Non-Simultaneous Transfer , Case Domain Fusion and the Light Verb Construction (original) (raw)

In (1), the light verb site-iru 'doing-be', the present progressive form of suru 'do', is combined with the VN aiseki 'table-sharing', which is marked by the accusative case particle -o. The term "light verb" refers to a verb which is semantically/thematically empty. Since Grimshaw and Mester (1988), the light verb construction has drawn much attention in recent literature mainly due to a paradoxical PF-LF mismatch in argument linking it exhibits (see, among others, Grimshaw and Mester 1988, Sells 1989, Dubinsky 1990, Hasegawa 1991, Kageyama 1991, 1993, Uchida and Nakayama 1993, Matsumoto 1996, Huang 1997, and Saito and Hoshi 2000). In (1), for example, given that the light verb is semantically empty, the arguments John and Bill are assigned θ-roles, i.e. Agent and Theme, by the nominal head, i.e. the VN aiseki 'table-sharing'. These θ-markings take place within the nominal phrase given the