Eva Klingvall On non-copula Tough Constructions in Swedish (PDF ...

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144of gå in section 3.2.3.1 VaraVara is a semantically vacuous verb: a copula. Unlike, other verbs, vara neithercontributes any meaning nor introduces any arguments of its own. In thesemantics, it is instead the complement of vara that functions as the predicateand determines the properties of the resulting sentence (see e.g. Heim andKratzer, 1998). A stage-level complement of vara, such as glad (‘happy’),gives rise to an all-over stage-level interpretation of the sentence, and is thereforewell-formed with an adverbial referring to a specific point in time, asseen in (27a). An individual-level complement, such as intelligent (‘intelligent’),on the other hand, gives rise to an individual-level interpretation and isnot well-formed with an adverbial referring to a specific point in time, (27b):(27) a. Johanna är glad (just nu).Johanna is happy (right now)‘Johanna is happy (right now).’b. Johanna är intelligent (*just nu).Johanna is intelligent (right now)‘Johanna is intelligent.’The subjects in these sentences get their thematic role from the adjectivalpredicates rather than from vara. That this is the case can be seen in contextslike ECM constructions, where vara is absent. Although vara is absent, thearguments still have the same thematic role, indicating that it is not vara butthe adjective that assigns it:(28) a. JagIb. JagIsåg Johanna/henne glad igår.saw Johanna/her happy yesterday‘I saw Johanna/her happy yesterday.’anser Johanna/henne intelligent.consider Johanna/her intelligent‘I consider Johanna/her intelligent.’
145Syntactically, the adjective is therefore likely to combine with its subject beforethe verb comes into the picture:(29) [ aP DP a [ AP A . . . ]]Unlike a number of functional verbs, vara does not have any thematic argumentsand in this sense contrasts with, for instance, bli (‘become’). Bliimplies a change of state whose Cause(r) argument can sometimes be spelledout in an av-phrase (‘by’-phrase):(30) a. Per blev glad av beskedet.Per became happy by news-DEF‘The news made Per happy.’b. Per var glad ( ?? av beskedet).Per was happy (by news-DEF)Since vara does not contribute any meaning and disappears under ECM verbs,it will be analyzed as a functional verb in the higher region of the clause. 8As shown in section 2.3, the TC predicate behaves like any other smallclause under an ECM verb:(31) a. Böckernab. JagIbooks-DEFär tröga att läsa.are slow to read‘The books read slowly.’anser böckerna tröga att läsa.consider books-DEF slow to read‘I consider the books slow to read.’In the case of TCs, thus, the subject combines with the adjective-infinitivalclause complex before vara is merged.8In line with Hicks (2009), I place vara in T in the trees in this paper. Given the wellformednessof sentences like (1), vara is probably situated lower than T. (The same applies toEnglish be.) In the present context, however, the important thing is that vara appears higherthan gå.(1) Böckerna har varit tröga att läsa.books-DEF have been slow to read
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Page 5 and 6: 135the constructions, and what embe
Page 7 and 8: 137and Fiengo, 1974). Lätt (‘eas
Page 9 and 10: 1392.2 The embedded verb and its ar
Page 11 and 12: 141general phonologically null Pred
Page 13: 1432.6 SummaryAlthough both TCs and
Page 17 and 18: 147no longer concrete, it is retain
Page 19 and 20: 149read, not that it is fun to read
Page 21 and 22: 151as will be shown in the next sec
Page 23 and 24: 153c. * Boken ibook i -DEF[utan[wit
Page 25 and 26: 155b. ?? Per går lätt PRO Exp att
Page 27 and 28: 157(53) v’vVPuφVDPiφ,uCase,uWHD
Page 29 and 30: 159(56) Derivation of the TCTPDP jT
Page 31 and 32: 161(58) a. Artikelnpaper-DEFärisl
Page 33 and 34: 163is easy to read, in which case i
Page 35 and 36: 165Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on
Page 37: 167Rothstein, Susan. 1999. Fine-gra

Eva Klingvall On non-copula Tough Constructions in Swedish (PDF ...

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