Acceso usuarios
The Basque suffix garri is traditionally characterized as forming adjectives from verbs and disputably, from nouns or adjectives and as having both an active and a passive meaning. This study first establishes on several grounds that garri is basically a deverbal suffix which forms adjectives productively. Secondly, it is shown (a) that the so-called passive value of the suffix is restricted to diadic transitive verbs: the internal argumental of the verb becomes the external one of the adjective; and (b) that the so-called active value of the suffix is restricted to psych verbs with experiencer objects (cf. the preocuppare/kezka(tu) class): the surface subject of the verb becomes the external argument of the adjective. Thirdly, a unified characterization of the garri suffixation is proposed along the lines of Grimshaw (1990): if subjects of kezka(tu) verbs are internal arguments of the verb, the rule of garri suffixation simply adds an R argument which binds the deepest internal argument of a diadic verb. Finally, verbs whose surface subject bear an instrumental ?-role are considered. Since these, too, admit the suffix garri (the surface subject becomes the external argument of the deverbal adjective), I suggest that instrumental subjects must count as internal arguments in Basque in order to maintain a uniform rule of garri suffixation
