AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Psych verbs display variations in the argument realization and this has been problematic for the theories that assume a uniform relationship between semantic properties and syntactic configurations. This dissertation conducts a cross-linguistic analysis of psych verbs in Spanish and Japanese, and illustrates how semantic properties such as thematic relation, lexical aspect and causativity interact with each other and correlate to morphosyntactic phenomena, such as case alternations and (anti)causativizations. The variations of argument realization, including case alternations linked with thematic relations of arguments, are accounted for by the aspectual differences described in terms of the notion of ‘boundary.’ Semantic variations found between certain verbs of these languages, including aspectual ones, are ascribed to the anticausative-causative contrast characterizing this pair of languages and to the nature of the (anti)causative operations these languages employ. This thematic-aspectual-causative analysis of psych verbs not only provides support for a systematic semantic-(morpho)syntax relationship but also offers insights into cross-linguistic semantic variations caused by typological contrast.