Subject suppression or lexical PRO?: the case of derived nominals in Hungarian
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Anna Szabolcsi [1]
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[1] Universily of California at Los Angeles,
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- Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Vol. 86, Nº 2-3, 1992, págs. 149-176
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
The paper examines Hungarian data in the light of Grimshaw's (1990) theory. Grimshaw's claim that (only) complex event nominals have an argument structure is confirmed. On the other hand, it is argued that the argument structure of a Hungarian complex event nominal is identical to that of the corresponding verb. The apparent differences cannot be attributed to external argument suppression, which is the analysis Grimshaw proposes for English. Rather, they need to be accounted for with reference to Case-assignment and the availability of a PRO subject with controlled or arbitrary interpretation. PROarb is shown to have both a quasi-universal and a quasi-existential reading. PRO is not syntactic, however, but receives a theta-role in lexical structure.
