exact same argument, as respectively illustrated
in (12) and (13):
(12) a. “HeAg gave the moneyTh to MaryRec” b. “HeAg gave MaryRec the moneyTh”
[Jezek 2003, p. 25]
(13) a. “TracyAg washed the carTh with an enormous spongeInst”
b. “TracyAg washed the carTh with StacyCom” [Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 41]
11 As argued in Levin & Rappaport Hovav (2005), objects are generally more prone to potential fragmentation then subjects.
25
This issue is made even more puzzling by the fact that not all the verbs which could
potentially present the same argument alternation of “to give”, do in fact allow it, as
demonstrated by the example given in (14):
(14) a. HeAg returned the moneyTh to MaryRec
b. *HeAg returned MaryRec the moneyTh [Jezek 2003, p. 25]
Moreover, only specific thematic roles can share the same morphological expression in a
given language12, and they do it so systematically that it is impossible to dismiss it as a
random and accidental occurrence. Many scholars have in fact argued in favour of some sort of internal structure of
semantic roles, convinced by the evidence discussed above that “the small set of
unanalysed roles that characterises an ideal semantic role approach, then, is
incompatible with linguistic reality” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 42).
One last problem relating to thematic roles rises from the claim made by many
semantic role list approaches – particularly the earlier ones – that there may be at most
one instance of each semantic role per sentence and that each argument can bear one
and one only role (Fillmore 1968; Chomsky 1981). Unfortunately, even in this case
linguistic evidence contradicts such assumption, as shown in Gruber (1965) and
Jackendoff (1972, 1976, 1983), since many verbs present dual semantic role assignment
not only when an argument bears two semantic roles at once – (12) –, but also when two
arguments bear the same semantic role – (13) – and “with no apparent asymmetry in
what is predicated of the two arguments on which to pin a distinction in role type”
(Dowty 1991, p. 556):
(12) a. Kelly rolled down the hill / Kelly è rotolata giù dalla collina = AGENT (Kelly
rolled intentionally)
b. Kelly rolled down the hill / Kelly è rotolata giù dalla collina = THEME (Kelly
underwent a change of position over which she had no control)
12 For example, in English patients and recipients have the same syntactic realization in double object constructions, just like the preposition “with” usually indicates only instruments and comitatives.
26
(13) a. My brother resembles my grandfather / Mio fratello assomiglia a mio nonno =
THEME -‐ THEME
After more than forty years since Fillmore’s influential work, it is now believed that
“thematic roles do not represent a strong explicative instrument, they certainly aren’t a
semantic primitive and, in more that one occasions, even their existence has been called
into question” (Jezek 2003, p. 26).
Thematic roles do not in fact feature in the majority of current approaches to
lexical semantic representation and the only attempts to reintegrate them were made by
purely semantic frameworks, such as Role and Reference Grammar (Foley & van Valin
1984; van Valin & La Polla 1997), in which they are referred to as macro-‐roles, and
Dowty’s proto-‐roles (Dowty 1991).
1.2.5 From verb meaning to the underlying event structures
A yet different attempt to overcome the problems and limitations of semantic roles
entails a shift of focus from verbs and their syntactic behaviour to the underlying event
structure they actually represent, clearly stemming from a strongly semantic
perspective. These new theoretical proposals assume that argument realisation derives
directly from verb meaning, reason why what needs to be decomposed into more basic
elements is, in fact, verb meaning itself, and not semantic roles.
Such approaches are commonly known as predicate decomposition approaches
and, even though they have been elaborated in the work of many semanticists in various
contexts, they are all based on the idea that the meaning of a verb can be “formulated in
terms of one or more primitive predicates chosen to represent components of meaning
that recur across significant sets of verbs” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 69) and
that stands for what is usually called event structure. One example of predicate
decomposition is that put forward by Dowty (1979) and briefly examined above (see
2.2): the primitives found in this account (DO, CAUSE, BECOME) are widely used and can
indeed be considered the fundamental ones in all predicate decompositions.
Since verbs denote many and very different types of events, it is intuitive that the
sole use of primitives could not do justice to the huge variety of happenings in the world
and their linguistic codification, potentially leading to a misrepresentation of both. In
27
order to avoid such a risk then, these accounts maintain that verb meaning is composed
not only of primitives, but also of a second kind of basic information responsible for the
idiosyncratic element of verb’s meaning, commonly referred to as root (Pesetsky 1995).
Given three deadjectival verbs belonging to the same class (causative change-‐of-‐state
verbs), the standard representation of their meanings is illustrated in the following
example:
a. dry: [[ x ACT ] CAUSE [ y BECOME <DRY> ] ]
b. open: [[ x ACT ] CAUSE [ y BECOME <OPEN> ] ]
c. shorten: [[ x ACT ] CAUSE [ y BECOME <SHORT> ] ] [Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 71]
Hence, the event structure of verbs stems from the combination of its root and one or
more primitives, allowing predicates to be part of a certain class while, at the same time,
retaining their semantic distinctiveness.
From the example above, it is also clear that such representations allow verbs
belonging to the same semantic class (change-‐of-‐state) to have decompositions with
common substructures (x ACT > CAUSE > y BECOME <…>), with roots of the same
ontological type (dry, open, short all denote a transformation from state A to state B),
recurring in the exact same positions in these substructures (<…>).
The two most salient consequences of predicate decompositions are, on the one
hand, the possibility of identifying every semantic class of verbs with a given
decomposition that represents the basic event structure of its members; on the other, if
a verb is assigned a proper decomposition, one could predict which semantic class it will
belong to.
It does not come as a surprise then that predicate decomposition approaches
have received much praise: not only do they feature an immediate and economic
apparatus of representation, but, drawing a distinction between two equally necessary
semantic building blocks (primitive and roots), they also allow us to appreciate variety
within generalisations. Moreover, by their own nature, predicate decompositions entail
relations between arguments, providing a good explanation as to why only certain co-‐
occurrences of arguments are systematically observed, while others seem to never be
possible (see 2.4.1). Lastly, the association of every primitive with a specific argument
28
reveals the substructures of the more general event structure of every given verb,
enabling us to look at their properties and, consequently, understand the reasons behind
argument realisation.
29
Chapter 2
VerbNet: a verb classification based on argument alternations
2.1. Argument Alternations: what they are and why they matter
In the previous chapter, while introducing argument structure and how a semantic role
list approach deals with it (see 1.2.4.1), we briefly mentioned the linguistic phenomenon
known in the literature as argument alternation: as the discussion about give clearly
demonstrated, a verb can realise its arguments in more than just one syntactic way, thus
giving rise to a noticeable variation in how they can be syntactically expressed.
As the investigation of such linguistic aspects deepened, it became apparent that
argument alternations are in fact the rule, rather than the exception. In fact, the majority
of verbs, in English as well as in all the other languages studied so far, (DeLancey 1995;
Guerssel et al. 1985) seem to display at least one form of the broader set of phenomena
called multiple argument alternations, which mainly consist of “pairs of sentences with
the same verb, related by paraphrase or subsumption” (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005,
p. 186).
A prime example of such alternations is the causative-‐inchoative alternation (also
known as anticausative alternation or, simply, causative alternation; see Haspelmath
1993), possibly the most widely examined of all of them and illustrated in the following
sentences:
1) a. Rebecca broke the pencil.
b. The pencil broke.
2) a. Maria opened the door.
b. The door opened.
3) a. Thomas dried the clothes.
b. The clothes dried. [Piñón 2001, p. 346]
As is apparent, this alternation concerns verbs that have “an intransitive as well as a
transitive use, where the intransitive use typically denotes a change-‐of-‐state event
undergone by some entity and the transitive use denotes that this change-‐of-‐state event
30
has been brought about or caused by some different entity” (Schäfer 2009, p. 641).
Therefore, it is understandable that the transitive variants (a) have also been called
causative, and they can be paraphrased as “‘cause to V-‐intransitive’”, whereas the
intransitive ones (b) have been labeled inchoative.
Further research has also demonstrated that a superficial and general semantic
similarity between two or more verbs cannot be taken as a valid criterion to establish or
predict what alternations they might present and, consequently, share, as illustrated
very well in the famous case of break and hit. In “The Grammar of hitting and Breaking”
(1970), Fillmore focuses precisely on this pair because, given their shared basic
meaning, one would be prone to assume that they behave in a similar syntactic fashion.
However, as the following sentences show, this is not the case:
4) The stick broke.
5) *The tree hit. [Fillmore 1970, p. 126 – 128]
Even though both verbs can indeed be “characterized as agent-‐act-‐on-‐patient verbs”
(Levin & Rappaport Hovav, 2005, p. 1), break and hit appear nonetheless to act in a
dissimilar way, and, more importantly, not only in relation to the causative-‐inchoative
alternation described above.
One more difference that Fillmore notices in his aforementioned work is that
related to the possible readings of sentences that feature “stative adjectives” derived
from the two verbs in question, presented below:
6) The window was {broken}.
7) The window was {hit}. [Fillmore 1970, p. 131]
As one may intuitively notice, while the sentence in 1) can be “understood either as
passive or as description of states13”, the sentence in 2) “can be understood only as
passive” (Fillmore 1970, p. 131). This also means that sentence like 1) carry an
idiosyncratic ambiguity unknown to sentences like 2). In a later article, Fillmore (1977,
13 Called also eventive reading in Levin & Rappaport Hovav (2005, p. 2).
31
pp. 74-‐79) also stressed that sentences like those in (8) cannot be construed as simple
paraphrases, whereas those in (9) can:
(8) a. John broke the fence with the stick
b. John broke the stick against the fence
(9) a. John hit the fence with the stick
b. John hit the stick against the fence
The flexibility of syntactic behaviour exhibited by so many verbs has, of course,
challenged all those frameworks based on the assumption that the argument structure
of a given verb is encoded in its lexical entry, which alone determines the projection of
arguments onto syntax. However, if this were the case, it would be difficult to explain
why a verb should display more than one way to syntactically realise the exact same
arguments, and why verbs with similar meaning do not allow the same argument
alternations (see I.2.4.1.).
This theoretical issue has led linguists to reconsider the status of all the instances
of multiple argument realisations, drawing a distinction between at least two major
types: traditional argument alternations and so-‐called “event composition”.
2.1.2. Traditional argument alternations
These alternations are by far the most studied ones: they consist of an alternate
realisation of a single set of arguments, such as those illustrated above in (8) and (9).
Traditionally, the possibility for a verb to realise its arguments in two different
ways was explained by structural approaches by assuming a single lexical entry for both
forms. These are believed to have a common underlying syntactic structure: however,
one realisation is construed as the basic one, from which the other one is derived by
means of transformational rules. This is the case of the active-‐passive alternation
illustrated in (10) and described by Chomsky in these terms (Chomsky 1957):
(10) a. The mouse ate the cheese
b. The cheese was eaten by the mouse [Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 196]
32
Explanations of this kind were also proposed for other alternations, such as the dative
alternation and the locative alternation (Hall 1965).
However, it quite soon became apparent that not all the instances of argument
alternations could actually be explained in this way, as the discussion above regarding
hit and break illustrated. Recently, many linguists and researchers have in fact stressed
that, even though alternations are traditionally construed as twofold syntactic
realisations of the exact same argument, “the definition of alternation does not exclude
the fact that each syntactic variant is accompanied by specific semantic and pragmatic
inferences that determine a change in the interpretation of a sentence depending on the
way the same argument is realised at the syntactic level” (Lenci 2008, p. 12).
It is within this new approach to argument alternations that positions like
Beavers’ (Beavers 2006) and Roland and Jurafsky’s (Roland & Jurafsky 2002) have to be
placed. In relation to the object-‐oblique alternation, Beavers proposed “The Principle of
Contrast for Alternations”, according to which, if a verb allows two or more different
argument realisations it is because they necessarily express some sort of contrast,
analysable in terms of different parameters (affectedness of the participants, telicity of
the event described, control over the event, etc.). For instance, Beavers notes how, in a
particular type of direct/oblique alternation in English, the direct realisation is specified
for some effect that may or may not be total in any sense (11a) while the corresponding
oblique realisation is not specified at all (11b):
(11) a. John cut the bread
b. John cut at the bread [Beavers 2006, p. 116]
This is demonstrated by the fact that only the second one can occur with an explicit
context in which no affectedness occurs at all (12b), while the first one is not acceptable
(12a):
(12) a. John cut at the pie, but in his drunken state managed to miss it entirely
b. *John cut the pie, but in his drunken state managed to miss it entirely [Beavers 2006, p. 116]
33
Along the same lines, Roland and Jurafsky (2002) compared five different and variously
derived sources of subcategorisation information in order to investigate whether it is
actually true that different frames allowed by the same verb convey the same meaning.
They examined the effect of verb sense on frame probability by focusing on instances of
ambiguous verbs and their findings demonstrated that different senses of the same verb
differ in frame probability, just as different verbs differ in frame probability. This
evidence prompted them to propose the Lemma Argument Probability hypothesis
(Roland & Jurafsky 2002, p. 336), according to which it is not possible to make claims
about the probabilistic subcategorisation frames of a given verb, but only about the
probabilistic frame of each and every sense of any given verb. So, for instance, the
probability for a certain frame of the verb to charge varies greatly if the sense we are
investigating is that of “to accuse” as in (13a), or is that of “to bill”, as shown in (13b):
(13) a. Separately, a Campeau shareholder filed suit, charging Campeau, Chairman
Robert Campeau and other officers with violating securities law
b. Currently, the Government charges nothing for such filings [Roland & Jurafsky 2002, p. 337]
The current status of classic argument alternations is still hotly debated and a clearer
view on the matter could be achieved only with further research, possibly on languages
other than English.
2.1.3. Event Composition
Another kind of phenomenon belonging to the broad class of multiple argument
realisation is the one we defined “event composition”, and which has been widely
recognised as very different from the traditional argument alternations discussed above,
as illustrated by the sentences in (11):
(11) a. Pat ran
b. Pat ran to the beach
c. Pat ran herself ragged
d. Pat ran her shoes to shreds
34
e. Pat ran clear of the falling rocks
f. The coach ran the athletes around the track [Rappaport Hovav & Levin 1998, p. 98]
As one can see, the sentences in (11) follow a progression of complexity of the event
described by means of adding either a novel argument, an adjunct or both. A traditional
model that views argument realisations as encoded in the lexical semantic
representation of the verb that allows them, and syntactically expressed through linking
rules (Chomsky 1965, Hall 1965), would simply assume that every verb has as many
lexical semantic representations as the argument alternations it allows for. However, as
we have already argued, cases like the ones illustrated in (11) are the rule, rather than
the exception, and it seems to be computationally implausible and counterintuitive at
best to assume six different entries for the verb to run, each for every possible argument
realisation.
However, as already discussed in I.2.5, verbs denote many and very different
types of events that take place in the extra-‐linguistic reality and, since some of those
happenings are more complex than others, it is not surprising that even their linguistic
representations would follow this dynamic. This fact can be illustrated by the examples
in (11), where there is a crescendo of complexity in the events described by each
sentence, progressing from the most basic one (11a), with only one participant, to (11f),
with two participants and the information about the direction of the “running”, with
intermediate possibilities in (11b-‐11e).
This evidence has prompted some linguists to develop approaches commonly
referred to as “constructional approaches” (Carrier & Randall 1993, Goldberg &
Jackendoff 2004, Rappaport Hovav & Levin 2002), according to which part of the
meaning of a complex sentence (e.g. 11d, 11e, 11f) is not conveyed only by lexical
elements, but also by the phrasal patterns according to which those lexical items are
built upon. Moreover, it is worth stressing that these regular patterns are greatly found
in English (Goldberg & Jackendoff 2004, pp. 533-‐535), and most likely in every other
language, hence confirming the idea put forward by these approaches that the
structuring itself of any given sentence is somehow responsible for the semantic content
it conveys.
35
Thus, sentences like those in (11) can be analysed and decomposed in terms of a
basic event (11a), variously incremented through the adding of an extra argument-‐
taking predicate (11c), an additional argument (11b) or both (11d, 11e, 11f), giving rise
in all cases to complex events derived by a basic simple one (11a).
2.2. Verb classes
Regardless of the approach taken to tackle the issues related to multiple argument
realisations, one thing all researchers agree upon is the possibility for certain verbs that
allow specific argument realisations (whether it is argument alternation or event
composition) to be clustered together in distinct semantic classes, in English and well as
in other languages (Talmy 1985, 1991; Green 1973; Choi & Bowerman 1991).
In fact, it has long been recognised that verbs present regular syntactic patterns
of argument realisation that are not idiosyncratic, but they are shared by other verbs,
whose semantic coherency is far from being random or casual. Going back to the
examples in (8) and (9), Fillmore also noticed that the verbs to break and to hit are
indeed representative of a larger set of verbs, such as those listed in (12):
(12) a. Break verbs: bend, fold, shatter, crack
b. Hit verbs: slap, strike, bump, stroke [Fillmore 1970, p. 130]
This distinction allowed for a finer classification of those verbs that, just like break and
hit, were thought to be very similar, yet, which presented quite different syntactic
realisations difficult to account for. Based on the possibility of verbs to take part in
certain given realisations, many different classes were established, and, considering the
inherent semantic coherency of all of them, it became clear that their characteristic
argument realisation patterns could be ascribed to the semantic properties of each class
(Guersell et al. 1985; Hale & Keyser 1986, 1987).
However, it also became apparent that the identification of the facets of verb
meaning that were responsible for the syntactic expression of a given class was not a
small task: on the one hand, verbs that were expected to fall into a certain class failed to
(see the example of the verb to return in I.2.4.1), while, on the other hand, the same
36
argument realisation can be shared by verbs belonging to different classes, as shown in
(13) by to scream and to say, a manner of speaking verb and a content of speaking one
respectively:
(13) a. Evelyn screamed (to Marilyn) to go
b. Evelyn said (to Marilyn) to go [Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005, p. 16]
Even though the classification of verbs based on their syntactic patterns can be
problematic and controversial, verb classes have proven to be a great tool for
investigating verb behaviour with noticeable predictive ability. The only existing verb
classification of this kind is the one proposed by Levin (Levin 1993) for English and fully
exploited in the construction of VerbNet, a computational resource for verbal behaviour
that we will present in the next paragraph.
2.3. VerbNet: a computational verb lexicon for English
With the aim of providing a reliable computational verb lexicon that could be used in as
many Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks as possible, Kipper and colleagues built
VerbNet (VN) (Kipper et al. 2000; Kipper-‐Sculer 2005), which is an extensive
computational verb lexicon for English.
The starting point of VN was Levin’s verb classification (Levin 1993), which is
still today the largest verb classification for English. What makes this classification such
a useful tool for investigating verb behaviour is the fact it features both semantic and
syntactic verb profiles. In particular, Levin based her work on the assumption that verbs
which display the same argument alternation (or sets of alternations) also share certain
facets of meaning that make it possible to group verbs into semantically coherent
classes. Levin worked on a sample of 3,024 verbs and, after a thorough examination of
their syntactic behaviour, she identified 79 argument alternations involving NN and PP
complements, according to which verbs were classified into 49 broad semantic classes,
further subdivided into 192 fine-‐grained semantic classes.
In order to create a more solid and reliable lexical resource, at different stages
Kipper and colleagues expanded Levin’s original verb classification, enlarging the
37
sample of verbs taken into consideration, and, consequently, introducing novel classes
and subclasses at once: the last available version of VN (VerbNet 3.2) features 8537
verbs represented, 273 main classes and 214 subclasses14. Also, for the purpose of
enriching each entry with a great variety of semantic information, they mapped VN with
other important on-‐line lexical resources, such as WordNet (Miller 1990, Fellbaum
1998), Xtag (XTAG Research group 2001), FrameNet (Baker et al. 1998), and OntoNotes
Sense Groupings (Hovy et al. 2006), therefore providing over 90% token coverage of the
Proposition Bank data (Palmer et al. 2005).
Moreover, they provided each entry with a complete description of its properties,
so that, in VN, each verb is not only ascribed to a specific semantic class and described
by a set of co-‐members, but it is also defined in terms of more traditional semantic
information, such as thematic roles, semantic predicates, selectional restrictions and, of
course, syntactic frames (Fig.2).
Figure 2: Lexical entry for the enforce class in VN
A typical entry in VN is illustrated in Fig.1, which represent the enforce class. The
complete description of such a class is articulated in three distinct sections: the first
provides information about the members of the class, which, in this case, are control,
14 Freely consultable at: http://verbs.colorado.edu/verb-‐index/.
38
enforce and impose. For each of them there is also the corresponding reference in the
databases mentioned above (e.g. WN: WordNet, G: Groupings).
The second section gives the information related to thematic roles and their
selectional preferences: for instance, for the verbs listed in this class, there has to be an
Agent, which needs to be [+ANIMATE & +ORGANIZATION], and a Theme, for which
there is no indication of specific selectional preferences.
The third and last part indicates the remaining properties of the verbs included
in this class, namely a set of frames consisting of:
I. A brief description of the syntactic frames allowed by the verbs of the class (“NP
V NP” and “NP V THAT S”);
II. An example of a sentence for each frames;
III. A syntactic description in which each thematic role is associated to the
corresponding position in the sentence given;
IV. A set of semantic predicates that includes a temporal function indicating in which
phase of an event the predicate is true: in this case, it is the preparatory stage
(during(E)).
Over the past decade, VN has been received with great acclaim by the research
community, proving to be a reliable computational tool in a great number of NLP tasks,
such as: automatic verb acquisition (Swift 2005), semantic role labelling (Swier &
Stevenson 2004; Yi et al. 2007), robust semantic parsing (Shi & Mihalcea 2005), word
sense disambiguation (Dang 2004), building conceptual graphs (Hensman & Dunnion
2004) and creating a unified lexical resource for knowledge extraction (Croch & King
2005).
Given its unparalleled success, one would expect to find a VN – or at least a
comparable lexical resource – for many other languages; however, this is not the case. In
fact, thus far, no attempt has been made to build such a precious resource by non-‐
English speaking research groups, Italian included.
Moreover, a verb classification based on argument alternations akin to the one
proposed by Levin (Levin 1993), and used by Kipper and colleagues to build VN, was not
available for Italian. Taking this into consideration, with this work we tried precisely to
compensate for this shortage – although only partially –, carrying out a descriptive
39
analysis of those argument alternations we found using an annotated sample of Italian
verbs, which we present in detail in the following chapters.
Hence, this thesis represents the very first step towards the construction of an
Italian VerbNet, with the aim of providing the Italian research community, and
whosoever would like to conduct their work on Italian verbs, with a computational
lexical resource comparable to that available for English.
40
Chapter 3
Towards a classification of argument alternations in Italian
The development of a classification of argument alternations for Italian verbs has been
carried out in a two-‐stage process. In the first stage (see section 3.1), the
subcategorisation frames for a sample of the most frequent Italian verbs have been
manually extracted from an Italian monolingual dictionary. In the second phase (see
section 3.2), we semi-‐automatically identified the most significant alternations in our
annotated sample.
3.1. Subcategorisation frames for a sample of Italian verbs
3.1.1. Resources
In order to identify the subcategorisation frames for Italian verbs, we used the most
updated online version of the only Italian dictionary that indicates the verb valency in
the lexical entry, namely Il Sabatini Coletti 2012 (S&C: Sabatini and Coletti, 2012)15.
Overall, this dictionary registers 185,000 headwords and definitions, 80,000 examples,
83,000 etymologies with 82,500 dates of first attestations, the conjugation of all verbs
and division into syllables and pronunciation for all entries.
In relation to the verb class, the dictionary contains 9467 lexical entries, of which
1746 are marked as high frequency verbs. Fig. 1 represents the typical structure of a
verbal lexical entry. The first information given is the division in syllables, followed by
the indication of the word class (“v.”) and few information about the conjugation (“irr.:
coniug. come porre”). Then, for each verb there is a list of its senses, clustered together
according to the subcategorisation frame they share16. For instance, the verb imporre
illustrated in Fig.1 has nine possible senses, four of which occur with transitive frames
([sogg-‐v-‐arg-‐prep.arg], [sogg-‐v-‐arg]), while the remaining five occur with pronominal
frames ([sogg-‐v], [sogg-‐v-‐arg], [sogg-‐v-‐prep. arg].
However, the formalism used by the authors of S&C neglects a piece of
information that is crucial for the purpose of our work, that is the specification of the
15 http://www.elexico.com/en/Products/all/1642812-‐1930385-‐1970536-‐1926039.html 16 See Appendix A for a complete list of the subcategorisation frames available in S&C.
41
preposition introducing the prepositional phrase (PP). For instance, in the first
subcategorisation frame of imporre (Fig.3), it should be specified that the preposition
introducing the indirect argument is a, a piece of information that gets lost in marking
the slot in question as a generic “prep. arg.”.
Figure 3: The lexical entry of the verb imporre in S&C
We overcame this shortcoming by consulting the online version of LexIt, an
automatically built corpus-‐based lexical resource on Italian argument structure (Lenci et
al. 2012)17. The data were extracted from two automatically parsed corpora, La
Repubblica (Baroni et al. 2004: approximately 380M tokens), and a dump of the Italian
Wikipedia database (approximately 152M tokens).
In LexIt, each lemma is associated with a syntactic profile and a semantic profile.
The latter describes the set of possible slot fillers and their selectional preferences. The
former generalises over the range of syntactic environments in which the lemma occurs
by representing them as a set of frames and a set of slots. Crucially, for each slot the
preposition that introduces every prepositional argument is specified (see Fig. 4) and,
overall, there are 3873 verbs from La Repubblica and 2831 verbs from the Italian
Wikipedia corpus.
17 http://sesia.humnet.unipi.it/lexit/
42
Figure 4: Syntactic profile of the verb imporre in LexIt
If we look at Fig.2, what we see is the set of subcategorisation frames allowed by
the verb imporre and sorted by frequency. In total, there are ten frames, four of which
occur with transitive frames (subj#obj, subj#obj#comp-‐a, subj#obj#comp-‐in,
subj#compl-‐a#inf-‐di), two of which occur with intransitive frames (subj#0, subj#comp-‐
a), and the remaining four occur with intransitive pronominal frames (subj#si#0,
subj#si#compl-‐in, subj#si#compl-‐in, subj#si#obj). As one can see, every time there is a
prepositional argument (marked as “compl-‐“) within a given frame, there is also the
precise indication of what preposition introduces that complement (e.g. “compl-‐a”).
These two resources have complementary advantages and limitations. While S&C
is able to discriminate between the different verb senses, the minimal lexical unit in
LexIt is the verbal lemma. S&C, however, lacks the information about the prepositions
introducing prepositional arguments, whereas, as we discussed above, LexIt features
this important information. At the same time, the subcategorisation frames found in S&C
are more reliable than the automatically extracted ones found in LexIt, due to the
inherent difficulty of automatically carving syntactic frames from corpora (Schulte im
43
Walde 2009). Lastly, since the data in LexIt are grounded on linguistic productions
attested in two corpora, it is possible to associate every verb with its subcategorisation
frames frequency in the two corpora, therefore obtaining a precise figure for each and
every lemma. On the contrary, it is not possible to carry out this operation with the
frames registered in S&C: although the most frequent lemmas are marked, there is no
further indication of how frequent their occurrence actually is, both in terms of the
overall frequency and in terms of relative frequency.
For all these reasons, it was thought best to integrate the two resources
described above, supplementing the shortcomings of one with the strengths of the other
and vice versa.
3.1.2. Carving verbs subcategorisation frames
In order to have a sample of manageable size, we first took the 1746 verbs marked as
high frequency verbs in S&C and then we matched them with the corresponding verbs in
La Repubblica corpus: this way we assigned each verb a precise frequency value, thereby
ordering all of our verbs accordingly.
Once the frequency list was drawn up, we narrowed our sample down to the
1000 top frequent verbs. We then manually identified for each verb the corresponding
frames registered in S&C, filtering out the technical, archaic and literary uses,
integrating the information about the prepositions available in LexIt. We obtained the
Excel table in Appendix B in which, for each of the 4450 verb-‐frame pairs, the following
properties were encoded:
I. Frequency in the La Repubblica Corpus: a number that indicates the exact
frequency value of each verb in the aforementioned corpus;
II. Subcategorisation frame: the formalism adopted consisted of a series of
abbreviations, which indicated the arguments of the predicate in question,
separated by hash tags. Noun phrases (NP) were further divided according to
their syntactic position (subj = subject / obj = object), whereas prepositional
phrases (PP) were accompanied by the preposition that introduces them curly
brackets ({a}PP). As for verbs, we indicated the pronominal form by adding a
suffix “–si” to the abbreviation for “verb” (V-‐si). Since we also took into account
44
argumental sentences, we used curly brackets to mark the complementiser
introducing them, and the abbreviations “inf” and “fin” to indicate an infinitive
clause and a finite clause respectively ({di}inf / {che}fin). For instance, one of the
frames of the verb imporre in S&C is [sogg-‐v-‐prep.arg]: this frame was enriched
by integrating the information relative to the preposition found in the
corresponding frame in LexIt, namely [subj#obj#comp-‐a], and the resulting
frame was registered in our file as [NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP] (Table 2):
S&C: [sogg-‐v-‐prep.arg]
[NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP]
LexIt: [subj#obj#comp-‐a]
Table 2: Combination of the information in S&C with that found in LexIt
We registered a total of 136 subcategorisation frames, which we list and briefly
explain in Appendix C.
III. Thematic Roles: for each argument we indicated the relevant thematic role,
basing our classification on the inventory of 36 roles proposed in the context of
the VerbNet project (VerbNet Annotation Guidelines, pp. 19-‐22). So, for the frame
of the verb imporre in Fig.3, we identified the following thematic roles (Table 3):
[NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP]
NP_subj: AGENT
NP_obj: THEME
{a}PP: RECIPIENT
Table 3: Thematic roles of the frame [NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP]of imporre
IV. Reference in S&C: for each entry we also specified the frame and, if present, the
sense, in which all the information listed was valid (first and second digit
respectively). For instance, for the verb imporre in Fig.1, there will be five
numbers indicating which one of the five frames allowed by it we are referring to;
45
moreover, for those frames that presented a subdivision in senses, we added a
second digit specifying to which one of these senses it pertains.
V. Selectional Preferences: for each slot of each frame, we also highlighted its
selectional preferences, namely the semantic constraints that every verb impose
on its argument in order for the clause to be acceptable. Also in this case, we used
the information available in LexIt, listing for every slot of every verb its possible
semantic categories, taken from the 24 WordNet super-‐senses (Miller, 1990;
Fellbaum 1998):
ANIMAL, ARTIFACT, ACT, ATTRIBUTE, FOOD, COMMUNICATION, KNOWLEDGE,
BODY PART, EVENT, NATURAL PHENOMENON, SHAPE, GROUP, LOCATION,
MOTIVATION, NATURAL OBJECT, PERSON, PLANT, POSSESSION, PROCESS,
QUANTITY, FEELING, SUBSTANCE, STATE, TIME.
So, for the frame we discussed above of the verb imporre, we identified the
following selectional preferences (Table 4):
[NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP]
NP_subj: Person/Group
NP_obj: Act/Event/Process/State
{a}PP: Person/Group
Table 4: Selectional preferences of the frame [NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP] for imporre
3.2. Data extraction
In the first part of this project, we wanted to investigate which frames were associated
with the verbs in our sample. Once the annotation procedure described in 3.1.2 was
completed, we moved on to second phase, namely the identification of: a) the argument
alternations allowed by the verbs in our sample; b) how frequent they are and for which
verbs they are valid.
Point a) has been accomplished by exploiting a semiautomatic procedure,
consisting of an automatic identification of the top correlated frames, followed by a
46
manual inspection. On the other hand, point b) was carried out manually, based on the
filtered list of plausible alternations obtained in phase a).
3.2.1. Automatic extraction of argument alternation candidates
Given the very high number of possible frame combinations (10,011), as well as the high
number of verb-‐frame pairs identified (4,450), the identification of possible argument
alternations could not have been conducted manually. Therefore, we decided to
automatically identify the possible candidates comparing the distribution of frames over
our target verbs.
More specifically, we represented each frame as a vector of binary values whose
dimensions indicate whether a verb allows that frame (1) or not (0), and whose
dimensionality equals the total number of our target verbs (1000). Thus, the frames
[NP_subj#V#NP_obj], [NP_subj#V], [NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP], [NP_subj#V#{di}inf]
are associated to vectors in a manner similar to that shown in Table 5. This illustrative
toy space encodes, for instance, the fact that the [NP_subj#V#NP_obj] frame is allowed
by imporre, consegnare and dire, but not for arrivare and piovere. On the contrary, the
[NP_subj#V] frame is allowed only by arrivare.
imporre arrivare piovere consegnare dire
NP_subj#V#NP_obj 1 0 0 1 1
NP_subj#V 0 1 0 0 0
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP 1 0 0 1 1
NP_subj#V#{di}inf 1 0 0 0 1
Table 5: Examples of vectoral representation of subcategorisation frames
In order to identify which of the 10,011 possible frame pairs may constitute a real
alternation for at least a subset of our verbs, we calculated the correlation between the
corresponding vector pairs, filtering out all those pairings whose correlation failed to
reach the 0.2 threshold.
The outcome of this procedure was a set of 174 potential argument alternations,
for each of which we recorded the list of verbs allowing the candidate alternation.
47
3.2.2. Manual identification of Italian frame alternations
The list of potential argument alternations, however, is not fully reliable. Part of the
regularity identified by means of correlating frame vectors, indeed, is the by-‐product of
well-‐known linguistic phenomena, of which the most influential is probably verb
polysemy.
Even though we based our work on the assumption that a verb sense can be
expressed by different subcategorisation frames (Levin 1993), it is true that, in some
cases, different frames can also be associated with different senses of the same lemma
(Roland & Jurafsky 2002). For instance, the verb sentire may be realised within the
following frames: [NP_subj#V#{che}fin] / [NP_subj#V#{di}inf]; however, these two
argument structures are paired with two different senses of the verb in question, the
first of which corresponds to the English verb to hear, while the second corresponds to
the English verb to feel. A minor consequence of this phenomenon is that an argument
alternation valid for many verbs can also feature verbs for which it is not so, as
illustrated by the example of sentire.
Regular patterns of verbal polysemy, however, may interest the whole set of
verbs that our automatic procedure associated to a given potential argument
alternation. In these cases, it is the frame alternation itself that needs to be marked as
incorrect and, eventually, removed from our dataset. For instance, this is what happened
with the alternation [NP_subj#V#{da}PP] / [NP_subj#V#{per}inf] registered for the
verbs ripartire and venire: for both of these verbs, in fact, the two different frames
simply refer to two different semantic patterns, the first one meaning “to leave a place
again” and “to come from a place” respectively, and the second meaning “to head
towards a destination” and “to go somewhere to achieve something” respectively.
Given the impossibility to handle these issues automatically, we decided to
manually inspect our plausible frame pairs, verifying whether each verb associated with
a given alternation was a proper case of argument alternation or not, thus filtering out
those data that turned out to be inconsistent. In this phase, alternations involving only
one verb were ruled out as well. In the next chapter we will present an in-‐depth analysis
of our final results, individually discussing each alternation and its peculiarity.
48
Chapter 4
A descriptive analysis of argument alternations in Italian
4.1. Alternations that involve argumental sentences
If it is true that most of the research conducted so far on argument realisation has
focused on arguments as phrases – either noun phrases (NP) or prepositional phrases
(PP) –, it is equally as true that arguments can be realised as subordinate clauses, giving
rise to what is known in the literature as a “complex sentence” (see Renzi, Salvi &
Cardinaletti 1988, vol. I, I.1.6). Depending on the verb considered and the participants
involved in the action it describes, the clause in question is introduced by different types
of conjunctions or pronouns (complementisers), as the following examples illustrate:
(1) E’ possibile che Gianni parta domani
“It is possible that Gianni leave tomorrow”
(2) Gianni ha detto che partirà domani
“Gianni said that he will leave tomorrow”
(3) Gianni non sa chi partirà domani
“Gianni does not know who will leave tomorrow” [Graffi 1994, p. 115]
If we tried to omit the dependant clauses, we would be left with three agrammatical
sentences, respectively: *È possibile, *Gianni ha detto, *Gianni non sa18. This fact shows
clearly that the clauses in italics exhibit a syntactic behaviour comparable to that
typically attributed to arguments, therefore saturating the valence of the verbs. Given
this evidence, Graffi suggested that they should be considered as a different class of
dependant clauses altogether, calling them “argumental sentences” (Graffi 1994, p. 116)
and further dividing them into nominal clauses – when they act like subjects (1) –,
completive clauses – when they function as complements, either direct ones (2) or
indirect ones –, and indirect interrogative clause – when they correspond to an
interrogative sentence (3) –.
18 The first and third sentences could be somehow acceptable, but only in particular circumstances, such as that of elliptical constructions.
49
In this section we will therefore list and describe precisely those alternations that
involve a set of arguments both expressed by such clauses, the analysis of which
represents an original contribution in more than one way: not only have they never
been described in relation to Italian, but not even Levin (1993) took them into account
in her seminal work that has inspired the vast majority of contemporary research on
argument alternation, including this thesis.
4.1.1. Alternations involving argumental sentences in a complement position
In the following paragraphs we will focus our attention on those alternations we found
involving “argumental sentences” taking place within the VP, which we referred to as
completive clauses. These clauses can have the verb in the infinitive or finite form; the
selection of one of these two possibilities influences, on the one hand, the overt
realisation of the subject within the argumental sentence in question (which is possible
only within the latter option) and, on the other, the complementiser chosen to introduce
the dependant clause.
It is also important to note that, with the exception of 1.1.6 and 1.1.7., these
alternations do not bring about a change in the transitivity of the verb and,
consequently, that they do not entail a change in the number of arguments that a verb
displays.
4.1.1.1. NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP / NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP.
In the first alternation discussed here, verbs present three arguments: an external one
(the subject), a direct internal one (the object) and an indirect internal one (the dative).
They also realise their direct internal argument as what we defined as an “argumental
sentence”; however, they allow two different ways of expressing the sentence in
question:
(4) a. Ti Auguro che tutto vada bene
“I wish (to) you that everything go well”
b. Ti auguro di fare un buon viaggio
“I wish (to) you to have a pleasant journey”
50
In the possibility exemplified in (4a), the argument is realised as a subordinate clause
introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and with its verb in a finite form; on the
other hand, in the possibility illustrated in (4b) the argument is expressed as an
infinitive sentence introduced by the complementiser di (“of”) (Renzi, Salvi &
Cardinaletti 1991, XIII.1.1.2; Giovanardi 1986, pp. 107-‐110) and, of course, with the verb
in the infinitive form.
Within our annotated sample, the alternating verbs are: augurare, garantire,
ricordare, assicurare, promettere, gridare, confidare, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere,
comandare, raccomandare, dire, dichiarare, scrivere, giurare, confessare, comunicare,
riferire19. Moreover, following Levin’s verb classification (1993), these verbs can be
grouped into different semantic sub-‐classes that show a high internal semantic
coherency and which we present below:
a. VERBS OF FUTURE HAVING: garantire, assicurare, promettere, giurare;
b. VERBS OF TRANSFER OF A MESSAGE: raccontare, chiedere, scrivere;
c. VERBS OF MANNER OF SPEAKING: gridare;
d. SAY VERBS: confidare, annunciare, dire, comunicare, riferire;
e. GET VERBS: comandare;
f. DECLARE VERBS: dichiarare, confessare;
g. CHARACHTERISE VERBS: ricordare, raccomandare;
h. LONG VERBS: augurare.
However, these verbs could be classified in a slightly different way if we took as a
relevant parameter the possibility of a verb to have, in the realisation introduced by che,
the verb in the subjunctive form rather than in the indicative form. In fact, this
distinction is strictly related to the modality implied by each verb, namely the
commitment of the speaker towards his or her own utterances (Lyons 1977): the
indicative mood is used in so-‐called “factual utterances”, namely sentences that the
speaker considers to be either true or untrue. On the contrary, the subjunctive mood is
used in so-‐called “nonfactual utterances”, namely those sentences in which the speaker
suspends his or her judgement in relation to the truth of the sentence. 19 To wish, to guarantee, to remind, to assure, to promise, to shout, to confide, to announce, to tell, to ask, to order, to recommend, to say, to declare, to permit, to write, to swear, to confess, to communicate, to report.
51
4.1.1.2. NP_subj#V#{che}fin / NP_subj#V#{di}inf
The second alternation can be considered a variation of the one described above, with
the only difference that verbs that present this alternation have only two arguments: an
external one (the subject) and a direct internal one (the object). However, as for the one
in 1.1.1., the alternation involves a twofold way of expressing the internal argument,
realised in both cases as an argumental sentence:
(5) a. La situazione impone che tutti partecipino
“The situation requires that everyone get involved”
b. La situazione impone di essere uniti
“The situation requires to stick together”
The two argumental sentences allowed are akin to those analysed in 4.1.1.1.: a
dependant clause introduced by che and with the verb in the subjunctive form in (5a),
and an infinitive clause introduced by the complementiser di in (5b). According to our
results, this alternation is allowed by the following verbs: ignorare, disporre, scoprire,
tacere, imporre, badare, escludere, vedere, riscoprire, protestare, stabilire, intuire, gridare,
temere, confidare, sopportare, constatare, supporre, tollerare, annunciare, pensare,
ammettere, deliberare, immaginare, dubitare, fingere, sapere, convenire, ipotizzare,
nascondere, smentire, esigere, ritenere, sperare, pretendere, dire, aspettare, riconoscere,
dichiarare, credere, dimenticare, sostenere, aggiungere, prescrivere, ottenere, decidere,
negare, accettare, dimostrare, sognare, testimoniare, rivelare20. A number of observations
can be made:
a. There is a group of verbs that allow also the alternation in 4.1.1.1., all belonging to
either the VERBS OF MANNER OF SPEAKING class or to the SAY VERBS class: gridare,
confidare, annunciare, dire, dichiarare. Obviously, since they all refer to the action of
speaking, they semantically imply an interlocutor, somebody to whom something is said: 20 To ignore, to dispose, to discover, to omit, to require, to care for, to count out, to see, to rediscover, to protest, to establish, to grasp, to shout, to fear, to confide, to bear, to ascertain, to presume, to tolerate, to announce, to think, to acknowledge, to deliberate, to imagine, to doubt, to pretend, to know, to agree, to suppose, to hide, to retract, to demand, to consider, to hope, to expect, to say, to wait, to recognize, to declare, to believe, to forget, to maintain, to add, prescribe, to obtain, to decide, to deny, to accept, to demonstrate, to dream, to testify, to reveal.
52
however, depending on the context, this argument can be expressed (see 4.1.1.1.) or not
(see above).
b. A second group is composed of those verbs that, just like in (5a) and (5b), allow this
alternation without implying a necessary co-‐reference between the subject
(grammatical and logical) of the main verb and that of the dependant clause, since the
verb does not exert any necessary control over the latter. These verbs are disporre,
imporre, stabilire, impedire, prescrivere, decidere, and, in the infinitive option, they all
entail a generic reference, which, in fact, does not need to be syntactically realised:
(6) a. Il codice prescrive di essere prudenti
“The code prescribes to be cautious”
b. Il codice prescrive che la domanda sia fatta in carta bollata
“The code prescribes that the request be sent on stamped paper”
c. A third group arises in opposition to the second one and it consists of all the other
verbs left out until now: ignorare, scoprire, tacere, attendere, badare, escludere, vedere,
riscoprire, protestare, intuire, temere, sopportare, constatare, supporre, tollerare, pensare,
ammettere, deliberare, immaginare, dubitare, fingere, sapere, ipotizzare, nascondere,
smentire, esigere, ritenere, sperare, pretendere, ipotizzare, nascondere, smentire, esigere,
ritenere, sperare, pretendere, aspettare, riconoscere, credere, dimenticare, sostenere,
aggiungere, ottenere, negare, accettare, dimostrare, sognare, testimoniare, rivelare.
Despite the heterogeneity of this list, all these verbs have one fundamental semantic
aspect in common that explains why they can be clustered together: the actions
described by them cannot be transferred onto other referents maintaining the same
truth value conditions, since the verb controls the embedded subjects, which,
consequently, has to coincide with that of the infinitive clause (See Serianni 1989,
XIV.35-‐36):
(7) Mia sorella sostiene di cucinare molto bene
“My sister claims to cook very well”
53
A sentence like the one in (7) can only be interpreted as “My sister thinks that she cooks
well” and, in Italian, no other referent could be indicated or suggested as the controlled
subject of the infinitive dependant clause.
Moreover, another peculiarity of the verbs listed in b. and c. is that, in the
infinitive realisation, some of them allow the presence of a PP introduced by {a}, as
shown in (8):
(8) Il rumore ci impedisce di dormire
“The noise impedes (to) us to sleep”
If we integrated this property as a valid parameter for a finer-‐grained sub-‐classification
of the verbs presented in b. and c., we would have the following distribution (Fig. 1):
Parameters {a}PP *{a}PP
Co-‐reference of the subjects in
the infinitive form
Tacere, ammettere,
nascondere, negare,
dimostrare, rivelare
Ignorare, scoprire, attendere,
badare, escludere, vedere,
riscoprire, protestare, intuire,
temere, sopportare,
constatare, supporre,
tollerare, pensare, deliberare,
immaginare, dubitare, fingere,
sapere, ipotizzare, smentire,
esigere, ritenere, sperare,
pretendere, aspettare,
riconoscere, credere,
dimenticare, sostenere,
aggiungere, ottenere,
accettare, sognare,
testimoniare, rivelare
Unrequired co-‐reference of the
subjects in the infinitive form
Imporre, impedire,
prescrivere
Disporre, stabilire, decidere
Table 6: A finer-‐grained classification of verbs in b. and c. in the infinitive realisation
54
4.1.1.3. NP_subj#V#{che}fin / NP_subj#V#{come}fin
A similar alternation to the one discussed above is the one presented in this section,
which is illustrated by the following sentences:
(9) a. La maestra ha notato che gli studenti erano stanchi
“The teacher noticed that the students were-‐indic tired”
b. La maestra ha notato come gli studenti fossero stanchi
“The teacher noticed how the students were-‐subj tired”
With regard to the first realisation, the only difference with the corresponding clause
examined in 1.1.3. is that, here, the mood required is the indicative (erano). As for the
second possibility allowed by this alternation, namely the one in (9b), we find another
completive clause, not an infinitive one: this clause is introduced by typically explicative
conjunctions and adverbs, such as come, and it requires the subjunctive mood (fossero).
The fact that this alternation is, at a deeper analysis, quite different from the one
presented in 1.1 is confirmed also by the verbs that present the one we are discussing
here and that are not found in the classes of verbs that allow the one examined in the
first paragraph. Based on our results, these verbs are: provare, sottolineare, notare,
concepire, ricordare, vedere, giudicare, imparare, sapere, intendere, stabilire, prevedere21.
Once again, there is a striking semantic consistency among these verbs and, still
Following Levin (1993), we believe that they can be grouped in the classes listed below:
a. DECLARE VERBS: provare, sottolineare, giudicare;
b. CONJECTURE VERBS: notare, concepire, vedere, sapere, intendere, prevedere;
c. CHARACTERISE VERBS: ricordare, stabilire;
d. LEARN VERBS: imparare.
21 To prove, to stress, to note, to conceive, to remember, to see (not to be construed as a perception verb though, but, metaphorically, as “to understand”), to judge, to learn, to know, to understand, to establish, to foresee.
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4.1.1.4. NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP / NP_subj#V#{come}fin#{a}PP
The fourth alternation we present is similar to the one in 4.1.1.1. with respect to the
valence of the verbs that allow it (three arguments: an external one, a direct internal one
and an indirect internal one). However, this is pretty much all they have in common, as
the examples below show:
(10) a. Il poliziotto ha spiegato agli studenti che l’autocontrollo è vitale
“The policeman has explained that self-‐control is vital to the students”
b. Il poliziotto ha spiegato agli studenti come l’autocontrollo sia vitale agli
“The policeman has explained how self-‐control be-‐subj vital to the students”
The verbs that, in our sample, present this alternation are: spiegare and mostrare22. As
the examples above suggest, the only difference with the one discussed in 4.1.1.3. is the
presence here of a third core argument, realised as {a}PP and typically referring to the
person or group to whom something is explained or shown.
4.1.1.5. NP_subj#V-‐si#{che}fin / NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}inf
This alternation differs from the ones discussed so far in respect to the morphological
form of the verbs that allow it: they are all reflexive verbs, namely verbal forms in which
an unstressed clitic pronoun accompanies the verb, becoming a whole with it (see
Serianni 1989, XI.18-‐29).
(11) a. Il calciatore si dispiace che la squadra abbia perso
“The footballer is sorry-‐pron that the team lost-‐subj”
b. Il calciatore si dispiace-‐pron di aver perso
“The footballer is sorry to have lost”
As the examples in (11b) shows, the relation between the subject (both logical and
grammatical) of the main clause and the one in the infinitive clause is the same
described in 4.1.1.2., namely an implied co-‐reference. Moreover, also the sentence in 22 To explain, to show.
56
(11a) confirms what we said above in relation to the possibility of the two clauses to
have two different subjects (once again, both grammatical and logical) only if the
dependant one is an explicit subordinate.
The verbs that, according to our analysis, appeared to allow this alternation are:
convincersi, augurarsi, assicurarsi, illudersi, ricordarsi, sorprendersi, immaginarsi,
dispiacersi, attendersi, aspettarsi, accorgersi, sognarsi23.
It is worth mentioning the fact that, even though all these verbs exhibit the same
behaviour with regard to the alternation discussed here, further distinctions can be
made between them. With the exceptions of accorgersi, for which the pronoun does not
carry any specific value but is simply a formal component of the verb, and dispiacersi,
which has the form dispiacere but used only as an impersonal verb (see 4.1.2.3.), all
these verbs present also the standard form without the unstressed pronoun. The most
interesting thing about this twofold realisation is the different function that the
pronoun, depending on the meaning of the verb, carries out in the pronominal variant,
which can have noteworthy consequences in relation to the value of the argumental
sentence. Based on the argument structure of the verbs listed above, the following sub-‐
classes can in fact be individuated:
a. NP_subj#V#NP_obj: immaginare, attendere, aspettarsi, sognare. Verbs like these take
the pronominal form which, however, does not affect the argument structure, since they
all remain transitive, as shown in (12):
(12) a. Stava attendendo il figlio
“He was waiting his son”
b. Si attendeva di essere premiato / che lo premiassero
“He expected-‐pron to be awarded / that they awarded-‐subj him”
As for the semantic content, the pronoun si does not entail any major shift in the
meaning conveyed; however, it does indicate a greater emotional involvement of the
subject (intensive si);
23 To convince, to wish, to assure, to delude, to remind, to surprise (oneself), to imagine, to expect, to notice, to dream.
57
b. NP_subj#V#NP_obj: sorprendere. This case is different from the ones in a. because the
pronominal form prompts a drastic change in the structure of the verb, which not only
becomes intransitive, but also requires a new argument realised as a PP or, in this case,
as an argumental sentence introduced by the complementiser {di}:
(13) a. La sua risposta ha sorpreso tutti
“His answer surprised everyone”
b. Ci sorprendemmo di vederlo ritornare / che finisse così
“We surprised-‐pron to see him coming back / that it would end like this”
c. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP: augurare, assicurare, ricordare,. In these cases, the
pronoun in the pronominal form takes the role of the {a}PP in the non pronominal one,
and the argumental sentence that of NP_obj (indirect reflexive verbs):
(14) a. Ti ricordo la promessa fatta
“I remind (to) you the promise you made”
b. Mi ricordai che avevo un appuntamento / Si ricorda sempre di farmi gli auguri
“I remembered-‐pron that I had an appointment” / “She always remembers to wish
me happy birthday”
d. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}PP: illudere, convincere. In relation to such verbs, the pronoun
of the reflexive form indicates the NP_obj of the standard one, and the argumental
sentence works as the {di}PP (direct reflexive verbs):
(15) a. Convincerò i colleghi dell’opportunità del provvedimento
“I will convince my workmates of the convenience of the measure
b. Mi convinsi di aver sbagliato / Ci siamo convinti che l’imputato è innocente
“I convinced-‐pron to have done something wrong / We convinced-‐pron that the
accused is innocent
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4.1.1.6. NP_subj#V#{come}fin#{a}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{come}fin
As we briefly anticipated at the start of this section, this alternation implies a change in
the syntactic valence of the verb:
(16) a. Ti spiego come si fa
“I will explain to you how it is done”
b. Ora mi spiego come mai non mi saluta
“Now I explain-‐pron how he doesn’t say hi to me”
The only two verbs in our annotated sample that allow this alternation are: spiegare and
domandare24 , two illocutionary verbs25 belonging to the broad class of VERBS OF
COMMUNICATION (Levin 1993). As the examples above illustrate, the realisation in
(16a) presents three arguments: a subject, namely the person or group who initiates the
communicative act, a direct object, namely what is communicated, and an indirect
object, which refers to the interlocutor to whom something is communicated.
Furthermore, the direct object is expressed as a dependant clause introduced by an
interrogative pronoun or conjunction, such as come (“how”), whereas the indirect one is
realised as a PP introduced by the preposition a (“to”). In the realisation in (16b), the
verb takes the pronominal form and has only two arguments: a subject and a direct
object, which is still realised as a subordinate. The indirect object, on the other hand, is
represented by the pronoun si, which, in this case, acts precisely as the interlocutor
otherwise expressed by the PP, as the paraphrase of (16b) in (17) demonstrates:
(17) Ora spiego a me stesso come mai non mi saluta
“Now I explained to myself how he doesn’t say hi to me”
Verbs that show this particular syntactic and semantic construction are called indirect
reflexives (see Serianni 1989, XI. 21).
24 To explain and to ask. 25 “Illocutionary. Applied in the theory of speech acts to the force that an expression of some specific form will have when it is uttered.” (Matthews 1997 (2007), p. 184).
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4.1.1.7 NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}inf
This alternation is very similar to the one discussed in 4.1.1.6 in that it implies a change
in the syntactic verb valency:
(18) a. Ha permesso al figlio di uscire
“He let his son to go out”
b. Si permette di andare in vacanza dove vuole
“She affords-‐pron to go on holiday wherever she wants”
The verbs in our sample that allowed this alternation are: proporre, permettere, imporre,
augurare, assicurare, offrire, ricordare, impedire, rimproverare, risparmiare 26 . Even
though these verbs could be ascribed to different classes, they all refer to actions that
necessarily entail an affected participant expressed as a PP introduced by the
preposition {a}, as illustrated in (18a). In the pronominal form, this argument is not
present syntactically, but, as for 4.1.1.6, it is still semantically available precisely in the
pronoun si, which co-‐refers to the subject, as the paraphrase of (18b) in (19) shows:
(19) Permette a se stessa di andare in vacanza dove vuole
“She affords to herself to go on holiday wherever she wants”
Even in this case, the verbs that allow for this alternation are indirect reflexives.
4.1.2. Alternations involving argumental sentences in the subject position
In the following paragraphs we will deal with those alternations we found involving
argumental sentences taking place in the subject position. In all the cases presented, an
argumental clause occupies the subject position (usually filled with a noun), and all the
verbs that allow the syntactic structures discussed below are unaccusative intransitive
verbs. They also act as impersonal verbs27, thus taking only a third person singular
inflection.
26 To propose, to permit, to impose, wish, to assure, to offer, to remind, to impede, to scold, to spare. 27 “[…] constructions lacking a referential subject” (Malchukov & Ogawa 2011, p. 20).
60
Moreover, all the alternations we found allow for an infinitive sentence (which is either
introduced by the complementiser di or by the 0 complementiser) and a finite one
(which is always introduced by the complementiser che). The selection of one or other
of the options depends, of course, on the possibility “to refer the semantic content of the
nominal clause to an entity, which, in this case, is syntactically expressed as a noun
phrase” (Rensi, Salvi & Cardinaletti 1991, p. 665), and which, of course, takes the
position of the subject within the argumental sentence.
4.1.2.1. NP_subj{che}fin#V / NP_subj{di}inf#V
In this alternation, the argument that can be expressed in two ways is the one that
functions as the subject of the main verb:
(20) a. Pare di non ottenere nessun risultato
“Seems-‐impers to not achieve any results”
b. Pare che nessun risultato sia ottenibile
“Seems-‐impers that no result is achievable”
As these examples suggest, the argumental sentences in (20a) and (20b) act as syntactic
subjects of the verbs in the main clause, and they always come after the main verb28.
One last thing to note is that, within the argumental sentences in question, in
order to maintain the impersonality value expressed by (20a), the NP-‐object in (20a)
moves to the NP-‐subject position in (20b). Furthermore, it is worth underlining the fact
that the mood required in (20b) is always the subjunctive (see Renzi, Salvi &
Cardinaletti 1991, XIII.1.2.4.6).
There are only three verbs in our survey that present this alternation: sembrare,
parere, accadere29. Levin (1993) does not deal with these verbs in respect to their
impersonal senses30, thus she did not establish any semantic class for this type of verbs.
28 See the agrammaticality of sentences such as “*[Di non ottenere nessun risultato] pare” (see Renzi, Salvi & Cardinaletti 1988, vol. II, XIII.1.2.4.4). 29 To appear, to seem, to happen. 30 To appear is classified among the APPEAR VERBS, which “describe the appearance of an entity on the scene” (Levin 1993, p. 258), whereas to happen is ascribed to the VERBS OF OCCURRENCE class, which “describe the occurrence of an event” (Levin 1993, p. 261). The verb to seem is not even included in her survey.
61
However, we feel that, in relation to Italian, one is much needed and we propose to call it
HAPPEN VERBS.
4.1.2.2. Alternation NP_subj{0}inf#V / NP_subj{che}fin#V
A very similar, almost identical, alternation to the one described in the previous
paragraph is the one shown in the following examples:
(21) a. Bisogna raccogliere i soldi
“Needs-‐impers to collect the money”
b. Bisogna che i soldi siano raccolti
“Needs-‐impers that the money be collected”
This alternation differs from the one examined in 4.1.2.1. with respect to the infinitive
clause in (21a): here, we have a zero infinitive clause (or bare infinitive clause), namely
a sentence whose verb is an infinitive not preceded by any complementiser. As for the
variation in (20b), the impersonality aspect is once again preserved by moving the
NP_obj of the argument clause in (21a) to the subject position of the same clause in
(21b), as we discussed in relation to 4.1.2.1.
The verbs in our sample that present this alternation are only two: occorrere e
bisognare31. The semantic coherency of these verbs is so blatantly strong that we
propose to establish a different class for them, called NEEDS IMPERSONAL VERBS.
4.1.2.3. Alternation NP_subj{0}inf#V#{a}PP / NP_subj{che}fin#V#{a}PP
Even though the alternation analysed here might seem very similar to the one discussed
above, this is actually not the case. If anything, it is closer to the one we presented in
4.1.2.1., even if, here, the presence of the indirect internal argument realised as a PP
introduced by the preposition a adds the experiencer of the action expressed by the
main verb:
31 To need, to be necessary.
62
(22) a. A noi conviene partire subito
“To us mattersimpers to leave immediately”
b. A noi conviene che tu parta subito
“To us mattersimpers that you leavesubj immediately”
From the analysis of our data, it emerged that the verbs allowing this alternation are:
dispiacere, convenire, risultare32. Given the fact that, in English, these verbs act in a very
different way, it does not come as a surprise that they are not dealt with by Levin
(1993); however, as for the previous cases, we believe that they deserve to be ascribed
to a semantic class and we propose HAPPEN VERBS WITH A PP.
4.2. Alternations that involve noun or prepositional phrases (NP or PP)
In this second section we present the alternations we found that, contrary to the ones
presented in the first part of this chapter, involve noun phrases (NN) or prepositional
phrases (PP), as illustrated by the examples below:
(23) Gianni ha visto la sua amica con un binocolo (NP)
“Gianni has seen his friend with a binoculars” (NP)
(24) Gianni ha visto la sua amica con un binocolo (PP)
“Gianni has seen his friend with a binoculars” (PP) [Graffi 1994, p. 89]
This kind of alternation is by far the most studied cross-‐linguistically and “they have
been a mainstay of syntactic research since the beginning of generative grammar”
(Dowty 2000, p. 111). These alternations cause either a different syntactic realisation of
the participants involved in the event described by the predicate (as in (25), where the
subject position is occupied by the Agent in a. and by the Location in b.), or a change in
the valence of the verb (as in (26) where the predicate is transitive in a. and intransitive
in b.):
32 To be sorry, to suit, to result. However, it is important to stress that, in Italian, these verbs can only be impersonal, with the experiencer always realised as dative.
63
(25) a. Bees are swarming in the garden
b. The garden is swarming with bees [Salkoff 1983, p. 288]
(26) a. Janet broke the vase
b. Crystal vases break easily [Dowty 2001, p. 179]
In this section we present the results of our analysis in relation to these types of so-‐
called “classical argument alternations”, providing new data for Italian, which, up until
now, still consist only of the works of Jezek (2003), Lenci (2009), Lenci (in press) and
Cennamo (forthcoming).
4.2.1. Alternations causing a change in the transitivity of the verbs
Regardless of the idiosyncratic peculiarities of the alternations presented in this first
part, there is a common thread that makes it possible to cluster them all together: in fact,
in all of them the verbs, originally transitive, turn into syntactically unaccusative ones
taking the pronominal form33. In the next paragraphs we will therefore go through each
and every one of these alternations, focusing on their specific characteristics.
4.2.1.1. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{da}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{da}PP
In the first option of this alternation (27a), the verb has three arguments (an NP subject,
an NP object, and a {da}PP); in the second option (27b), the verb actually becomes
unaccusative, taking the pronominal form indicated by the presence of the pronoun si:
(27) a. Hai buttato i sassi dalla finestra
“You threw stones from the window”
b. Lui si è buttato dal trampolino
“He jumped-‐pron from the trampoline”
33 For a discussion on the relation between pronominal verbs in Italian and unaccusativity see Jezek (2003), III.1.2.
64
The verbs in our sample that allow for this alternation are: rilanciare, buttare, escludere,
difendere, gettare, dividere, staccare, spostare, lanciare, sciogliere, allontanare, sollevare,
distrarre, trarre, ritirare, levare, sfilare, separare, liberare, ritrarre, riparare, salvare34.
Given the semantic coherency of these verbs, it is not surprising that they can be
grouped into well definite sub-‐classes, once again based on those found in Levin (1993):
a. THROW VERBS: rilanciare, buttare, gettare, lanciare;
b. REMOVE VERBS: escludere, difendere, dividere, staccare, spostare, sciogliere,
allontanare, sollevare, distrarre, trarre, ritirare, levare, sfilare, separare, liberare, ritrarre,
riparare, salvare.
The verbs in the first class describe situations in which an entity is suddenly set in
motion and then moves without the help of the agent that originated the action. This
entity is realised as an object in (27a) and as a subject in (27b). In both cases, the PP
introduced by the preposition da (“from”) indicates the starting point of the action, the
SOURCE35. The verbs belonging to the second class, on the other hand, describe actions
in which an entity is removed from either a physical place, as in (28a), or a situation, as
in (28b) (again realised as a PP introduced by da):
(28) a. Allontana la sedia dal muro!
“(You) remove the chair from the wall!”
b. Allontanati dai pericoli!
“(You) remove-‐pron from dangers!”
One last point worth stressing is that, in Italian, all the verbs listed are, in the
pronominal variant and only with an agentive subject, direct reflexive verbs, namely
verbs that describe actions “which the subject carries out on themself, treating himself
or herself as object” (Lepschy 1986, p. 12). This means that a finer-‐graded distinction
has to be made between those verbs that allow only for an agentive subject, and those
that do not, allowing for both an agentive and a non-‐agentive subject. In fact, in the
34 To throw again, to throw out, to exclude, to defend, to toss, to divide, to unplug, to move, to throw, to untie, to remove, to lift, to distract, to pull, to pull back, to take away, to pull out, to separate, to free, to withdraw, to shelter, to save. 35 See VerbNet Annotation Guidelines, p. 21 (downloadable at http://verbs.colorado.edu/verb-‐index/).
65
former case, verbs are and can only be direct reflexives, whereas, in the latter, two
options are given: a direct reflexive one when the subject is agentive, and an intransitive
pronominal one when the subject is an inanimate non-‐agentive entity. Considering this
new parameter, the following classification is also possible and valid:
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVE VERBS: rilanciare, buttare, gettare, lanciare, escludere, difendere,
distrarre, trarre, ritirare, levare, separare, liberare, ritrarre, riparare, salvare. These verbs
always entail an animate agentive subject and, in the pronominal form, even though they
syntactically belong to the class of unaccusative verbs, their semantic valency is still
somehow transitive, with the pronoun si acting as the object and co-‐referring to the
same entity of the subject. It follows that a sentence like (29) can be paraphrased as
shown in (30):
(29) Il suicida si è gettato dalla finestra
“The suicide victim threw-‐pron from the window
(30) Il suicida ha gettato se stesso dalla finestra
“The suicide victim threw himself from the window”
II. DIRECT REFLEXIVE/INTRANSITIVE PRONOMINAL VERBS: dividere, staccare, spostare, sciogliere,
allontanare, sollevare, sfilare. Depending on the agentivity of the noun filler in the
subject slot, in the pronominal realisation these verbs can be direct reflexive, in which
case the pronoun si does act as a semantic object co-‐referring with the subject (28b), but
they can also be intransitive pronominal verbs, giving rise to a causative-‐inchoative
alternation in which a sentence like (31) cannot be paraphrased as (32):
(31) La nave si è allontanata dalla costa
“The ship removed-‐pron from the shore
(32) *La nave ha allontanato se stessa dalla costa
*“The ship has removed itself from the shore
66
4.2.1.2. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP
This alternation presents the same structure as the one discussed in 4.2.1.1., with the
only syntactic difference being the preposition introducing the PP, which, in this case, is
di (“of”).
(33) a. Ho convinto i colleghi della validità della teoria
“I have convinced the colleagues of the validity of the theory”
b. Mi sono convinto del mio errore
“I convinced-‐pron of my mistake”
From the analysis of our sample, it emerged that this alternation is allowed by the
following verbs: convincere, privare, fornire, ricoprire, riempire, caricare, svuotare,
dotare, investire, colmare, incaricare, circondare, coprire36. They can be grouped in the
following sub-‐classes:
a. FILL VERBS: ricoprire, riempire, caricare, svuotare, colmare, circondare, coprire;
b. VERBS OF FULFILLING: fornire, dotare, investire, incaricare37;
c. VERBS OF POSSESSIONAL DEPRIVATION: privare;
d. VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION: convincere.
These verbs are, like the ones in 4.2.1.1., direct reflexive and, therefore, what we said in
relation to the semantic value of the pronoun si is valid also for the verbs listed above;
this means that (33b) can be reformulated as (34):
(34) Ho convinto me stesso del mio errore
As for the semantic role of the PP introduced by di, in the three first classes described
above it refers to an entity that is either moved (in a.), given (in b.) or taken away (in c.).
36 To convince, to deprive, to supply, to lavish, to fill up, to load, to empty, to provide, to assign, to fill to the brim, appoint, to overload, to cover. 37 In Levin (1993), to assign and to appoint are classified as a VERB OF FUTURE HAVING and as an APPOINT VERB respectively. However, given their meaning in Italian and their syntactic behaviour, we believe that they fit the VERBS OF FULFILLING class better.
67
Also, the NP in the object position can describe either a physical place, as in (35), or an
animate entity, as in (36) and (37):
(35) Coprire le pareti di quadri
“To cover the walls with paintings”
(36) Incaricare un amico della commissione
“To appoint a friend to an errand”
(37) Privare i dipendenti della paga
“To deprive workers of the salary”
As for the verb convincere in d., the NP refers always to a person or a group, while the PP
introduced by di can be construed as a STIMULUS, namely a “cause in an event that
elicits an emotional or psychological response” (VerbNet Annotation Guidelines, p. 21).
4.2.1.3. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}PP
This alternation shares the basic structure we have dealt with until now, but contrary to
what we have seen so far, it features a PP introduce by the preposition a (“to”, “beside”,
“with”):
(38) a. Ha abituato i figli allo studio
“She accustomed the children to studying”
b. Si sono abituati a una nuova vita
“They have accustomed-‐pron to a new life”
Within our annotated sample, the following verbs allow for this alternation: disporre,
affidare, donare, mostrare, alternare, opporre, adattare, abituare, mescolare, affiancare,
costringere, agganciare, esporre, consacrare, adeguare, accordare, unire, iscrivere,
preparare, sottrarre, paragonare, attaccare, raccomandare, presentare, votare,
appassionare, associare, allineare, vendere, avvicinare, indirizzare, dichiarare, dare,
predisporre, sommare, sottoporre, accostare, concedere, rivolgere, consegnare, interessare,
68
dedicare38. What all these verbs have in common, in spite of their obvious semantic
differences, is the fact that they all describe actions whose accomplishment necessarily
implies either a final point to reach, or a general entity without the participation of
which the action is not completed: in both cases, it is expressed as a PP introduced by
the preposition a. This implied ending point, however, can refer to various entities,
depending on which the following sub-‐classes are possible:
I. {a}PP = physical place: affiancare, attaccare, iscrivere, avvicinare, accostare (VERBS OF
MOTION);
(39) a. Affiancheremo il mobile alla scala
“We will move the wardrobe beside the stair”
b. Ti sei affiancato a un auto
“You moved-‐pron beside a car”
II. {a}PP = person/group: affidare, donare, promettere, raccomandare, presentare,
vendere, indirizzare, dare, concedere, consegnare (VERBS OF CHANGE OF POSSESSION),
dichiarare, rivolgere (VERBS OF COMMUNICATION);
(40) a. Ti presento a mia madre
“I introduce you to my mother”
b. Presentarsi ai nuovi colleghi”
“To introduce-‐pron to the new colleagues”
III. {a}PP = situation or state of things: disporre, adattare, abituare, costringere, esporre,
consacrare, adeguare, preparare, sottrarre, allineare, votare, appassionare, predisporre,
obbligare, sottoporre, interessare, dedicare (mainly VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION) ;
38 To prepare, to entrust, to donate, to show, to alternate, to oppose, to adjust, to accustom, to mix, to place side by side, to force, to hook, to expose, to consecrate, to adapt, to reconcile, to join, to enrol, to get ready, to devote, to thrill, to associate, to adjust, to sell, to approach, to address, to declare, to give, to predispose, to sum up, to undergo, to pull close, to grant, to address, to give, to interest, to dedicate.
69
(41) a. Sottrassero il ragazzo agli sguardi indiscreti dei presenti
“They took the boy away from the indiscrete gazes of the people”
b. Ti sei sottratto a una responsabilità
“You took away-‐pron from a responsibility”
IV. {a}PP = third necessary entity: opporre, alternare, mescolare, agganciare, accordare,
paragonare, associare, sommare (VERBS OF COMBINING AND ATTACHING).
(42) a. Accordo i tendaggi all’arredamento
“I match the curtains with the furniture”
b. Il colore delle pareti si accorda a quello del divano
“The colour of the walls matches-‐pron with that of the couch”
4.2.1.4. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{in}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{in}PP
The peculiarity of this alternation lies in the preposition introducing the PP, namely in
(“in, into”):
(43) a. Il provvedimento ha integrato i portatori di handicap nella società
“The measurement has integrated disabled people within society”
b. Mi sono integrato nel nuovo ambiente di lavoro
“I have integrated-‐pron in the new workplace”
The verbs in our sample that allow this alternation are: proiettare, integrare, immergere,
situare, rinchiudere, specializzare, inserire, inquadrare, trasformare39. Even though these
verbs are semantically heterogeneous, in all of them the preposition in refers to a
situation, a place or a physical entity that can be construed as the final point of the
action described by the verb. We propose now a sub-‐classification, partly derived from
Levin (1993) – a., b., c. –, partly proposed here for the first time – d., e. –:
39 To project, to integrate, to put effort in, to immerse, to situate, to close in, to specialise, to insert, to contextualise, to transform.
70
a. PUT VERBS: immergere, rinchiudere, inserire;
b. AMALGAMATE VERBS: integrare;
c. TURN VERBS: trasformare;
d. VERBS OF CONTEXTUALISATION: situare, inquadrare;
e. VERBS OF DEDICATION: proiettare, specializzare.
In a manner similar to that discussed in relation to the verbs in 4.2.1.1., we believe that a
further distinction can be made depending on the semantic value of the pronoun si in the
pronominal realisation, an aspect that is strictly related to the possibility for these verbs
to have only agentive subjects or not:
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVE VERBS: rinchiudere, integrare. These verbs can only have an animate
agentive subject and, in the pronominal form, even though they are unaccusative verbs,
their semantic valency is still transitive, with the pronoun si acting as the object of the
verb and co-‐referring to the same entity of the subject, as demonstrated by the
possibility to paraphrase (43b) as (44):
(44) Ho integrato me stesso nel nuovo ambiente di lavoro
“I integrated myself in the new workplace”
II. DIRECT REFLEXIVE/INTRANSITIVE PRONOMINAL VERBS: immergere, inserire, trasformare,
proiettare, specializzare. These verbs allow for both an agentive subject, in which case
the pronoun si does act as a semantic object co-‐referring with the subject (45), and a
non-‐agentive subject, therefore becoming intransitive pronominal verbs (46), which,
unsurprisingly, cannot be paraphrased as (47):
(45) Il fidanzato di mia sorella si è inserito bene nella compagnia
“My sister’s boyfriend integrated-‐pron well in the group”
(46) Il piano si inserisce nella struttura portante
“The flat surface integrates-‐pron into the carrier structure”
(47) *Il piano inserisce se stesso nella struttura portante
*“The flat surface integrates itself into the carrier structure”
71
III. INTRANSITIVE PRONOMINAL VERBS: situare, inquadrare. These verbs can only have non-‐
agentive subjects and, in the pronominal realisation, the pronoun si indicates the
inchoativity of the action described (48) and it could never be paraphrased as (49):
(48) Il provvedimento si inquadra in un vasto piano di interventi
“The measure places-‐pron within a broad intervention program”
(49) *Il provvedimento ha inquadrato se stesso in un vasto piano di interventi
*”The measure has placed itself within a broad intervention program”
This particularity is due to the fact that, while the verbs in I describe actions that the
agent carries out on themselves or on one of their qualities, the verbs in III indicate
actions that can only be transferred onto external entities, as the agrammaticality of the
sentence in (50) shows:
(50) *Mi sono situato in un momento economico sfavorevole
*”I placed myself in an unfavourable economic time”
On the other hand, as we have discussed above, the verbs in II lay something in between
those in I and III, allowing for both types of subject and, consequently, allowing for both
interpretations of the pronoun si.
4.2.1.5. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{su}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{su}PP
This alternation has the same basic structure as the ones presented so far, but with the
PP introduced by the preposition su (“on”):
(51) a. Hanno basato i calcoli sui dati ufficiali
“They based the evaluations on official data”
b. L’accusa si basa sulle testimonianze
“The prosecution bases-‐pron on the depositions”
72
Within our sample of verbs, those that present this alternation are: fondare, proiettare,
basare, concentrare. Since none of these verbs is taken into consideration in Levin
(1993), we propose our own sub-‐classification:
a. BASE VERBS: fondare, basare;
b. VERBS OF FOCUS: proiettare, concentrare.
The interesting fact about these verbs is that, even though it is still true that they are
direct reflexives, in the pronominal form the entity indicated by the pronoun si does not
coincide with the one denoted by the subject, but rather with one of its faculties, as
demonstrated by the fact that (52) cannot be paraphrased as (53), but, in fact, by
something along the lines of (54):
(52) Mi sono concentrato sul libro
“I concentrated-‐pron on the book”
(53) ?Ho concentrato me stesso sul libro
?“I concentrated myself on the book”
(54) Ho concentrato l’attenzione/lo sguardo sul libro
“I concentrated my attention/my mind on the book”
4.2.1.6. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{con}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{con}PP
This alternation presents, once again, the same general structure discussed so far, but
with a PP introduced by the preposition con (“with”):
(55) a. I contadini scambiano grano con petrolio
“Farmers swap wheat with petrol”
b. Mi sono scambiato con il compagno di banco
“I swapped-‐pron with my deskmate”
73
From the analysis of our sample, it appears that this alternation is allowed by these
verbs: conciliare, combinare, alternare, scambiare, confrontare, mescolare40. Accordingly
to Levin (1993), the following sub-‐classes are possible:
a. AMALGAMATE VERBS: conciliare, alternare, scambiare, confrontare;
b. MIX VERBS: combinare, mescolare.
As the names of the classes suggests, all these verbs describe actions in which an entity
is mixed up or amalgamated with another one. Moreover, the striking inherent semantic
coherency of these verbs is confirmed by the fact that, in Italian, the preposition that
indicates the conjunction of two or more elements is precisely the one found in both
realisations, namely con (see Serianni 1989, VIII.89-‐91).
With regard to the pronominal form, all these verbs allow for both an agentive
and a non-‐agentive subject, the selection of which is responsible for a direct reflexive
interpretation (56) or an intransitive pronominal one (58), strictly followed by the
possibility or not of a paraphrase, as demonstrated in (57) and (59) respectively:
(56) A lavoro, mi alterno con la mia amica
“At work, I alternate-‐pron with my friend”
(57) A lavoro, alterno me stessa con la mia amica
At work, I alternate myself with my friend
(58) In un musical, i dialoghi si alternano con le canzoni
“In a musical, dialogues alternate-‐pron with songs”
(59) *In un musical, I dialoghi alternano se stessi con le canzoni
*”In a musical, dialogues alternate themselves with songs”
4.2.1.7. NP_subj#V#NP_obj / NP_subj#V-‐si
The alternation we discuss now is by far the most common one within our sample,
including approximately 20% of the verbs: given this substantial inventory and for
reasons of space, we thought it best to list all the verbs only in the appendix, discussing 40 To reconcile, to cover again, to alternate, to swap, to confront, to mix.
74
here only their syntactic and semantic properties. Moreover, we chose to attempt a
classification not based on Levin’s classes, but on the particular semantic value that the
pronominal form carries: this allowed us to focus on the most salient features of the
verbs and the different entailments that the alternation has. Therefore, the classification
we propose does not claim to be either thorough or the only one possible: on the
contrary, we believe that a deeper semantic classification of these verbs, preferably
based on a larger sample, is indeed needed and desirable.
We will present here the different sub-‐classes we found, with the indication of
the most representative verbs for each class, which, however, we fully list in the
Appendix:
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVES: isolare, lavare, rinnovare, liberare, negare, allontanare, scoprire,
schierare, esprimere, giustificare, assicurare, uccidere, ammazzare, allenare, licenziare,
accettare, consolare, contraddire, tormentare, interrogare, valorizzare, ferire, escludere,
spiegare, umiliare, nascondere41. The semantic peculiarity of these verbs is the fact that,
in the pronominal form, subject and object co-‐refer to the same entity, as illustrated by
the semantic equivalence of (60a) and (60b) (Serianni, XI. 18):
(60) a. Spesso si giustifica
“Often he justifies-‐pron b. Spesso giustifica se stesso
“Often he justifies himself”
From a syntactic perspective, however, they are intransitive verbs that, in fact could
never take a direct object, as shown in (61a), but, if necessary, could be accompanied by
an indirect object (61b):
(61) a. *Vi contraddite voi
*“You contradict yourself you”
b. Vi contraddite (con le vostre azioni)
“You contradict-‐pron (with your actions)” 41 To isolate, to wash, to renovate, to liberate, to deny, to push, to discover, to deploy, to express, to justify, to assure, to kill, to murder, to train, to fire, to accept, to consulate, to contradict, to torment, to interrogate, to value, to injure, to exclude, to explain, to humiliate, to hide.
75
II. RECIPROCAL REFLEXIVES: conoscere, sospettare, rispettare, combattere, fronteggiare,
controllare, attirare, ritrovare, rivedere, stimare, sfidare, abbracciare, rincorrere,
inseguire, sfiorare, scegliere, dividere, stringere, picchiare, disturbare, odiare, respingere,
frequentare, temere, incontrare, sposare, vedere, trovare, baciare, soccorrere42. What
makes these verbs interesting is the fact that they “express an action that two or more
subjects carry out and undergo at once” (Battista Moretti & Orvieto 1983, vol. III, p. 83).
This semantic property shows its influence on the syntactic construction allowed by
these verbs in that they can only have a plural subject (62) and would not be
grammatically acceptable with a singular one (63):
(62) Ci siamo incontrati tanto tempo fa
“We met-‐pron a long time ago”
(63) *Luca si è incontrato ieri
*”Luca met himself yesterday”
I. CAUSATIVE-‐INCHOATIVE ALTERNATION: chiudere, spaventare, confondere,
emozionare, abbassare, restringere, staccare, ridurre, intrecciare, sbloccare, scatenare,
rovinare, turbare, piegare, conservare, spezzare, spaccare, rompere43. These verbs allow
the argument alternation extensively examined in 2.1., namely the causative-‐inchoative
alternation. As we discussed in the second chapter, this alternation consists of a pair of
sentences whose verb expresses the same situation, generally a change of state, but
starting from different semantic perspectives, which are reflected in the two different
realisations. In the causative one, the verb meaning includes an agentive participant who
causes the situation (64), whereas in the inchoative variant the verb meaning excludes
such agent and presents the situation as occurring spontaneously (65):
(64) Lucia ha spezzato un biscotto
“Lucia broke a biscuit”
42 To know, to suspect, to respect, to fight, to face, to control, to attract, to rediscover, to see again, to esteem, to challenge, to hug, to chase, to run after, to brush against, to choose, to split, to cling, to beat up, to disturb, to hate, to repel, to hang out, to fear, to meet, to marry, to see, to come across, to kiss, to help. 43 To close, to frighten, to confuse, to move, to lower, to shrink, to remove, to reduce, to intertwine, to unblock, to instigate, to ruin, to upset, to bend, to keep, to crack, to smash, to break.
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(65) La corda si è spezzata
“The rope has broken-‐pron”
The verbs in our sample that allow this alternation are mainly CHANGE OF STATE
VERBS (Levin 1993), such as spezzare, rovinare, piegare and rompere. However, there
are numerous PSYCH-‐VERBS (Levin 1993), such as spaventare, emozionare and turbare:
even in this case, the inchoative realisation does not feature an agentive participant
responsible for prompting the action, which is still presented as a spontaneous
happening (66):
(66) Non mi emoziono facilmente
“I am not moved-‐pron easily”
4.2.1.8. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{...}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{...}PP
This alternation is, to a certain extent, syntactically similar to the one discussed in
4.2.1.7, but with some notable semantic differences. The first thing to notice is that,
contrary to the previous alternation, the argument structure of this one is made more
complex by the introduction of a PP; moreover, this PP is not introduced by a definite
preposition, but, depending on the verb meaning and on the noun filler of the slot in
question, it can be preceded, in both realisations, by different prepositions, as shown in
(67):
(67) a. Marco ha buttato il riso agli sposi / la maglia in lavatrice / acqua sul fuoco
“Marco threw rice at the newlyweds / the jumper in the washing machine / water
on the fire”
b. Marco si è buttato in acqua / sul letto / contro qualcuno
“Marco threw-‐pron in the water / on the bed / against someone”
The verb in our sample that allow for this alternation are: infilare, girare, disporre,
informare, calare, orientare, buttare, muovere, trascinare, collocare, gettare, voltare,
fissare, versare, rilanciare, avviare, aggiungere, aprire, spingere, insinuare, accordare,
avvolgere, stabilire, spostare, rovesciare, lanciare, imprimere, spargere, dirigere, piazzare,
77
sistemare, ambientare, stampare, stendere, mettere, rivolgere, abbandonare, porre44. As
for the verbs in 4.1.7., we propose a classification of these verbs based on the particular
semantic value that the pronominal form carries:
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVES: girare, disporre, calare, orientare, buttare, muovere, trascinare,
gettare, voltare, rilanciare, avviare, spingere, stabilire, spostare, lanciare, dirigere,
piazzare, sistemare, ambientare, stendere, mettere, rivolgere, abbandonare, porre (VERBS
OF MOTION), informare, accordare45 (VERBS OF COMMUNICATION). When all these
verbs take the pronominal form, the pronoun si does act as a semantic object, co-‐
referring with the subject itself, as illustrated by the possible reformulation of (68b) as
(69):
(68) a. I fondatori hanno stabilito la sede dell’azienda a Roma / nella capitale
“The founders have established the headquarters of the business in Rome / in the
capital”
b. Ho deciso di stabilirmi a Milano
“I have decided to establish-‐pron in Milan”
(69) Ho deciso di stabilire me stesso a Milano46
“I have decided to establish-‐pron myself in Milan”
II. CAUSATIVE-‐INCOHATIVE ALTERNATION: infilare, collocare, versare, aggiungere,
aprire, insinuare, avvolgere, rovesciare, spargere, imprimere, stampare. As seen in 4.2.1.7.,
these verbs allow for two different realisations whose meaning varies substantially: the
first one (70a) is a causative sentence in which the subject refers to either an agent or a
cause responsible for the instantiation of the action; in the second one (70b), the subject
corresponds to a semantic object that undergoes the action described by the verb, which
is presented as random and in no way attributable to an agentive participant:
44 To pierce through, to turn, to put in order, to inform, to lower, to orientate, to throw, to move, to carry, to place, to toss, to turn, to cast again, to address, to add, to open, to push, to insinuate/to creep in, to agree, to wind up, to establish, to transfer, to spill, to cast to impress, to spread, to direct, to position, to set, to locate, to print, to spread out, to put, to turn again, to abandon, to put. 45 These two verbs of communication are quite problematic since the pronominal form allows for an interpretation in between the typical direct reflexive one and the intensive reflexive one, without clearly falling into either of them. 46 This sentence is perfectly formed in Italian, but it could be used only in a marked context, such as that allowed by topicalisation mechanisms.
78
(70) a. Ho rovesciato la minestra sul tappeto
“I spilt the soup on the carpet”
b. Il latte si è rovesciato per terra
“The milk spilt-‐pron onto the floor”
As for the PP, it refers to either the ending point of the action, as shown in (70), or
simply a physical entity on which the action is imposed, as in (71):
(71) a. Ha impresso le proprie orme sulla sabbia
“She impressed her footsteps on the sand”
b. Le orme si imprimono sulla sabbia
“Footsteps impress-‐pron onto the sand”
III. INTENSIVE REFLEXIVES: fissare. This class consists of only one verb, but it is
representative of a type of verbs that allow a pronominal form, in which, however, the
pronoun does not act a semantic object co-‐referring to the subject, but rather with one
of the subject’s qualities (72):
(72) Fissa sempre lo sguardo sulla mia ragazza
“He always fixes his gaze on my girlfriend”
This fact is also confirmed by the impossibility of a sentence like (73) to be paraphrased
as (74), since the pronoun in the former sentence simply indicates a greater
involvement of the subject, and not the subject itself:
(73) Si è fissato con quella ragazza / in un progetto
“He fixed-‐pron with that girl / in a project”
(74) *Ha fissato se stesso con quella ragazza / in un progetto
*“He fixed himself with that girl / in a project”
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4.2.2. Alternations involving two intransitive variants
The alternation we discuss in this section differs from the ones presented so far with
respect to transitivity: in the case examined below, in fact, verbs are always intransitive
in both the realisations allowed.
4.2.2.1. NP_subj#V / NP_subj#V#{...}PP
This alternation involves a change in the number of arguments required by the verb and,
as we will see, it is connected to a more specified use of the verb:
(75) a. Nel dopoguerra, molti furono costretti ad emigrare
“During the post-‐war period many people were forced to emigrate”
b. I miei nonni emigrarono in Germania
“My grandparents emigrated to Germany”
The verbs within our sample that allow this alternation are: tornare, girare, correre,
giocare, finire, accorrere, uscire, battere, emigrare, terminare, perdere, bastare,
combattere, risalire, arrivare, durare, oscillare, riuscire, volare, nascere, giungere, ricadere,
cadere, scivolare, avanzare, votare, venire, crescere, piombare, sorgere, comparire, reagire,
saltare, slittare, lavorare, picchiare, salire, vagare, precipitare, rientrare47. They can be
grouped into the following sub-‐classes (Levin 1993), the last three of which (p., q., r.) we
propose here for the first time:
a. VERBS OF INHERENTLY DIRECTED MOTION: tornare, uscire, risalire, arrivare,
giungere, ricadere, cadere, avanzare, venire, piombare, salire, precipitare, rientrare;
b. ROLL VERBS: girare, oscillare, scivolare, slittare;
c. RUN VERBS: correre, accorrere, volare, saltare;
d. LEAVE VERBS: emigrare;
e. PERFORMANCE VERBS: giocare;
47 To come back, to spin, to run, to play, to end, to hasten, to exit, to hit, to emigrate, to finish, to loose, to be enough, to fight, to go back up, to arrive, to last, to swing, to succeed, to fly, to be born, to reach, to fall again, to fall, to slide, to advance, to vote, to come, to grow, to precipitate, to rise, to appear, to react, to jump, to slid, to work, to beat, to go up, to wander, to plunge, to come back in.
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f. BEGIN VERBS: finire, terminare;
g. HIT VERBS: battere, picchiare;
h. APPEAR VERBS: nascere, sorgere, comparire;
i. VERBS OF CALIBRATABLE CHANGE OF STATE: crescere;
j. MEANDER VERBS: vagare;
k.. OTHER ALTERNATING VERBS OF CHANGE OF STATE: perdere;
l. KNEAD VERBS: lavorare;
m. MEET VERBS: combattere;
n. MARVEL VERBS: reagire;
o. VERBS OF FULFILLING: votare;
p. NEED VERBS: bastare;
q. VERBS OF DURATION: durare;
r. VERBS OF SUCCESS: riuscire.
Even though this group includes semantically heterogeneous verbs, they are all verbs
whose meaning can be further specified through the addition of a PP, the preposition of
which is greatly determined by the specifying complement selected by each verb, as the
few examples in (76) and (77) demonstrate:
(76) Sta venendo una macchina
A car is coming
La trottola non gira più
The spinning top does not spin anymore
Ai bambini piace saltare
Kids like to jump
Possiamo andare a giocare?
“Can we go to play?”
La partita è terminata
“The match has ended”
Il sole è sorto
“The sun has risen”
La ditta sta perdendo
“The business is loosing”
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L’esercito combatte valorosamente
“The army is fighting bravely”
I soldi non bastano mai
“Money is never enough”
Sono tessuti che durano
“These are fabrics that last”
L’impresa è riuscita
“The endeavour succeeded”
(77) Vieni subito da me [DIRECTION]
“Come here to me”
La Terra gira intorno al Sole [DIRECTION]
“The Earth spins around the Sun”
Saltare come un cerbiatto [MANNER]
“To jump like a fawn”
Il gatto gioca con il gomitolo [INSTRUMENT]
“The cat is playing with the ball of wool”
Il sentiero termina nel bosco [PLACE]
“The path ends in the wood”
La città sorge su una rupe [PLACE]
“The city rises on a cliff”
Perdere di autorità [QUALITY]
“To loose in authority”
Combattere per la liberta [PURPOSE]
“To fight for freedom”
Ti basta un foglio? [BENEFICIARY]
“Is one paper sheet enough for you?”
Il bel tempo è durato per una settimana [TIME]
“The good weather lasted for a week”
Riuscire nell’esame [ACTIVITY]
“To succeed in the exam”
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This alternation can be interpreted as an instantiation of the phenomenon known as
“argument drop” or “null arguments” (Cole 1987; Huang 1995), according to which core
arguments of a given verb can be syntactically unexpressed under particular
circumstances. The most widely known type of “argument drop” is the “object drop”
(Keller & Lapata 1998), whereas, in this case, we have a case of “indirect object drop”,
clearly related to the possibility shown by these verbs to feature in a more general
context or, on the contrary, in a more specified one.
4.2.3. Alternations involving verbs with predicative complements
A predicative complement usually “consists of a noun or adjective that, referred to the
subject or the direct object, is used to determine and complete the meaning of the verb”
(Serianni 1989, p. 95). Given its peculiar nature, we thought it best to keep it separate
from the other alternations examined in the two previous sections.
4.2.3.1 NP_subj#V#Cpred / NP_subj#V#Cpred#{a}PP
This alternation implies a change of valence in the verbs that allow it, with the addition
of a PP introduced by the preposition a (“to”) in one of the two possible realisations
(78b):
(78) a. Tutti gli sforzi sono apparsi vani
“All the efforts seemed vain”
b. L’esito dell’incontro apparve scontato a tutti i presenti
“The outcome of the meeting seemed predicted to all the present people”
The verbs in our sample that allow this alternation are: riuscire, apparire, risultare48.
They all belong to the class of copulative verbs, which are verbs that, similarly to verb to
be, have a generic semantic content and therefore need to be further specified by a
predicative complement.
The realisation in (78b) differs from the one in (78a) for the presence of a PP that
simply indicates the EXPERIENCER (see VerbNet Annotation Guidelines, p. 21), namely 48 To come across as, to seem, to turn out to be.
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the person or group aware of the action described by the combination of the copulative
verb and the predicative complement.
4.3. Alternations involving an argumental sentence and a phrase complement (NP
or PP)
The third type of alternations we found can be considered to be somewhere between the
two presented so far: in all the cases discussed below in fact, verbs allow for alternations
in which one realisation involves either a noun phrase (NP) or a prepositional phrase
(PP), replaced in the other case by an argumental sentence.
Some of them entail a change in the syntactic valency of the verbs, while some
others don’t. Moreover, we classified them depending on the syntactic position affected
by the alternation, namely the complement position or the subject one; however, we
have decided to keep separate those alternations that involve predicative complements,
since, as we will see more in detail, they can be considered a unique class on their own.
4.3.1. Alternations affecting a complement position
All the alternations examined in this section concern the complement position, which
can be a direct complement (NP_obj) or an indirect complement (PP). We will first
discuss those alternations that do not involve a change in the syntactic valency of the
verb, followed by those that do so.
4.3.1.1. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP/NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP
This alternation is allowed by trivalent verbs and it involves the direct complement,
namely the object: in the first realisation (79a), this slot is occupied by a noun filler
(NP_obj), whereas in the second one (79b) there is an argument clause introduced by
the complementiser di and with the verb in the infinitive form. On the other hand, the
indirect complement introduced by the preposition a (“to”) and indicating a somehow
affected participant remains unchanged in both options:
84
(79) a. Ordinò una marcia forzata ai soldati
“He ordered a forced march to the soldiers”
b. Ordinò agli studenti di preparare il testo entro una settimana
“She ordered to prepare the text within a week to the students”
The verbs in our sample that allowed for this alternation are: rimproverare, imporre,
risparmiare, garantire, ricordare, giurare, promettere, gridare, proporre, ordinare,
confidare, proibire, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, augurare, comandare, offrire,
raccomandare, sussurrare, dire, predicare, vietare, dichiarare, permettere, suggerire,
denunciare, scrivere, assicurare, confessare, concedere, comunicare, consigliare, riferire,
impedire49. Following Levin’s verb classes (Levin 1993), these verbs could be divided in
two broad classes:
a. VERBS OF COMMUNICATION: rimproverare, ricordare, giurare, promettere, gridare,
proporre, confidare, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, augurare, raccomandare,
sussurrare, dire, predicare, dichiarare, suggerire, denunciare, scrivere, assicurare,
confessare, comunicare, consigliare, riferire;
b. VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION: imporre, risparmiare, garantire, ordinare, proibire,
comandare, offrire, vietare, permettere, concedere, impedire.
The most interesting thing about this alternation is that it overlaps with the one
discussed in 4.1.1.1.: the majority of the verbs that allow for it, in fact, display a threefold
way of expressing the direct complement, which can be realised as a noun, as an
infinitive argumental sentence introduced by di and as an argumental sentence
introduced by che and with the verb in a finite form. Taking the same verb we used in
the examples in 4.1.1.1., the three following possibilities are therefore given:
(80) a. Augurai buone vacanze al mio amico
“I wished happy holiday to my friend”
49 To scold, to impose, to spare, to guarantee, to remind, to swear, to promise, to scream, to propose, to order, to confide, to forbid, to announce, to tell, to ask, to wish, to command, to offer, to recommend, to whisper, to say, to preach, to prohibit, to declare, to allow, to suggest, to denounce, to write, to assure, to confess, to grant, to communicate, to advise, to report, to impede.
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b. Ti auguro di fare un buon viaggio
“I wish (to) you to have a pleasant journey”
c. Ti Auguro che tutto vada bene
“I wish (to) you that everything go well”
As a confirmation of the validity of our findings, we also found the other possible
alternation, namely the one between (80a) and (80c), which we will discuss in the
following paragraph.
4.3.1.2. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP/NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP
This alternation complements the one examined in the previous paragraph in that it
presents, on the one hand, a realisation with a noun filler (81a) and, on the other, a
realisation with an argumental sentence, introduced in this case by the complementiser
che (“that”) and with the verb at a finite form (81b). Furthermore, even in this
alternation, the indirect complement does not present any variation:
(81) a. Promisero aiuto a un compagno
“They promised help to a friend”
b. Ti prometto che arriverò in orario
“I promise (to) you that I will arrive on time”
The verbs that, within our annotated sample, allowed this alternation are: augurare,
mostrare, garantire, ricordare, assicurare, promettere, gridare, confidare, ripetere,
annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, comandare, raccomandare, dire, dichiarare, segnalare,
spiegare, permettere, denunciare, proporre, scrivere, giurare, confessare, concedere,
insegnare, comunicare, riferire50. As with the previous alternation, the following sub-‐
classification is possible:
50 To wish, to show, to guarantee, to remind, to assure, to promise, to scream, to confide, to repeat, to announce, to tell, to ask, to command, to recommend, to say, to declare, to signal, to explain, to allow, to denounce, to propose, to write, to swear, to confess, to grant, to teach, to communicate, to report.
86
a. VERBS OF COMMUNICATION: augurare, ricordare, assicurare, promettere, gridare,
confidare, ripetere, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, raccomandare, dire, dichiarare,
segnalare, spiegare, denunciare, proporre, scrivere, giurare, confessare, comunicare,
riferire;
b. VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS: mostrare, garantire, comandare, permettere,
concedere, insegnare.
As we briefly mentioned above, the alternation presented here and the one presented in
4.3.1.1. are indeed interchangeable for the majority of the verbs listed in these two
sections, but not for all of them. In fact, there are five verbs (mostrare, ripetere,
segnalare, spiegare, insegnare) that appear in this alternation, but that do not seem to
allow the one presented in 4.3.1.1.. At the same time, there are twelve verbs that present
the reverse situation (rimproverare, imporre, risparmiare, ordinare, proibire, offrire,
sussurrare, predicare, vietare, suggerire, consigliare, impedire). In order to fully
understand such fine-‐graded distinctions, a larger sample of verbs is certainly necessary
and it was thought best to not hazard hasty interpretations that could easily be proven
wrong. Also, a cross-‐linguistic investigation could cast some more light on the
alternation we have just illustrated, providing data from various languages and,
therefore, allowing for more plausible claims.
4.3.1.3. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP / NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}inf
The alternation presented here involves the indirect complement, which, even though it
is always introduced by the preposition a (“to”) can be expressed as a noun (PP) or as an
argumental sentence with the verb in the infinitive form, as illustrated in (82):
(82) a. Educammo i giovani al rispetto degli altri
“We educated young people to the respect for others”
b. Educate vostro figlio a essere tollerante!
“(You) educate your son to be tolerant!”
The verbs in our sample that allow this alternation are: disporre, autorizzare, invitare,
stimolare, abituare, indurre, motivare, incoraggiare, costringere, condannare, esercitare,
87
educare, ammettere, trattenere, spedire, sollecitare, delegare, forzare, ridurre, obbligare,
mettere, destinare51. The following semantic classes can be identified:
a. PSYCH-‐VERBS: stimolare, abituare, indurre, motivare, incoraggiare, esercitare,
sollecitare, ridurre, obbligare;
b. VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION: disporre, autorizzare, invitare, costringere,
condannare, educare, ammettere, trattenere, spedire, delegare, forzare, mettere, destinare.
One thing to notice about these verbs is that, in spite of their different meanings, they all
entail a second animate participant expressed as the direct object that is affected by the
action described the verb, whose meaning is further specified by the indirect object.
4.3.1.4. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{che}fin / NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}PP
As for the previous alternation, even in this case the complement involved is the indirect
object, which can be realised either as a noun introduced by the preposition di (83a), or
as an argumental sentence introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and with the
verb in a finite form (83b):
(83) a. Avviserà i parenti della partenza
“She will warn the relatives about the departure”
b. Ho avvisato tutti che la lezione è sospesa
“I have warned everybody that the lesson is cancelled”
There are only two verbs in our sample that allow for this alternation: avvisare and
convincere 52 . Both verbs can be ascribed to the broad class of VERBS OF
COMMUNICATION, even though, contrary to the majority of the verbs in this class, they
both entail a communication aimed at obtaining a reaction from the interlocutor, an
aspect that makes these two verbs less prototypical than the other verbs of
communication.
51 To prepare, to authorise, to invite, to stimulate, to accustom, to induce, to motivate, encourage, to compel, to condemn, to accustom, to educate, to admit, to hold, to send, to urge, to delegate, to force, to reduce, to obligate, to place, to destine. 52 To warn, to convince.
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4.3.1.5. NP_subj#V#{a}PP / NP_subj#V#{a}inf
This alternation is allowed by intransitive verbs and it involves the indirect object,
which is always introduced by the preposition a (“to”), but can be realized as a noun
(84a) or as an argumental sentence (84b):
(84) a. Rinunciai a un progetto
“I gave up on a project”
b. Rinunciò a partire
“She gave up on going away”
Within our annotated sample, the verbs that allow for this alternation are: contribuire,
arrivare, rinunciare, scappare, pervenire, provvedere, giocare, venire, badare, pensare,
tenere, ritornare, mirare, aspirare, concorrere, tendere53. These verbs can be divided in
the following broad semantic classes:
a. VERBS OF MOTION: arrivare, scappare, pervenire, giocare, venire, ritornare;
b. VERBS OF PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT: contribuire, rinunciare, provvedere, badare,
pensare, tenere, mirare, aspirare, concorrere, tendere.
If the first class is taken from Levin (1993), the second one is not: given the underlying
meaning of all the verbs in b., it was thought best to put them into a new class that would
encompass the common thread, namely the emotional and personal involvement of the
subject in the achievement of the action described by the verb.
4.3.1.6. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}inf
This alternation is one of the two alternations in this section that brings about a change
in the syntactic valency of the verbs that allow for it: in one of the possible realisations,
in fact, they have a direct object and an indirect one realised as a noun (85a), while in
the other one they take the pronominal form and thus display only the indirect
53 To contribute, to arrive, to give up on, to run off, to reach, to provide, to play, to come, to be careful, to think, to value, to come back, to aim at, to strive, to combine to, to tend.
89
argument (85b), which, however, is realised as an argumental sentence. In spite of the
very different syntactic structures involved, the indirect argument is introduced by the
preposition a (“to”) in both possibilities:
(85) a. Obbligammo il nemico alla resa
“We forced the enemy to defeat”
b. Mi sono obbligato a finire il libro entro l’anno
“I have forced-‐pron to finish the book within the year”
The verbs in our sample that allow this alternation are: disporre, convincere, costringere,
obbligare, esercitare, indurre, abituare, ridurre, trattenere54, and they all belong to the
VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION class.
Moreover, all of these verbs are direct reflexive verbs, which means that, in the
pronominal form, the pronoun acts as a direct object that co-‐refers to the subject, as the
paraphrase of (85b) in (86) illustrates:
(86) Ho obbligato me stesso a finire il libro entro l’anno
“I have forced myself to finish the book within the year”
4.3.1.7. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{per}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}inf
This alternation is similar to the one examined in 4.3.1.6., in more than one respect: not
only does it involve a change in the syntactic valence of verbs, but it also allows for the
indirect object to be realised as a noun (87a) or as an argumental sentence (87b),
introduced in both cases by the preposition per (“for, to”):
(87) a. Sto preparando i bambini per la scuola
“I’m preparing the kids for school”
b. Ci stiamo preparando per andare a cena
“We are preparing-‐pron to go for dinner”
54 To prepare, to convince, to force, to obligate, to accustom, to induce, to accustom, to reduce, to hold.
90
The verbs in our sample that allow for this alternation are: preparare and sacrificare55.
Both verbs refer to actions that implicitly tend towards a final purpose, which is realised
as an indirect object introduced precisely by the preposition that, in Italian, has a
“destinative-‐final value” (Serianni 1989, p. 350), namely per. Moreover, we are once
again presented with direct reflexive verbs since the pronoun in (87b) acts as a semantic
direct object co-‐referring to the subject, as its possible paraphrase in (88) demonstrates:
(88) Stiamo preparando noi stessi per andare a cena
“We are preparing ourselves to go for dinner”
4.3.1.8. NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}PP/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}inf
This alternation is very much like the one we discussed in 4.3.1.7: they both involve the
indirect object, which is introduced by the preposition per (“for, to”) and alternatively
realised as a noun (89a) or as an argumental sentence (89b). However, contrary to the
previous one, this alternation presents the verb in the pronominal form in both
possibilities:
(89) a. Ci organizzammo per un’escursione
“We organised-‐pron for a field trip”
b. Ci organizzammo per uscire presto il mattino
“We organised-‐pron to leave early in the morning”
Within our annotated sample, the following verbs allowed for this alternation:
organizzare, preparare, sacrificare56. As expected, they overlap with those found in the
previous alternation, with the exception of organizzare57, which, according to S&C, does
not allow for the frame illustrated in (87a), therefore not taking part in the alternation in
4.3.1.7. Lastly, these verbs are once again direct reflexives.
55 To prepare, to sacrifice. 56 To organise, to prepare, to sacrifice. 57 The verb to organise is by far the least prototypical of all, allowing for an interpretation which is to be placed somewhere in between the properly direct reflexive one and the properly intensive reflexive one.
91
4.3.1.9. NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}inf
In this alternation, verbs take the pronominal form in both realisations and the
argument affected is the indirect one, which can be expressed as a noun in (90a), or as
an argumental sentence in (90b), but introduced by the preposition di (“of”) in both:
(90) a. Mi sono dimenticato del tuo compleanno
“I have forgotten-‐pron (of) your birthday”
b. Mi dimenticavo di farti gli auguri
“I forgot-‐pron to wish you happy birthday”
The verbs in our annotated sample that allowed for this alternation are: curare,
convincere, accusare, assicurare, pentirsi, sorprendere, occupare, stupire, ricordare,
accontentare, dimenticare, incaricare, accorgersi, vantare58. On the basis of Levin (1993),
the possible semantic classes can be identified:
a. PSYCH-‐VERBS: convincere, accusare, pentirsi, sorprendere, stupire, ricordare,
accontentare, dimenticare, accorgersi, vantare;
b. VERBS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION: curare, assicurare, occupare, incaricare.
However, a second classification is possible if we select as a valid parameter the
semantic value of the pronoun si, which, in fact, varies greatly:
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVE VERBS: convincere, accusare, incaricare. In these cases, the pronoun si
does act as a semantic direct object, co-‐referring to the subject, as the paraphrase of (91)
as (92) shows:
(91) Mi accusai del delitto
“I accused-‐pron of the crime”
(92) Accusai me stesso del delitto
“I accused myself of the crime”
58 To take care of, to convince, to accuse, to make sure, to repent, to surprise, to look after, to astonish, to remember, to please, to forget, to appoint, to notice, to boast.
92
II. INTENSIVE PRONOMINAL VERBS: curare, assicurare, pentirsi, sorprendere, occupare, stupire,
ricordare, accontentare, dimenticare, accorgersi, vantare. In relation to these verbs, the
pronoun si does not function as a semantic argument, but it simply indicates a greater
involvement of the subject in the action described by the verbs, as the agrammaticality
of the paraphrase of (93) as (94) demonstrates:
(93) Non mi stupisco più delle sue affermazioni
“I am not surprised-‐pron anymore by his statements”
(94) *Non stupisco più me stesso delle sue affermazioni
*“I do not surprise myself anymore of his statements”
One last thing worth mentioning in relation to this class is that not all of these verbs
show the same pattern in the corresponding standard form, namely the one with a
direct object and the verb in a non-‐pronominal form. First of all, there are two verbs that
exist only in the pronominal form and do not have a non-‐pronominal realisation (see
Serianni 1989, XI.24): pentirsi and accorgersi. Moreover, while some verbs still imply a
degree of control exerted by the subject (curare, assicurare, occupare, vantare), some
others do not, actually conveying a sense of utter lack of control over the action on
behalf of the subject (sorprendere, stupire, ricordare, dimenticare). Lastly, the verb
accontentare is somehow different from all the others: in the non-‐pronominal realisation
it describes an action totally controlled by the subject and which has direct
consequences only on the entity represented by the object, without the possibility of a
further specification (95a); on the other hand, in the pronominal variant it describes an
action that, in a certain way, the subject undergoes, being left with no other choice than
that expressed by the PP (95b):
(95) a. I nonni accontentano spesso i nipoti
“Grandparents often please grandchildren”
b. Mi accontenterei del terzo posto
“I would please-‐reflex of a third place”
93
4.3.1.10. NP_subj#V-‐si#{che}fin / NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP
This alternation partly overlaps the one in 4.3.1.9.: not only do they both have verbs in
the pronominal form, but they also involve the indirect object, which, in this case, can be
realised as a noun introduced by the preposition di (“of”) (96a), or as an argumental
sentence introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and with the verb in a finite
form (96b):
(96) a. Mi assicurai della verità delle affermazioni
“I verified-‐pron the truth of the statements”
b. Mi assicurai che tutto sia in ordine
“I verified-‐pron that everything is in order”
As one would expect, the verbs in our sample that allow for this alternation partially
coincide with those found in 4.3.1.9.: convincere, stupire, assicurare, ricordare,
sorprendere, accorgersi, and they are all PSYCH-‐VERBS.
Moreover, also in this case it is possible to put forward a second different sub-‐
classification based on the semantic value of the pronoun si:
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVE VERBS: convincere.
II. INTENSIVE PRONOMINAL VERBS: stupire, assicurare, ricordare, sorprendere, accorgersi.
4.3.1.11. NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}PP / NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}inf
This alternation is to be paired with the one in 4.3.1.3., with the only difference being
that, in this case, both realisations require the verb to be in the pronominal form. In both
alternations, however, the involved argument is the indirect object, which is introduced
by the preposition a (“to”) and expressed as a noun (97a), or as an argumental sentence
(97b):
(97) a. Non mi presterei mai a queste cose
“I would never lend-‐pron to these things”
94
b. Ti presteresti a sostenere le spese?
“Would you lend-‐pron to support the expenses?”
The verbs in our sample that allow for this alternation are: preparare, rilanciare,
costringere, determinare, obbligare, prestare, rassegnare, abbassare, rimettere, disporre,
adattare, abituare, ridurre, indurre59 and they can all be classified as VERBS OF SOCIAL
INTERACTION.
Moreover, with the exception of rassegnare, which, in the standard form has a
completely different meaning (“to resign”), all the verbs listed above are direct reflexive
verbs, which means that, once again, the pronoun si acts as the semantic direct object
that co-‐refers to the subject, as the possibility of paraphrasing (97b) as (98) confirms:
(98) Presteresti te stesso a sostenere le spese?
“Would you lend yourself to support the expenses?”
4.3.2. Alternations taking place in the subject position
In all the cases we present in this section, verbs allow their subject to be realised either
as an argumental clause or as a noun; moreover, all the verbs that allow the syntactic
structures examined below are unaccusative intransitive verbs and, in the realisation
with the argumental sentence, they act as impersonal verbs, thus taking only a third
person singular inflection.
4.3.2.1. NP_subj#V#{da}PP / NP_subj{che}fin#V#{da}PP
This alternation takes place in the subject position, which can be realized as a noun
(99a) or as an argumental sentence introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and
with the verb in a finite form (99b):
(99) a. Dalle tue parole non consegue niente di buono
“From your words nothing good follows”
59 To prepare, to restart, to force, to induce, to force, to lend, to put up with, to lower, to start again, to get ready, to adjust, to accustom, to reduce, to persuade.
95
b. Da ciò consegue che non è possibile partire
“From this follows-‐impers that leaving is not possible”
There were only two verbs in our sample that allowed for this alternation: conseguire
and risultare60. As for the verbs in 4.1.2.1., they can be classified as IMPERSONAL VERBS
REQUIRING NOUN CLAUSES.
4.3.2.2. NP_subj#V#{a}PP / NP_subj{che}fin#V#{a}PP
This alternation parallels the one we discussed in 4.1.2.3., with the only difference being
that, in this case, the subject can be realised as a noun (100a) or as an argumental
sentence introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and with the verb in a finite
form (100b):
(100) a. A nessuno importano queste sciocchezze!
“To nobody matter these silly things!”
b. Ai ragazzi importa che tu sia qui con noi
“To the guys matters-‐impers that you are here with us”
The verbs in our annotated sample that allowed for this alternation are: risultare,
capitare, importare, dispiacere, sfuggire, convenire61. As for the verbs in 4.1.2.3., we
propose the novel class HAPPEN VERBS.
However, the two alternations need to be kept apart, as demonstrated by the fact
that not all the verbs that allow for one, also allow for the other one: capitare, importare
and sfuggire, in fact, do not allow for the realisation with the zero infinitive clause:
(101) *A tutti capita perdere la pazienza
*“To everybody happens-‐impers lose their patience”
60 To result, to follow. 61 To result, to happen, to matter, to be sorry, to elude, to be convenient.
96
4.3.2.3. NP_subj#V#{a}PP / NP_subj{0}inf#V#{a}PP
This alternation presents the reverse situation of the one discussed in the previous
paragraph, allowing the subject to be realised as either a noun (102a) or as a zero
infinitive clause (102b):
(102) a. Mi preme solo la tua felicità
“To me matters-‐impers only your happiness”
b. “A noi tutti preme essere presenti”
“To all of us matters-‐impers be-‐inf present”
Within our sample, the following verbs allowed for this alternation: stare, spettare,
risultare, capitare, dispiacere, premere, convenire62. Once again, we propose to establish
an original semantic class, which we call 0-‐INFINITIVE HAPPEN VERBS.
4.3.3. Alternations requiring predicative complements
This final section is dedicated to those alternations we found that involve a predicative
complement: in all the cases discussed below, the alternation concerns the direct object,
which can be realised as a noun or as an argumental sentence.
As we will see more in depth in each specific case, some alternations are also
responsible for a change in the syntactic valency of the verbs that allow for it, while
some others are not. However, regardless of their idiosyncratic peculiarities, they all
require a predicative complement.
Moreover, the verbs in our annotated sample that allowed for the following
alternations are always the same: credere, considerare and giudicare63. These verbs
belong to the class traditionally known as “copulative verbs”, which encompasses all
those verbs that express a state of being, rather than an action, and that, in order to do
so, require a predicative complement. More in depth, the three verbs in question belong
to the subclass of “estimative verbs” (Serianni 1989, XI.6-‐d).
62 To be up to, to concern, to result, to happen, to be sorry, to matter, to be convenient. 63 To believe, to consider, to judge.
97
4.3.3.1. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#Cpred / NP_subj#V#{0}inf#Cpred
The first alternation takes place in the direct object position, which can be syntactically
expressed as a noun (103a) or as an argumental clause introduced by the zero
complementiser (103b):
(103) a. Vi credevo sinceri
“I believed you sincere”
b. Ho creduto opportuno agire in questo modo
“I believed right act-‐inf in this way”
4.3.3.2. NP_subj#V#NP_obj#Cpred / NP_subj#V#{che}fin#Cpred
This alternation once again concerns the direct object, which, as seen in 4.3.3.1., can be
realised as a noun (104a), but, contrary to the previous alternation, also as an
argumental sentence introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and with the verb
in a finite form (104b):
(104) a. Lo considero il miglior giocatore del mondo
“I consider him the best player in the world”
b. Considero sconveniente che tu rimanga qui
“I consider inappropriate that you remain here”
4.3.3.3. NP_subj#V#{0}inf#Cpred / NP_subj#V-‐si#Cpred
The third alternation still involves the direct object, but, contrary to the ones discussed
in the previous paragraphs, it also brings about a change in the syntactic valence of the
verbs that allow for it. In fact, in the first realisation allowed, the direct object is
expressed as a zero infinitive clause (105a), while, in the second one, the verb takes the
prenominal form, acting as the semantic object (105b):
(105) a. Ho giudicato opportuno agire cosi
“I judged adequate act-‐inf like this”
98
b. Si giudica furbo
“He judges-‐pron smart”
Given the semantic value of the pronoun si in the pronominal realisation, the three verbs
that allow this alternation are direct reflexives, and, as in all the cases illustrated so far,
the following paraphrase of (105b) is possible:
(106) Giudica se stesso furbo
“He judges himself smart”
4.3.3.4. NP_subj#V#{che}fin#Cpred / NP_subj#V-‐si#Cpred
As the alternation presented din the previous paragraph, also the one we discuss here
allows for a pronominal realisation in which the pronoun si acts as a semantic direct
object (107b). however, contrary to the alternation in 4.3.3.3. and very much like the
one in 4.3.3.2., it also allows for a realisation in which the direct object is expressed as an
argumental clause introduced by the complementiser che (“that”) and with the verb in a
finite form (107a):
(107) a. Credo giusto che tu vada in persona
“I believe right that you go in person”
b. Mario si crede il più bravo di tutti
“Mario believes himself the best”
One last thing to note is that, even in this case, they are direct reflexive verbs, as the
paraphrase of (107b) shows:
(108) Mario crede se stesso il più bravo di tutti
“Mario believes himself the best”
99
Conclusions
This thesis investigated argument alternations in Italian, with the aim of providing new
insights on what is unanimously considered a complex linguistic phenomenon, to the
extent that its theoretical status is still today hotly discussed by all the different
frameworks involved in the ongoing debate.
After a manual annotation of a sample consisting of the 1000 most frequent
Italian verbs derived from a lexicographic resource, and a semi-‐automatic extraction of
the argument alternations they allow, we were finally able to single out those of them
that could actually be construed as proper instantiations of this widespread aspect of
natural languages.
Our findings provided us with a total of 37 valid argument alternations for Italian
(Fig.6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8), some of which could even be further sub-‐divided into finer-‐graded
clusters. The broader classification we proposed is based on the syntactic properties of
the arguments involved in the alternations we found, and it is made up of three different
classes, divided as follows (Fig.5):
1) Argumental sentence alternations: these alternation involve a set of arguments
that are both expressed by so-‐called “argumental sentences”, namely sentences
that act as arguments saturating the syntactic and semantic valence of verbs;
2) Alternations involving a noun or prepositional phrase (NP or PP): in these
alternations, verbs often undergo a change in their syntactic valency and the
arguments affected are either noun phrases (NN) or prepositional phrases (PP);
3) Alternations involving an argumental sentence and a phrase complement (NP or
PP): in these alternations, verbs allow two realisations of one of their arguments,
which, in one case, is expressed as a noun phrase (NP) or a prepositional phrase
(PP), replaced in the other one by an argumental sentence.
As we have already argued, these results are only partial and could not be further
from being considered definitive: the first thing to do would be to enlarge the sample of
verbs examined, so that more subcategorisation frames could be identified and,
consequently, more potential argument alternations would emerge and, moreover, new
senses for the alternations already singled out would be available.
100
The analysis reported in this thesis moved from data extracted from a lexical
resource, namely a manually built dictionary. However, it would be important to acquire
information about subcategorisation frames and their frequency, as well as about
argument alternations, also from large corpora: in this way, we would be able to
integrate the precise, but somehow limited information derived from a lexicographic
resource, born out of the intuitions of the lexicographer, with that obtained from more
objective but also noisier broad-‐coverage corpora. Hence, an interesting extension of
this work would be the application of our method to data extracted from different kinds
of collections of “real world” texts, such as spontaneous sentence production corpora,
technical language corpora, child speech corpora and, possibly, second language
learners production corpora. Such analysis could cast more light on this phenomenon,
providing at once a larger quantity of verbs and a more variegated use of their senses in
case of polysemy. The exploitation of psycholinguistic-‐derived data, moreover, could
reveal interesting patterns of development in the acquisition and, possibly, loss of
argument alternations, which, in turn, could provide valuable insights on the nature
and/or the organisation of the language faculty.
Finally, one more aspect that future research will have to focus on is the semantic
classification of Italian verbs based on the argument alternations they allow, in a
manner similar to that followed by Levin (1993). Every time it was possible, we did
attempt a classification of verbs, mainly exploiting the semantic classes available in
Levin, but also putting forward new ones when strictly Italian phenomena did not find a
suitable match in English. However, a complete semantic classification of verbs is no
small task and many issues have to be taken into account, from the identification of the
facets of meaning responsible for the syntactic realisations examined, to the inevitable
theoretical challenges posited by finer-‐graded divisions. We will leave to future
investigations the challenge of developing a coherent and extensive semantic
classification of Italian verbs based on their syntactic behaviour.
Notwithstanding the inevitable limitations of our thesis, our work is intended as
a first step that will encourage further research on the behaviour of Italian verbs at the
syntactic-‐semantic interface, which would ultimately benefit at once different areas of
current linguistic research, such as theoretical linguistics, computational linguistics and
psycholinguistics.
101
Figure 5: Argum
ent alternations in Italian
102
Figure 6: Argum
ental sentence alternations
103
Figure 7: Alternations involving a noun or a prepositional phrase (NP or PP)
104
Figure 8: Alternations involving an argum
ental sentence and a phrase com
plem
ent (NP or PP)
105
Acknowledgments
This thesis is the outcome of three long years that, to a large extent, I wish had gone
differently. However, there are people who deserve to be thanked and who are worth all
my respect and gratitude.
First of all, I want to thank my supervisor Prof. Alessandro Lenci for showing me that
everything can be interesting and challenging – even Computational Linguistics –, as
long as it is taught and approached with love, passion and curiosity. His sincere and
thorough support, along with an impeccable work ethics, encouraged me to become a
better linguist, accepting that I will never know enough, and that it is ok not to in order
to become a good researcher.
I am also thankful to my co-‐supervisor Prof. Giovanna Marotta, who agreed to take part
in this work at a short notice, nonetheless showing great enthusiasm and genuine
interest for the subject of this thesis.
I would like to thank my external examiner Doc. Gianluca Lebani, whose generous help
throughout the writing of this thesis was constant, meticulous and simply invaluable.
Also, during my time at the Laboratory of Computational Linguistics, he patiently
supervised my unsuccessful attempts to develop any sort of informatical skills, kindly
waiting until I eventually gave up altogether (which happened regularly, much to his
amusement).
Moreover, a huge thank goes to Alice, Francesca and Irene, three young women who,
each in a different way, will be forever associated with this journey: they are responsible
for filling these years with endless coffee breaks and random gatherings during which
doubts, laughter and hopes were evenly shared. You made bearable what otherwise
would have not been so.
This thesis would have never existed if it had not been for my unconventionally
extraordinary family. I owe my parents a debt I could never, ever repay: not only did
they allow me to go to University for a second time, but they never stopped having faith
in me, not even when I gave them good reasons to. They offered help and support, but
never once imposed any decision of theirs on me, and they are still allowing me, day by
day, to turn into the person I choose to be. Also, I was blessed with the most extravagant
and generous sister and the smartest most loving brother: they managed to put up with
me for 26 and 14 years respectively, at my best and my worst, getting on my nerves
106
every now and then, but still rooting for me every step of the way, no matter what, the
way only siblings can do.
Last, but definitely not least, I wish to thank Emmet, whose endless patience and
unconditional love literally made it possible for me to get here today: he kept things in
perspective, always offering a positive view -‐ even when I did not think it possible -‐ and
a safe shelter every time a new storm hit. His kind Irish nature and his genuine and
devoted passion for everything he does have been inspiring me to not just become a
better linguist, but a better human being and, for that, I could never thank him enough.
Go raibh mile maith agaibh.
107
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APPENDIXES
APPENDIX A – List of Subcategorisation Frames in Il Sabatini & Coletti (2012)
Subcategorisation Frames
Explanation
Example
1) Sogg-‐V
Intransitive monovalent verb
1. Perché tu tremi? “Why are you shaking?” 2. La situazione sta precipitando “The situation is degenerating”
2) Sogg-‐V-‐Arg
Transitive bivalent verb
1. Domani mi chiameresti? “Would you call me tomorrow?” 2. Io ignoro tutto di lui “I ignore everything about him”
3) Sogg-‐V-‐Arg+Comp.Pred
Transitive bivalent verb with a predicative complement
1. Ti giudicavo più saggio “I judged you wiser” 2. Vi credevo sinceri “I considered you honest”
4) Sogg-‐V-‐Arg-‐Prep.Arg
Transitive trivalent verb with a prepositional phrase
1. Daro un libro al mio amico “I will give a book to my friend” 2. Ho mostrato il biglietto al controllare “I have shown the ticket to the controller”
5) Sogg-‐V-‐Arg-‐Prep.Arg-‐Prep.Arg
Transitive quadrivalent verb with two prepositional phrases
1. Hanno spostato la sede da Milano a Torino “They have moved the headquarter from Milan to Turin 2. Mia madre ha tradotto un romanzo dal turco all’inglese “My mum translated a novel from Turkish into English
6) Sogg-‐V-‐Comp.Pred
Intransitive verb with a predicative complement
1. Sono arrivato primo “I have ranked first” 2. I nostri accordi rimangono chiari “Our agreements remain clear”
7) Sogg-‐V-‐Comp.Pred-‐Prep.Arg
Intransitive bivalent verb with a prepositional phrase and a predicative complement
1. Mario ci sembra stanco “Mario seems tired to us” 2. L’affare ci parve una frode “The affair appeared like a fraud to us”
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8) Sogg-‐V-‐Prep.Arg
Intransitive bivalent verb with a prepositional phrase
1. Gianluca crede a Babbo Natale “Gianluca believes in Santa Claus” 2. Oggi resto in ufficio “Today I will stay in the office”
9) Sogg-‐V-‐Prep.Arg-‐Prep.Arg
Intransitive trivalent verb with two prepositional phrases
1. Questo treno va da Milano a Roma “This train goes from Milan to Rome” 2. Raccontaci del tuo ultimo viaggio “Tell us about your last trip”
10) Non.Sogg-‐V
Impersonal avalent verb
1. Piove forte “It rains heavily” 2. Sta tuonando “It is thundering”
11) Non.Sogg-‐V-‐Prep.Arg
Impersonal monovalent verb with a prepositional phrase
1. Ci sembrava di impazzire “It seemed to us to go crazy” 2. Pare che i lavori siano terminate “It appears that the works have finished”
APPENDIX B – List of the 1000 Top Frequent Italian Verbs Analysed in our Sample
(see CD-‐ROM)
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APPENDIX C – List of Subcategorisation Frames identified in the annotation
procedure
Frame
Example
NP_subj#V-‐si#{affinché}fin Si è sacrificato affinché studiassimo “He sacrificed-‐pron so that we could study”
NP_subj#V-‐ne#{a}PP Gliene voglio perché non mi ha detto la verità “I bear him a grudge because he didn’t tell me the truth”
NP_subj{che}fin#V#{da}PP Da ciò consegue che non e possibile partire “From this it follows that it is not possible to leave”
NP_subj#V-‐sene#{...}PP Se ne restò a casa/sulla montagna/in classe “He stayed at home/on the mountain/in class”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{in}inf Devi limitarti nel mangiare “You have to limit-‐pron in eating”
NP_subj#V#{per}inf Ha insistito per avere un colloquio “He insisted to have an interview”
NP_subj{0}inf#V#NP_obj Sapere che sei malato ci affligge “To know that you are ill afflicts us”
NP_subj#V#{a}inf Mio nipote ha imparato a camminare “My niece learnt to walk”
NP_subj#V#{di}PP#{a}PP Hanno domandato di te alla mamma “They asked about you to mum”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{da}PP Hanno espulso alcuni studenti da scuola “They expelled some students from school”
NP_subj#V#{con}PP#{...}PP Non consento con te riguardo la vendita della casa “I don’t agree with you in relation to the selling of the house”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{come}fin Non mi spiego come tu sia bocciato “I don’t explain-‐pron how you failed the exam”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}PP Mia nonna ci fornisce di molte provviste “Our grandmother provides us of many supplies”
NP_subj#V-‐ci#{per}inf Ci vuole pazienza con i bambini “There needs-‐pron patience with children”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj+Poss La situazione impedisce la realizzazione del progetto “The situation prevents the realisation of the project”
NP_subj#V#{fra}PP Maria oscilla ancora fra le due possibilità “Maria still swings between the two possibilities”
NP_subj#V#{di}PP#{per}inf Luca approfitta sempre di sua madre per rimediare un passaggio “Luca always takes advantage of his mother to get a lift”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{per}PP Prepara lo zaino per la palestra, Daniele! Prepare the bag for the gym, Daniele!
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{in}PP Mi hanno introdotto subito nel nuovo ambiente di lavoro “They immediately introduced me into the new work environment”
NP_subj{di}inf#V#{a}PP Ti importa di fare una brutta figura? “Of looking foolish matters to you?”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}inf Ti hanno autorizzato a rispondere alle telefonate? “Did they authorise you to take the phone calls?”
NP_subj#V#{per}PP Gianna è impazzita per la morte della madre “Gianna got mad for the death of her mother”
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NP_subj{0}inf#V “Affligge sapere che l’azienda sta fallendo” “It upsets (to) know that the business is collapsing”
NP_subj#V#Cpred Flora ha debuttato come attrice “Flora debuted as actress”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{su}PP Basi sempre le tue opinioni sulle parole di altri? “Do you always base your opinions on somebody else’s words?”
NP_subj#V#{su}PP#{per}PP I miei capi premono su di me per un veloce miglioramento “My bosses pressures on me for a quick improvement”
NP_subj#V#{a}PP#{...}PP Questi soldi bastano a tutti voi fino a fine mese “This money is enough for all of you until the end of the month”
Non-‐NP_subj#Cpred Sembra estate “It seems summer”
Non-‐NP_subj#V#{...}PP Piove in casa/dentro la macchina “It rains into the house/inside the car”
NP_subj#V-‐ci#NP_obj Ci ho messo due ore a finire i compiti “I put-‐pron to hours to finish my homework”
NP_subj{0}inf#V#{...}PP Imparare l’inglese ti servira’ “(To) learn English will be-‐pron useful to you”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj Il generale ha condotto una notevole spedizione “The general conducted a remarkable campaign”
NP_subj#V-‐ci#{a}inf Ci vuole poco ingegno a capire come stanno le cose “Little intelligence is needed-‐pron to understand how things are”
NP_subj{che}fin#V Succede che qualcosa vada male nella vita “It happened that somebody goes wrong in life”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{davanti a}PP Non mi umilio davanti a nessuno “I don’t humiliate-‐pron before anybody”
NP_subj#V-‐ci#{...}PP#{...}PP Ci corre una bella differenza tra il promettere e l’ottenere/dal promettere all’ottenere “A great difference stands-‐pron between promising and obtaining/from promising to obtaining”
NP_subj#V#{in}PP La macchina è affondata nella neve “The car sunk in the snow”
NP_subj#V#{di}inf Finalmente ho capito di avere bisogno di aiuto “Finally I’ve understood to need help”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{...}PP I manifestanti si stanno raccogliendo in piazza/davanti al comune “The protesters are gathering-‐pron in the square/before the town hall”
Non-‐NP_subj#V Sta piovendo fortissimo “It is raining heavily”
NP_subj#V#{su}PP#{per}inf Il mio professore preme su di noi per fare bella figura “The professor pushes on us to make a good impression”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}inf Vi siete proposti di pulire il giardino “You put forward-‐pron to clean the garden”
NP_subj#V#{a}inf#{a}PP La maestra ci ha insegnato a scrivere “The teacher taught us to write”
NP_subj#V#{0}inf Io odio stirare! “I hate (to) iron!”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{che}fin Scommetterei i miei risparmi che non si laureerà mai “I would bet my savings that he will never graduate”
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NP_subj#V#{da}PP#{...}PP La rondine è volata dal tetto all’/sull’albero “The swallow has flown from the roof to/onto the tree”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj Mio nonno raccontava storie bellissime “My grandfather told beautiful stories”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{su}PP La mia idea si fonda sulla mia personale esperienza “My idea based-‐pron on my personal experience”
NP_subj#V-‐si Ti preoccupi troppo “You worry-‐pron too much”
NP_subj#V#{da}PP Il sole sorge da Ovest “The sun rises from the West”
NP_subj#V-‐si#NP_obj#{da}PP Mi sono cavato i soldi dalla tasca! “I pulled-‐pron the money from the pocket!”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{...}PP Hai lanciato la palla sul tetto/contro la macchina “You threw the ball on the roof/against the car”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{fra}PP Lo calcolo fra i miei migliori amici “I count him among my best friends”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{che}fin Mi attendevo che tu intervenissi “I expected-‐pron that you intervened”
NP_subj#V-‐sela Te la stai proprio godendo! “You are really enjoying-‐pron!”
NP_subj#V#{con}PP Hai litigato di nuovo con tuo fratello? “Have you fought again with your brother?”
NP_subj#V-‐si#Cpred_Adv Comportatevi bene bambini! Behave-‐pron properly kids!
NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}PP Si richiamarono al simile caso dell’anno scorso “They referred-‐pron to the similar case of last year”
NP_subj#V#{...}inf Il filo serve a/per cucire “The thread is necessary-‐pron to/for knitting”
NP_subj#V-‐ci#{in}PP Ci vanno due uova nella ricetta “There go-‐pron two eggs in the recepy”
NP_subj#V#{con}PP#{che}fin Hanno convenuto con noi che la votazione non è valida “They agreed with us that the election is not valid”
NP_subj#V#{di}PP#{per}PP Il tuo amico approfitta della tua disponibilità per i suoi interessi “You friend takes advantage of your availability for his own interests”
Non-‐NP_subj#V-‐cene#{di}PP Ce ne vuole di pazienza! “There is-‐pron need of patience!”
NP_subj#V#Cpred#{a}PP Questa notizia mi suona strana “This piece of news sounds strange to me”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj+Poss I miei genitori hanno stabilito le regole della casa “My parents established the rules of the house”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{da}PP#{...}PP Gli operai hanno scaricato la merce dal camion in cantina/al primo piano “The workers have unloaded the goods from the lorry into the cellar/to the first floor”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{fra}PP I borsaioli si confusero tra i passeggeri del tram “The pickpockets mixed up-‐pron among the passengers of the tram”
NP_subj#V#{in}inf Ho esitato nello scegliere la professione “I hesitated in choosing my job”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{con}PP Abbiamo discusso il progetto della casa con l’ingegnere “We have discussed the project of the house with the engineer”
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NP_subj#V#Cpred_Adv#{...}PP L’errore è valso da monito per/a tutti “The mistake functioned as warning for/to all of us”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{contro}PP La moto si è schiacciata contro il muretto “The motorbike crashed-‐pron against a wall”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{...}inf Mi hanno accusato di/per aver favorito il candidate “They accused me of/for favouring the candidate”
NP_subj#V#{come}fin#{a}PP Mi domandaste come facessi ad essere sempre felice “You asked me how I could be always happy”
NP_subj#V-‐sela#{con}PP Il governo dovrà vedersela con il deficit “The government will have to deal-‐pron with the deficit”
NP_subj#V#{con}PP#{su}PP Convengo con te sull’urgenza dei provvedimenti “I agree with you on the urgency of the measurements”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP Non mi sorprendo più di niente “I am not surprised-‐pron of anything anymore”
NP_subj#V-‐la#{di}inf Piantiamola di prenderci in giro “Let’s stop of fooling ourselves!”
NP_subj#V#Cpred_Adv Questo telefono funziona male “This phone works badly”
NP_subj#V#{su}PP La cupola pesa su possenti colonne “The dome weighs on the mighty columns”
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP Mi ha raccontato che la serata non e’ proseguita bene “She told (to) me that the night didn’t go on well”
NP_subj#V-‐sene#{di}PP Se ne sbatte di tutti “He doesn’t care of anyone”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{in}PP Il provvedimento si inquadra in un vasto piano di interventi “The measurement is placed-‐pron within a broad plan of intervention”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP Ho scritto una lettere al direttore “I wrote a letter to the chief”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}inf Ho avvisato mio padre di essere in ritardo “I have told my father to be late”
NP_subj#V-‐ci#{...}PP Mi ci vorrebbe un po’ riposo “A little rest would be-‐pron necessary for me”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{per}inf Ha speso tutti i suoi risparmi per comprare la macchina “He spent all his savings to buy a car”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{con}PP#{per}PP Mi compiaccio con te per l’esito dell’esame “I congratulate-‐pron with you for the outcome of the exam”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}inf Mi impegnerò per migliorare “I will commit-‐pron to improve”
NP_subj#V-‐si#Cpred La lana si è mantenuta morbida “The wool maintained-‐pron soft”
NP_subj#V#Cpred_Adv#{a}PP La ragazza ci servirà come segreteria “The girl will be necessary to us as secretary”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{da}inf Mi guardo sempre dal giudicare gli altri “I always refrain-‐pron from judging other people”
NP_subj#V#{di}inf#Cpred Lucia ha creduto opportuno agire in questo modo “Lucia believed opportune (to) act in this manner”
NP_subj#V#ger Il relatore ha esordito cantando “The speaker started off singing”
NP_subj#V#{che}fin Questo dimostra che avevo ragione io “This proves that I was right”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#ger Avete occupato spazio inutilmente sistemando i mobili così “You took up space in vain arranging the furniture like this”
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NP_subj#V-‐ci Lo zio non ci sente “My uncle doesn’t hear-‐pron”
NP_subj#V#{con}PP#{di}inf Convennero con me di agire segretamente “They agreed with me to act secretly”
NP_subj#V#{...}PP La serata è finita a casa di Marco/con l’arrivo dei miei genitori “The evening ended at Marco’s place/with my parents’ arrival”
NP_subj#V#{a}PP#{di}PP Narraci del tuo ultimo viaggio “Tell (to) us of your last trip”
NP_subj#V-‐si#NP_obj#{con}PP I figli si contendono l’azienda con il padre “The sons contend-‐pron the business with the father”
NP_subj#V-‐si#NP_obj#{...}PP Non coprirti il viso con le mani! “Don’t cover-‐pron your face with your hands!”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{contro}PP Gli indigeni scagliavano frecce contro i bianchi “Native people threw arrows against white people”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#Cpred Ti hanno eletto presidente “They have elected you president”
NP_subj{che}fin#V#{a}PP Mi risulta che tu mi abbia cercato “It appears to me that you have looked for me”
NP_subj#V#{contro}PP La barca ha sbattuto contro gli scogli “The boat slammed against the cliffs”
NP_subj#V#{da}PP#{a}PP Il mio gatto è salito dal terrazzo al tetto “My cat climbed from the balcony to the roof”
NP_subj#V-‐si#NP_obj#{a}PP Si puntò la rivoltella alla tempia “He pointed-‐pron the gun to his head”
NP_subj{che}fin#V#NP_obj Mi stupisce che tu non ci abbia pensato prima “That you have not thought about it before surprises (to) me”
NP_subj{di}inf#V Accade di fare tardi la sera “It happens to be late at night”
NP_subj#V È morto mio nonno “My grandfather died”
NP_subj#V-‐si#NP_obj#Cpred Ti sei dimenticato di nuovo la luce accesa “You have forgotten the light on once again”
NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP Ti suggerisco di andare e parlare con il preside “I suggest to you to go and talk to the principal”
NP_subj#V-‐sene#Cpred Me ne sono rimasto tranquillo “I stayed-‐pron calm”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{da}PP#{...}PP Ci siamo spostati dalla cucina alla camera “We moved-‐pron from the kitchen to the bedroom”
NP_subj#V#{come}fin Ho notato come tu ti sia arrabbiato “I noticed how you got angry”
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#Cpred Credo appropriato che tu gli dica la verità “I believe appropriate that you tell him the truth”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#Cpred_Adv Mia sorella ha un dottore per marito “My sister has a doctor as husband”
NP_subj#V#{0}inf#Cpred Giudico corretto avvisare le persone per tempo “I judge honest to inform people in advance”
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{da}PP Da quello che ha detto deduco che non accetterà la proposta “From what you said I deduce that he won’t accept the offer”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}PP Questo romanzo si caratterizza per lo stile inconfondibile “This novel characterises-‐pron for the unmistakable style”
123
NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}inf Ci siamo fermati a fare benzina “We stopped-‐pron to fill the tank”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{con}PP L’automobile si è scontrata con un camion “The car crashed-‐pron with a lorry”
NP_subj#V-‐la Alla fine l’ho spuntata! “I finally made-‐pron it”
NP_subj{che}fin#V#Cpred#{a}PP Spetta a noi fare la spesa “It is up to us to do the food shopping”
NP_subj{0}inf#V#{a}PP Spetta a noi fare la spesa “It is up to us to do the food shopping”
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{addosso a}PP Gli è piombata addosso una disgrazia “A disgrace fell onto him”
NP_subj{0}inf#V#Cpred#{a}PP Ci appare scontato rimandare la seduta “Postponing the meeting seems granted to us”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{da}PP Ti sei allontanato dall’argomento “You moved-‐pron from the topic”
NP_subj#V#{di}PP Dubita delle tue parole “She doubts (of) your words”
NP_subj#V-‐si#NP_obj Mi sono messo il cappotto “I put-‐pron the coat on”
NP_subj#V#{a}PP A Mario la tua offesa brucia ancora “Your insult still burns to Mario”
NP_subj#V-‐ne#{di}PP Ne va della nostra immagine “It is about our imagine”
NP_subj#V-‐sene La mia memoria se ne sta andando “My memory is failing-‐pron”
NP_subj{di}PP#V Si tratta del nostro futuro “It is a matter of our future”
NP_subj#V-‐si#{0}inf Mi sono lasciato ingannare “I left be-‐pron fooled”
NP_subj{come}fin#V#{a}PP Mi dispiace se credi che io abbia approfittato di tuo fratello “If you believe that I have taken advantage of your brother it upsets (to) me”
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APPENDIX D – Argumental Sentence Alternations a. Alternations involving argumental sentences in a complement position
Alternation
Example
Verbs
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP
1. Ti auguro che tutto vada bene “I wish you that everything go well” 2. Ti auguro di fare un buon viaggio “I wish you to have a pleasant journey”
Augurare, garantire, ricordare, assicurare, promettere, gridare, confidare, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, comandare, raccomandare, dire, dichiarare, permettere, scrivere, giurare, confessare, comunicare, riferire
NP_subj#V#{che}fin
/ NP_subj#V#{di}inf
1. La situazione impone che tutti partecipino “The situation requires that everyone get involved” 2. La situazione impone di essere uniti “The situation requires to stick together”
Ignorare, disporre, scoprire, tacere, imporre, badare, escludere, vedere, riscoprire, protestare, stabilire, intuire, gridare, temere, confidare, sopportare, constatare, supporre, tollerare, annunciare, pensare, ammettere, deliberare, immaginare, dubitare, fingere, sapere, convenire, ipotizzare, nascondere, smentire, esigere, ritenere, sperare, pretendere, dire, aspettare, riconoscere, dichiarare, credere, dimenticare, sostenere, aggiungere, prescrivere, ottenere, decidere, negare, accettare, dimostrare, sognare, testimoniare, rivelare
NP_subj#V#{che}fin /
NP_subj#V#{come}fin
1) La maestra ha notato che gli studenti erano stanchi “The teacher noticed that the students were-‐indic tired” 2) La maestra ha notato come gli studenti fossero stanchi “The teacher noticed how the students were-‐subj tired”
Provare, sottolineare, notare, concepire, ricordare, vedere, giudicare, imparare, sapere, intendere, stabilire, prevedere
125
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V#{come}fin#{a}PP
}PP
1) Il poliziotto ha spiegato agli studenti che l’autocontrollo è vitale “The policeman has explained that self-‐control is vital to the students” 2) Il poliziotto ha spiegato agli studenti come l’autocontrollo sia vitale agli “The policeman has explained how self-‐control be-‐subj vital to the students”
Spiegare, mostrare
NP_subj#V-‐si#{che}fin
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}inf
1) Il calciatore si dispiace di aver perso “The footballer is sorry to have lost” 2) Il calciatore si dispiace che la squadra abbia perso “The footballer is sorry that the team lost-‐subj”
Convincersi, augurarsi, assicurarsi, illudersi, ricordarsi, sorprendersi, immaginarsi, dispiacersi, attendersi, accorgersi, sognarsi
NP_subj#V#{come}fin#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{come}finPP
1) Ti spiego come si fa “I will explain to you how it is done” 2)Ora mi spiego come mai non mi saluta “Now I explain myself how he doesn’t say hi to me”
Spiegare, domandare
NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}infPP
1) Permettere al figlio di uscire “To let one’s son to go out” 2) Si può permettere di andare in vacanza dove vuole “She can afford to go on holiday wherever she wants”
Proporre, permettere, imporre, augurare, assicurare, offrire, ricordare, impedire, rimproverare, risparmiare
2. Alternations involving argumental sentences in the subject position
NP_subj{che}fin#V
/ NP_subj{di}inf#V
1) Pare che nessun risultato sia ottenibile “Seems-‐impers that no result is achievable” 1) Pare di non ottenere nessun risultato “Seems-‐impers to not achieve any results”
Sembrare, parere, accadere
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NP_subj{0}inf#V
/ NP_subj{che}fin#V
1) Bisogna raccogliere i soldi “Needs-‐imper to collect the money” 2) Bisogna che i soldi siano raccolti “Needs-‐imper that the money be collected”
Occorrere, bisognare
NP_subj{0}inf#V#{a}PP
/ NP_subj{che}fin#V#{a}PP
1) A noi conviene che tu parta subito “To us mattersimper that you leavesubj immediately” 2) A noi conviene partire subito “To us mattersimper to leave immediately”
Dispiacere, convenire, risultare
127
APPENDIX E – Alternations involving Noun or Prepositional Phrases (NP or PP) a. Alternations causing a change in the transitivity of the verbs
Alternation
Example
Verbs
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{da}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{da}PP
1)Hai buttato i sassi dalla finestra “You threw stones from the window” 2) Lui si è buttato dal trampolino “He jumped-‐pron from the trampoline”
Rilanciare, buttare, escludere, difendere, gettare, dividere, staccare, spostare, lanciare, sciogliere, allontanare, sollevare, distrarre, trarre, ritirare, levare, sfilare, separare, liberare, ritrarre, riparare, salvare
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP
1) Convincere i colleghi della validità della teoria “To convince the colleagues of the validity of the theory” 2) Mi sono convinto del mio errore “I convinced-‐pron of my mistake”
Convincere, privare, fornire, ricoprire, riempire, caricare, svuotare, dotare, investire, colmare, incaricare, circondare, coprire
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}PP
1) Ha abituato i figli allo studio “She accustomed the children to studying” 2) Si sono abituati a una nuova vita “They have accustomed-‐pron to a new life”
Disporre, affidare, donare, mostrare, alternare, opporre, adattare, abituare, mescolare, affiancare, costringere, agganciare, esporre, consacrare, adeguare, accordare, unire, iscrivere, preparare, sottrarre, paragonare, attaccare, raccomandare, presentare, votare, appassionare, associare, allineare, vendere, avvicinare, indirizzare, dichiarare, dare, predisporre, sommare, sottoporre, accostare, concedere, rivolgere, consegnare, interessare, dedicare
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{in}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{in}PP
1) Il provvedimento ha integrato i portatori di handicap nella società “The measurement has integrated disabled people within society” 2) Mi sono integrato nel nuovo ambiente di lavoro “I have integrated-‐pron in the new workplace”
Proiettare, integrare, immergere, situare, rinchiudere, specializzare, inserire, inquadrare, trasformare
128
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{su}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{su}PP
1) Hanno basato i calcoli sui dati ufficiali “They based the evaluations on official data” 2) L’accusa si basa sulle testimonianze “The prosecution bases itself on the depositions”
Fondare, proiettare, basare, concentrare
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{con}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{con}PP
1) I contadini scambiano grano con petrolio “Farmers swap wheat with petrol” 2)Mi sono scambiato con il compagno di banco “I swapped-‐pron with my deskmate”
Conciliare, combinare, alternare, scambiare, confrontare, mescolare
NP_subj#V#NP_obj /
NP_subj#V-‐si
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVES: 1) Spesso i miei genitori giustificano mia sorella “Often my parents justify my sister 2) Spesso si giustifica “Often he justifies-‐pron
Isolare, lavare, rinnovare, liberare, negare, allontanare, scoprire, schierare, esprimere, giustificare, assicurare, uccidere, ammazzare, allenare, licenziare, accettare, consolare, contraddire, tormentare, interrogare, valorizzare, ferire, escludere, spiegare, umiliare, nascondere
II. RECIPROCAL REFLEXIVES: 1) Ho incontrato Luca tanto tempo fa “I met Luca a long time ago” 2) Ci siamo incontrati tanto tempo fa “We met-‐pron a long time ago”
Conoscere, sospettare, rispettare, combattere, fronteggiare, controllare, attirare, ritrovare, rivedere, stimare, sfidare, abbracciare, rincorrere, inseguire, sfiorare, scegliere, dividere, stringere, picchiare, disturbare, odiare, respingere, frequentare, temere, incontrare, sposare, vedere, trovare, baciare, soccorrere
III. CAUSATIVE-‐INCOHATIVE ALTERNATION: 1) Lucia ha spezzato un biscotto “Lucia broke a biscuit” 2) La corda si è spezzata “The rope has broken-‐pron”
Chiudere, spaventare, confondere, emozionare, abbassare, restringere, staccare, ridurre, intrecciare, sbloccare, scatenare, rovinare, turbare, piegare, conservare, spezzare, spaccare, rompere
129
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{...}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{...}PP
I. DIRECT REFLEXIVES: 1) I fondatori hanno stabilito la sede dell’azienda a Roma / nella capitale “The founders have established the headquarters of the business in Rome / in the capital” 2) Ho deciso di stabilirmi a Milano “I have decided to establish-‐pron in Milan”
Girare, disporre, calare, orientare, buttare, muovere, trascinare, gettare, voltare, rilanciare, avviare, spingere, stabilire, spostare, lanciare, dirigere, piazzare, sistemare, ambientare, stendere, mettere, rivolgere, abbandonare, porre, informare, accordare
II. CAUSATIVE-‐INCOHATIVE ALTERNATION: 1) Ho rovesciato la minestra sul tappeto “I spilt the soup on the carpet” 2) Il latte si è rovesciato per terra “The milk spilt-‐pron onto the floor”
Infilare, collocare, versare, aggiungere, aprire, insinuare, avvolgere, rovesciare, spargere, imprimere, stampare
III. INTENSIVE REFLEXIVES: (1) Fissa sempre lo sguardo sulla mia ragazza “He always fixes his gaze on my girlfriend” (2) Si è fissato con quella ragazza / in un progetto “He fixed-‐pron with that girl / in a project”
Fissare
b. Alternations involving two intransitive variants
NP_subj#V
/ NP_subj#V#{...}PP
1) Nel dopoguerra, molti furono costretti ad emigrare “During the post-‐war period many people were forced to emigrate” 2) I miei nonni emigrarono in Germania “My grandparents emigrated to Germany”
Tornare, girare, correre, giocare, finire, accorrere, uscire, battere, emigrare, terminare, perdere, bastare, combattere, risalire, arrivare, durare, oscillare, riuscire, volare, nascere, giungere, ricadere, cadere, scivolare, avanzare, votare, venire, crescere, piombare, sorgere, comparire, reagire, saltare, slittare, lavorare, picchiare, salire, vagare, precipitare, rientrare
130
APPENDIX F – Alternations involving an argumental sentence and a phrase
complement (NP or NP) a. Alternations affecting a complement position
Alternation
Example
Verbs
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V#{di}inf#{a}PP
1) Ordinò una marcia forzata ai soldati “He ordered a forced march to the soldiers” 2) Ordinò agli studenti di preparare il testo entro una settimana “She ordered to prepare the text within a week to the students”
Rimproverare, imporre, risparmiare, garantire, ricordare, giurare, promettere, gridare, proporre, ordinare, confidare, proibire, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, augurare, comandare, offrire, raccomandare, sussurrare, dire, predicare, vietare, dichiarare, permettere, suggerire, denunciare, scrivere, assicurare, confessare, concedere, comunicare, consigliare, riferire, impedire
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V#{che}fin#{a}PP
1) Ho promesso aiuto a un compagno “I promised help to a friend” 2) Ti prometto che arriverò in orario “I promise you that I will arrive on time
Augurare, mostrare, garantire, ricordare, assicurare, promettere, gridare, confidare, ripetere, annunciare, raccontare, chiedere, comandare, raccomandare, dire, dichiarare, segnalare, spiegare, permettere, denunciare, proporre, scrivere, giurare, confessare, concedere, insegnare, comunicare, riferire
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP
/
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}inf
1) La scuola educa i giovani al rispetto degli altri “School educates youngsters to the respect for others” 2)Educate vostro figlio a essere tollerante “Educate your son to be tolerant”
Disporre, autorizzare, invitare, stimolare, abituare, indurre, motivare, incoraggiare, costringere, condannare, esercitare, educare, ammettere, trattenere, spedire, sollecitare, delegare, forzare, ridurre, obbligare, mettere, destinare
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{che}fin
/ NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{di}PP
1) Hai avvisato i parenti della partenza? “Did you warn the parent about the departure?” 2) Ho avvisato tutti che la lezione è sospesa “I have warned everybody that the lesson is cancelled”
Avvisare, convincere
131
NP_subj#V#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V#{a}inf
1) Rinunciò a un progetto “I gave up on a project” 2) Rinunciò a partire “She gave up on going away”
Contribuire, arrivare, rinunciare, scappare, pervenire, provvedere, giocare, venire, badare, pensare, tenere, ritornare, mirare, aspirare, concorrere, tendere
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}inf
1) Abbiamo obbligato il nemico alla resa “We forced the enemy to defeat” 2) Mi sono obbligato a finire il libro entro l’anno “I have forced-‐pron to finish the book within the year”
Disporre, convincere, costringere, obbligare, esercitare, indurre, abituare, ridurre, trattenere
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#{per}PP
/
NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}inf
1) Preparo i bambini per la scuola “I prepare the kids for school” 2)Preparati per andare a cena “Prepare-‐pron to go for dinner”
Preparare, sacrificare
NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{per}inf
1) Ci organizziamo per un’escursione “We organise-‐pron for a field trip” 2) Organizzatevi per uscire presto il mattino “Organise-‐pron to leave early in the morning”
Organizzare, preparare, sacrificare
NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}inf
1) Mi sono dimenticato del tuo compleanno “I have forgotten (of) your birthday” 2) Mi dimenticavo di farti gli auguri “I forgot-‐pron to wish you happy birthday”
Curare, convincere, accusare, assicurare, pentirsi, sorprendere, occupare, stupire, ricordare, accontentare, dimenticare, incaricare, accorgersi, vantare
NP_subj#V-‐si#{che}fin
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{di}PP
1) Ci assicureremo della verità delle affermazioni “We will verify-‐pron the truth of the statements” 2) Ti assicuri che tutto sia in ordine? “Will you verify-‐pron that everything is in order?”
Convincere, stupire, assicurare, ricordare, sorprendere, accorgersi
132
NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}PP
/ NP_subj#V-‐si#{a}inf
1) Non mi presterei mai a queste cose “I would never lend-‐pron to these things” 2) Ti presteresti a sostenere le spese” “Would you lend-‐pron to support the expenses”
Preparare, rilanciare, costringere, determinare, obbligare, prestare, rassegnare, abbassare, rimettere, disporre, adattare, abituare, ridurre, indurre
b. Alternations taking place in the subject position
NP_subj#V#{da}PP
/ NP_subj{che}fin#V#{da}PP
1) Dalle tue parole non consegue niente di buono “From your words nothing good follows” 2) Da ciò consegue che non è possibile partire “From this follows-‐impers that leaving is not possible”
Conseguire, risultare
NP_subj#V#{a}PP
/
NP_subj{che}fin#V#{a}PP
1) A nessuno importano queste sciocchezze! “To nobody matter these silly things!” 2) Ai ragazzi importa che tu sia qui con noi “To the guys matters-‐impers that you are here with us”
Risultare, capitare, importare, dispiacere, sfuggire, convenire
NP_subj#V#{a}PP
/ NP_subj{0}inf#V#{a}PP
1) Mi preme solo la tua felicità “To me matters-‐impers only your happiness” 2)“A noi tutti preme essere presenti” “To all of us matters-‐impers be-‐inf present”
Spettare, risultare, capitare, dispiacere, premere, convenire
c. Alternations requiring predicative complements
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#Cpred
/ NP_subj#V#{0}inf#Cpred
1) Vi credevo sinceri “I believed you sincere” 2) Ho creduto opportuno agire in questo modo “I believed right act-‐inf in this way”
Credere, considerare, giudicare
133
NP_subj#V#NP_obj#Cpred
/
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#Cpred
1) Lo considero il miglior giocatore del mondo “I consider him the best player in the world” 2) Considero sconveniente che tu rimanga qui “I consider inappropriate that you remain here”
Credere, considerare, giudicare
NP_subj#V#{0}inf#Cpred
/
NP_subj#V-‐si#Cpred
1) Ho giudicato opportuno agire cosi “I judged adequate act-‐inf like this” 2) Si giudica furbo “To judge oneself smart”
Credere, considerare, giudicare
NP_subj#V#{che}fin#Cpred
/
NP_subj#V-‐si#Cpred
1) Credo giusto che tu vada in persona “I believe right that you go in person” 2) Mario si crede il più bravo di tutti “Mario believes himself the best”
Credere, considerare, giudicare
