This paper deals with some restrictions on the formation of -
The class of psychological verbs has been controversially discussed in the literature, as they pose problems for theories of the argument structure-syntax interface. A first issue is the fact that they can project the experiencer theta-role both as an object or as a subject, thus creating a problem for thematic hierarchy and linking (see e.g.
While the paper does not directly address these issues, it shows that the formation of -
(1) | a. | lovable | b. | annoyable | c. | *depressable/*depressible |
Greek has two counterparts of -
(2)
a.
agapitos
lovable.
b.
*enohlisimos
annoyable.
c.
*enohlitos
annoyable.
This behavior leads us to formulate the following questions: i) what enables -
I will show that -
As detailed in Landau (
The second contribution the paper makes is to explain the differences with respect to -
The paper is structured as follows:
Belletti & Rizzi (
(3) | John loves Mary. |
The second class is that of accusative object experiencer verbs, where the experiencer appears as the accusative object of the verb, (4):
(4) | The message worries John. |
The third class involves an object experiencer that surfaces with dative case, (5):
(5) | The song appeals to John. |
There is some consensus among scholars with respect to the status of class I and class III verbs: class I verbs are unambiguously stative, and behave like transitive predicates, and class III verbs are unaccusative across languages. However, Class II has been controversially discussed in the literature, and the reader is referred to Landau (
With respect to class II verbs, the following issues are important for my discussion. Firstly, Class II OE verbs may have eventive, non-agentive interpretations. Arad (
(6) | a. | John frightened Bill deliberately. | |
b. | Bill frightened Peter unintentionally. | ||
c. | The thunderstorm frightened Bill. | ||
d. | John’s stubbornness frightens Bill. |
Secondly, more recently, Alexiadou & Iordăchioiaia (
Thirdly, Landau (
Landau’s typology is relevant for my discussion of -
(7) | Psych verbs which cannot form a passive are also not able to form an - |
This directly relates to both Landau’s partition of psych verbs, and the view that -
As is well known, languages employ several ways to express dispositional statements, and -
Moreover, similarly to modals there is a difference in entailments. As Giannakidou & Staraki (
(8) | Ariadne can solve the problem. |
Moreira (
What is more interesting for the purposes of this paper, however, is the discussion on the morpho-syntactic contexts in which these two readings emerge. Specifically, there appears to exist a correlation between the two readings and the derivational history of the adjective involved in these. Importantly, the possibility reading is available only out of verbs that are transitive and can be passivized. As Chapin (
(9) | a. | *Her mother is resembled by Kate. |
b. | *Her mother is resemblable by Kate. |
Oltra-Massuet (
Properties of high and low -
High - |
Low - |
---|---|
always expresses possibility | non-potential interpretation |
meaning is compositional | may have idiosyncratic meaning |
does not trigger stem allomorphy | may trigger stem allomorphy |
allows derived bases | only underived bases |
stress does not shift | stress shifts |
always spelled out as - |
maybe spelled out as - |
does not generally allow degree | generally allows degree |
modification by |
modification by |
From this perspective, the difference in interpretation associated with -
(10) | a. | translatable = can be translated |
b. | admirable = no direct reference to a verbal component |
The differences in interpretation often correlate with differences in form, as discussed in Aronoff (
(11) | a. | tolerable = moderately good |
b. | toleratable = capable of being tolerated | |
c. | appreciable = substantial | |
d. | appreciatable = capable of being appreciated |
As Oltra-Massuet (213: 111–112) points out, languages such as German have a different affix to express the evaluative judgment, namely
(12) | wünschenswert ‘desirable’ | *wünschbar |
High -
Control into purpose clauses
Licensing of
Licensing of agent-oriented modifiers
Licensing of instrumental phrases
Licensing of aspectual/manner adverbs
Applying these tests to English and German, we see, as stated in Oltra-Massuet (
(13) | a. | *The view is defensible by anyone. |
b. | The view is defendable by anyone. |
(14)
a.
ein
a
vom
by.the
Benutzer/
user/
*von
by
Maria
Mary
leicht
easily
modifizierbares
modifiable
Programm
program
lit. ‘a program easily modifiable by the user/*by Mary’
b.
Der
the
Angriff
attack
ist
is
*von
by
Maria/der
Maria/by.the
Regierung
government
beklagenswert.
regrettable
lit. ‘The attack is regrettable *by Mary/by the government.’
Oltra-Massuet and other literature she cites observed some restrictions on
Finally, Moreira (
(15) | high - |
The corresponding structures for high and low -
(16)
a.
b.
Both -
In view of all this discussion, it becomes clear why -
Let me consider these issues in detail in the next section by focusing on English and Greek. See Oltra-Massuet (
In this section, I will discuss the formation of -
Formation of -
(17) | admirable, hateable, enjoyable, likeable |
Recall that this class is considered to contain stative verbs which have a transitive syntax. In Kratzer (
(18) | a. | O vaso é quebrável, mas não está quebrado. |
‘The vase is breakable, but it is not broken’. | ||
b. | ?? Mimi é amável, mas não desperta amor/afeição. | |
‘Mimi is lovable, but does not inspire love/affection.’ |
As Moreira observes, in (18a), the adjective does not entail the state. (18b) is different in that a loving state is entailed. Importantly, however, the state holds for the state holder, which corresponds to the experiencer argument. The target of emotion, following Pesetsky (
Formation of -
(19) | *disgustable, *puzzleable, *charmable |
Other predicates, however, such as
(20) | irritate | irritable | *irritatable |
Second, -
(21) | térrify | terrifiáble |
Thirdly, they do not seem to tolerate
(22) | b. | *John is irritable by anyone. |
b. | John is very irritable. |
Thus, on the basis of Oltra-Massuet’s criteria, at least for these OE verbs that can form -
We note a correlation between the aspectual and structural properties of OE verbs, and their ability to form -
Nevertheless, forms such as
(23) | John is irritable. | |
= | a. John is easily made angry. |
|
≠ | b. John deserves/inspires irritation. | |
c. John is irritable, but he is not irritated. |
Hamada (
(24) | a. | This blouse is like a dream to wash. |
b. | This blouse washes like a dream. |
These properties are also recognized in Oltra-Massuet as characteristics of -
(25) | a. | eatable food |
b. | *The book understands easily. |
In what follows, I will compare these three structures in the domain of psychological verbs. In particular, I will examine to which extent a particular OE verb can form both a dispositional middle and a TMC, and whether there is a correlation between the aspectual class the OE verb belongs to and its behavior in middles, -
There is a sharp contrast between
(26) | a. | *John is easy to fascinate. |
b. | John is easy to irritate. | |
c. | *John fascinates easily. | |
d. | John irritates easily. |
I noted above that
(27) | a. | Sue grieved over the court decision for/*in half an hour. |
b. | Sue grieved at the court decision for/*in half an hour. | |
c. | The court decision grieved Sue for/*in half an hour. |
(28) | a. | We puzzled over Sue’s remarks for/*in an hour. |
b. | Sue’s remarks puzzled us for/*in an hour. |
(29) | ??Sue is easy to puzzle/grieve. |
These verbs do not yield good dispositional middles either, (30a), and -
(30) | a. | ??Sue puzzles | easily/grieves easily. |
b. | *grievable | *puzzleable |
If these verbs are stative, our remarks above concerning
Finally, in English there is a class of predicates that are ambiguous between a change of state and a stative reading. Alexiadou & Iordăchioaia (
(31) | The Chinese dinner satisfied Bill for ten minutes. | |
i. | RS: After having the Chinese dinner, Bill was satisfied for ten minutes. | |
ii. | SEv: Having the Chinese dinner kept Bill satisfied. Both the dinner and his satisfaction lasted for ten minutes simultaneously. |
These verbs give well-formed middles, as well as TMCs, (32). Verbs that belong to this group should be able to combine with high -
(32) | a. | John is easily satisfiable. John is easy to satisfy. John satisfies easily. |
b. | John is so annoyable. John is easy to annoy. John annoys easily. |
In support of this, change of state OE verbs have the potential reading, i.e. the state is not manifested and as a result the statements in (33) do not involve a contradiction:
(33) | a. | John is satisfiable, but he is not satisfied. |
b. | John is annoyable, but he is not annoyed. |
We can summarize the results of the comparison as follows. -
As already mentioned, several researchers have pointed out the similarity between this reading of -
(34) | The man was hard for Mary to find attractive/*sick. |
Nanni also shows that stativity is not the relevant factor, and while most ungrammatical examples involve stative predicates, there are several cases where a stative predicate is acceptable in the complement of
(35) | The book is hard to understand. |
The so-called “semantic easiness” reading is available in all these three domains. But how does it arise? It has been observed by Berman (
(36) | a. | The book is easy for John to read. |
b. | Hockey is fun to play. |
Building on these observations, we could argue that the “semantic easiness” associated with -
Does this mean that
In conclusion, high -
In Greek, there are two ways to form dispositional adjectives. The first one is discussed extensively in Samioti (
(37)
a.
I
the
istoria
story
tu
his
ine
is
pistefti
believable.
apo
by
olus.
all
‘His story is believable by all.’
b.
To
the
mathima
lesson
ine
is
efkola
easily
katanoito.
understandable.
‘The lesson is easily understandable.’
The second one involves the affix -
(38)
a.
metafrasimo
translatable.
b.
katikisimo
inhabitable.
c.
fagosimo
eatable.
Note that (38c) does not necessarily denote that something can be eaten. In Greek, this form, especially in the plural, is used to refer to food in general. (38ac) has an interpretation similar to the one associated with high -
Applying Oltra-Massuet’s criteria, we see that -
(39)
To
the
vivlio
book
ine
is
efkola
easily
metafrasimo.
translatable.
‘The book is easily translatable.’
They also license
(40)
To
the
vivlio
book
ine
is
metafrasimo
translatable.
apo
by
ebirus
experienced
metafrastes.
translators
‘The book is translatable by experienced translators.’
(41)
To
the
vivlio
book
ine
is
metafrasimo
translatable.
mesa
with
se
in
deka
10
meres.
days
‘The book is translatable in 10 days.’
That -
(42)
To
the
asteri
star
ine
is
orato
visible.
apo
from
ti
the
gi,
earth
ala
but
de
to
it
ehi
has
di
seen
kanis
anyone
akomi.
yet
‘The star is visible from the earth, but noone has seen it yet.’
We can make a similar observation for -
(43)
To
the
vivlio
book
ine
is
metafrasimo
translatable.
ala
but
den
to
it
ehi
has
metafrasi
translated
kanis
anyone
akoma.
yet
‘The book is translatable but nobody has translated it yet.’
We can thus conclude that -
Zombolou (
(44) | shizo ‘tear’ | *shisimo | ‘tearable’ |
keo ‘burn’ | *kapsisimo | ‘burnable’ | |
lerono ‘dirty’ | *lerosimo | ‘dirty-able’ |
In view of this, it is necessary to offer a more systematic discussion of Greek -
As has been discussed in detail in the literature, passive formation in Greek is restricted. The way to form a morphological passive is via non-active Voice morphology, which marks passive and reflexive verbs, as well as the anticausative member of verbs undergoing the causative alternation and dispositional middles, (45), (see
(45)
a.
o
the
Janis
John.
ekapse
burnt.
ti
the
supa.
soup.
(causative)
‘John burnt the soup’
b.
i
the
supa
soup.
kegete
burns.
(anticausative)
‘The soup is burning.’
c.
o
the
Janis
John.
dolofonithike
murdered.
apo
by
ton
the
Kosta.
Kostas
(passive)
‘John was murdered by Kostas.’
d.
O
the
Janis
John.
plithike.
washed.
(reflexive)
‘John washed.’
e.
To
the
vivlio
book.
diavezete
reads.
efkola.
easily
(dispositional middle)
‘The book reads easily.’
Next to marked anticausative verbs as in (45b), Greek has a class of anticausatives that are unmarked, i.e. they do not combine with non-active morphology and surface with active Voice, e.g.
(46)
I
the
porta
door
anikse
opened.3
apo
by
moni
self
tis.
her
‘The door opened by itself.’
Alexiadou et al. (
(47)
a.
spao
break.1
*spastike
broke.
b.
*spa-simo
breakable
While other verbs, e.g.
Other change-of-state verbs strongly resist the combination with the non-active ending resulting in a passive in Greek, yielding forms that are either ungrammatical or strongly deviant, from Alexiadou & al. (
(48) | a. | kriono ‘cool.1 |
*krionome ‘cool. |
b. | vatheno ‘deepen.1 |
*vathenome ‘deepen. |
|
c. | adinatizo ‘thin.1 |
?*adinatizome ‘thinnen. |
|
d. | gernao ‘age.1 |
*gerazome ‘age |
With some of these verbs, there again seems to be a morpho-phonological clash that results from the combination of a particular stem with the non-active affix, e.g. (48b). I note again that none of these verbs combine with -
As Zombolou (
(49) | Wales had to be given a kickable penalty. | (COCA, New York Times, 2013) |
Finally, there are several verbs, which, while they can combine with non-active morphology, they cannot receive a passive interpretation e.g.
(50)
I
the
supa
soup.
kaike
burnt.
me
with
ti
the
dinati
strong
fotia/
fire/
*apo
from
to
the
Jani.
John
‘The soup burned from the strong fire.’
Crucially, none of these verbs combines with -
Turning now to psych verbs and dispositional adjectives derived from those, note that Class I predicates can combine with -
(51)
agapi-tos
lov-able
zilef-tos
jealous-able
misi-tos
hate-able
thavmas-tos
admire-able
(52) | axiolatreftos | axiozileftos | axiosevastos |
worthy-admired | worthy-jealous | worthy-respect | |
‘worthy of admiration’ | ‘worthy of jealousy’ | ‘worthy of respect’ |
As Samioti (
OE verbs, on the other hand, cannot combine with -
(53)
a.
*enohlisimos
annoyable.
b.
*thimosimos
angerable.
c.
*sinhisimos
confuse-able.
With very few exceptions, they do not combine with -
(54)
a.
disarestos
unpleasant
b.
everethistos
easily-irritable
c.
ev-prosvlitos
easily-assailable
d.
efkolo-siginitos
easily-moveable
Samioti further notes that the adjectives in (54) to involve an anticausative structure and not a passive one:
(55)
O
the
Janis
John.
ine
is
everethistos
easily-irritable.
apo
by
monos tu/
himself/
*apo
*by
olus.
all
While Greek certainly has stative OE verbs, e.g.
(56)
Ta
the
nea
news.
enohlisan
annoyed.3
to
the
Jani
John.
ksana.
again
‘The news annoyed John again.’
(56’) | a. | Repetitive scenario |
O Janis ine poli iremos anthropos, ala ta nea panda kapos katafernun ke ton enohlun. Htes, os sinithos itan iremos, ala … | ||
‘John is a very calm peron, but the news somehow always manage to annoy him. Yesterday, as usual, he was calm, but … | ||
b. | Restitutive scenario | |
O Janis ine panda thimomenos. Htes, itan, kat’ekseresi iremos, ja ligo, ala kapia stigmi … | ||
‘John is always angry/annoyed. Yesterday, he was exceptionally calm for a while, but at some point … |
However, even these verbs cannot combine with -
(57)
a.
o
the
Janis
John.
thimose
angered.3
ti
the
Maria.
Mary.
‘John angered Mary.’
b.
*i Maria
the Mary.
thimothike
angered.
(apo
by
to
Jani).
John
(58) | *ponethike | ‘feel pain. |
*tromahtike | ‘terrify. |
|
*aidiastike | ‘disgust. |
Other OE verbs can have subject experiencer variants with Non-Active morphology, but either prefer Causer PPs suggesting that a passive (agentive) interpretation is not available (59a) or are purely stative (59b).
(59)
a.
disarestithike
was.displeased.
me
with
to Tsipra.
Tsipras.
‘He was displeased with Tsipras.’
b.
endiaferthike
was.interested.
ja ta fita.
in plants
‘He was interested in plants.’
Importantly, while verbs as in (59a) are change of state predicates, they do not include an agent/originator in their syntax, just a causer argument. Such arguments are modifiers of the event and are not introduced in a manner similar to external arguments. Specifically, Alexiadou & al. (
There is evidence supporting the claim that causative OE verbs in Greek are not really transitive and thus cannot undergo passivization. Anagnostopoulou (
(60)
1.
O
the
anthropos
man
pu
that
*(tu)
(cl.
aresi
like.3
i Maria
the-Mary.
ine
is
ilithios.
stupid
‘The man that Mary appeals to is stupid.’
2.
O
the
anthropos
man
pu
that
*(ton)
(cl.
endhiaferi
interest.3
I Maria
the-Mary.
ine
is
ilithios.
stupid
‘The man that Mary interests is stupid.’
3.
O
the
anthropos
man
pu
that
*(ton)
(cl.
provlimatisan
puzzled.3
ta nea
the-news.
bike
came
mesa.
in
‘The man that the news puzzled came in.’
The fact that a resumptive pronoun is obligatory is evidence for an approach to accusative experiencers, according to which their licensing differs from that of structural accusative objects. Specifically, Landau (
Further evidence for the absence of an agentive external argument with psych verbs is provided by the interaction with modals. Giannakidou & Staraki (
(61)
a.
Ta
the
pedia
children
bori
might.3
na
ine
be.3
sto
to-the
spiti.
home
Epistemic: ‘As far as I know, it is possible that children are at home.’
b.
Ta
the
pedia
children
borun
can.3
na
pane
go.3
sto
to-the
spiti
home
mona
alone
tus.
them
Ability: ‘Children are able to go home on their own.’
Deontic: ‘The children are allowed to go home by themselves.’
OE verbs that can have a Non-Active form related to an anticausative reading and lack a -
(62)
a.
Ta
the
pedia
children
bori/*borun
might/can.3
na
enohlithun.
annoyed.3
‘The children might get annoyed.’
b.
Ta
the
vivlia
books
borun
can.3
na
metafrastun.
translated.3
‘The books can be translated.’
The possibility of embedding a particular verb under an epistemic or ability modal correlates with the availability of an external argument. As Hackl (
(63) | a. | John can be arrested. |
b. | ?John is able to be arrested. |
(64) | a. | Der Hans kann eingesperrt werden. | |
‘Hans is able to be arrested.’ | |||
b. | Der Hans kann eingesperrt sein. | ||
‘Hans can be arrested.’ |
In Greek, the difference between epistemic and ability modality is signaled by the different morphology on the modal, agreement vs. lack of agreement. The Greek data in (62) are thus consistent with the proposal that causative and eventive OE predicates lack an (implicit) external argument in VoiceP.
Turning now to the -
In section 2.2, we have seen the structures proposed for high and low -
(16)
a.
b.
As discussed in section 3, nothing in this system excludes a structure containing a vP but excluding VoiceP, as has been argued for the domain of participle formation and nominalization.
In both English and Greek, subject experiencer verbs may combine with low -
(65)
a.
b.
ev-
easily-
ereth-iz-
irrit-verbalizer-
tos
affix
In English, high -
(66)
Samiotis’s analysis builds on Lekakou (
Recall that we established in the previous section that in Greek there is a correlation between the formation of a verbal passive and that of a -
An important conclusion of the previous section was also that class II OE verbs are not transitive in Greek (i.e. do not include VoiceP), though they might be causative. If they are not transitive, they involve a structure as in (67) below, which is the structure proposed in Alexiadou (
(67)
On the basis of (67), we expect that these psych verbs cannot form agentive passives, as also observed by Oikonomou (
In this paper, building on Oltra-Massuet, I argued that the restrictions on -
I used -
I have also discussed a second reading available with -
With respect to the issue of transitivity, it is clear that we need to distinguish between external arguments introduced in VoiceP and causers introduced in vP. Only the former structure feeds passivization.
An earlier and much shorter version of this paper was published in the Working Papers of the SFB 732 “Incremental Specification in Context”, vol. 13, Proceedings of Morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects of dispositions, ed. by F. Martin, M. Piteroff, and T. Pross.
Note that it is often claimed that -
An anonymous reviewer points out that
Landau notes that
This is the definition offered in the Merriam Webster online Dictionary. An anonymous reviewer points out that
Thanks to anonymous reviewer for also pointing out this similarity.
As already noted, the definition given in the Merriam Webster online dictionary for
See Hundt (
Many thanks to two anonymous reviewers for discussion on this issue.
This is related to ideas about co-analysis in TMCs, Nanni (
Zombolou further notes that the same class of predicates does not form -
(i)
shizo ‘tear’
*shistis ‘tearer’
Alexiadou & al. (
Note here that Zombolou (
There is a third archaic affix, -
This is similar to the Hungarian facts discussed in Oltra-Massuet ( (i) I the Maria Mary. ine is agapiti lovable. se to olus all ‘Maria is lovable to all.’ (ii) I the Maria Mary. ine is axiagapiti worthy-lovable. se/apo to/by olus all ‘Maria is lovable by all.’
Such adjectives often receive idiomatic interpretations, e.g. lovely, charming. With respect to the other tests discussed in Oltra-Massuet ( (iii) a. poli very axiagapiti worthy-lovable. ‘very lovable’ b. *poli very orati visible.
See also the discussion in Landau ( (i) Gil Gil hitrageš was-moved me-/ of/ *al-yedey *by ha-seret. the-movie ‘Gil was moved by the movie’
Landau (
Thanks to G. Iordăchioaia and D. Oikonomou for discussion on this point.
Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for discussion on this issue.
I am grateful to three anonymous reviewers and the editors of this volume for their insightful comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the workshop on the
AL554/8-1 is hereby acknowledged.
The author has no competing interests to declare.