The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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Appendix A: Residual issues
The analysis I have proposed for the phenomenon of PP-verbs accounts for the
vast majority of these verbs. There are, however, verbs which present difficulties and
therefore deserve some particular attention.
I. PP-verbs of motion
The verbs hibit, histakel (‘glanced at’, ‘looked at’) and yara (‘shot at’) are
classified here as [-c] verbs. However, they differ in two respects from the majority of
[-c] PP-verbs discussed in this study.
First, these verbs occur in Hebrew with either be- (‘in’/‘at’) or al (‘on’). This is
completely atypical of PP-verbs, which occur with one specific P-morpheme. 66 In
English they occur with the P-morpheme at, which is also quite unique to these verbs.
Second, in addition to their occurrence with the small Ps be-/al, these verbs can
occur with various locative PPs (e.g. hu hibit mitaxat la-šulxan (‘he looked under the
table’)), similarly to locative verbs such as put. In what follows I will focus mostly on
this peculiarity.
Consider the following binding facts. When the discussed verbs occur with the
small Ps be-/al, the binding facts are those exhibited by PP-verbs, namely the nominal
introduced by the P has to be reflexive, if coindexed with the subject (A.1). However,
when they occur with a locative PP the binding facts are those exhibited with locative
verbs such as put (see chapter 4, and Hestvik 1991), a pronoun introduced by the
locative P can be coreferential with the subject (A.2):
(A.1) hu i hibit al/be-acmo i / *al-av i / *bo i /
he looked on/in-himself/on-him/in+him
(A.2) hu i hibit *sviv acmo i /sviv-o i /??mitaxat le-acmo i //mitaxt-av i
he looked around himself/around-him/under to-himself/under-him
66 The be-/al alternation is accompanied by some semantic difference with the verb yara (‘shot’); e.g.
yariti ba-naxaš (‘I shot the snake’), implies that the snake was hit; yariti al ha-naxaš (‘I shot at the
snake’), does not imply that the snake was hit.