On the Cross-Linguistic Predictability of Functionally Equivalent Structures: Decausativization in French and German as a Test Case for Formal and Functional Grammars
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Language Use and Linguistic Structure. Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistic Colloquium 2013. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | dekauzativizace; reflexiva; komparativní lingvistika; kauzativní alternace; |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The aim of the paper is to evaluate the cross-linguistic predictive power of generative and functionalist theories with respect to one tightly limited area of interest: the causative alternation. Several recent studies of decausativization are reviewed in order to determine whether the formal marking of a decausative in a target language, namely the appearance of a reflexive, can be predicted from the type of formal marking of a translational equivalent in a source language. It will be demonstrated that the generative analyses under consideration do not allow for predictions of the intended kind, as the necessary information cannot be deduced from the formal apparatus but is implicitly presupposed already at the input level of the suggested models. Functionalist analyses, on the other hand, allow for probabilistic predictions, they fail, however, to formulate precise predictions on the formal marking of individual lexical items. |