Chapter 18 Lexical Functions: Description of Lexical Relations in a ...

—Chapter 18. Lexical Functions— 59
the inherent DSyntAs of L are all shifted, or permuted, with respect to the initial SemAs. One can
easily see this in the most trivial example of the regular causative construction in French, where
the inherent DSyntA I becomes the DSyntA III of the causative verbal expression:
(4) Jean [= I] mange la soupe [= II]
John eats the soup
vs.
La mère [= I] fait manger la soupe [= II] à Jean [= III].
The mother makes eat the soup to John
The permutation of DSyntAs entailed by a causation LF is represented by means of the
empty verbal LFs, i.e., the support verbs Oper i, Func i and Labor ij. (In other words, we use com-
plex LFs of the type CausOper i, LiquFunc i, etc.) In order to show more clearly the systematic
character of this permutation, I will analyze an example in detail: the French noun ENVIE (desire
caused by a necessity). ENVIE has two DSyntAs: I is the Experiencer and II, the Object [of the
desire], as in (5):
(5) Pierre [I] a [Oper 1] ENVIE d’y aller [II].
Peter has desire to go there
Sentence (5) can be embedded in a causative expression, as, e.g., in (6):
(6) a. Cette aventure a privé Pierre de l’ENVIE d’y aller.
This adventure has deprived Peter of the desire to go there
b. Cette aventure a ôté à Pierre l’ENVIE d’y aller.
This adventure has taken from Peter the desire to go there
These two sentences are equivalent in their propositional content, and the verbs PRIVER (deprive)
et ÔTER (take from) are of course values of LFs of ENVIE. Now, what should be their symbolic
description in terms of LFs?
Semantically, both verbs mean the same thing: (cause the non-existence [of Peter’s desire to
go there]); this meaning has to be described by the LF Liqu.
Syntactically, however, the two verbs differ by their government; to express this difference,
we need the support verb LFs—Oper i, Func i or Labor ij. More precisely, priver Pierre de l’envie
d’y aller is interpreted as (cause that Peter has no more desire); since a [= (has), AVOIR] is Oper 1
of ENVIE, priver is written as LiquOper 1(envie). In its turn, ôter à Pierre l’envie d’y aller is
interpreted as (cause that the desire is no more with Peter); est à [= (is with), ÊTRE à] is Func 1 of
ENVIE, 18 so that ôter is written as LiquFunc 1(envie). Similarly, in the collocation plunge Susan
into a rage, the verb PLUNGE is CausOper 1(rage), while the verb OPEN in open a new perspective
for him is CausFunc 1(perspective). Here are a few more examples: