If I say that the presence of a marked oblique argument on a verb is generally lexically determined, how do I describe the mechanism when an oblique argument is marked without the verb lexically requesting/requiring it? For example, the language allows possessors of objects to be marked as oblique argument: e.g. she cut his hair --> she cut him the hair. Is this a "pragmatic" process? "Stylistic"? "Syntactic"? "Semantic"? "Semantosyntactic"? "Syntactostylistic"?
Is there even a word for such a thing?
Quickie: Help be identify the correct branch of linguistics
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Re: Quickie: Help be identify the correct branch of linguistics
"Syntactic obliques" would be fine IMO, especially because you contrast them with "lexical obliques" (or lexical verbal obliques if you will).
Last edited by Kuchigakatai on Fri Feb 21, 2020 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Quickie: Help be identify the correct branch of linguistics
This specific process is called "external possession" or "possessor raising". Here's a paper about it, which states that the process happens "at the syntax-semantics interface", i.e. it is a syntactic process that's often motivated by semantic considerations, and sensitive to semantic details. "Semanto-syntactic" thus sounds correct IMO, although it's probably not a commonly-used term.vegfarandi wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:14 amFor example, the language allows possessors of objects to be marked as oblique argument: e.g. she cut his hair --> she cut him the hair.
This seems to be a good suggestion.
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Conlangs: Ronc Tyu • Buruya Nzaysa • Doayâu • Tmaśareʔ
Conlangs: Ronc Tyu • Buruya Nzaysa • Doayâu • Tmaśareʔ