Chapter 5 - Verb PhrasesNote that the complex event structure is mirrored by the complex VP structure. There
are two sub-events and two parts to the VP, an upper vP and a lower VP. Moreover,
the vP corresponds to the first sub-event and the causative connection between the sub-
events. The VP corresponds to the sub-event that results from the first. This indicates
that there is a connection between event structure and syntactic structure, specifically
the more complex the event structure, the more complex the syntactic structure used to
represent it.
2.3 Ergative verbs
We have just seen that a verb like break can appear in a VP with a single theme
argument which in the absence of a light verb will be the subject of the clause. This
looks exactly like an unaccusative verb, yet there are differences between this class of
verb and the unaccusatives. For one thing, these verbs are not movement or locative
verbs, but typically involve a change of state:
(34) a the window broke
b the door closed
c the glass shattered
d the ship sank
e the bomb exploded
f the tree grew
Furthermore, these verbs do not appear in there sentences or locative inversion
structures:
(35) a there broke a window
b there sank a ship
(36) a in the house opened a door
b in the cupboard shattered a glass
Apparent exceptions to these observations may again be accounted for by assuming
an ambiguous status of the verb involved. For example, the verb grow can apparently
behave like an unaccusative:
(37) a there grew a tree in the garden
b in the garden grew a tree
In these examples, however, it might be that the verb has a locative interpretation
rather than a change of state interpretation. If we force the change of state
interpretation, the verb ceases to behave like an unaccusative:
(38) a the tree grew bigger
b there grew a tree bigger
c in the garden grew a tree bigger
Another major difference between this group of verbs and unaccusatives is that this
group can apparently appear in a transitive context: