The English Middle and Inchoative

Abstract

I will show that the evidence advanced by syntactic approaches to the English middle holds also for some inchoative clauses. Most approaches to the English middle and inchoative, whether syntactic or lexical, define the middle as implying an arbitrary agent and the inchoative as not. This definition will bring about a group of clauses which imply a non-arbitrary agent and thus may not belong to either category. I will show that the agent implication involved in the middle comes from pragmatic effects based on the generic property reading of the clause and the lexical conceptual structure. The major difference between the middle and inchoative is related to event structure: a generic property vs. event reading respectively. That is, the two constructions are two subtypes of the unaccusative. The theory of arb in various disguises turns out to he unnecessary.