Prefixation in English and Catalan - Departament de Filologia ...

the UTAH 31 (cf. Baker (1988)), according to which there is direct mapping between
thematic roles and syntactic structure. More specifically, each thematic role must be
linked to a single position in D-structure. A related problem that is a consequence of
HK’s configurational model of thematic relations is that the lower thematic VP only
allows two theta-roles (generally the [-c-m] (theme) role and [-m] (locational) role, with
the result that other roles, such as [+c-m] (instrument), cannot be represented although
they cannot be considered adjuncts. In addition, the role assigned to the subject cannot
be represented either.
In short, I think enough problems have been found in HK’s account to pursue
their approach here (see e.g. Di Sciullo (1997), Kiparsky (1997), Stiebels (1998) for
other criticisms). The conclusion is that a syntactic account has not proved sufficient to
account for the data presented in the previous sections. Next a brief summary and the
main conclusions of my study will be presented.
31 UTAH stands for Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis and is defined by Baker (1988) in the
following terms: ‘Identical thematic relationships between items are represented by identical structural
relationships between those items at the level of D-structure.
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