credit_MERIT · attribuer / reconnaître le mérite

Hierarchy

Same inventory as English credit_MERIT, Spanish acreditar, and Japanese 功績を認める. Not five-place. Not four sisters of one V. Surface count can name the investors, the early completion, and the contractor — but the lexicon does not list four co-arguments of √ASCRIBE / √ATTRIBU-.

No MeasureP on MERIT. There is no verbal Amount+Denomination object unless Charge itself has been recoded as a share of credit (English lexical entry §5.4 hybrid — flag, do not deepen). Degrees that sneak in (combien de mérite, partitives on Charge) live on the Abney spine of a light noun or of Charge — Left Branch Condition for sell / pay / charge_FEE / credit_FIN does not apply as a verbal diagnostic here. French en can resume a measured Charge quantity — Abney-side, not a verbal MeasureP (and on FIN en resumes ledger quantity, not MERIT Charge).

What Group B changes is Case, clitics, and light-noun packaging. What it does not change is the inventory. Weather still satisfies Target and fails Judge. Cause-true is still not entailed. Target and Charge still do not invert at Transfer cost. Treating credit_MERIT as Agent > Theme > Goal, or collapsing it with credit_FIN because French can talk “créditer” for ledger, predicts a DOC, a HAVE entailment, a MeasureP LBC host, or a grammatical weather-as-Judge — none of those exist on MERIT.

French frames · Case clothes

Romance packages merit-ascribe without a productive DOC. Charge can be ACC with Target in à; Target can be ACC with Charge inside de or pour; light-noun le mérite parks Target in à-PP. Clitics and se/on demotion are height diagnostics — as in the Transfer / blame Romance supplements — but the class contrast remains: Transfer Themes invert under Neg; MERIT Target and Charge do not. FIN uses créditer / créditer un compte for MeasureP / Account — different root; pointer only below. Keep MERIT on attribuer / mérite.

1. ✓ Les investisseurs ont attribué l'achèvement anticipé au contractant. to-style · ACC Charge · à-Target · bare attribuer
2. ✓ Les investisseurs ont reconnu le mérite au contractant. light noun · mérite · à-Target
3. ✓ Ils ont attribué le mérite au contractant. light-noun companion · Index 2 attribuer
4. ✓ Les investisseurs ont attribué le contractant de / pour l'achèvement anticipé. with-style companion · ACC Target · de/pour-Charge · scout-leaning
5. ✓ N'ont-ils pas attribué l'achèvement anticipé au contractant ? polar NegQ · to-style
6. ✓ Ne lui ont-ils pas reconnu le mérite ? polar NegQ · light noun · lui = Target
7. ✓ Ils lui ont attribué le succès. lui = Target; Charge ACC
8. ✓ Ils ont attribué le succès au mauvais temps. weather = Target OK
9. ✓ N'ont-ils pas fait attribuer le succès au comité ? faire wrap · outer CAUSE_G
10. ✓ FIN pointer only: Le conseil a crédité 0,3 ETH sur chaque portefeuille. FIN · créditer · do not deepen
11. * Le mauvais temps n'a-t-il pas attribué le succès au contractant ? weather as Judge
12. * N'ont-ils pas attribué au contractant l'achèvement anticipé ? no productive DOC (bare double object)
13. * N'ont-ils pas attribué l'achèvement anticipé sur le contractant ? no blame on-cloth / sur-Target as Charge host for MERIT

A bare Non on the canonical NegQ most readily challenges the ascription event or the ACC object of the chosen cloth. Challenging the oblique wants that content already under discussion. Negation does not grow a double-object and does not create a MeasureP on MERIT. HOLD is not cause-true — parallel to FIN’s missing payout default (HAS_ON_BOOKS ≠ spendable) and to French blame’s missing cause-true default.

WH / NegQ diagnostics · no MeasureP LBC

Unlike sell / pay_GIVE / charge_FEE / bet / credit_FIN, credit_MERIT has no verbal MeasureP. There is therefore no Left-Branch Condition of the Amount-from-Denomination type on √ASCRIBE. Degrees that appear are DP-internal on Charge or on the light noun mérite / crédit.

1. ✓ Qui n'a pas attribué l'achèvement anticipé au contractant ? WH = Judge
2. ✓ Qu'ont-ils pas attribué au contractant ? WH = Charge · to-style
3. ✓ À qui n'ont-ils pas attribué l'achèvement anticipé ? WH = Target · to-style
4. ✓ De / pour quoi n'ont-ils pas attribué le contractant ? WH = Charge · de/pour companion · scout-leaning
5. ✓ Combien de mérite ne lui ont-ils pas reconnu ? degree on light noun · Abney-side, not verbal MeasureP
6. * Combien n'ont-ils pas attribué d'achèvement au contractant ? no verbal MeasureP LBC host on MERIT
7. ✓ Ils ont attribué le succès au mauvais temps. weather = Target · fine
8. * N'ont-ils pas fait attribuer le succès au mauvais temps au contractant ? weather still not inner Judge under faire

Superiority ranks Judge > ACC > K-DP. Flip à-Target / de·pour-Charge and Charge and Target change which participant is the Case object — Case prominence, not a fixed thematic ranking that would force English blame’s Cognizer > Target > Content default onto every French cloth. Cheap NegQ association tracks the Case object. There is no ranking of Charge against a silent Purpose, Price, or Theme₂.

Geometry · credit_MERIT ≠ credit_FIN ≠ blâmer ≠ attribuer_ATT ≠ Transfer

In Les investisseurs ont attribué l'achèvement anticipé au contractant, the investors hold that the contractor is responsible for the early completion under meritorious evaluation. That is ascription, not HAVE of goods and not ledger INCREMENT. The contractor is Target. The early completion is Charge. HOLD is an attitude; MERITORIOUS(Target, Charge) is content, not a presupposed fact.

• ≠ credit_FIN / créditer. Cleaner Romance morphology split than Spanish. FIN writes MeasureP TO a Domain / Account (Le conseil a crédité 0,3 ETH sur chaque portefeuille / créditer un compte). MERIT has no MeasureP and no Account — keep on attribuer / light-noun mérite. Collapsing them is the error the lexical entry was written to block. FIN deepened at credit-fin.html — pointer only this tick for ledger strings.
• ≠ English DOC / Transfer invert. There is no productive bare DOC *ont attribué au contractant l'achèvement anticipé as a licensed Case pair of the English *credited the contractor the early completion type. Negation does not rescue it. Transfer Themes invert under Romance swap NegQ; MERIT Target and Charge do not.
• ≠ attribute_ATT polarity merge. Shared family (ascribe content to Target) and shared Voice filter; credit_MERIT writes positive / meritorious polarity. Bare French attribuer Charge à Target is the Index 2 Attitude companion and the closest Romance attributeATT cloth — keep the split: MERIT light-noun le mérite advertises the praise-adjacent packaging English credit’s to/with flip advertises.
• ≠ blame / √ASCRIBE_FAULT (blâmer). Opposite polarity. Blame ascribes fault (blâmer … pour); credit ascribes merit. Shared Voice filter; polarity of HOLD differs. French blame’s default Charge letter is pour; MERIT’s default is ACC Charge + à-Target, with de/pour as companions.
• ≠ sell / Appl_HAVE / charge_FEE. No Appl_HAVE, no pour-Price MeasureP, no Appl_FROM Payer. Surface pour on MERIT, when it appears as Charge companion, is content of the attitude — not Price and not FEE Consideration.
• Missing defaults. Cause-true and settlement are not entailed. N'ont-ils pas attribué l'achèvement anticipé au contractant ? is compatible with the contractor not in fact causing the early completion. Ironic polarity (on lui a attribué le vol) is lexical HOLD content, not a fourth argument.

English twin spells to-frame Charge ACC / Target to and with-frame Target ACC / Charge with. Japanese twin spells Charge o + Target ni. Spanish twin: to-style Charge ACC / Target a; with-style Target a / Charge de·con; light-noun mérito + a-Target. French twin: to-style Charge ACC / Target à; light-noun mérite + à-Target; de/pour companions scout-leaning. Weather OK as Target, *not* as Judge.

Shells, ApplP, and Case

to-style (attribuer Charge à Target):
VoiceP  [ JudgeNOM
  vP / √ASCRIBE
    ACC               Charge
    PP_à              Target ]

with-style companion (attribuer Target de/pour Charge) · scout-leaning:
VoiceP  [ JudgeNOM
  vP / √ASCRIBE
    ACC               Target
    PP_de / PP_pour   Charge ]

Light-noun:
VoiceP  [ JudgeNOM
  vP / √RECONNAÎTRE·ATTRIBUER
    ACC               le mériteN   (Charge-type / MERIT)
    PP_à              Target ]

French MERIT never assigns four structural Cases. Charge or Target is ACC; the other wears P (or lives inside the light noun). No low Appl_HAVE. No low Appl_SWAP. No Appl_TASK. No MeasureP (unless share-of-credit hybrid — flag). High Appl / Affectee is extra when present and is not a listed argument of √ASCRIBE.

Composition is V(DP) on the ACC object. À, de, and pour are wrapper-K on the Abney spine (same cut as attribute’s to / French blame’s pour, §6.4): V(DP), not V(à(DP)). Early completion does not travel a path; the contractor is not an instrument of avec.

Clitic height: lui resumes Target under light-noun and under many to-style strings; le/la can resume Charge or the light noun. Inanimate Target clitics are fine. Inanimate subject as Judge is not generated — that is the Voice filter, not a Case accident. French en resumes measured Charge quantity on the Abney spine — not a verbal MeasureP and not a weather-Judge.

Outer CAUSE_G (faire attribuer / faire reconnaître) wraps Voice. The causee, not the weather, is the Judge. *N'ont-ils pas fait attribuer le mauvais temps le succès au contractant ? keeps the inner Voice filter. Type A climbing unions Voice domains; Charge stays content and never climbs as a dative MeasureP.

Omission does not demote Charge to a pure adjunct. Selected P-layers are optional in the numeration; they are still arguments when present. The diagnostic is participanthood under Case, binding, and WH — not omitability. Charge clauses are islands in a way rationale adjuncts are not; there is no Neg-raising out of Charge.

Underivables (French MERIT)

1. * Le mauvais temps n'a-t-il pas attribué le succès au contractant ? weather / inanimate as Judge
2. * N'ont-ils pas fait attribuer le mauvais temps le succès au contractant ? faire wrap does not wash Voice filter
3. * N'ont-ils pas attribué au contractant l'achèvement anticipé ? no productive DOC
4. * Combien n'ont-ils pas attribué d'achèvement au contractant ? no verbal MeasureP LBC host on MERIT
5. * N'ont-ils pas attribué au contractant 0,3 ETH comme mérite ? FIN MeasureP ≠ MERIT Charge (unless share hybrid — flag)
6. * N'ont-ils pas attribué l'achèvement anticipé sur le contractant ? no blame on-cloth / sur as Charge host for MERIT
7. * N'ont-ils pas échangé le contractant contre l'achèvement anticipé ? SWAP cloth ≠ ascribe-merit
8. ✓ weather as Target: Ils ont attribué le succès au mauvais temps. inanimate Target fine

Group B packaging · French continues Romance MERIT

Group B (Spanish, French, Italian) is the Romance Case-cloth contrast set already used for NegQ on blame / sell / bet / charge_FEE. Same hierarchy as English credit_MERIT; different host of Charge (de / pour / light-noun mérite) and Target (à-PP). Clitics resume Target; se/on demotion targets Voice; French en resumes measured Charge quantity on the Abney spine. This tick is French only and continues the Group B Romance MERIT set opened by Spanish. English, Spanish, and Japanese twins are live at credit-merit.html, credit-merit-es.html, and credit-merit-ja.html. Italian merit micro-entry is live at credit-merit-it.html. Group C (HU Focus, PL GEN-neg) and Group D (DE zuschreiben vs gutschreiben) stay predicted or scout — not elicited here.

Open items

• Italian twin. Live at credit-merit-it.html (attribuire / riconoscere il merito; cleaner FIN/MERIT split vs accreditare).
• Bare attribuer vs light-noun productivity. Relative frequency of bare attribuer Charge à Target vs reconnaître / attribuer le mérite is scout-leaning — flagged, not ranked.
• de vs pour Charge cloth. Both appear as with-style companions in packaging hypotheses; controlled elicitation for speaker-variable preference remains open. French blame’s default Charge letter is pour — do not force that letter onto MERIT without elicitation.
• Share-of-credit MeasureP hybrid. Lexical entry §5.4: Charge recoded as quantified share. Diagnostics: replaceable by attribuer/reconnaître, not by créditer/virer; weather can wear the Target slot; the board can be wrong. Flagged, not deepened as verbal MeasureP on plain MERIT.
• Ironic polarity. on lui a attribué le vol — HOLD polarity inside the attitude, not a fourth argument.
• Bare attribuer without light noun. Index 2 pairs blâmer, attribuer. Bare attribuer Charge à Target overlaps attribute_ATT / assign_ASCRIBE. Keep split; do not collapse on this page.
• FIN French micro-entry. Ledger créditer / créditer un compte remains a later tick. Keep the split; do not merge pages.

Corpus filenames

Primary extract for this micro-entry is Lexical_Entry_Credit_Argument_Structure (√ASCRIBE vs √CREDIT_LEDGER; Romance morphology split). NegQ association maps from Negative_Questions_Credit (Romance en resumes FIN quantity, not MERIT Charge). Chat packaging: Tritransitive chats 23 (NegQ on credit · two-root · Groups A–D), 25 (credit attitude vs transfer · Romance attribuer vs créditer), and 35 (credit argument-structure acceptability). French blame twin geometry shared with blame-fr.html (Group B §9). Constructed FR frames diagnose packaging; they are not new elicitation.