Yimam, Baye (PhD)Fufa, Tolemariam2021-03-292023-11-082021-03-292023-11-081996-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/25727Incorporation theory denies the existence of Grammatical Function changing (GF changing) phenomenon in our knowledge of language. This phenomenon is believed to be the side effect of verb incorporation. But we argue in this study that GF changing phenomenon does exist in our knowledge of language. We show that this phenomenon is the actual evidence for the existence of a level of representation which is higher (more abstract) than the level of D-structure to preserve the recursive device in language. This device cannot be preserved through the abstract levels of D-structure and S-structure since there is no difference between them in terms of meta languages. Moreover, the S-structrue can be predicted from its D-structure as the 0- structure is deducible from the S-structure and this situation leads a linguistic theory into a contradiction. To get out of this and account for recursivness and creativity in language, we have to assume a higher abstract level of representation on the basis of facts from causative structures of languages like Shekacho.enVerb IncorporationThesis