LING 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Unaccusative Verb, Null-Subject Language, Continuant
Document Summary
February 18th: deep versus surface differences between l1 & l2. Example: head position parameter (initial or final): vo order versus ov. Japanese-speaking learners of english or english-speaking learners of japanese have to acquire l2 word order that differs from the l1. Relatively little transfer of basic word order of this type and it is lasts only a short time. A rule of verb second (v2: peter mag dieses buch, peter likes this book. Apparent similarities in word order can stem from deeper differences. Because of the verb movement rule, dutch & german sentences can result in svo order and superficially look just like english ones, and "positive" transfer might be expected. Unaccusatives are intransitive verbs (verbs that do not have objects) whose subjects are themes rather than agent (the doer of the action). They have the following underlying structure (in all languages): The undergoer is the one to whom the action is being done.
