On the Structure of Agentive -er Nominals in English

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this squib, I will show that the structure of agentive -er nominals in English would be very much like the cannonical clausal structure assumed in the literature, contrary to what Lieber (1983) proposes. That is, the functional head -er, which we assume to suppress external theta role, takes vP as its complement. Assuming that V raises to v, and the complex [V-v] in turn raises to -er, as a usual head movement, the complement of V (or more specifically the element in the specifier of V) raises to the specifier of erP, for sort of EPP requirements. Adopting the structure proposed in this paper, we can readily account for the phonological order in agentive -er nominals and avoid some theoretical and empirical problems confronted by Lieber's (1983) structure.