Enrique Pato

La recategorización del adverbio medio en español

According to traditional descriptive grammars, Spanish medio (‘half’) is a variable category. It can be a noun (medio de vida), a numeral adjective (quantifier) (media docena), or an unstressed adverb (estaba medio cansado). However, medio takes an invariable form as an adverb in standard Spanish (estaba medio cansada). Making the adverb medio agree with the adjective it modifies (estaba *media cansada) is considered nonstandard. Numerous cases are attested where the adverb medio agrees, as though it were an adjective, with the noun or the adjective which it modifies. This process, known as ‘recategorization’ implies that an element is interpreted as belonging to one category (i.e. adjective) in some varieties and as part of another (here, adverb) in other varieties. The ‘adjectivization’ of medio is widely considered to be characteristic of Latin American Spanish varieties, but it is believed to be rare in Iberian Spanish. In this study I use unpublished dialect data from the ALPI (Atlas Linguistico de la Peninsula Iberica) to examine the precise geographical area of the phenomenon in Peninsular Spanish. These data clearly show that the distribution of this phenomenon is much wider than previously claimed, since it is attested not only in the Galician area but also in Leonese and in Andalusian, the latter being the probable source for the transfer of the phenomenon to Latin American Spanish. We also use historical and contemporary data from both Peninsular and Latin American texts (Corpus del espanol) to analyse some specific cases of adverbial medio with and without agreement (medio/media tonta), and to study the semantic interpretations associated with each variant.

'Parecen que lo olvidan': Plurals did it again

The distribution of DDPP in raising constructions –depending on the embedded clause’s formal properties– has been essential for Case Theory and movement. Likewise, the behavior of DDPP, according to agreement facts, has given rise to relevant discussions about the kind of movement involved (A-Movement/A’-Movement). Nevertheless, this distribution is not so clear in certain Spanish dialects, which shows a double agreement effects. It means that the embedded verb as well as the raising verb ( parecer ‘to seem’) present inflectional number (and person) morphology: Parece-n que lo olvida-n (seem.3PL that it forget.3PL ‘They seem to forget him’). The analysis of the data in these varieties allows us to define many characteristics which are relevant from a descriptive and a theoretical point of view. Descriptively, it is possible to identify some notable particularities, with respect to the position of the DP, which triggers agreement and the interaction of these constructions with dative experiencers as well ( Me parece que ... ‘It seems to me that...’). From a theoretical point of view, these data have consequences for approaches on agreement, on the relationship between Case and movement, and on the discussion regarding the Experiencer Paradox in Spanish. Additionally, they allow us to identify a new empirical domain in which a DP plural number feature has an active role in the Probe-Goal domain.

Mucho bien y mucho guapa: mu(n)cho como cuantificador ‘pleno’ de adjetivos y adverbios en castellano y en asturiano*

Abstract En este trabajo se revisa, en primer lugar, la distribución geográfica del uso del superlativo absoluto con la forma ‘plena’ mucho (mucho bien, mucho guapa) en español rural. A continuación, se realiza una primera descripción del empleo de mucho como cuantificador de adjetivos y adverbios en castellano, gracias a los datos del Corpus oral y sonoro del español rural (COSER) de Inés Fernández-Ordóñez. Propio de hablantes mayores de 70 años, es un fenómeno en retroceso y siempre en alternancia con muy, con mayor vigencia ante adverbios que ante adjetivos. Después se revisa el fenómeno en asturiano (muncho/ muito bien), documentado sobre todo en el occidente de Asturias, para conocer los patrones de uso, su comportamiento gramatical y el proceso de modalización de los valores cuantitativos que ha sufrido, tanto en castellano como en asturiano. El trabajo termina con unas consideraciones finales en torno a este fenómeno en estudio, su expansión actual e histórica.

De modificador aspectual a atenuador oracional

This study provides new data on the evolution of medio along the history of the Spanish language both from a distributional and a semantic point of view. With respect to the distributional perspective, this work shows, using data from Corpus del espanol, that the adverb medio extended its combinatorial possibilities throughout the centuries, from a small initial group of lexical categories to a larger lexical group and also to syntagmatic categories, including the clause or the sentence. As for the semantic perspective, this paper shows how this distributional extension involves a semantic change: medio evolved from aspectual to evaluative modifier and finally, in the twentieth century, to attenuator of sentence modality, understood in a broad sense.