How do you smile along a path?

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that a core component of root meaning is the distinction between body parts versus the body conceived as a whole. This distinction is shown to be relevant in the acceptability of motion sentences in English with whole-body roots like d a n c e $\sqrt {\textsc{dance}} $ and body-part roots like s m i l e $\sqrt {\textsc{smile}} $ . In keeping with the assumption that roots lack syntactic category, I argue that verbal roots occur freely in syntactic structures but that some root-structure combinations are degraded (or unacceptable), and that this is due to an incompatibility between conceptual root content and interpreted syntactic structure.