Mai Ellin Tungseth

Two Structural Positions for Locative and Directional PPs in Norwegian Motion Constructions

This paper discusses two types of constructions in Norwegian where a combination of a verb of motion and a prepositional phrase are ambiguous between a reading of directed motion and a reading of located motion. Based on the differences in the syntactic behaviour of the two types of constructions with respect to a variety of tests (viz. VP constituency tests, adverbial placement, accent placement and the binding of anaphora), I argue that the two different readings have different argument structures and syntactic structures. On the directed motion reading, the PP appears low down in the verb phrase as complement to a functional head Path0, where it is interpreted as endpoint. Locative PPs, however, appear higher up in the structure as a verb phrase adjunct.

Aspect and Verbal Prepositions

In this paper, we explore some previously unanalysed interactions between verbal aktionsart and prepositional complementation in Norwegian, namely the alternations between a DP object and PP complements with pa ‘on/at’ and til ‘to/at’. We argue that a simple account based on [±telic] or [±quantized] features cannot be correct. Instead, we generalize the notion of path and homomorphism, and integrate it in a syntactic theory of how complex events are built up compositionally. The path structure introduced by the PP interacts with the path structure of the VP to produce complex events based on ‘homomorphic unity’ in much the same way as has been argued for in the Verb + Nominal domain (Krifka 1992). Specifically, an extended location (a pa -PP) in the complement of and activity verb (in our terms, a process subevental projection) gives rise to a non-directed path for the event; a point location ( a til -PP) in the complement of an accomplishment verb (one which in our terms will contain a result subevental projection) gives rise to the specification of an endpoint.