On the Structure of Resultative Participles in English

Abstract

The article examines the structure of resultative participles in English: participles that denote a state resulting from a prior event, such as The cake is flattened or The metal is hammered.The analysis identifies distinct stative participles that derive from the different heights at which aspectual morphemes attach in a verbalizing structure.The Aspect head involved in resultative participles is shown to attach to a vP that is also found in (a) the formation of deadjectival verbs and (b) verb phrases with resultative secondary predicates, like John hammered the metal flat. These distinct constructions are shown to have a shared structural subcomponent.The analysis proposed here is compared with Lexicalist approaches employing the verbal versus adjectival passive distinction.It is shown that a uniformly syntactic analysis of the participles is superior to the Lexicalist alternative.