Eckhard Bick - VISL

While this is an intuitive way to handle verb chains in flat dependency grammar 145 , it
does not do justice to the fact that the relation between the members of the verb chain is
another than the one between the verbal head and its complements in one-verb
sentences. The verb chain itself is less hierarchical and more "holistic" in its feature
sharing than a clause. I would therefore like to argue that the head of the VP is a
complex unit in its own right, a group-like structure which I will call VC (verb chain),
or - functionally - the predicator 146 . This creates a distinction between the (higher)
"clausal" VP-level (maximal VP) and the (lower) "phrasal" VC-level (minimal VP).
While dependency links within the VC are preserved, it will then be the VC as a whole
that arguments like direct object and subject attach to. One advantage of this concept is,
that features like number and person are shared by the whole VC and not only attributed
to the finite verb, and that complex features like the ter PC and MQP tenses or even
aspect have a place to be, and need not be arbitrarily attached to a single word. This way
counterintuitive dependency discrepancies can be avoided, like attaching the subject to
the finite auxiliary (for agreement reasons), but the ACC, DAT and PIV objects to the
non-finite main verb (for valency reasons).
The following are examples of the functional uses of verb chains in Portuguese, with
the complex VC feature given in square brackets:
(2)
@AUX @PRT-AUX< @IMV
* complex tenses
ter/haver PR + PCP [perfeito composto]
ter/haver IMPF + PCP [mais-que-perfeito composto]
ter/haver COND + PCP [condicional II]
ter/have FUT + PCP [futuro II]
ir + a + INF [near future, 'to be going to']
vir + de + INF [recent past]
* passive voice
ser + PCP ["action passive"]
estar + PCP ["state passive"]
145 The solution originally proposed in (Karlsson, 1995), evades part of the problem by not using dependency markers - the
members of the verb chain are juxtaposed without suggesting a hierarchy, making the notation compatible with both a
reading that sees auxiliaries as dependents of the main verb, and one that attaches non-finite main verbs to auxiliaries and
auxiliaries to preceding auxiliaries.
146 The predicator unit is recognizes in many German grammars as Prädikat, whereas English (generative) grammars often
define predicate as a VP consisting of the main verb and its dependents, minus the subject, leaving auxiliaries to form their
own group as a constituent of the clause.
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