Original scientific paper
Unaccusativity, morphologicaly marked aspect and the internal structure of -ač nouns
Matea Birtić
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to present an analysis of Croatian agentive nouns ending in the suffix -ač according to the principles of Distributed Morphology. There are three basic features of -ač nouns which have impact on their internal structure: impossibility of deriving nouns from unaccusative verbs, morphologically marked aspect and the ambiguity between agentive and instrumental interpretation. The analysis presupposes that the phrasal architecture of -ač nouns comprises both nominal and verbal functional projections. My proposal is to assume light verb (v), perfective head (Perf) and the aspectual head (Asp) as a part of the verbal functional layer in the nominal structure. These heads are motivated with the constraints on the formation of -ač nouns as well as with the morpholocigal reflexes of verbal categories in their structure. As consequence of the investigation of verbal properties in nominal structure this paper also deals with the question of unacussativity in Croatian.
Keywords
nouns with the suffix –ač; imperfective vs. perfective aspect; unaccusativity; agentive/instrumental interpretation; distributed morphology; nominal and verbal functional projections
Hrčak ID:
9444
URI
Publication date:
24.2.2005.
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