The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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b. ha-yeled kal havana
the-boy easy understanding
“The boy understands easily.”
.
Importantly, only when le- occurs (29a), the nominal (havana, ‘understanding’)
has an object gap, namely its internal theta-role is not realized NP-internally and is
coindexed with the subject of the construction. In (29b) the subject (ha-yeled, ‘the
boy’) is construed as the external argument of havana (‘understanding’).
5.3.1 Externalization
I propose that le- introducing the e-nominal in object gap constructions is a
prepositional lexical affix (like the Dative le-). As it is not a Case-related
prepositional element, it is not associated with uninterpretable φ-features. Rather, leexternalizes
lexically the internal theta-role (Theme) of the nominal, giving rise to a
nominal which, in some sense, is similar to prepositions such as under or about, or
adjectives such as nice or tired, namely a nominal with an external argument slot. It
should be emphasized that externalization of the internal argument precludes any
possibility of the nominal to form an argument. That is, unlike adjectives such as nice
or locative Ps, which can form SC arguments (4.4), the nominal created by
externalization cannot. It is in this sense that I call this function of le- P pred ; le- creates
one-place property denoting predicates.
Since le- externalizes the Theme argument of the nominal, it combines with
event denoting nominals (e-N), i.e. nominals which have an argument structure. 20
Note that if the internal role of the nominal is externalized, it is not realized
phonetically NP-internally (5.2.3). The question arises as to how this theta-role (i.e.
the external slot of the nominal) is discharged. The answer to this question is
postponed until section 5.5, where the interpretation of the TC and OPC is discussed.
An external argument slot should not be confused with an external theta-role in
the theta-grid of an e-N. For one, the external theta-role of an e-N can be saturated in
20 Although, in principle, nothing prevents le- to attach to a simple N with no theta-grid, this is not
attested, as it would be a vacuous operation. Recall that I follow Grimshaw (1990), where only event
denoting nominals can have syntactic arguments, i.e. theta-grids. Thus nouns such as picture, story,
letter, gift, etc. which are known to occur with complements, but denote results rather than events, are
assumed not to have a theta-grid. The complements of these nouns are proposed to be associated with
positions in the lexico-conceptual stucture (lcs) of the corresponding nouns, rather than with positions
in the theta-grid (Grimshaw 1990).