Existential unaccusativity and new discourse referents

Abstract

It is well-known that new information strongly disprefers subject position in English (Horn 1986; Prince 1981; 1992; Beaver et al., 2005), even though English allows indefinite subjects. English is therefore seen as one of the many languages that adheres to the given-new contract (Clark & Haviland, 1977). This paper argues that a subset of intransitive sentences in English readily establishes new discourse referents in subject position—in an apparent breach of the given-new contract. These sentences, exemplified by A fancy lady waltzed in, are analyzed as syntactically unaccusative and semantically as having an existential proposition. These sentences are termed existential unaccusative: in the proposed VP structure, a verbal root that (typically) denotes manner of motion selects for a headed small clause whose subject is interpreted as a Path to a contextually-determined location. The analysis adapts McCloskey’s (2014) analysis of Irish existentials to English, and I argue that sentences with this structure establish discourse referents by the same means as existential there BE sentences. The analysis is discussed in the context of claims made by Du Bois (1987) that languages organize information such that new discourse referents are established as objects of transitive sentences and subjects of intransitive sentences. This analysis suggests that Du Bois’s generalization holds for a structurally distinct subset of intransitives in English in sharing the discourse function of introducing new discourse referents.