In Towards a Theory of Denominals, Adina Camelia Bleotu takes a comparative look at denominal verbs in English and Romanian from various theoretical frameworks such as lexical decomposition, distributed morphology, nanosyntax and spanning. The book proposes a novel spanning analysis, arguing for its explanatory superiority to incorporation/conflation or nanosyntax in accounting for the formation and behaviour of denominals. It provides useful empirical insights, drawing from rich data from English discussed widely in the relevant literature, but also presenting novel data from Romanian not explored in detail before. Many interesting theoretical issues are also discussed, such as the (lack of) correlation between the (un)boundedness of the nominal root and the (a)telicity of the resulting verb, the verb/ satellite-framed distinction and others.
Adina Camelia Bleotu, Ph.D. (2015), Caâ Foscari University, Venezia, is currently Teaching Assistant of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Bucharest. She has published several articles on denominals, trying to solve puzzling aspects related to denominal verb formation.
Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations List of Figures and Tables
1 What is a Denominal Verb?
â1âClarifying the Concept of Denominal Verb
â2âDenominal Verbs Are Derived from Roots: Evidence
2 (Un)boundedness Effects of the Nominal Root in Noun-Incorporating Verbs: Insight from Romanian
â1âAims
â2âTheoretical Background
â3âMethodology
â4âData
â5âConclusions
3 An Overview of Various Approaches to Denominal Verbs
â1âSyntactic Approaches to Denominal Verbs
â2âA Semantico-Syntactic Approach: Mateu (2002)
â3âMorphological Approaches to Denominal Verbs
4 A Spanning Account of Denominals in English and Romanian
â1âDefining Spanning
â2âBrodyâs Mirror Theory (2000)
â3âApplying Spanning to Denominals
5 Verbs Incorporating Themes, Pseudo-Agent Verbs and Verbs Displaying an Ambiguous Behaviour
â1âTheme Verbs
â2âPseudo-Agent Verbs
â3âWeather Verbs
6 Location, Locatum Verbs and the Locative Alternation in Romanian and English
â1âAim
â2âLocation Verbs
â3âLocatum Verbs
â4âThe Locative Alternation
â5âConclusion
7 On Instrument Verbs
â1âInstrument Verbs: Definition and Examples
â2âPrevious Accounts of Instrument Verbs
â3âA Phrasal Spell-Out Account of Instrument Verbs
â4âA Distributed Morphology Account
â5âA Spanning Account
All scholars interested in the syntax-morphology and the syntax-lexicon interface, as well as graduate students in linguistics working or generally interested in these fields.