The Argument Structure of Deverbal Nouns: Evidence from Kurdish (Sanandaji Variety)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the argument structure of deverbal nouns, and the restrictions on the mapping of arguments in Sanandaji Kurdish. Due to the syntactic-space limitations of the DP in the language (i.e, the Ezafe construction), the issue concerning how to map the arguments of a deverbal noun and the limitations governing its argument structure are important. This is mainly because achieving a comprehensive mapping space that covers different syntactic projections is a desirable theoretical goal in generative approaches to argument structure. In this research, first, deverbal nouns are divided into four categories: unergative, unaccusative, two-place predicate, and three-place predicate. In unergative deverbal nouns, the external argument is instantiated as Ezafe to the deverbal noun and it cannot be incorporated into the deverbal noun. Regarding the unaccusative deverbal nouns, the internal argument can be present both as Ezafe and as being incorporated into the deverbal noun. There are two forms regarding transitive deverbal nouns: the internal argument can be instantiated as Ezafe and the external argument cannot be present, or the external argument is instantiated as Ezafe, and the internal argument is incorporated into the deverbal noun. In the last category of Sanandaji Kurdish deverbal nouns, the Goal is in the form of a Preposition Phrase (PP) and cannot check the EPP feature and be raised to the subject position.