Verb-Initial Constructions in Modern Hebrew

Nurit Melnik, 2002

Ph.D. thesis, University of California at Berkeley

ABSTRACT

This dissertation provides an analysis of verb-initial (V1) constructions in Modern Hebrew (MH). The two main foci of the analysis are the grammatical function of the postverbal NP in V1 and the licensing condition of the constructions.

Subjects in MH are generally assumed to appear preverbally, display full agreement with the verb, and have nominative case. In contrast, 'subjects' of V1 constructions are, by definition, never preverbal. In some cases the verb agrees with the postverbal 'subject', while in others it exhibits invariant 3SM morphology. In addition, the case of V1 `subjects' alternates between nominative and accusative.

The grammatical function of the 'subjects' of V1 are examined by using Keenan's (1976) subject properties list and hierarchies as guidelines. The conclusion is that only agreement-triggering arguments exhibit the properties necessary to be considered syntactic subjects. The proposal is presented in the form of a formal analysis in the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

The question of the licensing conditions of V1 in MH stems from the observation that most of the V1 constructions have an SV(O) counterpart, yet not all sentences with SV(O) order can be 'transformed' into V1. Lexically-based constraints that have been suggested in the literature are evaluated empirically and argued to capture frequent correlations but not hard constraints. The alternative approach views the constructions in their entirety.  It is proposed that V1 constructions are used as information packaging devices which encode JUDGMENTS in such a way as to make them minimally distinct from 'unmarked' categorical judgments, expressed by an SV(O) order. V1 constructions are licensed when they are compatible with a thetic judgment. The alternative proposal accounts for the data accounted for by the lexically-based approach, as well as for its counterexamples.

 Finally, the syntactic and information-packaging aspects of V1 constructions come together in a multi-inheritance type hierarchy in which types of phrases are cross-classified according to the two dimensions. A preliminary step is the introduction of information packaging notions into an HPSG-based grammar. The constructional approach (Fillmore & Kay 1996 and Sag 1997) adopted here, provides a way of attributing non-compositional properties to phrasal constructions.