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English Participle Constructions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Elizabeth A. Cowper*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of participial constructions in English, within the feature-checking approach to inflectional morphology. It argues for a unified treatment of the perfect, passive and adjectival uses of the past participle, involving a monosemous inflectional head checking a monosemous affix. There are two classes of constructions with -ing, each of which is given a unified treatment. The analysis requires the assumption that head-adjoined structures can be generated directly, rather than arising only as a result of movement. It also demonstrates that inflectional and derivational affixation are inherently different processes. An affix may in principle be attached by either process, with each process resulting in a different output structure. With these two provisos, it is possible to maintain both Johns’ (1992) One Form/One Meaning Principle and the more restrictive Strong Monosemy Principle proposed here.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article présente une analyse des constructions participiales de l’anglais dans le cadre de l’approche à la morphologie flexionnelle en termes de vérification des traits. Un traitement unifié, impliquant la présence d’une tête flexionnelle monosémique qui vérifie un affixe monosémique, est proposé pour rendre compte des emplois perfectif, passif et adjectival du participe passé. Deux classes de constructions en -ing sont distinguées et chacune d’entre elles reçoit un traitement unifié. L’analyse proposée implique qu’il est possible d’engendrer directement des structures adjointes à une tête, contrairement à l’hypothèse voulant qu’elles ne puissent apparaître que comme résultat d’un mouvement. Cette analyse démontre que I’affixation flexionnelle et 1’affixation dérivationnelle sont des processus distincts à la base. Un affixe peut en principe être attaché par l’un ou l’autre des deux processus, chaque processus donnant lieu à une structure résultante différente. Il est ainsi possible de maintenir le principe “Une formeAJn sens” de Johns (1992) ainsi que le Principe de la Monosémie Stricte proposé ici.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1995

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