The syntax and semantics of zero verbs: A Minimalist approach

Zero verbs are those transitive verbs of English, such as bottle the wine and saddle the horse, derived from nouns without derivational affixes. This dissertation presents a theoretical account for the high degree of productivity and for the semantic interpretability of these verbs, within the framework of Minimalism with no internal interface between the lexicon and the syntax. Previous explanations of the productivity and semantics of zero verbs have treated them as derived in the lexicon. However, the view developed and defended here is that the derivation of zero verbs is a strictly syntactic process, resulting from incorporation of the base and occurring entirely within the computational system.; One advantage of the strictly syntactic approach to the derivation of zero verbs within the Minimalist framework is that it reduces the lexical burden. Two main theoretical problems result from the syntactic approach, however. One is that the VP shell structure on which the verb is derived requires that the base noun originate in an argument position, and as such it must be assigned a thematic role. This problem is resolved by utilizing both a generalized configurational definition of thematic roles and a universal semantic feature [±central] associated with the category preposition to ensure that the base noun meets the output conditions of Full Interpretation. Under the Minimalist approach, further details of the semantics of zero verbs are held to depend on extralinguistic factors.; The other problem with a syntactic approach to zero verbs has to do with the occurrence of cognate prepositional phrases as in bottle the wine in green bottles. The problem is to explain how such prepositional phrases can occur along with the base noun in a syntactic structure without violating the Theta Criterion. To solve this problem, the process of noun incorporation is defined here as an automatic instance of theta role absorption, based on analogy with the passive by-phrase.; The resolution of these two problems leads to a coherent analysis of zero verb derivation consistent with principles of Universal Grammar within the Minimalist framework.