OBJECT POSITION AND PREDICATION FORMS

This paper gives an in-depth analysis of a number of well-known verbal diathesis alternations (creation/transformation, locative and dative alternations), and specifically investigates the position of the direc t object/indirect object across and between such alternations. It is a rgued that with each pair of alternants there is a difference in the p ositioning of the direct object/indirect object: in one variant the ob ject is generated within the 'inner' VP of a VP shell, while in the ot her variant the direct object/indirect object is not generated within the inner VP but within a functional projection (TransP, for Transitiv ity Phrase) located between the two VPs of a VP shell. This positionin g of the direct object/indirect object is seen in the context of the t hetic/categorical distinction in predication forms, arguing that this distinction should also be applied to the inner predication involving the inner subject (the direct object) and the inner predicate (the ver b plus any complements).