UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 11 (1999)

Why are depictives different from resultatives?

ANNABEL CORMACK & NEIL SMITH

We analyse all of serial verbs, quasi-serials, depictives and resultatives as complex predicate structures semantically headed by the two-place asymmetric conj unction operator $. This uniformity necessitates an account of the fact that not all these $P behave in the same way. Our analysis exploits (1) EVENTS, where some $P encode single-event structures, and some multiple event structures, and (2) parametric differences associated with the $ head. In addition we exploit (3) the notion of 'nil roles' and their case properties, and (4) iconicity at LF. Our evidence comes from English, Dutch, Nupe and Korean.

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