Rasprave Instituta za Hrvatski Jezik i Jezikoslovlje (Jan 2017)
Instrument and manner in instrumental noun phrases
Abstract
The paper analyzes instrumental noun phrases, which are, in most Croatian grammars, defined as an indirect object or, more frequently, as an adverbial, with no clear criteria for distinguishing them. In this paper, as well as in many other papers (Ivić 1954, Kamp and Rossdeutscher 1994, Alexiadou and Schafer 2006, Levin and Rappaport 1988, Ono 1992, Levin 1993, Van Valin and LaPolla 1997, Van Valin 2005, Belaj and Tanacković Faletar 2017), we distinguish a) an instrument causer, which occupies the central position in the causal chain, in which the Agent occupies the first position and the Patient the last position, and b) an instrument that is not a part of the causal chain. In this paper, the instrumental noun phrases are divided into non-obligatory instrumental complements – instrument causer – and adjuncts – facilitating instrument and manner. Facilitating instrument is a transitional category between instrument causer and manner, and sometimes it is difficult to determine whether it belongs to one of these two categories.
