Resultative Secondary Predicates and Prefixes in German and Dutch

Certain prefixed verbs in German have been shown to be incompatible with adjectival Resultative Secondary Predicates (RSPs) (Kratzer 2005). Similarly, verbal prefixes have been shown to be incompatible with RSPs in Dutch (Hoekstra et al. 1987, Hoekstra 1988). In this paper, I give a unified account for the the incompatibility of verbal prefixes and RSPs in German and Dutch. I show that, similar to what has been argued for Dutch, it is not transitivity that precludes RSPs in German, but rather the prefixes themselves. I provide evidence that non-prefixed verbs that obligatorily express their internal argument (such as transitive and unaccusative verbs) can combine with RSPs in German. I propose that the right generalization for the incompatibility of prefixes and RSPs follows from a semantic restriction that prevents the occurrence of multiple states in a single event (Tenny 1987).