External Argument and English Psychological Verbs

The purpose of this paper is to show that the so-called Experiencer-Object (EO) psychological verbs in English have external argument contra Belletti and Rizzi 1988, Grimshaw 1990 and that the structure proposed by Belletti and Rizzi 1988 is not correct. Bouchard 1995, Iwata 1995, and Chung 1998 have already pointed out that the psychological verbs have external argument. This study provides new evidence for the claim; verbal passives and adjectival passives of the psychological verbs. It is shown that the two types of passives involve external argument of the base verbs. This evidence is critical since Belletti and Rizzi 1988 and Grimshaw 1990 argue that the EO verbs form only adjectival passives. But this study shows that even the adjectival passive formation involves deletion (suppression) of external argument.