First Phase Syntax of Persian Complex Predicates: Argument Structure and Telicity

In this paper, I propose an analysis of Persian complex predicates, based on the First Phase Verbal syntax developed by Ramchand (2008). I suggest that the light verbs lexicalize the subevent heads into which the verbal phrase is decomposed, while the preverbal element occupies the Rheme position and semantically unifies with the light verb to build one joint predication. Further, I propose a feature specification for some of the most productive light verbs. I argue that the light verb is responsible for the argument structure of the entire predicate (in line with Megerdoomian 2002b, Folli et al. 2005), while the aspectual properties of the complex predicate depend on the interaction between the preverb and the light verb.