Anáforas reflexivas y doblado de clíticos en lenguas romances

In this paper I analyze the distribution of the reflexive construction se + a sí mismo in Romance (e.g., ‘Juan se peinó a sí mismo’). I propose that these structures are transitive. Concretely, I argue that in these cases the reflexive anaphor is the internal argument of the predicate, and that the obligatory presence of the clitic se is due to the general phenomenon of clitic doubling with pronominal objects. I show that this approach can account for some asymmetries between these constructions and simple se-reflexives regarding expletive insertion in French, proxy readings, comparative constructions, association with focus, and case distribution in causatives.

Reflexives and Reciprocals in English and Modern Standard Arabic: An Investigation and a Comparison

The aim of this paper is to investigate the typology of reflexives and reciprocals in English and MSA, which is a variety of standardized, literary Arabic used throughout Arab countries. It has shown that MSA morphologically encoded reflexives and reciprocals are in fact syntactically and semantically asymmetrical. It will be argued that morphologically encoded reflexives do not project an anaphor (an internal argument) syntactically and their morphological marker semantically serves as a reflexivizer, whereas morphologically encoded reciprocals do project an anaphor syntactically, realized either overtly or covertly. Concerning the distribution of such anaphor, the paper elucidates the admissible and in admissible environments. It is argued that MSA does not allow possessive reflexives, but allow possessive reciprocals such as the construct-state, whether it be a noun phrase or a locative prepositional phrase. This variation is accounted for by assuming that reciprocals occupy Spec of DP and therefore can be bound by an NP from a higher phase, whereas reflexives occupy a position lower than the D head and thus must be bound within their DP phase. Finally yet importantly, MSA override reflexives and reciprocals unlike their English counterparts, are always subject to the Principle A of the Binding Theory.

Separation events in Tafi language and culture

Separation events differ in lexicalisation patterns (Talmy 2000) and in argument realisation (Levin and Rappaport Hovav 2005) cross-linguistically. There are different types of separation events. “Cutting” and “breaking” events involve a non-reversible change in object integrity and have been systematically researched cross-linguistically in recent times (Guerssel et al 1985; Bohnemeyer 2008; Majid et al. 2008; Schaefer and Egbokhare 2012). In this paper, some of the generalisations that have been made concerning CUT and BREAK verbs are tested based on data from Tafi, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language. I investigate the morpho-syntactic properties of Tafi CUT and BREAK verbs in relation to a suggested generalisation by Guerssel et al. that BREAK verbs have a transitive/intransitive argument structure and participate in the causative/inchoative alternation; while CUT verbs are transitive and they are not expected to occur without their external argument. The types of events referred to by the CUT and BREAK verbs and the combinatorial capacity of the individual verbs are also explored. Based on an analysis of stimulus-elicitations and spontaneous language performances recorded in the field, I show that the Tafi verb bhui ‘cut’ can be used in an intransitive/resultative construction in which the theme, the internal argument, occurs as the subject. Drawing on the behaviour of bhui ‘cut’ I interrogate the explanations that have been offered in the literature with respect to such deviations from the generalisation. I argue that the verb argument alternation potential of a verb depends on the verb semantics as well as the type of (internal) argument it collocates with. Moreover, I explore the semantic interpretations of the verb when it combines with non-typical objects such as ‘water’. I show that such patterns and collocations such as ‘the water cut’ = ‘the water stopped running’, ‘cut a village’ = ‘establish a village’ are areal in nature (cf. Huttar et al. 2007).

Two types of alignment change in nominalizations

This paper investigates two instances of alignment change, both of which resulted from reanalysis of a nominalized embedded clause type, in which the external argument was marked with genitive case and the internal argument was focused. We show that a subject marked with genitive case in the early development of Austronesian languages became ergative-marked when object relative clauses in cleft constructions were reanalyzed as transitive root clauses. In contrast to this, the genitive case in Old Japanese nominalized clauses, marking an external argument, was extended to mark all subjects. This occurred after adnominal clauses were reanalyzed as root clauses. Japanese underwent one more step in order for genitive to be reanalyzed as nominative: the reanalysis of impersonal psych transitive constructions as intransitives. With these two case studies of Austronesian and Japanese, we show that reanalysis of nominalization goes in either direction, ergative or accusative, depending on the syntactic conditions involved in the reanalysis.

Reanalyzing Mandarin V1-V2 resultative constructions—A force-theoretic approach

This study takes a force-theoretic approach to Mandarin V1-V2 resultative constructions. Unlike event-based analyses that hold a causing event accountable for a result state, this study attributes a result state to a specific entity involved in the relevant causing event. In this way, V1-V2 resultative construction (RC) sentences have the interpretation that through a causing action, one entity relevant to the action caused a change of state to another entity; this causal influence is reconceptualized as a force from the former entity, characterizing the situation change concerning the latter entity. Following Copley and Harley (2015), this conceptual reanalysis is represented structurally, successfully deriving V1-V2 RC sentences. V2 and the internal argument DP specify the property of a resultant situation and its holder, defining the force; the external argument DP tells about this force's source; V1 modifies this force, indicating the causing action through which this force is realized.

On the nature of arguments in event nominals

The present paper examines deverbal event nouns in Kaqchikel (Mayan) that consist of both nominal and verbal projections. Contrary to the recent proposal made by Imanishi (2020), who argues that nominalized verbs in Kaqchikel obligatorily lack an external argument projection, we demonstrate that intransitive unergative predicates maintain their external arguments under nominalization. We further propose that event -ik nouns in Kaqchikel are derived via predicative control with the verbal part being predicated of the possessor DP introduced in Spec,nP (in the spirit of Landau 2015). Additional support for this comes from the behavior of antipassive predicates under nominalization, which preserve the internal argument instead of the external one.

NP-ellipsis and numeral classifiers in Korean

The syntactic status of numeral classifiers with respect to NP-ellipsis in classifier languages has been a controversial subject in many recent discussions. Addressing this issue, this article argues that Korean numeral classifiers can serve as functional heads that license NP-ellipsis via PF-deletion. A null NP appearing in a numeral classifier context cannot be identified with any other null categories, such as a pro or a null NP pro-form. This null NP induces a different reading from a pro, especially when a possessor argument is stacked with a numeral classifier construction. Unlike an NP pro-form, it allows the extraction of an internal argument and exhibits a complementary distribution with kes ‘one’, a visible counterpart of a Korean NP pro-form. This article’s claim gains additional support from the asymmetries in NP-ellipsis of a uy-marked numeral classifier, contingent on its ambiguity, such as a ‘quantity’ or ‘property’ interpretation. In addition, the distribution of bare numerals in relation to the NP pro-form kes offers further evidence, reinforcing the claim.

Action nominalization: a view from Esahie (Kwa)

The paper provides a comprehensive account of the derivation of action nominals in Esahie, a Ghanaian language of the Tano subgroup (Kwa, Niger-Congo) which has been undocumented thus far, especially as far as morphosyntactic phenomena are concerned. The aim of the research is threefold: to contribute to language documentation, to provide a systematic description and analysis of the morphosyntactic properties of Esahie action nominals, and to offer a typological assessment of these constructions. We argue that action nominalization in Esahie primarily involves a composite strategy: a morpho-syntactic operation, invariably involving affixation, and a concomitant prosodic operation in the form of a change in tonal melody. As far as the derivation of action nominals is concerned, it appears that in Esahie, tone raising is not simply a phonologically-conditioned prosodic effect, but plays a morphemic role. Further, depending on the arity of the base verb, nominalization may or may not be coupled with incorporation of the internal argument, which derives a form of synthetic compounding, as in the English truck-driving type. Based on the seminal works by Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 1993. Nominalizations. London: Routledge; Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 2006. Nominalizations. In Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 8, 652–659. Boston: Elsevier, the current work argues that Esahie belongs to the possessive-incorporating subtype of the incorporating languages.

Simple Monotransitive and Complex Dative Alternation Predicates in Spanish Monolingual Child Acquisition Data

This work analyzes the acquisition of simple and complex constructions in Spanish monolingual children’s data. It examines the emergence and the role played by adult input in child production of simple monotransitive constructions when compared to two types of complex predicates that undergo dative alternation (DA), namely, a/para-datives and dative-clitic doubled (DCLD) structures. In order to shed light on these issues, we have analyzed data from Spanish monolingual children and from the adults that they interact with, as available in CHILDES (MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk [Dataset], 3rd edn. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. http://childes.talkbank.org (accessed 20 October 2019)). The results show that there is an order in the onset of simple and complex predicate constructions, as reflected in the earlier emergence of monotransitives when compared to DA constructions. The latter also show a subsequent order of first occurrence, namely, DCLDs before a/para-datives. Thus, the degree of syntactic complexity seems to have played a role in the acquisition of simple and complex constructions, as measured by the number of Case assignment relations between the verb and its internal argument(s). Moreover, the differences in the Spanish monolingual children’s incidence of the three structures under analysis do not appear to be explained by the relative frequency of exposure in the adult input.

Simple Monotransitive and Complex Dative Alternation Predicates in Spanish Monolingual Child Acquisition Data

This work analyzes the acquisition of simple and complex constructions in Spanish monolingual children’s data. It examines the emergence and the role played by adult input in child production of simple monotransitive constructions when compared to two types of complex predicates that undergo dative alternation (DA), namely, a/para-datives and dative-clitic doubled (DCLD) structures. In order to shed light on these issues, we have analyzed data from Spanish monolingual children and from the adults that they interact with, as available in CHILDES (MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk [Dataset], 3rd edn. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. http://childes.talkbank.org (accessed 20 October 2019)). The results show that there is an order in the onset of simple and complex predicate constructions, as reflected in the earlier emergence of monotransitives when compared to DA constructions. The latter also show a subsequent order of first occurrence, namely, DCLDs before a/para-datives. Thus, the degree of syntactic complexity seems to have played a role in the acquisition of simple and complex constructions, as measured by the number of Case assignment relations between the verb and its internal argument(s). Moreover, the differences in the Spanish monolingual children’s incidence of the three structures under analysis do not appear to be explained by the relative frequency of exposure in the adult input.