Semitic templates systematically encode two dimensions of verb meaning: (a) agency, the thematic role of the verb's external argument, and (b) voice. The assumption that this form-meaning correspondence is mediated by syntax allows the parallel compositional construction of the form and the meaning of a verb from the forms and the meanings of its root and template. The root and its arguments are optionally embedded under a light verb v which introduces the agent (Hale and Keyser 1993; Kratzer 1994). But this is only the unmarked case, which, in Semitic, is encoded by the simple templates. Two dimensions of markedness are introduced by two additional types of syntactic heads: (a) agency heads, which modify agency and are morphologically realized as the intensive and causative templates, and (b) voice heads, which modify voice and are morphologically realized as the passive and middle templates. Causative and middle morphemes are thus accounted for within a unified system, which, first, explains their affinity in language in general (both are found crosslinguistically as markers of transitivity alternations), and which, moreover, sheds new light on problems in the interface of semantics and morphology. One problem is the impossibility, mostly ignored in linguistic theory, of deriving the semantics of middle verbs from that of the corresponding transitive verbs. The second is explaining the identity found crosslinguistically between middle and reflexive morphology. The third is determining the grammatical function of the causee in causative constructions.

Gennaro Chierchia's (1998) neo-Carlsonian account of reference to kinds via nominalization type-shift from properties to kinds, which applies to mass & plural properties exclusively, is upheld despite evidence of bare singular reference to kinds in Hebrew & Brazilian Portuguese, both of which have definite articles & plural inflection of nouns. Languages that admit bare singular nouns in addition to nouns with definite determiners are shown to use incorporation to obtain existential interpretations of bare nouns; reference to kinds requires a noun to be either plural or the subject of a categorical judgment, in which case it is interpreted as definite. Whereas definiteness requires morphological marking in Hungarian & Arabic, which allow bare singulars as indefinites, morphological definiteness marking is not required for subjects of categorical judgments in Hebrew & Brazilian Portuguese; bare singulars referring to kinds are also held to have definite interpretations in Hindi & Russian, which lack morphological definiteness marking. References. J. Hitchcock

Regularities of patterning in the Hebrew verb derivation system are adduced to support a new analysis of transitivity alternations that unifies causative & middle morphology. Verbs are constructed in the syntax from lexical roots & functional heads; the root, not the simple verb, provides the basic predicate & is merged with the light verb v as defined by Kenneth Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser (1993). Although v introduces the agent, a pair of agency heads are available to specify the thematic role of the external argument as cause vs agent of action & mark the verb morphologically with a causative vs intensive template; a second pair of functional heads provide voice morphology: the passive voice head applies to the fully constructed verb, whereas the middle voice head modifies the root & derives middle verbs independently from active verbs. 36 References. J. Hitchcock

The paper studies the passive participle in Modern Hebrew, & argues for a systematic homonymy between the verbal & adjectival forms of the passive participle. It shows that the two forms result from two different derivations: The verbal passive participle is syntactically derived from the corresponding transitive verb, whereas the adjectival passive participle is derived lexically (from the transitive verb, but also from intransitive verbs & from nouns). One consequence of this difference in derivation is that, whereas there exists a verbal passive participle for each passive verb, the corresponding adjectival passive participle does not always exist. The paper provides a semantic aspectual characterization of those verbs for which an adjectival passive participle exists. Adjectival passive participles denote states, not events; therefore, they are derived only from verbs whose lexical meanings include a state, ie, either stative verbs (which denote a state) or dynamic verbs which denote bounded events that result in a state. 2 Tables, 33 References. Adapted from the source document

The existence of multiple subject constructions is attested uncontroversially in Japanese & more controversially in Modern Hebrew & Modern Standard Arabic. In all three languages, it is shown that the initial noun phrase (NP) of a multiple subject construction, termed a broad subject, is not dislocated or in a designated focus position but has subject properties that include combination with a sentential predicate that (1) denotes a complex property, (2) assigns a nonthematic argument, & (3) contains a subject termed the narrow subject. Under the minimalist hypothesis that allows multiple tense specifiers & multiple checking of nominative case, broad subjects are merged at the tense specifier & therefore take obligatory broad scope, fail to induce verbal agreement, & have a generic interpretation; narrow subjects are merged at the VP specifier & raise to a tense specifier to check features. 34 References. J. Hitchcock

The relatively limited number of morphological templates available in the Hebrew verb system is classified along two dimensions, agency & voice. The thematic role of the external argument determines agency: cause induces the causative template; actor, the intensive template; & agent, the simple template. Voice - active, middle, & passive - intersects with this trichotomy to produce only seven templates, as Hebrew lacks simple passive & causative middle templates. In the framework of the light-verb concepts of Kenneth Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser (1993) & Angelika Kratzer (1994), Hebrew middle & passive templates are analyzed as the morphological realization of heads introduced into the derivation to block argument insertion, whereas the intensive & causative templates are the morphological realization of actor & cause role assignments, respectively. 18 References. J. Hitchcock

The relatively limited number of morphological templates available in the Hebrew verb system is classified along two dimensions, agency & voice. The thematic role of the external argument determines agency: cause induces the causative template; actor, the intensive template; & agent, the simple template. Voice - active, middle, & passive - intersects with this trichotomy to produce only seven templates, as Hebrew lacks simple passive & causative middle templates. In the framework of the light-verb concepts of Kenneth Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser (1993) & Angelika Kratzer (1994), Hebrew middle & passive templates are analyzed as the morphological realization of heads introduced into the derivation to block argument insertion, whereas the intensive & causative templates are the morphological realization of actor & cause role assignments, respectively. 18 References. J. Hitchcock

Although the Hebrew null-object construction is superficially similar to verb phrase (VP) ellipsis, as the latter strands the verb in the tense head & does not impose strict identity on it, the two constructions are syntactically & semantically distinct: only the null-object construction requires strict object identity & displays locality effects. Unlike VP ellipsis, bare argument ellipsis in Hebrew is disallowed in islands & does not permit the antecedent to follow the remnant; Hebrew elliptical constructions with no overt verb have the properties of bare argument ellipsis, not VP ellipsis. Under this analysis, the absence of an otherwise mandatory resumptive oblique pronoun in a relative construction of the type dani yaSav al kol kise Se-ben-gurion yaSav 'Dani sat on each chair that Ben-Gurion did' can be explained as antecedent-contained VP ellipsis. 29 References. J. Hitchcock