Revisiting aspectual se in Spanish: telicity, statives, and maximization

This paper addresses aspectual se in Spanish. Building on the previous analyses that have been proposed in the literature to account for constructions with aspectual se that mainly focus on the syntax of these (see, e.g., MacDonald, Jonathan E. 2017. Spanish aspectual se as an indirect object reflexive: The import of atelicity, bare nouns, and leísta PCC repairs. Probus. International Journal of Romance Linguistics 29(1). 73–118), this paper provides a semantic account that makes explicit (i) why dynamic predicates must be telic in the presence of se, and (ii) why the very same se can appear with a limited number of stative predicates, which are atelic. The account is implemented in the Figure/Path Relation model in Beavers, John. 2011. On affectedness. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29(2). 335–370, Figure/Path Relation model. I propose a maximization strategy that captures that dynamic predicates in constructions with se are always telic by indicating the conditions under which the theme has a fixed quantity and the scale/path that may be associated with the verb is bounded. This maximization strategy is then compared to and distinguished from the event maximization strategies proposed for Slavic languages (Filip, Hana. 2008. Events and maximalization: The case of telicity and perfectivity. In Susan Rothstein (ed.), Theoretical and crosslinguistic approaches to the semantics of aspect, 217–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins) and Hungarian (Kardos, Éva. 2016. Telicity marking in Hungarian. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 1(1). 1–37), and to the scale/path maximization strategy proposed for Southern Aymara (Martínez Vera, Gabriel. 2021a. Degree achievements and degree morphemes in competition in Southern Aymara. Linguistics and Philosophy 44. 695–735).

Object Coreference in German: The Reflexive sich as a Problem for Derivational Approaches to Binding

Despite Grewendorf’s well-known German binding data with the double-object verb zeigen ‘show’, where one object reflexively binds the other and which suggests that the direct object (DO) is generated higher than the indirect object (IO), this paper argues for the canonical surface order of IO > DO as base order. We highlight the exceptional status of Grewendorf’s examples, build on scope facts as well as a quantitative acceptability rating study, and exploit the fact that zeigen can also be used as inherently reflexive with idiomatic meaning. Appealing to the base configuration of the pieces of idiomatic expressions and considering different Spell-Out possibilities of coreferential objects in German, we show that the case, number, and gender underspecification of the anaphor sich poses a previously unnoticed problem for derivational approaches to binding.

Interaction, Satisfaction, and the PCC

The person-case constraint (PCC) is a family of restrictions on the relative person of the two objects of a ditransitive. PCC effects offer a testing ground for theories of the Agree operation and of syntactic features, both those on nominals and (of special interest here) those found on agreement probes. In this paper, I offer a new theory of PCC effects in an interaction/satisfaction theory of Agree (Deal 2015a) and show the advantages of this framework in capturing PCC typology. On this model, probes are specified for interaction features, determining which features will be copied to them, and satisfaction features, determining which features will cause probing to stop. Applied to PCC, this theory (i) captures all four types of PCC effect recognized by Nevins (2007) under a unified notion of Agree; (ii) captures the restriction of PCC effects to contexts of “Double Weakness” in many prominent examples, e.g. in Italian, Greek, and Basque, where PCC effects hold only in cases where both the direct and indirect object are expressed with clitics; (iii) naturally extends to PCC effects in syntactic environments without visible clitics or agreement for one or both objects, as well as the absence of PCC effects in some languages with clitics or agreement for both the direct and indirect object. Two refinements of the interaction/satisfaction theory are offered. The first is a new notation for probes’ interaction and satisfaction specifications, clarifying the absence from this theory of uninterpretable/unvalued features as drivers of Agree. The second is a proposal for the way that probes’ behavior may change over the course of a derivation, dubbed dynamic interaction.

Verbs of deception, point of view and polarity

The Dutch and German verbs wijsmaken/weismachen 'make wise' have an idiomatic interpretation as verbs of deception 'to fool'. As such, they have the unusual property of being contrafactive (presupposing the falsity of their complement). With second person or generic pronoun subjects, under negation and with future orientation, they are used to express disbelief on the part of the entity denoted by the indirect object. A corpus study shows this secondary use to be especially prominent in Dutch. It depends on the availability of the point of view of experiencer and is most common with first person dative objects.

Fundamental Structures with Reflexive Pronoun in Dative in Romanian

This article focuses on the problem of the functioning of the reflexive pronoun in dative modifying the verb. Based on a substantial corpus, the article refers to the delimitation of its functions, values and nuances, as well as the various fundamental structures in which it appears. Three constructions with their afferent structures are described, from which it appears that the reflexive dative works in two ways: 1) the subcategorization of the verb, receiving the thematic role of recipient or beneficiary and syntactic function of indirect object and 2) the double subordination - to the verb and to a noun in the structure. That is, it does not occupy a position of subcategorization of the verb, but acquires a possessive meaning from this noun and fulfills the function of possessive object, a function without a thematic role.

El sistema pronominal de objeto directo del español en contacto con el zoque de Chapultenango

This research aims to describe the Spanish language in contact with the Chapultenango’s Zoque language. Specifically, it provides evidence around the neutralization of the gender mark in the accusative pronominal system, showing a two-case simplified system in which the direct object pronoun (OD) is lo(s) and the indirect object pronoun is le(s), both of them without gender distinction. Likewise, it shows that this neutralization is an indirect contact-induced change in which internal variation of Spanish interacts with the grammatical structure of the Zoque.

Borrowing non-canonical inverse between Kabardian and Abaza

Abaza, a polysynthetic ergative Northwest Caucasian language, shares with its neighbour and distant relative Kabardian a typologically peculiar use of the deictic directional prefixes monitoring the relative ranking of the subject and indirect object on the person hierarchy. In both languages, the cislocative (‘hither’) prefixes are used if the indirect object outranks the subject on the person hierarchy, and the translocative (‘thither’) prefixes are used in combinations of first person subjects with second person singular indirect objects. This pattern, reminiscent of the more familiar inverse marking and hence called ‘quasi-inverse’, is observed with ditransitive and bivalent intransitive verbs and is almost fully redundant, since all participants are unequivocally indexed on verbs by pronominal prefixes. I argue that this isogloss, shared by West Circassian (a close relative to Kabardian) but not with Abkhaz, the sister-language of Abaza, is a result of pattern replication under intense language contact, which has led to an increase of both paradigmatic and syntagmatic complexity of Abaza verbal morphology.

Argument and Adjunct Purpose Constructions in Hill Mari

In this study the author suggests a new systemic model of purpose constructions in Hill Mari - a Finno-Ugric language, spoken by approximately 30 000 people living mostly in Mari El Republic, located in Volga river basin. (Here and thereafter (if the opposite is not stated overtly) the term “purpose clause” or “purpose construction” is used in its traditional wide sense and should not be confused with “Purpose clauses” opposed to “Rationale clauses” in R. A. Faraci’s terms (1974).) There are two core strategies of marking the embedded predicate which can be used in contexts denoting purpose in Hill Mari. Firstly, an imperative form can be used. This option is reserved for different-subjects contexts. Secondly, an embedded predicate can be marked as infinitive. Notably, such a clause allows for its subject to be expressed overtly, in which case it is marked by Dative. Typically, though, the subject of an infinitival purposive clause is omitted and obligatorily controlled by a certain argument of a matrix clause. Finally, there are two peripheral constructions - those of perfect tense and non-past tense. Both are quite marginal and not universally accepted. This study also discusses the interaction between aforementioned strategies and purpose complementizers (conjunctions) š (borrowed from Russian) and. However, what constitutes the main theoretical concern of this study are certain peculiar traits of the subordinate null subject’s behavior. The paper adopts a standard generative approach (within Chomsky’s minimalist program) and argues that Hill Mari purpose constructions can be divided into two groups, namely, argument ones, occupying the position of VP complement, and adjunct ones, which are attached as VP adjuncts. This structural distinction can account for the indirect object control, which is possible in all cases, and direct object control, which is only allowed in case of certain matrix predicates. Such an analysis links Hill Mari purpose construction’s distinction to the Purpose/Rationale clauses distinction proposed for English in R. A. Faraci (1974). Finally, Hill Mari infinitival purpose clauses’ specific traits can potentially provide certain insights for the general theory of ditransitive constructions. Thus, among the main current approaches only that developed by L. Pylkkänen (2008) can account for the facts observed in Hill Mari. L. Pylkkänen argues that in some languages double objects constructions can be derived via “high” applicative head, taking VP as its complement and indirect object as its specifier. Our study argues that this is also likely to be the case in Hill Mari.

La discordancia de número en el doblado de objeto indirecto: nuevos datos del español de Galicia

The article analyses the loss of agreement between the dative clitic and its plural nominal referent in indirect object clitic-doubling in Spanish spoken in Galicia. On the basis of the previously defended hypothesis that number disagreement makes part of a grammaticalisation process whereby the clitic becomes a case affix, the paper examines some internal factors which lack consensus in previous studies, such as the relation between (in)transitivity and position of the clitic or animacity of nominal referents of the IO, and other external factors. Data analysis reveals that the percentage of disagreement in this area is much higher than in other Spanish speaking areas. This fact might be a consequence of language contact with Galician, a language where number inflection in the dative clitic is neutralised. To verify this hypothesis, the paper explores the relation between the number of occurrences of disagreement and the level of bilingualism of the speakers.

Explaining Siewierska’s generalization

This article presents an explanation for a cross-linguistic gap observed by Anna Siewierska: morphologically unmarked indirect objects may alternate with prepositional marking in what is sometimes called a ‘dative’ or ‘prepositional-dative’ ditransitive frame, but never with actual dative case marking. ‘Dative’, to the extent it alternates with accusative, is always expressed as a preposition. I show firstly that German, which has a robust dative case paradigm, also displays a double object alternation in which the erstwhile dative DP occurs in a prepositional phrase, meaning both accusative (in English) and dative (in German) indirect objects alternate with prepositional encoding. I construct an analysis in which the the indirect object may be generated as either a DP (which receives dative in German and accusative in English) or a PP in the same theta position. This characterization of the double object alternation does not admit an alternation between dative and accusative case on the indirect object, capturing Siewierska’s generalization. The analysis also extends to ‘symmetric’ passive languages, in which either object in the double object construction can be raised to subject in the passive. Some current perspectives on this phenomenon make such languages exceptions to Siewierska’s generalization, but not the analysis proposed here.