An Unaccusativity Diagnostic at the Syntax-Semantics Interface: 'there'-Insertion, Indefinites and Restitutive 'again'

Abstract

This paper argues that the unaccusativity mismatch observed in theliterature concerning the availability of there-insertion points to a syntacticdifference between two classes of unaccusatives. The paper shows that thetheme argument of change-of-location unaccusatives occupies Spec,ResultP,while that of change-of-state unaccusatives occupies Spec,vP. Insertion ofthere is blocked in the latter case, as the theme and the expletive compete forthe same position.