scholarly journals Quasi-conditional constructions in Catalan

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Tatiana V. Repnina
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Considerable Similarity ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Logical Conclusion ◽  
Narrative Constructions ◽  
Dependent Clause

This article aims to single out quasi-conditional constructions in Catalan and describe their main types. The author proceeds from the hypothesis that Catalan quasi-conditional constructions must show considerable similarity with quasi-conditional constructions in Russian, English, French, and other languages. The number of the constructions addressed is about 1 000 examples from Catalan texts by native Catalan authors and about 2 000 examples from Catalan texts by non-Catalan authors, selected by total sampling. The paper shows that quasi-conditional constructions, although formally similar to conditional constructions, differ on certain points from them. Their protasis does not express hypothetical condition, apodosis doesn’t imply consequence, the condition-consequence meaning is often missing from them altogether. In contrast to conditional constructions, transformation of quasi-conditionals ones into formally narrative constructions doesn’t change their meaning. Quasi-conditional constructions can be split into five major groups: presumptive constructions, constructions with protasis in the function of parenthesis, conditional-evaluative constructions, conditional-causal constructions, and logical conclusion constructions. The observables selected as criteria for this classification include: Construction meaning (comparative, existential, evaluative, causative constructions etc.); Changeability of the main dependent clause order; Use of markers. Both my analysis and literature on conditional constructions in other languages confirm that the structure of Catalan quasi-conditional constructions is similar to their counterparts in other languages. The findings can be used for teaching purposes as well as for research in Catalan, other Romance languages, or in typology/syntax.

The Causee in Romance and Germanic Causative Constructions

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-171
Author(s):  
Donato Cerbasi
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Special Relationships ◽  
Germanic Languages

This paper is concerned with the relationships between the semantic role 'causée' and the morphosyntactic patterns used to express it in a range of Germanic and Romance languages. We will try to show that the causee — a hybrid semantic role as it is both a patient and an agent — has special relationships with object case marking. The evidence shows that Germanic languages such as German and English, and some Romance languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, resort to positional rules to preserve the distinction between causee and true object. Other Romance languages such as Italian and French, however, obtain the same result by morphological means, especially as regards the causee. We claim that such differences can be better understood in the light of a diachronic and typological study of causative constructions in these languages.

et les adjectifs comme ça

2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-234
Author(s):  
Isabelle Haïk
Keyword(s):  
Direct Object ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
Null Object ◽  
Specific Distribution ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
Semantic Computation ◽  
Simple Sentences ◽  
Psychological Verbs

The syntax of psychological verbs like amuse has interested linguists for a number of years. Certain phenomena may be explained in a framework in which the syntax of these verbs involves a primitive causative predicate and a derived subject (originating from an object position). In other words, psych verbs like amuse are causative unaccusative (have a derived subject) transitive (have a direct object) verbs. I argue in the first part of the article that Romance object pro, the null object found in simple sentences like le chômage, ça n’amuse pas (“unemployment, that does not amuse (people)”) or a complexe sentence like ça ne fait pas rire (“that does not make (one) laugh”), is a property of Romance causative constructions, combined with the requirement that semantic computation be compositional. The latter requirement accounts for the very specific distribution of pro, basically only found with psych verbs. The former property explains why object pro is found in Romance languages and not in English. Still probing in the properties of French psych constructions, the second part of the article examines an exceptional class of slang psychological adjectives like marrant “funny”, which do not conform to the general syntax of V-ant adjectives. They have specific properties, explained within the framework developed in the first part of the article.

Phonologically conditioned allomorphy in the morphology of Surmiran (Rumantsch)

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Morphological Properties ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Extended Sense ◽  
Phonological Rule

Alternations between allomorphs that are not directly related by phonological rule, but whose selection is governed by phonological properties of the environment, have attracted the sporadic attention of phonologists and morphologists. Such phenomena are commonly limited to rather small corners of a language's structure, however, and as a result have not been a major theoretical focus. This paper examines a set of alternations in Surmiran, a Swiss Rumantsch language, that have this character and that pervade the entire system of the language. It is shown that the alternations in question, best attested in the verbal system, are not conditioned by any coherent set of morphological properties (either straightforwardly or in the extended sense of ‘morphomes’ explored in other Romance languages by Maiden). These alternations are, however, straightforwardly aligned with the location of stress in words, and an analysis is proposed within the general framework of Optimality Theory to express this. The resulting system of phonologically conditioned allomorphy turns out to include the great majority of patterning which one might be tempted to treat as productive phonology, but which has been rendered opaque (and subsequently morphologized) as a result of the working of historical change.

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