Two-place activity predicates in Persian

Abstract

Some syntacticians claim that a non-referential second argument of an activity predicate expresses an intrinsic aspect of the meaning of the verb and does not refer specifically to any participants in the event denoted by the verb. The aim of this paper is to examine activity predicates in Persian to see whether they follow this proposal or not. Presenting the properties of two-place activity predicates in Persian, and their accomplishment counterparts, I argue that the second argument in activity verbs of consumption, creation, performance, etc. is an inherent argument of the predicate. Indeed, they are part of the predicate, rather than the participants in the event. Moreover, it is shown that if the second argument takes a referentiality marker, the verb class is changed to accomplishment. Finally, it is concluded that Persian supports the RRG treatment for two-place activity predicates. © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.