Intention, aspect, and argument structure: the morphosyntax and morphosemantics of the Akkadian verb

Abstract

This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the ROOT-and-template system of the Akkadian (East-Semitic, c. 2600 BCE – 75 CE) verb. It does so in two novel ways for Akkadian, by a) developing grammatical tests for the disambiguation of thirteen derivationally-consequential classes of lexical ROOTS, and b) recontextualising the templatic alternations as different ways of marking either a causal or noncausal alternant in the causative-alternation. Akkadian has three template patterns, a base G stem, an intensive/factitive D stem, and a causative Š stem. The G stem, assumed here to be the projection of the ROOT, is used to diagnose the ROOT classes. Through the development of three grammatical tests involving the Stative, perfective and imperfective conjugations, as well as the verbal adjectival derivation, distinct argument structural, i.e., syntactic, and aspectual, i.e., semantic features can be determined for different ROOTS, resulting in thirteen distinct ROOT classes. The D and the Š stem are motivated to be two aspectually distinct causative morphemes: the D stem serves as the direct, atelic causative and introduces an Agent, while the Š stem functions as the indirect, telic causative and introduces a Causer. The choice of which causative could be used for the causative-alternation of a given ROOT is either dependent on the aspectual and argument-structural features of a ROOT (and its class), or on pragmatic choice, i.e., a speakers intention of communication. This choice for causation-telicity is made at a designated layer of projection, referred to as FocusP (Simpson & Wu 2002), which is only present in D and Š derivations, and is immediately reflected in syntactic restrictions imposed on VoiceP (Kratzer 1996). ROOT (class) and causative must thereby not contradict one another in aspectual features (i.e., telic ROOT derives telic causative), but must not overlap in syntactic features (i.e., Agent-ROOT may not derive Agent-causative). The different feature-combinations in FocusP and VoiceP determine the different template patterns and their syntactic and semantic properties. By contrast, the two anticausatives, t- and n-, used to denote reflexives, passives, but also noncausal verbs, are restricted by solely syntactic properties, again derived from the interaction of FocusP and VoiceP. The different features associated with the D and Š stems on FocusP and by consequence VoiceP, determine why t-morphemes inserted into G and Š show greater semantic flexibility, while t-morphemes inserted into D may only function as passives. Through the formulation of grammatical tests, the disambiguation of ROOT-classes, and the precise formulation of the causative and anticausative morphemes syntactic and semantic properties, this thesis presents a novel, concise, and comprehensive analysis of the Akkadian verb