Minimal participant structure of the event and the emergence of the argument/adjunct distinction

Abstract

The present study answers the following questions: why the semantic roles of agent or patient are often unmarked; why other semantic roles, such as benefactive, stative locative, goal, or source, are unmarked when used with some verbs and marked when used with other verbs; and why semantic relations such as ‘associative’, ‘instrumental’, ‘reason’, ‘purpose’, and others often referred to as ‘adjuncts’ are usually marked. The study, based on Sino-Russian idiolects spoken in the Far East of Russia, proposes that at an early stage in the formation of grammatical systems by adult speakers, if a noun phrase fulfills the role of one of the participants in the minimal participant structure of the event, the semantic role of the noun phrase is not marked. If the noun phrase does not fulfill the role of one of the participants in the minimal participant-structure of the event, the role of the noun phrase must be marked.