ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses neo-Davidsonianism in semantics and syntax. It focuses on arguments for severing the agent from the verb's lexical representation but also, toward the end, present a couple of arguments concerning Themes. The chapter considers arguments in favour of severing the Agent from the verb's grammatical representation. Ramchand argues that syntax is crucial in determining many aspects of argument structure. Ramchand's system constitutes the first phase of the clause, namely, the argument domain. Her logical forms are clearly neo-Davidsonian and she pairs them with a hierarchical syntax where generally each argument is introduced in a separate projection. Pylkkanen and Bowers both make use of Neodavidsonian logical forms, which they combine with syntax where each argument is introduced in a separate projection. Many of them use standard mechanisms such as Functional Application, whereas others use a conjunctive semantics without Functional Application.
