The Argument Structure of the Middle Construction and Its Derivation

Abstract

Middle constructions are a well-studied topic in linguistics. Based on a summary of the features of middle verbs, this paper proposes that middle constructions are composed of two verbs, of which the first verb, serving as the predicate, denotes an action characteristic of conventional property or features, while the second verb, serving as a complement clause, denotes result. The combination of the two verbs denotes a complete event. Based on this, it is argued that all middle constructions must be of this nature in terms of underlying structure. Once this assumption has been accepted, many long standing puzzles related to middle constructions are solved quite readily.