The syntax and semantics of middle constructions

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"The study addresses a number of issues in the syntax of Modern German relevant to our understanding of universal grammar: 1. Lack of evidence for a class of ergative predicates in German suggests that while it is an option, ergativity is not instantiated in all grammars. 2. Impersonal clauses provide evidence that German allows subjectless clauses, suggesting that the Extended Projection Principle cannot be maintained as universal. 3. Reflexives in German are shown to be independent words capable of filling argument positions. Because they do not bear 0-roles in middle constructions, they provide evidence against the claim that complement positions are always 0-marked." "Although this study is carried out in the Government-Binding framework, the wealth of language data and descriptive detail presented here will be valuable to linguists working in any theoretical framework."--BOOK JACKET.