The Semantic and Syntactic Decomposition of get : An Interaction Between Verb Meaning and Particle Placement

Abstract

VPs with get and a PP/particle provide an argument for lexical decomposition in syntax. Get (and German kriegen ) has a ‘hindrance’ reading, which does not denote causative events and resembles manage in that the result is portrayed as hard to achieve, and in that possibility operators do not affect the meaning under negation: I didn't (= couldn't ) get the key in . These effects surprisingly follow from an analysis where hindrance- get VPs are nothing more than inchoatives of have -VPs of the type have the key in . In get out one's wallet , we see another reading which is genuinely causative and is not found with German kriegen . Hindrance -get VPs (like VPs with have , want and need , which decompose with HAVE, and unlike causative get and other causative-agentive verbs) disallow particle-object order ( get/take out your wallet vs. * get/have/want/need in the key ). The effects of semantics on word order are shown to be unmysterious only if the HAVE predicate in the meaning of hindrance- get is a syntactic head.