Applicatives without verbs

摘要

In this paper, we argue that Applicatives can occur without verbs, more specifically, internal to nouns and adjectives, as previously proposed by Ingason (2015, 2016). We extend Ingason's theory and separate the noun-internal Root-Selecting Event Applicative of the Icelandic type (Appl(exp)) from another Root-Selecting Applicative attested in Basque (referred to here as Appl(goal)). Evidence supporting this hypothesis comes from two empirical domains: (i) result/process nominals taking datives attested in the syntax of headlines, where no v is projected at all; and (ii) predicative configurations headed by adjectives and process nouns taking internal datives. On the basis of distributive and morphological evidence, as well as constituency tests, we argue that the presence of these internal datives is independent from v. On the other hand, we depart from Ingason's analysis in that the Root-selecting Applicative of the Basque type, although related to an event, does not strictly correspond to Pylkkanen's High Appl projection, but rather resembles the Low one in that it introduces goal/source datives. Finally, we show that the Appl projection introducing experiencer datives in Basque is in fact dependent on the projection of v.