The incompatibility of lexical derivation and post-lexical arguments*

Abstract

In the present paper we demonstrate that the aspectual role CAUSER is syntactically assigned. This assumption allows a principled distinction between indirect causers and agents; it also accounts for restrictions on argument inheritance in lexical derivation, including the restriction against derivation of causativized verbs discussed in Pesetsky (1992), and the failure of -er nominalization of causativized verbs noted in Brousseau and Ritter (1991).