Proto-Properties and Grammatical Encoding: A Correspondence Theory of Argument Selection

This book develops a comprehensive proto-property theory of argument encoding based on the work of David Dowty (1989, 1991): such a theory is intended to cover much of the empirical ground of mapping/linking theories in identifying the principles of correspondence between the lexical semantics of predicators and the relational and case encodings of their arguments. In this theory the authors identify two basic strategies for the organization of lexical information (i.e., syntagmatic being the comparison of different entities in the same environment and paradigmatic being the comparison of single object in different environments) and demonstrate how these two strategies yield widespread patterns of regularity in the lexical information associated with predicators cross-linguistically. In particular, Ackerman and Moore consider the psych predicates, causatives, so-called 'dative subjects', and object encoding in Finnic.