Argument extension by lexical adjunction

Abstract

This paper proposes a unified account of the semantic and syntactic properties of certain particle and prefix verbs in German as well as of constructions involving resultative and depictive predicates. I will argue that the secondary predicates, considered to be adjuncts, are lexically integrated into the verb by an operation called Argument Extension(ARG), a general option of the modification rule which states that the head accommodates to the adjunct, in contrast to the traditional view, according to which the adjunct accommodates to the head. Section I motivates the theoretical possibility of the operation ARG within Categorial Grammar, while section 2 briefly introduces the framework of Lexical Decomposition Grammar, in which the following analyses are situated. Section3 shows that the operation ARG allows a satisfying analysis of prefixes and particles that introduce new arguments to the verb. This analysis will then be extended to resultative and depictive secondary predicates in sections 4 and 5, and will be compared to some of the syntactically based alternatives that have been proposed in the literature.

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