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), Ca’ 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? 1 Clarifying the Concept of Denominal Verb
2 Denominal Verbs Are Derived from Roots: Evidence
2
(Un)boundedness Effects of the Nominal Root in Noun-Incorporating Verbs: Insight from Romanian 1 Aims
2 Theoretical Background
3 Methodology
4 Data
5 Conclusions
3
An Overview of Various Approaches to Denominal Verbs 1 Syntactic Approaches to Denominal Verbs
2 A Semantico-Syntactic Approach: Mateu (2002)
3 Morphological Approaches to Denominal Verbs
4
A Spanning Account of Denominals in English and Romanian 1 Defining Spanning
2 Brody’s Mirror Theory (2000)
3 Applying Spanning to Denominals
6
Location, Locatum Verbs and the Locative Alternation in Romanian and English 1 Aim
2 Location Verbs
3 Locatum Verbs
4 The Locative Alternation
5 Conclusion
7
On Instrument Verbs 1 Instrument Verbs: Definition and Examples
2 Previous Accounts of Instrument Verbs
3 A Phrasal Spell-Out Account of Instrument Verbs
4 A Distributed Morphology Account
5 A 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.