Abstract:
Lexical categories such as verbs have no argument structures, and their arguments are introduced by the functional categories extending them. The semantic base of the proposal is the neo-Davidsonian event structural semantics and its syntactic base is non-core arguments. The first functional head can introduce two arguments, based on the semantic relation of the head and the syntactic incorporation such as the derivation of verb-resultatives and verb-prepositions. The nominal arguments must be licensed by the Case filter. The T and v with a complete set of phi-features can each value the Case feature of only one nominal argument, what's more, the v can only value the adjacent one by External Merge. In addition, the verb or preposition can also assign an inherent Case to the adjacent nominal element. The evidence includes double constructions, dative constructions, locative alternative constructions and inverted causative constructions.