Encoding Events

This book presents theoretical and empirical research on the syntax of events within the broader framework of generative grammar. A central theoretical concern is how conceptual meaning interacts with narrow syntactic computation in the derivation of the information of an event. A set of Integration Conditions are proposed. Building on the Conceptual-Intentional Interface Conditions proposed in Chomsky’s (1995, 2000, 2001) Minimalist Programme, the Integration Conditions require that the content of the predicate be licensed by theta-role information generated by narrow syntax. Another theoretical component concerns the functional structure of events, which is related to such issues as the parallel between the event and nominal domains, the mapping of a predicate onto an entity, as well as the grammatical foundation of verb classification. The theoretical framework is applied in three areas: (1) the syntax of resultatives in English and Chinese, which exhibits how a theory of the syntax of events can address the thematic relationship between core arguments and predicates; (2) variation of resultatives at cross-linguistic and diachronic levels, which shows how the universal functional structure of events can be compatible with, and even contribute to, the theory of parametric variation in the generative tradition; and (3) applicative constructions, which extend the analysis of core arguments to non-core arguments, and shed light on the typology of verb/satellite-framed languages (Talmy 1991, 2000) and the analyticity parameter proposed in Huang (2015).