Table Of ContentThis page intentionally left blank
THE SYNTAX OFARGUMENT STRUCTURE
Eachverbinnaturallanguageisassociatedwithasetofarguments,whichare
notsystematicallypredictablefromtheverb’smeaningandarerealizedsyn-
tactically as the projected sentence’s subject, direct object, etc. Babby puts
forwardthetheorythatthissetofarguments(theverb’s“argumentstructure”)
has a universal hierarchical composition which directly determines the sen-
tence’scaseandgrammaticalrelations.Thestructureisuniformacrosslanguage
families and types, and this theory is supported by the fact that the core
grammatical relations within simple sentences of all human languages are
essentiallyidentical.Babbydeterminesandempiricallyjustifiestherigidhier-
archicalorganizationofargumentstructureonwhichthistheoryrests.Thebook
usesexamplestakenprimarilyfromRussian,alanguagewhosecomplexinflec-
tionalsystem,freewordorder,andlackofobligatorydeterminersmakeitthe
typologicalpolaroppositeofEnglish.
leonardh.babbyisProfessorofSlavicLanguagesandLinguisticsinthe
SlavicDepartmentatPrincetonUniversity.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LINGUISTICS
GeneralEditors:P. AUSTIN, J. BRESNAN, B. COMRIE, S. CRAIN,
W. DRESSLER, C.J. EWEN, R. LASS, D. LIGHTFOOT, K. RICE,
I. ROBERTS, S. ROMAINE, N.V. SMITH
TheSyntaxofArgumentStructure
Inthisseries
74alicec.harrisandlylecampbell:Historicalsyntaxincross-linguistic
perspective
75lilianehaegeman:Thesyntaxofnegation
76paulgorrel:Syntaxandparsing
77guglielmocinque:Italiansyntaxanduniversalgrammar
78henrysmith:Restrictivenessincasetheory
79d.robertladd:Intonationalphonology
80andreamoro:Theraisingofpredicates:predicativenounphrasesandthetheory
ofclausestructure
81rogerlass:Historicallinguisticsandlanguagechange
82johnm.anderson:Anotionaltheoryofsyntacticcategories
83berndheine:Possession:cognitivesources,forcesandgrammaticalization
84nomterteschik-shir:Thedynamicsoffocusstructure
85johncoleman:Phonologicalrepresentations:theirnames,formsandpowers
86christinay.bethin:Slavicprosody:languagechangeandphonologicaltheory
87barbaradancygier:Conditionalsandprediction
88clairelefebvre:Creolegenesisandtheacquisitionofgrammar:thecaseof
Haitiancreole
89heinzgiegerich:LexicalstratainEnglish
90kerenrice:Morphemeorderandsemanticscope
91aprilmcmahon:LexicalphonologyandthehistoryofEnglish
92matthewy.chen:ToneSandhi:patternsacrossChinesedialects
93gregoryt.stump:Inflectionalmorphology:atheoryofparadigmstructure
94joanbybee:Phonologyandlanguageuse
95lauriebauer:Morphologicalproductivity
96thomasernst:Thesyntaxofadjuncts
97elizabethclosstraugottandrichardb.dasher:Regularityinsemantic
change
98mayahickmann:Children’sdiscourse:person,spaceandtimeacrosslanguages
99dianeblakemore:Relevanceandlinguisticmeaning:thesemanticsandprag-
maticsofdiscoursemarkers
100ianrobertsandannaroussou:Syntacticchange:aminimalistapproachto
grammaticalization
101donkaminkova:AlliterationandsoundchangeinearlyEnglish
102markc.baker:Lexicalcategories:verbs,nounsandadjectives
103carlotas.smith:Modesofdiscourse:thelocalstructureoftexts
104rochellelieber:Morphologyandlexicalsemantics
105holgerdiessel:Theacquisitionofcomplexsentences
106sharoninkelasandcherylzoll:Reduplication:doublinginmorphology
107susanedwards:Fluentaphasia
108barbaradancygierandevesweetser:Mentalspacesingrammar:condi-
tionalconstructions
109hewbaerman,dunstanbrownandgrevilleg.corbett:Thesyntax–
morphologyinterface:astudyofsyncretism
110marcustomalin:Linguisticsandtheformalsciences:theoriginsofgenerative
grammar
111samueld.epsteinandt.danielseely:Derivationsinminimalism
112pauldelacy:Markedness:reductionandpreservationinphonology
113yehudan.falk:Subjectsandtheirproperties
114p.h.matthews:Syntacticrelations:acriticalsurvey
115markc.baker:Thesyntaxofagreementandconcord
116gilliancatrionaramchand:Verbmeaningandthelexicon:afirst-phase
syntax
117pietermuysken:Functionalcategories
118juanuriagereka:Syntacticanchors:onsemanticstructuring
119d.robertladd:Intonationalphonology,secondedition
120leonardh.babby:Thesyntaxofargumentstructure
Earlierissuesnotlistedarealsoavailable
THE SYNTAX OF
ARGUMENT STRUCTURE
LEONARD H. BABBY
PrincetonUniversity,NewJersey
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521417976
© Cambridge University Press 2009
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2009
ISBN-13 978-0-511-51796-9 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-41797-6 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Description:Each verb in natural language is associated with a set of arguments, which are not systematically predictable from the verb's meaning and are realized syntactically as the projected sentence's subject, direct object, etc. Babby puts forward the theory that this set of arguments (the verb's 'argument
