Argument Homogeneousness and Structure Simplicity

Abstract

Subjects and objects are arguments of verbs. They show either homogeneous or heterogeneous properties, with respect to time. The subject of sleep and the subject of fall are homogeneous and heterogeneous, respectively. In this research, we develop a novel analysis of the organization of arguments of various types of verbs. We argue that heterogeneous arguments are hosted in two levels of Verb Phrase, whereas homogeneous ones are hosted in one level of Verb Phrase. Therefore, homogeneous events and states are encoded in simpler syntactic structures than heterogeneous ones in natural language.


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