Properties of change of state verbs in relation to argument realization in Niliamba.

This study examines the properties of change of state verbs in relation to argument realization in Niliamba. The study adopts syntactic decomposition approach as proposed by Alexiadou et al.(2006) and Alexiadou (2010), particularly the assumption that in addition to the Root, change of state verbs are decomposed into a Voice and vCAUS components. The data were gathered through introspections, complemented by acceptability judgements provided by native speakers of Niliamba. Additional data were obtained from the available written materials in Niliamba. The findings demonstrate that all externally caused change of state verbs occur in the transitive constructions, but only some of them exhibit intransitive forms. The findings indicate that transitive constructions of the externally caused change of state verbs can realize agent, instrument and natural force as external arguments. However, semantic verb classes show variations in this aspect due to the inherent meaning of an individual verb root. The study establishes that internally caused change of state verbs are generally intransitive. Only one member of the class exhibits both transitive and intransitive forms. Generally, the findings of this study suggest that transitivity alternations of change of state verbs in Niliamba are compositionally built in the syntax, hence syntactic decomposition approach offers an adequate account for the properties of these verbs in transitive and intransitive constructions.