PhD thesis, University of Essex, UK.
Supervisor: Louisa Sadler; Internal examiner: Doug Arnold; External examiner: Claire Grover
I concentrate on the challenge of the split syntactic realization of the "experiencer" argument, which with Experiencer-Subject Psych Verb Constructions (ESPVCs) is syntactically realized as the subject of the sentence, whereas with Experiencer-Object Psych Verb Constructions (EOPVCs) it is syntactically realized as the accusative or genitive NP of the sentence, and it bears different grammatical functions in different languages (e.g., object in English and MG Agentive EOPVCs, adjunct in MG Causative EOPVCs).
I also focus on the semantics and the syntax of Modern Greek ESPVCs, and on providing a clearcut semantic and syntactic distinction between Agentive and Causative EOPVCs in Modern Greek. Specifically, I show that there are syntactic, as well as semantic differences between Modern Greek Agentive and Causative EOPVCs which are closely related to the fact that Causative EOPVCs are doubled pronominal affix constructions in contrast to Agentive EOPVCs. The account of the distinct semantic and syntactic behaviour of Agentive and Causative EOPVCs in Modern Greek I propose is based on Wechsler's (1995) Notion Rule, as well as on the analysis of Modern Greek cliticization phenomena (i.e., clitic-doubling phenomena) suggested by Alexopoulou and Kolliakou (2001).
The overall account of Modern Greek PVCs that I suggest is sensitive to the syntactic encoding of the semantic properties of notion (Barwise and Perry (1983), Devlin (1991), Wechsler (1995)), agentivity and causation, and it is developed in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG; Pollard and Sag (1994)), where semantics is couched within a situation theoretic framework, according to which verbs are lexically specified for a CONTENT feature with a RELN attribute and a list valued ROLES attribute. Using Wechsler's (1995) Notion Rule as the semantic basis of my analysis, and relying on the linking theories of Davis and Koenig (2000) and Markantonatou and Sadler (1996) I show how the generalizations about the semantic properties of Modern Greek PVCs can be formally accounted for by a linking theory developed in HPSG, and how such a formal linking theory can also robustly account for the distinct syntactic behaviour of the different classes of MG PVCs.
Chapter 2 Previous Approaches to Psych Verb Constructions
Chapter 3 Psych Verb Constructions in Modern Greek
Chapter 4 The Morpho-Syntax of Modern Greek Accusative EOPVCs
Chapter 5 Linking Modern Greek Psych Verb Constructions
Chapter 6 Conclusions and Open Issues
@PhDThesis{kordoni:thesis,
author = {Kordoni, Valia},
title = {Psych Verb Constructions in Modern Greek: a
semantic analysis in the Hierarchical Lexicon},
school = {University of Essex},
address = {Colchester, UK},
year = 2001,
http = {\url{http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~kordoni/thesis.html}}
}