Gemma Rigau

Verb-particle constructions in Romance: A lexical-syntactic account

Abstract In this paper, we deal with some important differences between Romance verb particle constructions and Germanic ones. Despite claims to the contrary (Iacobini & Masini, Morphology 16: 155–188, 2007), we argue that Romance languages (Italian included) consistently obey the Talmian generalization that non-directional manner verbs do not coappear with non-adjunct paths in Romance. We relate this generalization to the important restriction that those verbs that enter into verb-particle constructions in Romance encode or involve Path (e.g., It. Gianni è entrato dentro lit. ‘Gianni entered inside’; Gianni è corso via ‘Gianni ran away’; Gianni ha lavato via la macchia ‘Gianni washed the stain away’); crucially, unlike Germanic, Romance does not allow verb-particle constructions where the verb encodes or involves pure manner (John danced away; John worked his debts off). We use Haugens (Lingua 119: 242–262, 2009) syntactic distinction between Incorporation and Conflation to draw some relevant syntactic differences between Romance and Germanic verb-particle constructions: those ones formed via Incorporation are possible in Romance, while those ones formed via Conflation/Compounding are only possible in Germanic.

Subject clitics and clitic recycling: locative sentences in some Iberian Romance languages

The first concern of this article is an analysis of locative sentences in the Iberian Romances. It is argued that both the existential (〈HAVE〉) and the stative (〈BE〉) construction derive from a single abstract verb. Their differences are based in the presence vs. the absence of an incorporation process over an otherwise identical lexical structure. The second topic of the paper is a study of the behavior of pronominal clitics within these sentences. It is observed that while Catalan has a rich paradigm of clitics (accusative, dative, locative, partitive), languages like Asturian, Galician and certain Spanish dialects resort to a ‘recycling’ strategy in order to palliate the deficiencies of their clitic paradigms. In this respect, we will show how accusative clitics are used as partitive, locative, and even subject clitics. We also propose some of the principles which constrain the application of this strategy. Finally, an Appendix is devoted to certain uses of the accusative clitics as modal markers, also within locative sentences. These uses are closely related with the behavior of certain clitics in Northern Italian dialects.

Joan Solà (1940-2010) i el seu llegat

En catala, aixi com en altres llengues romaniques i tambe en euscar, hi ha diversos verbs que poden dur un complement de persona en datiu o en acusatiu —en el cas basc, en datiu o en absolutiu. En son exemples els verbs catalans trucar, telefonar, contestar, robar, pagar, pegar o disparar, entre d’altres. Aquesta alternanca de cas es de fet una transicio de l’us del datiu a l’us de l’acusatiu. Es tracta, en el fons, d’un canvi sintactic en proces, que presenta diferents estadis d’evolucio segons la varietat dialectal o fins i tot idiolectal. Per analitzar aquesta alternanca de cas, o aquest pas de datiu a acusatiu, prenem com a punt de partida la idea que un verb intransitiu inergatiu com trucar (format per un verb lleuger i un nominal, com ara fer TRUCRUCRUC) seguit d’un complement de persona correspon de fet a una estructura ditransitiva, es a dir, una estructura amb un complement directe i un d’indirecte (fer TRUCRUCRUC a algu). Assumim tambe que, com en bona part de les construccions ditransitives de les llengues, hi interve un nucli aplicatiu que relaciona l’objecte directe (truc) i l’indirecte (a algu). Seran les propietats d’aquest nucli funcional aplicatiu les que ens permetran explicar el pas de l’us d’un complement datiu (Li telefono) a l’us d’un complement acusatiu (El telefono), en els primers estadis del proces de canvi. Finalment, constatarem que en l’estadi final el proces desemboca en una autentica transitivitzacio de l’estructura. Paraules clau: variacio sintactica, estructura argumental, datiu, acusatiu, llengues romaniques, bascEn aquesta aportacio tractem d’esbrinar si la llengua catalana va esser una llengua parlada a la diaspora despres de l’expulsio dels jueus de la Peninsula iberica el 1492 i el seu rastre en el judeocastella. Paraules clau: Sefardites, judeocastella, segle XVI