Noncore datives in Basque and Spanish impersonal, passive and anticausative sentences

Imanol Suárez-Palma; Alba Santamaría-Gallego

doi:10.7557/1.13.1.7468

Authors

Imanol Suárez-Palma University of Florida
Alba Santamaría-Gallego University of Florida

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/1.13.1.7468

Keywords:

Basque, Spanish, impersonal construction, voice, datives, applicatives, passives, middle constructions, inchoative constructions, causatives, anticausatives

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Basque impersonal construction, i.e. a detransitivized configuration that can convey impersonal, passive and middle readings. Although these are agentive constructions (Fernández and Berro 2021), labile change-of-state predicates in these sentences allow for a causative and an anticausative reading, enhanced by the possibility of inserting a purpose clause or a by-itself PP, respectively (Ortiz de Urbina 2003). We suggest that two distinct underlying representations with identical exponents yield these readings: (i) a defective Voice head that encodes an implicit external argument in the causative variant (Schäfer 2008; Berro et al. 2022), and (ii) an anticausative counterpart, lacking Voice altogether. We support this claim by examining the distribution of noncore dative arguments in these contexts, whose possible interpretations are (i) affected by an intentionally or naturally caused change of state, or (ii) accidental causers of this event; this phenomenon is also attested in Spanish se-passives and se-anticausatives (Cuervo 2003; Suárez-Palma 2020). Assuming that a middle applicative head introduces these arguments (Cuervo 2020), the affected reading arises when the applicative merges below vP, and the accidental causer one when it sits on top of it. Crucially, the latter is only possible in anticausative contexts, where that position is not filled by Voice; these observations from Basque mirror Suárez-Palma’s (2020) findings for Spanish. Finally, if this proposal is on the right track, future typological studies should include Basque in the list of languages showing applicative constructions (Polinsky 2024).

References

Ackema, P. & M. Schoorlemmer. 2006. Middles. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax 1, ed. M. Everaert & H. van Riemsdijk, 131-203. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996591.ch42

Albizu, P. 2001. Sobre la distribución sintáctica de las formas finitas del verbo vasco: Condicionamiento léxico y sintáctico [On the syntactic distribution of the finite forms of the Basque verb: Lexical and syntactic conditioning]. Anuario del Semanario de Filología Vasca “Julio de Urquijo” 35(1). 65-106.

Alexiadou, A., E. Anagnostopoulou & F. Schäfer. 2015. External arguments in transitive alternations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571949.001.0001

Armstrong, G. & MacDonald, J. 2021. Unraveling the complexity of SE. Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57004-0

Arregi, K. 2004. The have/be alternation in Basque. Unpublished paper. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Arregi, K. & Nevins, A. 2008. A principled order to post-syntactic operations. Ms. University of Chicago, Chicago.

Berro, A. 2015. Breaking verbs. From event structure to syntactic categories in Basque. Doctoral thesis. University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Berro, A., B. Oyharçabal & B. Fernández. 2018. Inkoatibo/arazle alternantzia euskaraz eratortzen [Deriving the inchoative/causative alternation in Basque]. In Eiskaratik giza hizkuntzara. Jon Ortiz de Urbinari gorazarre, Fontes Linguae Vasconum [Special issue], ed. B. Fernández & A. Berro, 99-122.

Berro, A. & A. Fernández. 2019. Applicatives without verbs. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 37(4). 1273-1317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-018-09437-4

Berro, A., A. Odria & B. Fernández. 2022. Person matters in impersonality. Syntax 25. 147-187. https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12230

Bhatt, R. & R. Pancheva. 2006. Implicit arguments. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax 1, ed. M. Everaert & H. van Riemsdijk, 558-588. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996591.ch34

Bosque, I. & J. Gutiérrez-Rexach. 2009. Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. Madrid: AKAL.

Burzio, L. 1986. Italian Syntax. A Government-Binding Approach. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1. Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4522-7

Cinque, G. 1988. On si constructions and the theory of arb. Linguistic Inquiry 19(4). 521-581.

Chomsky, N. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: the framework. In Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, ed. R. Martin, D. Michaels & J. Uriagereka, 89-115. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chomsky, N. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Ken Hale: a life in language, ed. M. Kenstowicz, 1-52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4056.003.0004

Cuervo, M.C. 2003. Datives at Large. Doctoral thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Cuervo, M.C. 2014. Alternating unaccusatives and the distribution of roots. Lingua 141. 48-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2013.12.001

Cuervo, M.C. 2020. Datives as applicatives. In Dative constructions in Romance and Beyond (Open Generative Syntax 7), ed. A. Pineda and J. Mateu, 1-39. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Fábregas, A. 2021. Se in Spanish: properties, structures, analyses. Borealis: an international journal of Hispanic linguistics 10(2). 1-235. https://doi.org/10.7557/1.10.2.5934

Fagan, S. 1992. The Syntax and Semantics of Middle Constructions. A Study with Special Reference to German. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fernández, B. 2010. Goi datiboak eta are goragokoak euskaraz: Jabe datiboak eta datibo hunkituak vs. datibo etikoak [High datives and even higher ones in Basque: Possessive datives and affected datives versus ethic datives]. Gogoa 10(1). 1-20.

Fernández, B. 2019. On non-selected datives: ethical datives in Basque and Spanish. In Basque and Romance, ed. A. Berro, B. Fernández & J. Ortiz de Urbina. 221-242. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004395398_008

Fernández, B. & A. Berro. 2021. Basque impersonals in comparison. Linguistics 60(4). 1039-1101. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2020-0057

Fernández Soriano, O. 1999a. Datives in constructions with unaccusative se. Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics 7. 89-105.

Fernández Soriano, O. 1999b. Two types of impersonal sentences in Spanish: Locative and dative subjects. Syntax 2(2). 101-140. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9612.00017

Franco, J. & Huidobro, S. 2008. Ethical datives, clitic doubling and the theory of pro. In Selected Proceedings of the 10th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, ed. J. Bruhn de Garavito & E. Valenzuela, 215-224. Sommerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.

D’Alessandro, R. 2007. Impersonal si constructions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207514

De Rijk, R. 2008. Standard Basque: a progressive gramar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7444.001.0001

Kayne, R. S. 1993. Toward a modular theory of auxiliary selection. Studia Linguistica 47(1). 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9582.1993.tb00837.x

Kratzer, A. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In Phrase Structure and the Lexicon, ed. J. Rooryck & L. Zaring, 109-137. Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8617-7_5

Landau, I. 2010. The explicit syntax of implicit arguments. Linguistic Inquiry 41(3). 357-388. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00001

MacDonald, J. 2017. An implicit projected argument in Spanish impersonal- and passive-se constructions. Syntax 20(4). 353-383. https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12146

Maldonado, R. 1994. Dativos de interés sin intereses [Datives of interest without interests]. In Verbo y estructuras frásicas. Actas do IV Coloquio Internacional de Lingüística Hispánica. Porto: Facultad de Letras. 241-264.

Mendikoetxea, A. 1999. Construcciones con “se”: medias, pasivas e impersonales [Constructions with “se”: middles, passives and impersonals]. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, ed. I. Bosque & V. Demonte. 1575-1630.

Mendikoetxea, A. 2008. Clitic impersonal constructions in Romance: Syntactic features and semantic interpretation. Transactions of the Philological Society 106. 290-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2008.00210.x

Miguel Aparicio, E. 1992. El aspecto en la sintaxis del español: Perfectividad e impersonalidad [Aspect in Spanish syntax: Perfectivity and impersonalness]. Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Ormazabal, J. 2008. Kausatibo aldizkatzeak euskaraz eta inguruko hizkuntzetan [Causative alternation in Basque and surrounding languages]. In Gramatika jaietan Patzi Goenagaren omenez, ed. X. Artiagoitia & J.A. Lakarra, Supplements of ASJU 51. 643-663.

Ormazabal, J. & J. Romero. 2022. Deconstructing SE-constructions: Number agreement and postsyntactic variation. Linguistic Inquiry. 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00476

Ortiz de Urbina, J. 2003. Impersonal clauses. In A Grammar of Basque, ed. J.A. Lakarra & J.I. Hualde, 572-591. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110895285.572

Ortiz de Urbina, J. 2006. Old Basque (medio)passives. In Studies in Basque and historical linguistics in memory of R.L. Trask. Special issue of Anuario del Seminario de Folología Vasca “Julio de Urquijo” 40.1-2, ed. J.A. Lakarra & J.I. Hualde. 763-786.

Oyharçabal, B. 2003. Lexical causatives and causative alternation in Basque. In Inquiries into de lexicon-syntax relations in Basque. Supplements of ASJU 46, ed. B. Oyharçabal, 223-253.

Pineda, A. and A. Berro. 2020. Hybrid intransitives in Basque. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5(1): 22. 1-28. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.824

Polinsky, M. 2024. Understanding applicatives. In Applicative Constructions in the World, ed. F. Zuniga and D. Creissels, 1007-1032. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730951-029.

Pylkkänen, L. 2008. Introducing Arguments. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262162548.001.0001

Rezac, M. 2009a. On the unifiability of repairs of the Person Case Constraint: French, Basque, Georgian and Chinook. In Beát Oihartzabali gorazarre, Special issue of Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca “Julio de Urquijo” 43.1-2, ed. R. Etxepare, R. Gómez & J. A. Lakarra, 769-790.

Rezac, M. 2009b. Person restrictions in Basque intransitives. Lapurdum 13. 305-322. https://doi.org/10.4000/lapurdum.2172

Sánchez López, C. 2002. Las construcciones con se. Madrid: Visor Libros.

Schäfer, F. 2008. The Syntax of (Anti-)Causatives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.126

Suárez-Palma, I. 2019. Stuck in the Middle. Dative Arguments and Middle-passive Constructions in Spanish. Doctoral thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Suárez-Palma, I. 2020. Applied arguments in Spanish inchoative middle constructions. Glossa: A journal of general linguistics 5(1): 9. 1-37. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.827

Suárez-Palma, I. 2021. Grammatical encoding of agency in Asturian middle constructions. Glossa: A journal of general linguistics 6(1): 109. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5720

Suñer, M. 1982. Syntax and Semantics of Spanish Presentational Sentence-Types. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Urrestarazu, I. 2019. Nire barruko Setatsua: (Euskal) boza eta erdiko egiturak [(Basque) voice and middle constructions]. Undergraduate thesis. University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Wood, J. & Marantz, A. 2017. The interpretation of external arguments. In The Verbal Domain, ed. R. D’Alessandro, I. Franco & A. J. Gallego, 255-278. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198767886.003.0011