Notes from discussion of MRS design for light verb constructions at Galicia Summit.

Questions:

  • How many EPs in the MRS?
  • What kind of argument sharing between them?
  • How about the idea of sharing scope position (labels)?

Berthold: Persian (and probably Hindi/Urdu): Very limited inventory of verbs. Some kind of allomorphic variance — particular LVs appear with certain predicates. Researcher in Amsterdam has looked into this.

Francis: How much do you want to keep the semantics similar to the surface v. deeper? I gave my son a bath there is a special bath predicate and it behaves like bathe (bath(me, my son)) or do we still want my son as an argument of give?

Tara: Test involving replacement with a verby form.

Francis: Do you want the predicate _bath_coverb or _bath_n_rel. Would prefer the former.

Emily: Why?

Francis: Makes it easier to manipulate the semantics to do things. Jacy: Kim talked to Sandy all arguments of the verb suru. Then have to do a rewriting step in the semantics to get to what I want. Not necessarily an argument for it being the right representation. Because suru is so light…

Emily: suru really takes a dative argument?

Francis: We have one that does. But ni is tricky because it can also be an adjunct.

Dan: What about a verb that takes a VP complement…

Francis: hanashi wo shite mita — try attaches to do.

Emily: What about clausal complements? … but anyway, suru is super bleached and shouldn’t be in the semantics.

Guy: Does cleaner semantics push the complexity elsewhere? I gave my son a bath and a book

Dan: Heading towards Zeugma: I drove my mother crazy and my daughter to Texas -

Francis: I would be okay if that was in fact blocking that.

Dan: I took a bath and a nap – sounds fine.

Emily: LVC in both cases there (and same LV) so that’s okay.

Dan: If I took a bus, I took a train, I took a plane is a LVC – no corresponding verb handy. Have to make a verby predicate. I took a taxi doesn’t mean the same thing as I taxied. Doing that while parsing & composing semantics seems out of reach…

Francis: I don’t expect it to be the same predicate. Was thinking more _bath_v_rel (not same as _bathe_v_rel) and then some hierarchy relates them. Not sure take a taxi is a LVC.

Guy: Maybe like the VPCs: _bath_v_take

Emily: What does _taxi_v_take get you? And what about We took two taxis And what about I took a quick bath v. I took a hot bath.

Guy: How about _hot_a_rel predicated of _bath_v_take

Emily: But what do we do about the semantics of the determiner a?

Dan: In take a hot bath, it really is about the temp of the liquid.

Emily: And so what’s your theory of take a quick bath

Dan: Reduced to previously unsolved problem: I enjoy an occasional bath

Guy: So we can’t derive anything from the fact that it modifies the noun.

Dan: Still don’t understand the drive to jump all the way to the meaning of the idiom.

Francis: There are places where the coverb affects the argument structure. I don’t a give fuck about sthg v. I gave him a bath about sthg. The about is being licensed by the co-verb. The about is being licensed by the co-verb. Would you agree?

Emily: Or just another idiom involving give.

Tara: Point of Japanese examples was that the arguments depend on the co-verb.

Emily: But suru is completely transparent.

Dan: I gave a talk about that subject.

Francis/Emily: The PP[about] in that one is just a nouny modifier.

Emily: Japanese is one type (very transparent), English another. Parameter in the customization system…

Francis: Jacy has a difference between LVCs with and without the accusative marker. Maybe that’s wrong, maybe there is a thing to model there.

Francis: Why should LVs have a different analysis from just being an argument of the verb?

Tara: [Scribe was catching up]

Hei: Would the LVC analysis replace the original one or become a second analysis? I get criticism = I was criticized. Do we model this as ambiguity?

Emily: Replacing…

Francis: I took a bath – it could be I picked up a bathtub. So do we want two readings? And how would they differ?

Hei: I am getting support – two readings.

Emily: Which one is the LVC?

Last update: 2023-06-27 by emilymbender [edit]