Revisiting the boundary between linguistic and gestural

Abstract

Despite extensive research on the topic, the divide between what is gestural and what is properly linguistic in the case of classifier predicates is still a matter of controversy. In this paper, we adopt the analysis according to which classifier predicates involve the co-utterance of a fully linguistic unit and of a demonstrative gesture ( Zucchi, Cecchetto & Geraci 2012 ; Davidson 2015 ). In light of this debate, we extensively discuss the source of argument structure in classifier predicates, more specifically the hypothesis stemming from work by Benedicto & Brentari (2004) , according to which different classifier types determine the unergative, unaccusative, or transitive nature of the classifier. After discussing some new counterexamples to a rigid mapping between classifier types and argument structure, we propose a pragmatic reinterpretation of this regular, but not exceptionless, mapping.