| This dissertation is a cross-linguistic study of what I call "affectedness constructions" (ACs) that express the notions of benefit and adversity. Since there is little research dealing with both benefactives and adversatives at the same time, the main goal of this dissertation is to establish AC as a grammatical category.; First, many instances of ACs in the world are provided to show both the diversity of ACs and the consistent patterns among them. In some languages, a single construction indicates either benefit or adversity, depending on the context, while in others there is one or more individual benefactive and/or adversative construction(s). Since the event types that ACs indicate appear limited, I categorize the constructions by event type and discuss the semantics and pragmatics of each type. Moreover, I compare and contrast the semantics and pragmatics of benefactive and adversative constructions in general.; In addition to ACs, "secondary affectedness constructions" (SACs) are identified. SACs' primary functions are not to indicate the notions of affectedness, but they can and do also function to indicate or imply them. I have found that cross-linguistically common SACs are the passive, causative, and middle/reflexive constructions, and I discuss their semantics and pragmatics. Furthermore, some ACs and SACs imply the speaker's attitude toward the event and/or affectee, and I propose that this is one of their important characteristics. I then hypothesize semantic relations between ACs and SACs in the form of networks. As a detailed case study, I also discuss the semantics and pragmatics of ACs and SACs in Japanese and posit a semantic network to describe their relations. In conclusion, I summarize the findings and make predictions about additional ACs and SACs that might eventually be found in the world's languages. |
