Differential subject marking in Polish: The case of Genitive vs ...

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(58) NegP Neg vP NP v’ v VP V PPloc Given the structure in (58) and given what we said above about the conditions of GEN assignment in negated (existential-)locative clauses, it becomes clear why the nominal argument in cases like (58) above cannot be marked for GEN (question Q2). The configuration required for GEN assignment is not satisfied in such cases since the nominal argument is generated as an external argument. In addition, in the case of negated bywac the predicate does not have the required aspectual properties. It should be noticed that the aspectual properties alone are a necessary but not sufficient condition for the GEN marking. In section 2, the verb byc has been classified as grammatically perfective. However, despite this aspectual property, on the agentive reading the nominal argument of byc – in accordance with the Immediate Cause Linking Rule in (56) – is generated externally, which precludes its GEN marking. In other words, unlike the existential-locative byc, which is an unaccusative verb, bywac and byc on their agentive reading are unergative verbs. 67 Hence, the examples (3a) and (3b) have different syntactic structures (schematized in (55) and (58), respectively). This answers the last of the five questions posed in the beginning of the paper, namely question Q4. 6. Concluding remarks ‘There was no book on the table.’ 67 In this sense bywac and byc on their agentive reading are unlike verbs of existence or verbs of inherently directed motion, which consistently show unaccusative behavior independently of whether they are used agentively or nonagentively. For instance, as pointed out by Levin and Rappaport Hovav (1995:165), the Italian verb of existence rimanere ‘remain’ selects independently of agentivity the auxiliary essere ‘be’, which is recognized as a deep unaccusativity diagnostic in Italian; cf. (i) (ibid.): (i) Gianni è rimasto apposta. Gianni is remained on purpose 48
In the previous section we arrived at the conclusion that the question of whether an intransitive verb has an unergative or an unaccusative frame depends on both the aspectual properties of the predicate and the agentive interpretation of its nominal argument. This conclusion corresponds to the one reached by Arad (1998). In her paper she proposes a principle called “Structure- Interpretation Correspondence” (SIC), which states that argument positions have fixed (semantic/aspectual) interpretations which are available only to arguments in that position (p. 17). For example, the aspectual interpretation associated with the subject position is that of originator of an event (causer, agent, etc.), and the aspectual interpretation associated with the object position is that of measurer of an event (affected argument, patient). In other words, SIC says that there are certain meanings which are only available to arguments if they occupy a certain position. “One of the consequences of [SIC] is that a certain position may not be associated with its particular interpretation. For example, there can be an object which is not a measurer. However, a given position can never be associated with another interpretation, which is available in (or associated with) another position. For example, you cannot have an agentive interpretation assigned at the object position” (ibid. 17f.). Applying this principle to the Polish examples, this would mean that in negated bywac and byc on its agentive reading the nominal argument has to be generated in the subject position since otherwise it could not be interpreted as an agent. In contrast, the GEN nominal argument in negated existential-locative byc sentences (and for that matter also the postverbal NOM nominal argument in affirmative existential-locative byc sentences), which never have an agentive interpretation, cannot be generated in the subject position, but instead must be generated in the object position. As a consequence, (negated) bywac and byc on its agentive reading have a syntactic structure typical of unergative verbs, while negated existential-locative byc sentences (and for that matter also affirmative existential-locative byc sentences with the postverbal NOM nominal argument) have a structure typical of unaccusative verbs. References Adger, D. (2003). Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. New York: Oxford University Press. Alexiadou, A., E. Anagnostopoulou, and M. Everaert (eds.) (2004). The Unaccusativity Puzzle: Explorations of the Snytax-Lexicon Interface. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ‘Gianni remained on purpose.’ 49
Page 1 and 2: Differential subject marking in Pol
Page 3 and 4: that is neither intrinsically telic
Page 5 and 6: ‘John used to come to parties.’
Page 7 and 8: section 4, I will try to answer the
Page 9 and 10: ‘(In this hospital) no patient di
Page 11 and 12: waterGEN decrease3.SG.N.PAST.PERF /
Page 13 and 14: e dependent on the perfective aspec
Page 15 and 16: (14) a. b. (15) a. OK czytajacIMPER
Page 17 and 18: In fact, there is diachronic eviden
Page 19 and 20: JohnNOM BE3.SG.M.PRES.HABIT at part
Page 21 and 22: of why there should be a correlatio
Page 23 and 24: ywac has to be [+animate] (preferab
Page 25 and 26: prototypical subject (agentivity, v
Page 27 and 28: (32) a. Sera nie bylo w sklepie. (D
Page 29 and 30: NEG BE2.SG.IMP.HABIT as often in ni
Page 31 and 32: (38) a. Bozenki nie bylo wczoraj u
Page 33 and 34: discussion above; a “theme-like
Page 35 and 36: a. przybyly ‘arrived’ b. upadly
Page 37 and 38: able to nominalize into complex eve
Page 39 and 40: GEN marked nominal in (3a) NOM mark
Page 41 and 42: more prominent than an argument whi
Page 43 and 44: some sense “externally” to the
Page 45 and 46: Spec,TP position is concerned, it c
Page 47: What about negated locative bywac a
Page 51 and 52: Cetnarowska, B. (2000b). The Unerga
Page 53 and 54: Lakoff, G. (1966). Stative Adjectiv
Page 55: Spencer, A. and M. Zaretskaya (1998

Differential subject marking in Polish: The case of Genitive vs ...

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