What lies behind causativization of verbs of motion in Romance languages? (CamCoS 5 Cambridge, May 2016) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Pineda (2018) Causativization of verbs of directed motion in Romance languages
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 14. Selected papers from the 46th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Stony Brook, NY., 2018
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on a particular behavior displayed by verbs of inherently directed motion, the availability of a causative transitive alternate, and how this phenomenon interacts with the presence of clitic se in the intransitive variant. Data from Catalan, Aragonese and Italian varieties, none of which have received much attention in the literature, will prove crucial for our proposal. We adopt an inter-Romance perspective and a nanosyntactic approach to lexicalization in order to refine the correlation Jiménez-Fernández and Tubino (2014, 2017) find for Spanish, where inherently directional motion verbs are claimed to be more easily causativized (entrar el coche ‘go in the car’) in varieties where the use of se in the intransitive forms is also more frequent (Juan se entró ‘Juan se went in’).
In this talk I will focus on a particular behavior displayed by verbs of inherently directed motion, the availability of a causative transitive alternate, and how this phenomenon interacts with the presence of the clitic se in the intransitive variant. Data from Catalan, Aragonese and Italian varieties, none of which have received much attention in the literature, will prove crucial for my proposal. In particular, I adopt an inter-Romance perspective and a nanosyntactic approach to lexicalization in order to refine the correlation that has been found for Spanish, where motion verbs are claimed to be more easily causativized (entrar el coche ‘go in the car’) in varieties where the use of se in the intransitive forms is also more frequent (Juan se entró ‘Juan SE went in’). Adopting a broader cross-linguistic perspective, I deal with causativized verbs in several Romance languages and varieties, and crucially bring into discussion an element that has, until now, gone generally unnoticed (aside from descriptive works): the ablative locative clitic that appears, together with se, in Catalan, Italian and Aragonese varieties (e.g. Cat. tornar-se’n, dial. Cat. entrar-se’n, eixir-se’n, pujar-se’n, and so on). The data from different Romance languages and dialects will allow to refine the settings of the connection between pronominal verbs of motion and the existence of a source component. In particular, I will posit the existence of a locative head (that may be analysed as an applicative head), which can be spelled out by an ablative locative clitic. I will also argue that verbs of inherently directed motion can be conceived by Romance speakers as simple, punctual events denoting the achievement of a particular position, but also as denoting a complex event that consists of a causing subevent and a resultant state (which is connected to achieving a new position and remaining there for some time, after having left behind the original location). In the latter case (that subsequently paves the way for causativization), the verbs of motion can surface in their pronominal form, even if it does not happen always. As will be shown in the talk, there is cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal variation regarding the availability of pronominal forms for these verbs, due to different lexicalization patterns.
Journal of Universal Language
This is a semantic study of causative movement verbs that have been organized into two main groups consisting of similar and contrasting features. This analysis contradicts Van Valin & LaPolla (1997) and other authors working within the Role and Reference Grammar theoretical framework such as Jolly (1991, 1993), who defends the view that causative movement verbs only respond to one Aktionsart type (that is, to one type of mode of action): causative accomplishment verbs. I demonstrate that there are also * This paper was funded through the research project ANGI2005/14 (CAR). I would like to acknowledge the merits of my colleague and friend Rubén Fernández Caro, "a man from the Middle Ages". He gave me the passion for medieval literature and languages and helped me discover the fascinating world found in Tolkien's stories and languages, and especially in Quenya. This paper could have never been written without such underlying motivation.
Variability in the Case Patterns of Causative Formation in Romance and Its Implications
Linguistic Inquiry, 2010
Taking Folli and Harley's (2007) analysis of Italian fare-causatives as a starting point, and focusing on Spanish, I examine variation in the distribution of the subject of the embedded infinitive in so-called faire-causatives, and I suggest that there is a robust correlation between the size of the embedded complement and the licensing of particular arguments. I reach this conclusion by investigating syntactic complexity in the domain of hacer-causatives, showing that richer structures obtain when Case factors associated with dative-case-marked arguments are considered. I further show that the specific conditions imposed by these arguments are language particular and arise in the language independently of analytical causatives.
Micro-parametric variation in Romance causative constructions
Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics, 2013
The paper deals with the syntax of analytic causative constructions with infinitival and subjunctive complementation. The study puts special emphasis on the syntactic position of the embedded subject (sensitive to the type of complement selected by the causative verb) and delves into the micro-parametric variation of Catalan, Spanish, and Romanian causatives. Sound empirical evidence indicates that Romance causatives are built on two different underlying structures: one involves complex predicate formation; the other Exceptional Case Marking of the embedded subject by the causative verb. We argue in favour of (i) treating the complex faire-infinitive construction as an instance of restructuring, in which faire is a restructuring verb and the infinitive a defective domain (Catalan), and (ii) analyzing the causative constructions with pre-infinitival subjects in Spanish and Romanian as cases of Exceptional Case Marking (in Chomsky's 2000 and 2001 framework).
Basic causative verb patterns in Uralic: Retention and renewal in grammar and lexicon
Valency over Time
This paper presents the formation of causative verbs and different causativization strategies in the Uralic languages as evidenced by six verb sets in 22 languages. The sample is a selection of basic verbs from a larger database including altogether 21 non-causal and causal verb pairs based on a slightly revised version of Nichols, Peterson and Barnes (2004). Our sample illustrates the big picture of causativization in Uralic in the light of three animate verb pairs 'eat' / 'feed', 'see' / 'show', 'fear, be afraid' / 'frighten, scare' and three inanimate non-causal / causal pairs, namely 'burn (intr.); catch fire' / 'burn (tr.); set afire', 'dry (intr.); get dry' / 'dry (tr.), dry out' and 'be straight; straighten out' / 'straighten; make straight'. The sample shows some variation in the causativization strategies across the language family and different lexical types. However, the dominating characteristic of almost all investigated cases is that the Uralic languages prefer valency changing affixal morphology whereas other strategies are more random and result from verb-specific and language-specific historical development. A qualitative analysis of the diachronic development shows that, actually, most deviating patterns originate from former valency changing affixal morphology patterns as well.