The unaccusative hypothesis and noun classification*

The unaccusative hypothesis of Perlmutter (1978) andBurzio (1981,1986) claims that intransitive verbs are not homogeneous; rather, they are divided into two classes: unergative and unaccusative. This paper argues that the unaccusative hypothesis can be extended to the category of noun. Evidence supporting this claim comes from the resultative construction and accusative-case assignment in Japanese. The analysis presented here has the following theoretical implications. First, the nature of accusative-case assignment observed with unaccusative nouns provides strong support for Burzio's generalization (1981, 1986). Second, the data considered in this paper are insightfully analyzed within the theory of incorporation developed in Baker (1986, 1988).