On the meaning of German accusative external possessives

This paper proposes an analysis of German accusative external possessives. It argues that these constructions are associated with the following meaning components: first, the physical attachment between the possessor and the possessee, and second, the entailment of a (potential) physical result whic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGlossa (London) Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 1 - 32
Main Author Levina, Ekaterina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Open Library of Humanities 20.08.2024
Ubiquity Press
Subjects
Entailment
German language
Grammatical case
Mereology
Possession
Research Article
Semantics
Thematic roles
Verbs
Word meaning
German
body-part possessor ascension alternation
verb semantics
change of state
external possessives
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN2397-1835
DOI10.16995/glossa.10610

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Summary:This paper proposes an analysis of German accusative external possessives. It argues that these constructions are associated with the following meaning components: first, the physical attachment between the possessor and the possessee, and second, the entailment of a (potential) physical result which equally holds for the two participants. The paper proposes a compatibility constraint on verbs that can appear in these constructions and discusses the reasons why verb classes which do not appear in accusative external possessives fail this constraint. The analysis presented in the paper reveals correlations between the mereological properties of event participants and kinds of event culminations. Moreover, it discusses challenges and implications that accusative external possessives pose to the theory of thematic roles and existing approaches to relational nouns.      
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ISSN:2397-1835
DOI:10.16995/glossa.10610