Subject: comparative and general grammar , syntax and semantics

syntax & semantics butt , miriam ( university of konstanz ) and geuder , wilhelm ( university of tuebingen ) ; the projection of arguments ; isbn : 1-57586 - 110 - 0 ( paper ) , 1-57586 - 111 - 9 ( cloth ) ; 366 pp . csli publications 1998 http : / / csli-www . stanford . edu / publications / email : pubs @ roslin . stanford . edu it is becoming increasingly clear that the classic approach to linking which accounts for the projection of arguments into the syntax in terms of thematic roles ( and / or some kind of lexical decomposition ) , has some serious shortcomings . this volume sets out to explore possible alternatives , which call into question the assumption that projection is rigidly determined by fixed lexical entries . coming from varied backgrounds , the papers collected here converge on the general hypothesis that many semantic factors which influence the projection of arguments should instead be attributed to compositional and combinatorial processes . proposals are presented for reassessment of the lexicon-syntax interface that include models of building up variants of lexical meanings in a flexible manner , as well as models where much of the putative role of lexical entries is supplanted by the structural context , in particular by functional projections . among the topics addressed are questions of argument hierarchies and adicity of predicates , and the syntax and semantics of argument alternations in a set of very diverse languages which include english , dutch , scottish gaelic , finnish , hebrew , kannada , malay , greenlandic eskimo , and yaqui . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * csli publications http : / / csli-www . stanford . edu / publications / ventura hall stanford university stanford , ca 94305-4115 telephone ( 650 ) 723-1839 fax ( 650 ) 725-2166
