The syntax of participial constructions

Résumé 0

In this paper, we account for morphosyntactic and semantic properties of the past participle construction as adjuncts in French and German. We combine a standard minimalist framework with the D(istributed) M(orphology)-framework of Embick (2004a). Past participles are highly defective allowing only for a subclass of verbs. At the same time there are language-specific constraints showing differences between German and French regarding the use of clitics, sentence negation and case assignment. We propose a new tripartite classification of past participles which distinguishes an adjectival type, a (verbal) resultative type and an eventive-dynamic type. This new classification is correlated with morphosyntactic derivations of past participles as open and closed adjuncts.