Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

A SYNOPSIS OF ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR 37

c. ACTIVITIES

The children cried. cry' (the children)

The ball rolled. roll' (the ball)

The door squeaks. squeak' (the door)

Mary did something. do' (Mary)^21

Larry ate fish. eat' (Larry, fish)

d. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Joan tossed the journal on [toss' (Joan, the journal)] CAUSE [BECOME

the desk. be-on' (the desk, the journal)]

Max ran to the office. [run' (Max)] CAUSE [BECOME be-at'

(the office, Max)]

The baby broke the watch [do' (the baby)] CAUSE [BECOME broken'

[accidentally]. (the watch)]

Louise showed the painting [do' (Louise)] CAUSE [BECOME see'

to Sam. (Sam, the painting)]

With activity verbs, agency is indicated by DO only when it is a neces­
sary part of the meaning of the verb; otherwise, it will be treated as an
implicature based on the meaning of the verb and the inherent lexical con­
tent of its argument, following Holisky (1987). This system of lexical rep­
resentation, while much richer than that employed by other theories, is
nevertheless only a first approximation to the kind of decompositional sys­
tem which is required for deeper lexical semantic analysis. Van Valin &
Wilkins (this volume) explore the features of such a system, focussing on
the decomposition of cognition verbs in English and Mparntwe Arrernte.
The claim that there is a derivational relationship between the three
non-activity classes, i.e. state —> achievement —» accomplishment, is sup­
ported by the fact that in many languages this is the primary pattern of verb
derivation. This was shown for Lakhota and Tagalog in FVV, for Sama
(Philippines) in Walton (1986), and for Mparntwe Arrernte (Australia) in
Wilkins (1989). Some examples from Tepehua (Totonacan, Mexico; Wai­
ters 1986, 1988) are given below.

(21) a. ?aknu:-y "A is underground" —» ta:knu:-y "A goes under­

ground" —» ma:knu:-y "B buries A"

b. lakcahu-y "A is closed" —» talakcahu-y "A closes" —» madak-

cuhu-y "B closes A"

 pasa-y "A is changed, different" -» tapasa-y "A changes" -»

ma:pasa-y "B changes A"

d. Iaq4ti?a:-y "A is open" -> talaq4ti?a:-y "A opens" ->

ma:laq4ti?a:-y "B opens A"