The Experiencer in Psych Nominalizations: A Descriptive Approach to Catalan
Abstract
Psych verbs have been extensively studied across various linguistic domains due to their distinctive properties compared to other verb classes. Psych verbs have been classified into three categories based on two criteria: the syntactic role of the experiencer and that of the non-experiencer argument. Psychological nominals, however, uniformly behave as subject-experiencer predicates. This paper argues that the apparent neutralization of psych-verb classes in nominalizations stems primarily from the general absence of a cause argument in nominal structures – especially in nominals derived from Class II psych verbs. This phenomenon is accounted for through both the properties of external arguments and the aspectual properties of nominalizations.
open access | peer reviewed
Submitted: March 14, 2025 | Accepted: Sept. 4, 2025 | Published April 29, 2026 | Language: en
Keywords Eventive structure • Nominalizations • Experiencer • Argument structure • Syntax • Catalan
Copyright © 2026 Elga Cremades Cortiella. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-962-7/009