Abstract
In this paper, I will present evidence that every verb of action is embedded in the object complement of a two-place predicate whose subject is identical to the subject of the action verb, and whose phonological realization in English is do. That is, such sentences as (1) will be derived from such structures as that shown in (2) by some rule such as that shown in (3).1
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Anderson, S. R., ‘Pro-Sentential Forms and Their Implications for English Sentence Structure’, NSF-20 p. VI–1–43, 1968.
Bach, E. and Harms, R., Universals in Linguistic Theory, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1968.
Bach, E. and Peters, S., ‘Pseudo-cleft Sentences’, unpublished University of Texas ditto, 1968.
Chomsky, N., Syntactic Structures, Mouton, The Hague, 1957.
Chomsky, N., ‘Current Issues in Linguistic Theory’, in The Structure of Language, Readings in the Philosophy of Language (ed. by J. Fodor and J. Katz), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.Y. (1964), p. 50–118.
Chomsky, N., ‘Remarks on Nominalizations’, in Readings in Transformational Grammar (ed. by R. Jacobs and P. S. Rosenbaum), Blaisdell, Waltham, Mass., 1970, p. 184–221.
Chomsky, N. and Halle, M., The Sound Pattern pf English, Harper and Row, New York, 1968.
Davidson, D., ‘The Logical Form of Action Sentences’, in The Logic of Decision and Action (ed. by N. Rescher), University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. (1967), p. 81–120.
Faraci, R., ‘On the Deep Question of Pseudo-clefts’, unpublished MIT ditto, 1970.
Fillmore, C., ‘The Case for Case’, in Bach and Harms, (1968), p. 1–88.
Fillmore, C. and Langendoen, D. T, Studies in Linguistic Semantics, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971.
Fodor, J. and Katz, J. J., The Structure of Language: Readings in the Philosophy of Language, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1964.
Grinder, J., ‘On the Derivation of Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses’, unpublished paper, 1970,
Lakoff, G., ‘Stative Verbs and Adjectives’, in Mathematical Linguistics and Machine Translation, Report NSF-17, the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1966.
Lakoff, G., ‘On Derivational Constraints’, in Papers from the Fifth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics, Chicago, III., 1969.
Lakoff, G., Irregularity in Syntax, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1970.
Lakoff, G. and Ross, J. R., ‘A Criterion for Verb Phrase Constituency’, in Mathematical Linguistics and Machine Translation, Report NSF-17, the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1966.
Lakoff, G. and Ross, J. R., Abstract Syntax (in preparation).
Lakoff, R., Abstract Syntax and Latin Complementation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1968.
Lee, P. G., ‘Do from Occur’, Working-Papers in Linguistics No. 3, pp. 1–21, Technical Report No. 69–4 to the National Science Foundation from the Computer and Information Science Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1969.
Lees, R. and Klima, E., ‘Rules for English Pronominalization’, Language 34 (1963), 17–29.
Lyons, J., ‘A Note on Possessive, Existential, and Locative Sentences’, Foundations of Language 3 (1967), p. 390–6.
McCawley, J., ‘The Role of Semantics in Grammar’, in Bach and Harms, 1968.
McCawley, J., ‘English as a VSO Language’, Language 46 (1970), 286–99.
McCawley, J., ‘Tense and Time Reference in English’, in Fillmore and Langendoen, p. 97–113, 1971.
Nakau, M., Sentential Complementation in Japanese, unpublished Doctoral dissertation, MIT, 1971.
Perlmutter, D. (in press), Deep and Surface Structure Constraints in Syntax, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Postal, P., ‘Limitations of Phrase Structure Grammars’, in Fodor and Katz, 1964.
Postal, P., ‘Underlying and Superficial Constituent Structure’, in Modern Studies in English (ed. by D. Reibel and S. Shane), Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.Y., 1969.
Postal, P., ‘On the Surface Verb Remind’, Linguistic Inquiry 1, 1, 1970a.
Postal, P., ‘On Coreferential Complement Subject Deletion’, Linguistic Inquiry 1. 4, 1970b.
Postal, P., Crossover Phenomena, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1971.
Postal, P. and Ross, J. R., ‘Tough-Movement si, Tough Deletion no!’, to appear in Linguistic Inquiry 2. 4, 1971.
Reibel, D. and Schane, S., Modern Studies in English, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.Y., 1969.
Rosenbaum, P., The Grammar of English Predicate Complement Constructions, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1967.
Ross, J. R., Constraints on Variables in Syntax, unpublished Doctoral dissertation, MIT., 1967.
Ross, J. R., ‘Auxiliaries as Main Verbs’, in Studies in Philosophical Linguistics (ed. by W. Todd), Series One, Great Expectations Press, Carbondale, III., 1969a.
Ross, J. R., ‘Guess Who?’ in Papers from the Fifth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics, Chicago, III., 1969b.
Ross, J. R., ‘Adjectives as Noun Phrases’, in Reibel and Schane, 1969c.
Ross, J. R., ‘Doubling’, to appear in Linguistic Inquiry, 1971.
Ross, J. R., ‘Mirror Image Rules and VSO order’, to appear in Linguistic Inquiry 2. 4, 1971.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1972 John Robert Ross
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ross, J.R. (1972). Act. In: Davidson, D., Harman, G. (eds) Semantics of Natural Language. Synthese Library, vol 40. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2557-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2557-7_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-0310-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2557-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive