Jaume Mateu

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.

Argument structure and compositionality in idiomatic constructions

Abstract It is often assumed that idiomatic constructions basically involve non-compositional meanings (Katz and Postal 1963; Fraser 1970; Chomsky 1980, among others) or special syntax-semantics correspondences (cf. Jackendoff 1990, 1997a, b, 2002). However, we agree with those linguists who claim that there are aspects of idioms that are compositional (Marantz 1996, 1997; Nunberg, Sag, and Wasow 1994). In this article, on the one hand, assuming Hale and Keysers (2002) configurational theory of argument structure, we show that a class of idiomatic constructions which can be found in both “satellite-framed languages” like English and “verb-framed languages” like Catalan and Spanish (Talmy 1985, 1991, 2000) involves different applications of a lexical syntactic process of conflation. Unlike Jackendoff (1990, 1997a), we argue that the relevant crosslinguistic variation must be expressed in l(exical)-syntactic terms rather than via correspondence rules. On the other hand, assuming Marantzs (1996, 1997) division of labor between the computational system and the encyclopedia, we show the relevance of syntactic argument structures in structuring the compositional meaning of an idiomatic construction, and that of distinguishing between syntactically transparent compositional meanings and syntactically non-transparent non-compositional ones.

Bare nominals and argument structure in Catalan and Spanish

Abstract This article aims at focusing on a set of phenomena related to the syntax and semantics of bare count nominals. We will show that bare count nominals unmarked for number (BNs) can occur both in object argument position and in predicate position, and can form denominal verbs. This is because, in syntax, BNs can only occur as internal arguments of relational categories (V, P) to which bare nouns can move and conflate at some point during the syntactic derivation (Hale & Keyser, Prolegomenon to a theory of argument structure, MIT Press, 2002). On the other hand, BNs – being property denoting expressions – can neither occur as internal arguments of unaccusative and complex transitive verbs nor as external arguments due to a structural constraint on subjects / specifiers (Kallulli, The comparative syntax of Albanian. On the contribution of syntactic types to propositional interpretation, University of Durham dissertation, 1999): they must be properly licensed by appropriate functional categories. The novelty of this article is to relate the occurrence of bare nominals with the argument structure position in which they may occur at a syntactic level of representation, and to explain the relationship between argument structure and the interpretation of bare nominals.

Satellite-framed Latin vs. verb-framed Romance: A syntactic approach

Abstract In this paper we are interested in the relation between two facts accompanying the diachronic change from Latin to Romance within the domain of the morphological and argument-structural properties of the predicates expressing change. On the one hand, the element encoding the transition itself, which we call the Path, and the verb are realised as two distinct morphemes in Latin, but as one and the same morpheme in the daughter languages: in Talmys (2000) terms, the former is a satellite-framed language and the latter are verb-framed languages. On the other hand, there is a whole range of argument-structural patterns which are found in Latin but not in Romance: unselected object contructions, complex directed motion constructions, productive locative alternation, etc. We show, within a syntactic view of argument structure and morphology, that both facts are intimately related. Furthermore, we provide data from Old Catalan showing an intermediate stage between the Latin satellite-framed system and the Romance verb-framed system.

A constructional analysis of unselected objects in Polish: The case of prze-

Abstract We provide a constructional account of unselected objects in Polish with special focus on valence augmentation and valence creation processes (Michaelis and Ruppenhofer 2001a, 2001b) involved in prze-prefixed predications. Unselected objects appear in two transitive patterns, which we label Object-as-Figure and Object-as-Ground constructions. Unlike most non-cognitivist approaches (cf. Spencer and Zaretskaya 1998) and in accordance with Cognitive Grammar proposals (cf. Janda 1985; Dąbrowska 1996), we argue that prefixes do not have a vague meaning nor are sometimes mere aspectual markers. In particular, we show that the semantics of both prze-patterns is based on an image schema, where a Figure physically crosses a Ground. Furthermore, we show, through a corpus study, that this spatial configuration provides the basis for a number of metaphorical extensions of the central constructional meaning. However, in contrast to some Cognitive Grammar approaches (cf. Dąbrowska 1996), we propose that the prefix is not added to the verb, changing its valency, but rather it is the verb (or other grammatical category) that is integrated into the prefixed construction. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the analytical machinery of Construction Grammar that is used to account for irregular patterns, i.e., direct objects not involved in the verbs argument structure, can also be used to account for regular syntactic patterns, i.e., prze-constructions with prototypical direct objects.

Manner and result modifiers. The V ben V construction in Catalan

Abstract This paper analyzes the ingredients of a Romance construction, henceforth named the V ben V construction, consisting of a verb and its theme object in combination with a degree adverb ben ‘{well, really}’ followed by a verb in past participle or an adjectival form. It describes the properties and restrictions of the various constituents involved in this construction, and it presents a new analysis focusing on the properties of the main predicate, the theme object, the degree adverb ben and the degree phrase ben+VPP/A. It accounts for the potential manner and result readings of the adjunct constituent that ben introduces (i) by postulating that the ben+VPP/A modifier always predicates of the (sub)event expressed by the verb (an activity or a change of state), (ii) by associating manner with a do verbal layer, and result with a become verbal layer, and (iii) by identifying different aspectual structures in the complement position of the degree adverb.