Norbert Corver (Utrecht University)

I did it mind’s way

Abstract: Manner is ubiquitous in human life. When we do things, we often do them in a particular way. This way of doing things is reflected in our language. You can drive slowly, think aloud, handle things with care, do things your way, and act as if you’re a fool. The research project Mind your Manner Adverbials! (MiMa) addresses the question of how ‘manner’ is encoded in the structure of human language. In this talk, I will start by briefly summarizing the major aims of the MiMa-project, which has just started recently. I will subsequently explore the inner structure and external behavior of a few (Dutch) manner-adverbial patterns which, to my knowledge, have not been studied in any depth so far. One of these patterns is the A+P-pattern, as in Dutch Jan las de tekst hardop voor (Jan read the text loud-up PRT, ‘Jan read the text aloud’). Reviving ideas in Katz & Postal (1964) and Emonds (1976), I will explore the hypothesis that superficially different manner-adverbial patterns are manifestations of one and the same abstract underlying representation (uniformity), namely an adpositional structure.