Verb Classes and Aspect [1 ed.] 9789027267856, 9789027240156

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Verb Classes and Aspect

IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature Studies, Editions and Translations issn 2211-5412 This series aims to publish materials from the IVITRA Research Project. IVITRA carries out research on literary, linguistical and historical-cultural studies, and on history of literature and translation, specially those related to the Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The materials in the series will consist of research monographs and collections, text editions and translations, within these thematic frames: Romance Philology; Catalan Philology; Translation and Translatology; Crown of Aragon Classics Translated; Diachronic Linguistics; Corpus Linguistics; Pragmatics & Sociolinguistics; Literary and historical-cultural studies; and E-Learning and IST applications.

A complete list of titles in this series can be found on http://benjamins.com/catalog/ivitra

Editor

Vicent Martines Peres

University of Alicante / RABLB

International Scientific Committee Carlos Alvar Robert Archer Concepción Company Company Adelaida Cortijo Antonio Cortijo Ricardo Silveira Da Costa Dominique De Courcelles Ramon Ruiz Guardiola Antoni Ferrando Sara Poot Herrera Dominic Keown Elena Sánchez López Coman Lupu Isidor Marí Josep Martines

Jordi Antolí Martínez Giuseppe Mazzocchi Juan Francisco Mesa Joan Miralles Josep Maria Nadal Maria Àngels Fuster Ortuño Akio Ozaki José Antonio Pascual, Hans-Ingo Radatz Rosabel Roig-Vila Vicent Salvador Francisco Franco Sánchez Ko Tazawa Joan Veny Curt Wittlin

Volume 9 Verb Classes and Aspect Edited by Elisa Barrajón López, José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia and Susana Rodríguez Rosique

Verb Classes and Aspect Edited by

Elisa Barrajón López José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia Susana Rodríguez Rosique University of Alicante

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia

8

TM

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

doi 10.1075/ivitra.9 Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress: lccn 2015027934 (print) / 2015032521 (e-book) isbn 978 90 272 4015 6 (Hb) isbn 978 90 272 6785 6 (e-book)

© 2015 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · https://benjamins.com

Table of contents

Preface List of contributors

chapter 1 The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios: [Names given to people born or living in a particular place] Elisa Barrajón López chapter 2 Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality Olga Batiukova chapter 3 Lexical synonymy and argumental structure: Similarities and divergences in the syntactic-semantic schemes of two cognitive Spanish verbs: recordar and acordar(se) Celia Berná Sicilia

vii xvii

1

21

60

chapter 4 Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement Ignacio Bosque

77

chapter 5 Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish José Antonio Candalija Reina

98

chapter 6 Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia

110

chapter 7 Lexical agreement processes: On the construction of verbal aspect Elena de Miguel Aparicio

131

chapter 8 Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions Nicole Delbecque

153

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Verb Classes and Aspect

chapter 9 Agent control over non-culminating events Hamida Demirdache and Fabienne Martin chapter 10 The pseudo-copulative verbs verse and sentirse: Diachronic and conceptual aspects Jorge Fernández Jaén

185

218

chapter 11 On events that express properties María Jesús Fernández Leborans and Cristina Sánchez López

238

chapter 12 Some reflections on verbs with clitic increase: Verbs of motion Luis García Fernández

264

chapter 13 Transitivity and verb classes José María García-Miguel

288

chapter 14 Romance object-experiencer verbs: From aktionsart to activity hierarchy Rolf Kailuweit

312

chapter 15 Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs Ruth-María Lavale-Ortiz

334

chapter 16 Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity from both a lexico-semantic and an aspectual point of view Nuria Merchán Aravid

357

chapter 17 Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs Herminia Provencio Garrigós

378

chapter 18 Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser and estar Susana Rodríguez Rosique

412

Index

439

Preface Elisa Barrajón López, José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia and Susana Rodríguez Rosique

This book offers the results of the conference on verb classes and aspect held in Alicante in March 2014. The conference, organized by the research group LeXis, was framed within the confluence of several research grants given to this group: Clases verbales y alternancias en la estructura argumental [Verb classes and alternations in the argument structure], and Significados y construcciones verbales en español y su traducción al francés, inglés, alemán y portugués [Meaning and verb constructions in Spanish and their translation into French, English, German and Portuguese], supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; Perspectivas y aplicaciones sobre el aspecto verbal: Factores determinantes en casos de verbalización [Perspectives and applications about verbal aspect: Determining factors in verbalization cases], supported by Generalitat Valenciana [Government of the Valencian Autonomous Region]; and El aspecto verbal en español: Aplicaciones sintácticas, semánticas y pragmáticas en casos de verbalización [Verbal aspect in Spanish: syntactic, semantic and pragmatic applications in verbalization cases], supported by the University of Alicante. The aim of that encounter was to integrate different perspectives concerning two of the main topics in current linguistics situated at the crossroads between lexical semantics and syntax, namely: aspect and its correspondence with syntactic structure; and the delimitation of syntactic structures from verb classes. Almost from Aristotle’s Metaphysics, it has been assumed that verbs invoke a mental image about the way in which eventualities are distributed over time. Aspect leads us to draw a distinction between the image associated to a verb like correr – as an event progressing over time – and the one associated with morir – identified as punctual. When it comes to determining time schemata, the lexical class to which the verb belongs is a first step. Talking about verb classes does not exclusively mean a semantic similarity; rather, verb classes exhibit a bundle of common features and thus show a set of recursive behavior patterns. Beyond the meaning of the verb, both semantic and syntactic factors, as well as pragmatic ones, become decisive in order to determine the aspectual classification of an eventuality. Although some of them stress diachronic filiations and others include processes of word formation on the debate, all the contributions collected in this volume approach the aforementioned lines: either analyzing the relationships between aspect and syntactic structure, or traversing the path from a verb class to its syntactic manifestation. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.001pre © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

viii Verb Classes and Aspect

The contributions by Fernández Jaén and Provencio Garrigós share a diachronic perspective. In Chapter 10, Fernández Jaén reviews the Spanish pseudo-copulative verbs verse and sentirse. In fact, he presents a diachronic analysis of these two verbs from the theoretical postulates of Cognitive Semantics and the Grammaticalization Theory. These two pseudo-copulas have been formed within a historical process defined by the conceptual properties of the transitive verbs ver and sentir, additionally highlighting the main functional differences between verse and sentirse. These differences stem from elementary characteristics of the senses concerned. Whereas sight is more objective, bodily self-consciousness is more subjective, which entails significant differences with regard to (inter)subjectivity. Furthermore, the subject can be split into two separate mental spaces with verse, something impossible in the case of sentirse. Fernández Jaén shows that these verbs behave as perceptive and presentative pseudo-copulas respectively, and also that they exhibit a change of state aspectual nature. Verse and sentirse do nothing but confirm that the attribution of that state will be expressed in one way or another depending on the physical sense used (sight or solipsistic consciousness). Moreover, the fact that a state is ‘perceived’ pragmatically implies that the state exists, even regardless of the conceptualizer who ‘sees it’ or ‘feels it.’ Finally, verse and sentirse are separated by another difference related to their presence in time. Even though both verbs have been documented ever since Middle Age times, it becomes clear that sentirse is far more common in absolute terms. This empirical evidence might respond to the constant need that speakers have to express how they feel. Fernández Jaén’s chapter confirms the expressive richness of Spanish when it comes to coding the verbal aspect of attribution and its semantic possibilities. Provencio Garrigós carries out a diachronic analysis of the Spanish verbs doler, picar, arder, escocer and hormiguear in Chapter 17. She specially focuses on the meanings related to physical affectation – basically characterized as stative. From a diachronic point of view, Provencio argues that these verbs fluctuate between stativity and dynamism, which leads her to establish a prototypicity scale within the class of transitory, non-controlled states to which they belong. Her analysis shows that the aspectual continuum comes as a consequence of combining three elements: the lexical-semantic features of the verb; the syntactic contexts where the verb appears; and the pragmatic conditions perceived by the person who experiences the affectation denoted by the verb. This combination reveals the different ways in which transitory, non-controlled states are conceptualized, and shows that doler, despite being the prototypical stative verb that denotes physical affectation, it is the one which presents a higher degree of dynamism due to its frequent appearance in dynamic contexts. A number of other chapters focus on certain denominal and deadjectival verbs, analyzing their aspectual behavior. In Chapter 1, Barrajón López examines how the meaning of the derivative base – either a noun or an adjective – influences the semantics of verbs coming from gentilicios – names given to people born or living in a particular place; she also analyzes the argument structure underlying each one of these verbs, as well as their main aspectual properties. According to Barrajón López, verbs

Preface ix

such as africanizar(se) or gauchear share an attribution argument structure, since a property is attributed in all cases to an entity, which may syntactically work either as an object or as a subject. The differences between these two schemas result from both the type of attribution base and the process implied (causative, inchoative or agentive). As for the conceptual components operating in the formation of these complex units, they may be either explicit or conflated within the verb, according to Talmy. The argument schema will vary in accordance with the conflated semantic component: Hacer X a Y [To make Y become X], Hacerse X [to become X] or Comportarse X [to behave X]. However, it is argued that the boundaries between the two latter schemas are not always so clear. This chapter subsequently characterizes these structures’ main features and classifies their aspectual behavior. In turn, Lavale Ortiz presents an aspectual classification of causative resultative denominal verbs in Chapter 15. Based on a corpus and following the application of grammatical tests, her study proves that the aspectual characterization of these verbs is far from homogeneous; instead, a certain degree of variation exists within the semantic category. The semantic class of causative-resultative denominal verbs includes those involving an externally caused change in the physical-material or psychical-attitudinal state where an entity acquires a property related to the causative event, and it is additionally transformed or converted into a new entity. The degree of affectation and conversion of the entity affected can be complete or partial depending on the type of verb. In aspectual terms, the verbs examined in this chapter are categorized as delimited dynamic events of a terminative nature where the focus lies on the final stage. In accordance with the grammatical tests applied, they are mostly durative, but some of them have a punctual nature; or expressed differently, for Lavale Ortiz, most of the verbs within the causative-resultative denominal category express accomplishments and only a small number of them can be aspectually characterized as achievements. Nevertheless, she concludes that the overwhelming predominance of accomplishments over achievements proves two ideas: on the one hand, that a certain link exists between semantic category and aspectual category; and, on the other hand, that aspectual categories are not closed classes; instead, they come closer and are related to one another, which is why some lexemes can be found in both categories. Merchán Aravid pays attention to inchoative denominal verbs in Chapter 16. She invokes both a morphological process of denominal parasynthesis and a semantic notion of inchoativity in order to analyze them. She subsequently establishes a classification of these verbs’ denominal bases according to their lexical-semantic properties. Furthermore, Merchán proposes a tentative aspectual characterization of inchoative denominal verbs. In her view, these verbs express dynamic events and may focus on any stage of the process (initial, intermediate or final). Furthermore, these events may be telic or atelic depending on both the scalar structure defining them and the pragmatic context where they appear – with the possibility of exhibiting a different duration according to the temporal interval denoted by them. In sum, it follows from her analysis that denominal inchoative verbs may behave as activities, accomplishments, or degree achievements.

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The controversial class of psychological verbs is approached in Cifuentes Honrubia’s chapter as well as in Kailuweit’s, both of them triggering a fruitful debate on this category. The former focuses on Spanish psychological verbs in Chapter 6. More specifically, he analyzes the semantic differences derived from class 2 alternations according to Belletti and Rizzi’s classification. In Cifuentes Honrubia’s view, the transitive/intransitive alternation in Class 2 psychological verbs is essentially determined by three factors: the subject’s degree of agentivity; the aspectual content of predication; and the order of elements in the construction. The transitive variant implies an agentive subject and an aspectual change of state. The intransitive variant implies a cause and a locative state. Cifuentes claims that Spanish Class 2 psychological verbs are causative due to the cause component conflated in the verbal structure which gives rise to the verb: most of the psychological verbs with a transitive/intransitive alternation are denominal or deadjetival causative verbs of Romance origin. Others come from a Latin denominal or deadjectival structure or from a causative meaning which result from an evolution in their meaning (usually agentive and local). Moreover, a large number of physical verbs follow a pattern resembling that of psychological ones as far as the appearance of the dative is concerned. Kailuweit also deals with psychological verbs, and more specifically with Romance Object-Experiencer verbs (OE-verbs), in Chapter 14. He particularly focuses on the Aktionsart-Activity hierarchy. This author shows that the picture is far more complex than it has traditionally been assumed. Neither unaccusativity nor causativity suffice to describe the syntactic behavior of all (transitive) OE-verbs. Instead of appearing as clear-cut (sub-)classes, there seems to be a continuum between the causative and the unaccusative poles. The key to understanding the varying syntactic behavior of OE-verbs lies in their complex event structure. A finer-grained analysis of the sub-events that they denote will elucidate that a traditional approach following the Vendler-Dowty classes of Aktionsart hits its limits when it comes to describing the event structure of OE-verbs. Kailuweit claims that case assignment to the ­experiencer does not straightforwardly follow from the Aktionsart class but from the activity contrast between the two arguments of the verb. Another category which has traditionally received special attention is that of motion verbs, analyzed here by Bosque Muñoz, Delbecque and García Fernández from various perspectives. In Chapter 4, Bosque Muñoz deals with the role that prepositions play in the syntax and semantics of motion verbs in Spanish. He argues that displacement verbs (DVs) include a preposition as the backbone of their lexical structure. The grammatical representation of these verbs contains a number of syntactic layers above and below the said preposition, which may lack phonological features under certain circumstances. The lexical properties of that preposition, its internal argument, and the conflation processes where it participates largely determine the lexical structure of the DV, as well as its overt syntax. The idea that prepositions constitute the basic pieces of DVs grammar is compatible with the possibility that they might also have more abstract compositional structures, with or without vectors. Bosque Muñoz focuses on the role played by prepositions in the lexicalization of conceptual components of

Preface xi

Vertical Movement Verbs (VMVs): path, source, goal, etc., with a special focus on subir. He makes three general claims: (a) a number of differences between English and Spanish syntactic structures in movement configurations follow from differences between prepositions of these two languages (more precisely those expressing goal, direction and path), together with the incorporation processes linked to them; (b) some fine-grained distinctions are necessary in the basic conceptual components of movement, including three types of goals in VMVs and the distinction between path and way; and (c) redundancy emerges as a fundamental aspect in the grammar of DVs, since the information provided by P (preposition) is often present in V (verb). In Chapter 8, Delbecque argues that fictive motion expressions blur the distinction between stativity and dynamicity. Fictive motion expressions do more than simply describe the configuration of a stationary entity: unlike objects which the user can handle, manipulate and transform, the objects depicted in fictive motion expressions are beyond the user’s control. The determination relationship actually goes the other way around, i.e. the stationary entity directs the conceptualizer’s perception and actions by its magnitude, shape, and extension. The view that it imposes largely depends on the conceptualizer’s ability to adapt to the entity’s topological disposition. The focus of attention needed to regulate the interface with fixed elements of the setting is automatically endowed with a minimum of dynamism, which implies some facet of the motion frame. Fictive motion expressions can therefore best be defined as the variable manifestation of the conceptual blend between stasis and motion. Delbecque presents a corpus-based exploration of the variable ways in which structural and procedural knowledge merge in Spanish fictive motion expressions with oriented-motion verbs and manner-of-motion verbs. The metaphorical projection from motion to stativity does not necessarily conform to the aspectual restrictions associated with state descriptions. In addition to the verb’s semantics and the profile of the depicted entity, the degree of dynamicity of the blend is further determined by a range of lexical and grammatical choices. The metaphoric uses examined in this paper clearly reveal that the topological description is inextricably linked to our corporeal experience in its connection with the environment. She thus concludes that fictive motion expressions sustain the experientialist view on the embodiment of language. In Chapter 12, García Fernández approaches one of the Spanish grammar classical issues, namely: the different values of se. He specifically deals with se uses described as having a non-argumental value and being non-referential: the so-called reflexiveintensive or – more recently – the aspectual use. He examines the behavior of se with transitive verbs (comerse una paella) and extends his analysis to certain intransitive motion verbs (Juan se salió de la reunion / El telón se cayó). García Fernández argues that both constructions have something in common: the subject is not the themepatient, and a change of state occurs – in other words, these predicates are telic. In the case of transitive verbs, they already exhibit these two characteristics. The clitic requires the predicate to be telic – or, in Krifka’s (1989, 1991) words, an ‘incremental theme’. For this reason, se is optional, even though some complements which enhance the exhaustiveness of the event or the special participation of the individual denoted

xii Verb Classes and Aspect

by the subject favor its appearance. As for intransitive motion verbs, telicity is ensured by the verb itself or by the inclusion of an argument of origin that guarantees the change of state. In such cases, the clitic ensures that the subject is not interpreted as a theme, which explains a whole series of previously unnoticed contrasts. Other chapters analyze the behavior of specific constructions, either from a lexical, a syntactic or an aspectual point of view. In Chapter 3, Berná Sicilia revises the hypothesis that two verbs having a similar meaning usually presuppose the same semantic participants and imply the activation of similar syntactic schemas. This chapter deals with the links between the lexical and the constructional meaning of two cognition verbs such as recordar and acordar(se). More specifically, she analyzes the similarities and divergences between both verbs – considered synonyms due to their syntacticsemantic behavior. They co-activate the same scene in a world where very similar participants potentially intervene (i.e. a Cognizer and a Mental Content). Although recordar and acordar(se) show similarities in terms of sentence patterns, they do not act upon the same syntactic schemas. The main divergences have to do both with lexical-verbal aspects – the inchoativity of recordar – and with the lexical unit’s own idiosyncrasy, which triggers specific combinatorial singularities within the discourse. Each verbal lexical unit is thus exclusively responsible for defining the characteristics of its syntactic-semantic structure, as well as the individual set of correspondences between syntactic and semantic planes. This characterization also offers us a closer view of concepts such as verbal valency, argument structure or phrasal schema. In Chapter 5, Candalija Reina demonstrates that there is one class of reciprocal construction in Spanish which must appear with a new argument called argumental comitative. Such argument is semantically obligatory and syntactically marked by the Spanish preposition con, since it is governed by a specific reciprocal construction which contains two arguments: the agent and the patient – involved in a gradual kind of symmetry. Symmetry and double agentivity appear as relevant semantic conditions in the analysis of reciprocal constructions, but they are not irreducible conditions: some sort of ambiguity exists which proves impossible to dilute when they assume a double role (co-agents and co-patients). As pointed out by Candalija Reina, semantic marks like mutuamente not always can be applied to every reciprocal construction; and they are redundant in most cases due to the reciprocal sense of the verb. Furthermore, an alternation takes place between the reciprocal construction with the pronoun se and the argumental comitative construction with the preposition con. These two syntactic marks (the preposition con and the pronoun se) become decisive in order to determine whether the verb meaning and the construction show a reciprocal relationship between the participants. Candalija Reina accordingly concludes that these con complements correspond to the syntactic function called ‘obligatory prepositional object’, the semantic role of which is the argumental comitative. Fernández Leborans and Sánchez López analyze the Spanish construction ser muy de + infinitive in Chapter 11. Taking it as a point of departure, they provide empirical support to the hypothesis according to which habitual readings and dispositional/capacitative readings represent different kinds of generic statements generated

Preface xiii

by different operators: an aspectual operator HABASP is responsible for the habitual reading; whereas a modal dispositional operator MODDISP underlies the dispositional reading. To be more precise, they argue that this construction puts together the meaning of a habitual sentence – realized in the infinitive clause – and that of an Individual Level predicate – realized in a predicative prepositional phrase with muy de. More broadly, an explanation is provided both for the properties of the construction as an IL-predicate that contains an infinitive clause with a habitual reading and for the restrictions of the predicates which are likely to appear in this construction. In Chapter 18, Rodríguez Rosique analyzes certain predicates with the Spanish verbs ser and estar which may occur in the imperative, namely: behavior predicates, controlled states, and emotional predicates. The imperative mood usually has to do with action, which is why its combination with prototypical copular verbs such as ser and estar, initially conceived as stative, seems strange at first sight. Rodríguez Rosique approaches the analysis of imperative from a new angle: its negative counterpart – which in Spanish is formed by the negative adverb plus the subjunctive mood in anchored communicative contexts. Both the subsidiary nature of negation in informative terms and the definition of subjunctive in terms of non-assertion justify the analysis of information structure, which reveals interesting data about ser and estar predicates occurring in the imperative: in ser + adjective predicates denoting behavior, the subject carries out a discursively inferable action; however, in estar + se + adjective predicates, the subject controls the alluded state, which is preceded by a background event in the affirmative version, and leads to an event in the negative counterpart. Finally, in estar + adjective predicates denoting emotional states, the imperative is (re)interpreted as a kind of expressive sense, insofar as the predicate does include a non-controlled situation. In a broader sense, this chapter contributes to shed light not only over the variety existing within the states class but also over the limits of this category. Furthermore, Rodríguez Rosique sketches an alternative treatment for the analysis of subjunctive in negative imperatives which goes beyond irrealis. This new challenge points to the necessity of taking into account information structure as well as the role of negation. Lastly, a group of chapters deal with a number of relevant issues concerning aspect from a theoretical point of view. In Chapter 2, Batiukova offers a scalar analysis of Russian verbal forms with the prefix pro-. Although idiomaticity is always present in the derivational domain, it has been shown that the semantics of these derived verbal forms is more systematic than it might initially seem. The proposed account of the different meanings expressed by verbs prefixed with pro- is crucially based on the notion of change function. The change functions allow introducing a multi-dimensional notion of change, whereby certain aspects of the relevant arguments may be initiated, terminated, modified or left unchanged independently from the others, and in close connection with the typing requirements imposed by the verb on its arguments. In particular, Batiukova argues that pro- lexicalizes a specific kind of change function: it can trigger initiation, modification or termination of scalar properties lexicalized by different predicate components; it always introduces an incremental argument which

xiv Verb Classes and Aspect

tracks the change of the scalar properties over time; and it additionally requires that the value assigned to the incremental argument at the end of the event be equal or superior to the value of the test argument. Batiukova pulls together the various elements configuring the aspectual makeup of the predicate into a coherent aspectual analysis strategy: the inherent aspectual properties of the verb are conceived as only partially fixed (i.e. underspecified) and therefore flexible, and their interaction with the scalar dimensions lexicalized by the verbal arguments and adjuncts allow accounting for the variability of aspectual interpretation (formalized in terms of Dynamic Event Structure) and lexical-semantic effects. In Chapter 7, De Miguel Aparicio deals with a classical problem when it comes to aspect: the so-called compositional nature of lexical aspect. In her analysis, De Miguel defends the existence of sub-lexical agreement processes between words which determine their possible combinations, as well as the power to generate different aspectual meanings for a single verb. The hypothesis – framed within Pustejovsky’s Generative Lexicon – is based on the fact that words exhibit an underspecified definition which can potentially be specified in each context. This specification results from the different agreement processes established between the underspecified definition of one word and the features of another, and it is responsible for the polysemy that words tend to exhibit in context. More specifically, De Miguel Aparicio analyzes the polysemy of Spanish tocar and its different aspectual potentialities stemming from several agreement processes between the event information included in the underspecified definition and the lexical features listed in the Qualia structure of the words combining with the verb (ventana, piano, ordenador, narices). She finally concludes that the aspectual polysemy of verbs does not derive from the syntactic context, but from the specification potentiality that they exhibit in their underspecified definition; in other words, it seems more appropriate to talk about the lexical nature of compositional aspect. In Chapter 9, Demirdache and Martin pay attention to the Agent Control Hypoth­ esis (ACH) in Romance, Germanic, Salish and Mandarin languages; more precisely, a perfective sentence with an accomplishment predicate is used to describe a culminated event – that is to say, an event which has reached its telos or inherent, natural endpoint. Perfective accomplishments are known to allow for non-culminating readings in numerous languages, though. They likewise investigate a correlation which has mostly gone unnoticed in the literature; namely, that the availability of non-culminating construals for accomplishments correlates with the control of the agent over the described event: whenever an accomplishment – and especially a causative accomplishment – admits a non-culminating construal, agenthood can be ascribed to the subject; instead, if the subject of the same verb is a (pure) causer, culmination cannot be cancelled. They seek to explore the scope of ACH through a study of the different ways in which culmination entailments of accomplishments can be cancelled across a variety of predicate types and languages and the correlations between the ensuing typology and agent control. García-Miguel reviews the relationship between transitivity and verb classes in Chapter 13. In order to achieve his aim, he carries out a quantitative exploration of

Preface xv

semantic verb types and transitive syntactic structures in a Spanish corpus-based syntactic-semantic database (ADESSE) and in a typological valency patterns database (ValPaL). This approach places the emphasis on the hypothesis according to which transitive syntactic structures are more closely linked to verbs expressing specific actions performed by an agent than to verbs expressing certain kinds of mental states. García-Miguel concludes that an imperfect correlation exists between corpus data and typological data, though both kinds of data show that there is some sort of connection between the type of semantic process and syntactic transitivity. This preface cannot fail to mention all those who have made possible for the present project to materialize in a book. First of all, we would like to thank all the participants in the conference, both for their encouraging involvement in the scientific debate and for their willingness to prepare their papers for the publication, as well as for the human feedback that we received from them. We are also very grateful to Vicent Martines i Peres for enthusiastically hosting the project in the IVITRA collection, as well as to John Benjamins Publishing Company for editing the volume. Thanks also go to Víctor Pina Medina, for the invaluable work of translating into English the contributions from University of Alicante. Finally, this book would not have existed without the financial support of several institutions, namely: the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Generalitat Valenciana, and the University of Alicante.

List of contributors

Elisa Barrajón López Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Hamida Demirdache Department of Humanities and Languages. University of Nantes [[email protected]]

Olga Batiukova Department of Spanish Studies. Autónoma University of Madrid [[email protected]]

Jorge Fernández Jaén Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Celia Berná Sicilia Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. Catholic University of Saint Anthony Murcia [[email protected]]

María Jesús Fernández Leborans Department of Spanish Language, Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Complutense University of Madrid [[email protected]]

Ignacio Bosque Muñoz Department of Spanish Language, Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Complutense University of Madrid [[email protected]] José Antonio Candalija Reina Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Luis García Fernández Department of Spanish Language, Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Complutense University of Madrid [[email protected]] José María García-Miguel Departament of Translation and Linguistics. University of Vigo [[email protected]]

José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Rolf Kailuweit Romance Language Department. University of Freiburg [[email protected]]

Elena de Miguel Aparicio Department of Spanish Studies. Autónoma University of Madrid [[email protected]]

Ruth María Lavale Ortiz Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Nicole Delbecque Department of Linguistics. University of Leuven [[email protected]]

Fabienne Martin Institute of Linguistics. University of Stuttgart [[email protected]]

xviii Verb Classes and Aspect

Nuria Merchán Aravid Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Susana Rodríguez Rosique Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Herminia Provencio Garrigós Department of Spanish Studies, General Linguistics and Literature Theory. University of Alicante [[email protected]]

Cristina Sánchez López Department of Spanish Language, Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Complutense University of Madrid [[email protected]]

chapter 1

The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios [Names given to people born or living in a particular place]* Elisa Barrajón López This paper has as its aim to examine the way in which the meaning of the derivative base (regardless of its denominal or deadjectival nature, although it will be demonstrated here that it rather follows an adjectival behavior) influences the semantics of verbs coming from gentilicios (africanizar/se, gauchear, etc.) and, consequently, to identify the underlying argument structure in each case, as well as their main aspectual properties. The conceptual components involved in the process leading to the formation of these complex units can appear explicitly or amalgamate with the verb. According to the semantically conflated component, the argument scheme will be different: Hacer X a Y [To make Y become X], Hacerse X [To become X] or Comportarse X [To behave X]. Nevertheless, it is worth highlighting that the border between the last two schemes is not always clear. Keywords: argument scheme, change of state, amalgam, aspectuality

1. Introduction The verbs analyzed in this paper are those derived from gentilicios which generally express a change of state, either of the subject or of the direct object, although their syntactic operation and argument structure are different in each case – as will be verified later on. They are verbs such as africanizar/se, afrancesar/se, americanizar/ se, agabachar/se, engringarse, gauchear, etc., the denominal or deadjectival nature of which has been debated upon, because the lexical base of these verbal formations (africano [African], francés [French], americano [American], gabacho [Frog, derogatory for French], gringo [Gringo, Yankee, foreigner (from a non-Spanish speaking country)], * This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R; by the University of Alicante, under grant GRE 11-17; and by the Generalitat Valenciana, under grant GV/2014/089. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.01bar © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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gaucho [gaucho/Argentinian], etc.) has the peculiarity – regardless of the verbalization context – of being sometimes able to act as a noun (Los africanos caboverdianos hablan criollo [Cape-Verde-born Africans speak Creole]) and, on other occasions, as an adjective (Kenny es africano [Kenny is African]). In this sense, a number of authors argue that these verbs would be deadjectival (Rifón 1997: 79–80, 90) and would therefore have been very often created from denominal adjectives ending in -ano [-an] (americano [American], africano [African], hispano [Hispanic], etc.), although there may be some cases in which the verb comes from a denominal base through a re-categorization process (Rifon 1997: 47), as it happens with gauchear [to act like a Gaucho/ Argentinian] or the verb might even be directly characterized as denominal, as in the case of engringarse [to become (like) a gringo] (Serrano 1999: 4713). In any case, as will be seen below, and regardless of the base category (adjective or noun), the most important thing is to analyze how its meaning influences the semantics of the derived verb (Cfr. Serrano 1995: 119). Although far more attention has been paid to the form than to the content when dealing with verbal formation processes, since the formal relationships existing between the components of the new complex unit have been examined in more depth than the semantic relationships taking place between them, and even though our study will offer some comments on the morphological processes leading to the formation of these verbal lexemes, the emphasis will actually be placed on the syntactic-semantic properties – conceived in terms of arguments associated with them – as well as on their aspectual peculiarities. The semantic relationship established between the (nominal and adjectival) base and the corresponding verb to which it gives rise acquires special importance in this regard. Despite the criticism (Serrano 1999: 4710) about the use of analytic formations, that is, paraphrases (for instance, africanizar/dar carácter africano [to Africanize/to give an African character]) as the base from which the verb originates, the analytic periphrases used in our research will be exclusively taken as a methodological pattern for the purpose of establishing the argument structure of derived verbs, without this meaning that both constructions (synthetic and analytic) are being put on a level by us.1

2. Formation of verbs coming from gentilicios Two main morphological processes occur in the formation of the verbs examined in the present paper, namely: derivation and parasynthesis. With regard to verbal derivation, the verbalization process starts from the application of verbalizing suffixes to the root in an immediate way, or expressed differently, without the presence of interfixes (Pena 1980: 34). It is thus a heterogeneous derivation (Pena 1993: 217) which implies the formation of verbs from other word classes (nouns or adjectives). 1. Cfr. Cifuentes (2006: 252).



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

The most recurrent suffix in the creation of our verbs is -izar [-ize] (arabizar [to Arabize], africanizar [to Africanize], americanizar [to Americanize], españolizar [to Spanify], etc.), although it is also possible to find a different suffix applied to the same lexical basis (españolar, for example), or even the suffix -ear (gauchear) may appear in some case. Several authors have highlighted the causative meaning expressed by means of the suffix -izar (Pena 1993: 248; Serrano 1999: 4693), especially in the case of verbalization from gentilicio adjectives (Serrano 1999: 4695) or from adjectives expressing relationship or classifying ones (Rifón 1997: 96; Pena 1993: 253). The classifying nature of this derivative base mainly stems from their combination with the copulative verb ser, as opposed to the copulative verb estar, because, far from expressing transitory or state properties, they rather design inherent qualities which are conceived as permanent: Kenny es africano/*Kenny está africano [Kenny is African]. However, it has been argued that, since these gentilicios are verbalized through the suffix -izar, they get rid of their relationship meaning (belonging to a place) to adopt a qualifying meaning (Rifón 1997: 97; Val Álvaro 1992: 618) that would reflect a “usual type of or way of being or behaving” (Pena 1993: 258). The derived verbs tend to be transitive and it is their transitive variant that expresses an external cause which syntactically materializes as a subject and triggers the change of state that the direct object undergoes in this case (Elisa africanizó su forma de vestir [Elisa Africanized her way of dressing]), which would be connected to the factitive value that has usually been highlighted as a characteristic feature of such verbs (Pena 1980: 76). Nevertheless, Pena (1993: 258) states that this “global causative situation may be reduced to a resultative internal situation” through the non-transitive or pronominal variant with the unstressed personal form se: Su forma de vestir se africanizó [Her way of dressing became/got Africanized]. On some occasions, this suffix provokes the loss of the ending -ico [-ic/-al]2 (soviético>sovietizar [Soviet>Sovietize]) and, even, as pointed out by Serrano Dolader, it can give rise to a phonematic reduction of the derivative base by the speaker in the creation of neologisms: bolchevique> bolchevizar [Bolshevik>Bolshevize] (1999: 4695). As for the suffix -ear, it would give rise to verbs of an intransitive nature with a single verbal argument (Pena 1993: 242). In addition to its iterative meaning, which usually appears with verbs created from nouns (Pena 1980: 79), this suffix presents another important semantic value: ‘habituality’ (Pena 1980: 82; Pena 1993: 237), especially so when it combines with bases “designating individuals characterized by the typical, usual way of acting or behaving”. These are adjectives which express a quality understood as a mode of behavior, but which “become re-categorized into nouns designating a person characterized by a way of acting” (Rifón 1997: 47). It is worth highlighting the attributive interpretation collected by the NGLE about verbs formed with this suffix, which are often paraphrased as ‘actuar como N (o como A) [to act like N (or like A)]’ o ‘hacer de N (o de A) [to do as if you were N (or A)]’ (1999: 589).

2. Cfr. Pena (1980: 74) and Serrano (1999: 4695).

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The other morphological process involved in the formation of verbs expressing change of state is parasynthesis – which consists in the simultaneous application of a prefix and a suffix on the same derivative base. Therefore, as claimed by Serrano Dolader, “every parasynthetic verb consequently has a three-member structure [prefix + base + suffix]” (1999: 4701). It has been pointed out that the suffix is responsible for the change of category in the base (Alcoba 1993: 376); in other words, it would be a verbalizing thematic vowel. The following parasynthetic schemes predominate in the change-of-state verbs examined: – Derivative scheme [a + adjective + -ar]: agringarse, ainglesarse, aindiarse, acriollarse, afrancesar/se, agabachar/se, agaucharse. – Derivative scheme [en + adjective + -ar]: engringarse. The first pattern has a high frequency and, according to Serrano Dolader, it is the most productive one when it comes to creating neologisms (1995: 97; 1999: 4707). In the opinion of Serrano Dolader (1995: 85; 1999: 4705 and 4707), both schemes present a factitive-causative value (“hacer adquirir alguna o algunas de las cualidades definitorias del elemento que actúa como base [to cause to acquire one or some of the qualities represented by the base term]”), although it could develop inchoative meanings in its pronominal variants (“adquirir alguna o algunas de las cualidades representadas por el término base [to acquire one or some of the qualities represented by the base term]”). This author additionally stresses the fact that verbs created using the second parasynthetic pattern are formed from simple, non-derived, two-syllable adjectives belonging to the everyday lexis. Moreover, Serrano Dolader (1995: 84–85; 1999: 4704) emphasizes that these formations with the second derivative scheme are usually scarce and tend to be replaced by those following the first derivative pattern. The two aforesaid schemes can also be applied on the same base, thus giving rise to co-radical parasynthetic verbs (Serrano 1995: 102). This is what happens with the verb engringarse – of which the variant agringarse exists too.

3. Argument structure of verbs coming from gentilicios As explained above, the verbs analyzed here come from elements denoting origin or nationality. Without going into any controversy about whether the derivative base has a nominal or an adjectival nature, the truth is that the element acting as the base in the process which leads to the formation of these verbs will determine the argument structure of the verbal lexeme according to the meaning that it provides and incorporates to that lexeme (Cfr. Sala 1996: 104 and 106); hence the relevance of examining the link existing between the verb and its (nominal or adjectival) base for the purpose of establishing the arguments demanded by the verbal unit from a semantic point of view. Our study of these verbs which imply a change of state is synchronic; that is why our interest will not focus on the evolution of verbal units created from their



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

corresponding bases but rather on the semantic relationships that these units have with their bases (NGLE 1999: 582). With this aim in mind, our analysis starts from analytic structures without purporting to say “the analytic construction is the base from which a synthetic formation is produced” (Cifuentes 2006: 251). They will only be used in our work as an explanatory mechanism which allows us to identify the argument structure underlying the synthetic construction in each case. The analysis offered below will allow us to conclude that, regardless of whether the element acting as the derivation base is a noun or an adjective, it behaves like an adjective in the process that leads to the formation of these verbs because, as will be seen later on, it attributes properties and characteristics to an entity in all cases or, expressed differently, it provides a meaning which is typical of an adjectival component. The studies about deadjectival verbs in Spanish have distinguished four different types of meanings which lead to four distinct classes of argument structures that, according to Cifuentes (2011: 76), are equivalent to attributive constructions (with an attribute or with a predicative complement), which is why the “Spanish deadjetival formation is a way of conceptualizing attribution” (Cifuentes 2011: 76): – – – –

X be Adj (ser/estar X). [to be X] X cause [Y to become Adj.] (hacer X a Y). [to make Y become X] X become Adj. (hacerse X). [become X] X behave Adj. (comportarse como X). [to behave like X]

The verbal units analyzed by us follow the last three argument schemes.

3.1

Hacer X a Y [To make Y become X]

Verbs following this pattern are transitive verbs the direct object of which suffers a change of state when it acquires a quality or a property thanks to the effect of a causation (agentive or not)3 which syntactically materializes as a subject. However, as will be seen later (Section 3.2), this type of verb is likely to form part of intransitive constructions with an inchoative value through the adoption of an unstressed pronominal form se. Causativity in Spanish may be expressed in several ways, but our interest here only focuses on morphological causativity (Pena 1993: 249), also known as synthetic, and defined by Comrie as follows:

3. As is well-known, there is a difference between the notions of cause and agent, since the semantic role as an agent, associated with essentially human entities, implies a degree of voluntariness and intention in the cause semantic function. Despite this difference, the term cause is used here in a broad sense and more neutrally, without going into the degree of intentionality or voluntariness that can be shown by the entity that triggers the change of state suffered by the DO.

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A morphological causative means that the predicate of S undergoes some derivational process in order to express causativity, there being no separately expressed predicate of causation.  (1985: 331)

In other words, these are verbs originated from the attachment of a specific affix to a lexical base (noun or adjective). As is well-known, causativity implies the existence of two essential temporal subevents: a first sub-event which describes the activity developed by the entity as a cause triggering that process; a second sub-event which presents the state resulting from the passive object after acquiring a specific property. In the first sub-event or causing sub-event (Levin and Rappaport 1995: 83), the entity suffering the change of state still has not acquired the quality denoted by the derivation base, whereas in the second sub-event or caused event, the entity in question becomes altered as a result of acquiring the said quality. All these conceptual elements (cause, patient, state, etc.) can appear explicitly; they can be distinguished from one another in the analytic construction or can be semantically incorporated to the verb. Although the incorporation is a syntactic process that would explain the integration of the element which acts as the basis in the new verbal formation, the conflation or amalgam would be the semantic process thanks to which it would be possible for us to understand the occurring re-categorization from one category to another, with the resulting loss of syntactic independence of the conflated elements and the semantic repercussions that derive from the aforementioned conflation process. For this reason, our starting point in the analysis of the verbs examined is the concept of verbal conflation or amalgam – already applied in other works (Cfr. Barrajón 2011: 10). The component conflated with the verb in the examples analyzed is precisely the one which conveys the property, quality or state designated by the derivation base: (1) Elisa africanizó su forma de vestir [Elisa (Africanized) made her way of dressing be African] (2) Es curioso que Mathieu no intentara afrancesar mi apellido [It is curious that Mathieu did not try to make her surname be French] (3) John Ford americanizó su nombre [John Ford (Americanized) made his name be American] (4) La RAE ha castellanizado muchos extranjerismos [The RAE (Spanish Royal Academy of the Language) has Castilianized many foreign-origin words/made many foreign-origin words be Castilian] (5) Cervantes españolizó el género de la novela corta [Cervantes Spanified the short novel genre / made the short novel genre be Spanish] (6) Algunas marcas arabizan sus logotipos [Some brands Arabize their logotypes / make their logotypes be Arabic] (7) Su estancia Erasmus lo ha agabachado enormemente [His Erasmus stay has made her be a ‘gabacho’ (Frog) to an enormous extent]



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

(8) A Mrs. Clarke el vulgo le había acriollado el nombre y la llamaba Doña Clara [The ordinary people had Creolized Mrs. Clarke’s name (made her name be Creole) and called her Doña Clara] (9) Y pero en el italiano ocurre lo mismo, uno trata de italianizar las palabras [And, but the same thing happens in Italian, one tries to (Italianize) make words be Italian] (10) Cuando necesita nuevos términos que no existían en la lengua clásica, heleniza las palabras de otro origen [When he needs new terms which did not exist in the classical language, he Helenized / made words of other origins be Hellenic]4 (11) La reforma ortográfica no puede hacerse precipitadamente por procedimientos dictatoriales, como los que empleó Pedro el Grande para europeizar a los moscovitas [The spelling (ortographical) reform cannot be hurriedly done using dictatorial procedures, as those used by Peter the Great to Europeanize Muscovites] (12) Cierto, hay que romanizar a los germanos, pero tanto como eso, hay que germanizar a los romanos [True, it is necessary to Romanize Germans, but the same as that, it is necessary to Germanize Romans] It is important to highlight that those in whose opinion the derivation bases are adjectives (Cfr. Pena 1993: 258) stress the fact that gentilicios exclusively combine with the verb ser and not to with the verb estar, insofar as they do not express transitory states – which can be changed again – but denote characteristics which permit to include the element that they modify inside a specific class. They would consequently be classifying adjectives coming from nouns. What happens is that, since they form part of the verbalization process, they stop being relationship adjectives and become re-categorized as qualifying adjectives (González 2004: 67), which is why they now denote properties, qualities or states. As pointed out by Demonte (1999: 151) as well as by Bosque (1989: 118), the interpretation of a relational adjective as a qualifying one requires that its relationship meaning – which implies its association with a specific place (francés [French] → ‘de Francia [from France]’) – should turn into a qualitative meaning, based on the denotation of several characteristic properties from certain stereotyped, extra-linguistically determined features of a cultural nature. González Vergara’s words need to be remembered in this respect: Consequently, the use of a verb such as “afrancesar [make French]” in the sentence “su estancia en el extranjero afrancesó sus costumbres [his stay abroad made his customs be French]” implies the selection of stereotyped characteristics from the relational adjective “francés [French]” so that it can be interpreted as a qualifying adjective. That is why it seems strange to express this meaning with a verb such as “birmanizar [make Burmese]”, insofar as, on the whole, the inhabitants of Burma are not usually associated with a stereotype in our culture.  (2004: 68–69) 4. Some examples as this have been obtained from Corpus del Español (Davies 2002).

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The causative verbs shown in the preceding examples adapt to the paraphrase of “making something acquire a certain property or reach a certain state” (González 2004: 58). That property or state stems from the element acting as the base and it can be seen that the said property or state appears incorporated to the verb. The analytic structures shown between hard brackets in each case would actually derive from a short sentence without any verbal marks where the essential components would be the DO and a selected predicative object. Within that minimum clause, the DO would act as a logical or notional subject of the predicative object, since it is interpreted that the quality described by the predicative refers to the aforesaid DO (Demonte and Masullo 1999: 2501): (13) Elisa hizo que su forma de vestir fuera africana ← Elisa hizo africana su forma de vestir ← [(made) her way of dressing African] (14) Es curioso que Mathieu no intentara hacer que mi apellido fuera francés ← Es curioso que Mathieu no intentar hacer francés mi apellido ← [(make) my surname French] (15) John Ford hizo que su nombre fuera americano ← John Ford hizo americano su nombre ← [(made) his name (be) American] (16) La RAE ha hecho que muchos extranjerismos sean castellanos ← La RAE ha hecho castellanos muchos extranjerismos ← [(has made) many foreign-origin words Castilian] (17) Cervantes hizo que el género de la novela corta fuera español ← Cervantes hizo español el género de la novela corta ← [(made) the short novel genre Spanish] (18) Algunas marcas hacen que sus logotipos sean árabes ← Algunas marcas hacen árabes sus logotipos ← [(make) their logotypes Arabic] (19) Su estancia Erasmus ha hecho que él sea gabacho ← Su estancia Erasmus lo ha hecho gabacho ← [(has made) him ‘gabacho’ (Frog)] (20) El vulgo había hecho que el nombre fuera criollo ← El vulgo había hecho criollo el nombre ← [(had made) the name Creole] (21) Uno hace que las palabras sean italianas ← hace italianas las palabras ← [(makes) words Italian] (22) Hace que las palabras de otro origen sean helenas ← hace helenas las palabras de otro origen ← [(makes) words of other origin Hellenic] (23) Como lo que empleó Pedro el Grande para hacer que los moscovitas fueran europeos ← para hacer europeos a los moscovitas ← [(make) Muscovites European] (24) Cierto, hay que hacer que los romanos sean germanos y que los romanos sean germanos ← hay que hacer romanos a los germanos, y germanos a los romanos ← [(make) Germans Roman] [(make) Romans German]



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

Demonte and Masullo argue that the meaning conveyed through the paraphrase formed by the causative verb hacer and the predicative matches that of the corresponding derived verb: The complex predicate syntactically obtained from re-analyzing the causative with the predicative often shows a correspondence with a morphologically derived predicate of the same meaning.  (1999: 2507)

All the above allows us to state – in tune with Cifuentes Honrubia (2011: 77)– that even though these verbal formations show a causative scheme, the conceptual semantic scheme underlying all of them is actually attributive, very similar from a linguistic point of view to that of structures containing a predicative selected in a minimum clause and referred to a DO. Such verbs designate a change of state suffered by an entity affected by a cause. That state acquired by the direct object is directly related to the semantic properties expressed by the derivation base, which is why the underlying argument structure can be interpreted in an attributive fashion: […] they entail the attribution of a quality, property or state as the effect of a causation. In this regard, the affected entity changes its way of being or behaving. The resulting way of being or behaving may be reversible or not in reality. This does not prevent the language from considering it non-reversible if a new causation, for example, does not take place.  (Val Álvaro 1992: 618)

An aspect which deserves to be highlighted refers to whether the allocation of that quality or of that state is total or partial. The attribution base (the DO) had an inanimate nature in some of the previous examples (forma de vestir, mi apellido, su nombre, muchos extranjerismos, el género de la novela corta, sus logotipos, etc.), hence the need for that base to suffer such a change of state without it being able to exert any control whatsoever over the said base. Our impression in these cases is that this is a more or less permanent quality and, therefore, it would mean a total change of state, that is, in Example (1) su forma de vestir [its way of dressing] ‘se haría africana [would become African]’ and, consequently, ‘sería africana [would be (completely) African].’ Nevertheless, it would be advisable to wonder what would happen in the event that the attribution base should be human or animate, as in Su estancia Erasmus lo ha agabachado enormemente, europeizar a los moscovitas, romanizar a los germanos or germanizar a los romanos. Now, it could be interpreted that, far from becoming gabacho [Frog], europeo [European], romano [Roman] or germano [German], the subject has gone through a limited change and, therefore, it would have only acquired a number of specific customs or habits that would lead him to behave as that what is denoted by the corresponding gentilicio. This issue will be dealt with later on, but it would be worth making a brief analysis about the aspectual content of these verbs, insofar as the possibility for them to imply a total or partial change might be related to a greater or lesser delimitation of the denoted process (Cfr. Section 3.2).

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From an aspectual point of view, these predicates express simple events (i.e. they only occur once) and extended ones, that is, events which spread over time but “progress towards an internal limit” (De Miguel 1999: 3019); hence their association with a final point or a resultative state signaling the end of the event (which would correspond to the change of state suffered by the DO), beyond which they cannot make further progress: once John Ford Americanized his name, he could not Americanize it any more.5 Evidence of this time progression is their acceptance of the progressive periphrasis estar [to be] + gerund (25), as well as its possible combination with a time object of the type en una semana [in one week] (26), which suggests that “the event described by the predicate develops over the time period mentioned” (Morimoto 1998: 21) or also their compatibility with the periphrasis dejar de [to stop]6 (27), that would express the interruption of an event that was developing but has not culminated, or with adverbs of the type lentamente [slowly] and cuidadosamente [carefully]7 (28), which stress event duration: (25) Elisa está africanizando su forma de vestir [Elisa is Africanizing her way of dressing] (26) Algunas marcas arabizan sus logotipos en una semana [Some brands Arabize their logotypes in one week] (27) Su estancia Erasmus lo ha dejado de agabachar [His Erasmus stay has stopped making him be Frog] (28) A Mrs. Clarke el vulgo le había acriollado el nombre lentamente [The ordinary people had slowly Creolized Mrs. Clarke’s name] Furthermore, their delimited character can be checked through the rejection of temporal structures headed by durante [for] (nevertheless, as highlighted by De Miguel (1999: 3021–3022)) as it happens in (30), this type of time complementation with affected object predicates would not modify the ‘reached limit’ interpretation that is inferred from these predicates; instead, they would indicate the length of time during which the event occurred until it finished, which is why this could be placed on a level with the delimiting value of the temporal object with en [in] as opposed to those starting with en [in] (31); their incompatibility with time complementations introduced by hasta [until] (32); the possibility to form part of constructions such as llevarle a uno un año + x [to take somebody a year + x] (33) and the fact that the imperfect form of the verb does not imply the situation described by the perfect tense of the corresponding predicate (34): 5. That is why these predicates may form part of structures such as terminar de [to finish]: John Ford terminó de americanizar su apellido [John Ford finished Americanizing his surname] (Cfr. Morimoto 1998: 21). 6. Cfr. De Miguel (1999: 3037) and Gómez Torrego (1999: 3381). 7. See De Miguel (1999: 3038).



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

(29) *Es curioso que Mathieu no intentara afrancesar mi apellido durante una hora [It is curious that Mathieu did not try to make my surname French for an hour] (30) La RAE ha castellanizado muchos extranjerismos durante una semana = LA RAE ha castellanizado muchos extranjerismos en una semana [The RAE has Castilianized many foreign-origin words for one week = in one week] (31) Cuando necesita nuevos términos que no existían en la lengua clásica, heleniza las palabras de otro origen en cinco minutos [When he needs new terms which did not exist in the classical language, he Hellenizes words of other origin in five minutes] (32) *Cervantes españolizó el género de la novela corta hasta la primavera [Cervantes Spanified the short novel genre until the spring] (33) A Pedro el Grande le llevó un año europeizar a los moscovitas [It took Peter the Great one year to Europeanize Muscovites] (34) Algunas marcas están arabizando sus logotipos ≠ Algunas marcas han arabizado sus logotipos [Some brands are Arabizing ≠ have Arabized their logotypes] They would thus be accomplishments,8 delimited durative events involving two stages: “a development process oriented towards a specific direction” (Morimoto 1998: 15); and a final state resulting from the previous process – which would trigger a change in the DO in this case. That second stage becomes especially reinforced in the intransitive structures of an inchoative nature where these predicates can be included9 – to which the following section is dedicated.

3.2

Hacerse X [to become X]

The transitive causative verbs analyzed above can also give rise to pronominal structures which show the same type of attribution as the one described in Section 3.1, with one difference, though: when it has an inanimate nature, the subject does not cause the process, it is actually the one affected by the change of state, without the causation that triggers it being necessarily specified. These constructions consequently show a single participant about which a change of state is predicated, and that constitutes the notional object if its corresponding transitive variant is considered; in other words, it would be an unaccusative construction with the external cause pronoun se, 8. They could illustrate what Elena de Miguel and Marina Fernández (2000: 27) call “transitions (T1)”. 9. A number of authors have defined this twofold possibility as diathesis alternations and clearly see an aspectual contrast between an eventive structure – the one dealt in this section – and a stative structure which has as its aim to “relate an object (entity or event) to a property which characterizes it” (Fernández Montraveta, Vázquez García and Martí Antonín 2002: 389) that will be analyzed in the next section.

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the verbs of which would suffer “a ‘detransitivization’ or ‘decausativization’ process” (Mendikoetxea 1999: 1590). In such cases, the same as in the previous ones, the bases from which the verbs derive denote properties which can be conceived as states and, once again, that would be the meaning to appear conflated with the verb. The subject acquires a different state designated by the lexical base and, according to some authors, that state would “now be intrinsic to the Subject and is seen as non-variable” (Rifón 1997: 135). That is why, because they denote a change of state which involves the acquisition of a quality that becomes intrinsic to the subject, these verbs could be related to the verb ser [to be] and paraphrased by means of hacer(se) [to become] (Cfr. Rifón 1997: 135). This leads us to understand that the attribution of the property, quality or state is more or less permanent and also that the change is total: (35) Su forma de vestir se africanizó (se hizo africana) [Her way of dressing became African] (36) Mi apellido se afrancesó (se hizo francés) [My surname became French] (37) Su nombre se americanizó (se hizo americano) [His name became American] (38) Muchos extranjerismos se han castellanizado (se han hecho castellanos) [Many foreign-origin words have become Castilian] (39) El género de la novela corta se españolizó (se hizo española) [the short novel genre became Spanish] (40) Sus logotipos se arabizan (se hacen árabes) [Their logotypes become Arabic] (41) Las costumbres de esta localidad se han agabachado (se han hecho gabachas) [The customs of this town/locality have become ‘Frog’] (42) El nombre se había acriollado (se había hecho criollo) [The name had become Creole] (43) Uno trata de que las palabras se italianicen (se hagan italianas) [One tries to make words become Italian] (44) Las palabras de otro origen se helenizan (se hacen helenas) [Words of other origin become Hellenic] (45) Los moscovitas se europeízan (se hacen europeos) [Muscovites become European] (46) Que los romanos se germanicen (se hagan germanos) [That Romans become German] y que los germanos se romanicen (se hagan romanos) [and that Germans become Roman] In all these cases, the resultative situation is expressed without making the cause explicit – that is why the verb has one less argument. For Val Álvaro, “a change of state or the acquisition of a quality not controlled by the entity that suffers them or which is affected by them” (1992: 621) would be expressed although, as Rifón (1997: 100) points out, the semantic interpretation would not only depend on the value of the base but also on whether the subject can go through the aforesaid change of state



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

by itself without the need for the existence of an external element originating it (an issue that will be dealt with again shortly) or whether, on the contrary, it has to be understood that there is an agent or a cause which provoke the change mentioned above. This leads us to disagree with Porroche’s clarification, according to which the verb hacerse [to become], combined with absolute adjectives – i.e. those which do not permit to express different degrees of a quality – characteristically expresses “voluntariness and effort” (Porroche 1988: 136), insofar as that meaning would only be possible if the subject showed a human or animate feature. To this must be added that if, as explained above, such elements can be re-categorized and acquire a qualifying meaning when they form part of these verbalization processes, they might be subject to the same type of gradability as in the case of qualifying adjectives (Cfr. Bosque 1989: 123). Thus, it would be possible to say things like su forma de vestir es muy africana [her way of dressing is very African] or su apellido es poco francés [his surname is little French]. Briefly analyzing the aspectual properties of these predicates makes us point out firstly that some authors have highlighted the delimited nature of unaccusative verbs with se (De Miguel 1999: 3025), both because they can appear in absolute participle constructions (Una vez castellanizada la palabra penalti, no se admite su escritura con y [Once the word ‘penalty’ has been Castilianized, its spelling with a ‘y’ is not admitted]), for their combination with adverbial modifiers such as por completo or completamente [completely] (Las palabras de otro origen se helenizan completamente/por completo [Words of other origin become completely Hellenized]) or even due to their incompatibility with time expressions introduced by durante [for] as opposed to those headed by en [in] (Su forma de vestir se africanizó *durante una semana/en una semana [Her way of dressing became Africanized for/in a week], Mi apellido se afrancesó *durante un año/en un año [My surname became French for/in a year], Su nombre se americanizó *durante tres años/en tres años [His name became Americanized for three years/in three years], etc.), even though it was possible for us to detect cases where they would indeed be admissible, especially when the subject is human or animate: (47) Los logotipos se arabizan ¿?durante tres semanas/en tres semanas [The logotypes become Arabized for/in three weeks] (48) Uno trata de que las palabras se italianicen ¿?durante una semana/en una semana [One tries to make words become Italianized for/in a week] (49) Sergio se ha agabachado enormemente durante un mes/en un mes [Sergio has become hugely ‘frogged’ for/in one month] (50) Los moscovitas se europeízan durante tres años/en tres años [Muscovites become Europeanized for/in three years] (51) Los germanos se romanizan durante dos meses/en tres meses [Germans become Romanized for/in three months]

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In the first two cases, where the subject is inanimate, the presence of the object with durante seems strange (hence the question marks), unless it is interpreted that the processes were interrupted before reaching the limit (Cfr. De Miguel 1999: 3020). Expressed differently, los logotipos [logotypes] and las palabras [words] have been going through an Arabization and Italianization process for three weeks or one week, but they have not reached their limit – they have become neither Arabic nor Italian. However, when the subject is human or animate, both the complementations with durante and those introduced by en are perfectly valid, although they provide us with different interpretations. The human nature of the subject would allow the latter to control the acquisition of the quality or the change of state denoted by the verb – which in turn would leads us to think that the attribution of a quality can be understood in a permanent way (if a total change of state takes place), as stressed by the presence of a temporal object with en; or in a transitory way (if the change of state is partial), which becomes visible through the complementation with durante. It is the subject’s degree of voluntariness that can lead to one reading or the other. Our intention here is to make clear that one person can agabacharse, europeizarse or romanizarse [(to) become ‘Frogged’, Europeanized or Romanized] totally and thus experience a true change of state, which is why the interpretation could be that they ‘se han hecho gabachos, europeos o romanos’ completely [they have become Frog, European or Roman completely].’ Nevertheless, it would also be possible to think about a partial or limited state; in other words, that someone may acquire certain features leading them to ‘behave like a Frog, a European or a Roman’ without becoming one of them completely. Going back to the aspectual component, when a total change takes place and the attribution of a quality is conceived as something more or less permanent, the event denoted by the predicate is delimited and, therefore, it continues to be an accomplishment – the same as in the transitive variant. Instead, when the change of state is partial or limited and a temporary behavior, a transitory attribution, is expressed, what the predicate designates corresponds to a dynamic, durative – but not delimited – event;10 that is to say, it would be an activity. For this reason, it would not head towards an internal limit and the subject could abandon or interrupt that activity at any given time, without it meaning that our interpretation of the activity having been carried out stops being true. If one says that Los moscovitas se europeízan [Muscovites become Europeanized] and it is understood that they behave as Europeans; in other words, this predicate is conceived as an activity. The fact that they might stop becoming Europeanized and therefore stop behaving as Europeans leads us to interpret that Muscovites have acquired a number of specific European customs and habits during a certain period of time. Furthermore, being activities, they accept the progressive structure (Los moscovitas se están europeizando [Muscovites are becoming Europeanized);

10. Therefore, the approach by Fernández Montraveta, Vázquez García and Martí Antonín (2002), according to which the pronominal variant denotes a state in these cases, is not shared at all by us.



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

they can be used in the imperative form (Africanízate y dime cómo te sientes [Become Africanized and tell me how you feel), etc.11 Therefore, when the affected entity is human or animate, the limits between both interpretations become blurred and changeable and would always depend – according to the context and the meaning – on the speaker: (52) Parece que Elisa se ha africanizado tras su visita a Cabo Verde (se comporta como una Africana) [It seems that Elisa has become Africanized after her visit to Cape Verde (she behaves like an African woman)] (53) Puedes correr el riesgo de afrancesarte si prolongas demasiado tu estancia en París (comportarte como un francés o hacerte francés) [You may run the risk of becoming French if you extend your stay in Paris for too long (to behave like a Frenchman or to become French)] (54) Pueblos como los japoneses o los árabes se han afrancesado (se han hecho franceses) en lugar de agringarse (se han hecho gringos) [Peoples like the Japanese or the Arabs have become French instead of becoming ‘gringoed’] (55) O elegimos al padre subyugado, al indígena sometido y destruido, o elegimos al español que llegó para conquistar y acriollarse (hacerse criollo) [Either we choose the subjugated father, the dominated or destroyed native, or we choose the Spaniard who came to conquer and become Creolized] In (52), the presence of the temporal component tras su visita a Cabo Verde leads us to believe that the subject suffers a limited change of state on this occasion, since the features acquired in such a short period of time do not suffice to entail a total change. Expressed differently, Elisa ‘no se habría hecho africana en su totalidad [would not have become completely African],’ instead, she would have adopted certain customs that led her to behave like an African woman. In contrast, (53) shows us an example of interpretative ambiguity, since the quality denoted by the base can be conceived as something more or less permanent and as a total change; or instead, as something more episodic that would imply a temporary behavior. A stay in Paris can mean that the person in question decides to become completely French or simply adopts ‘certain customs or habits of French people’. As for (54), taking into account that the context refers to the gastronomy of the Arab and Japanese peoples, it is our contention that the change suffered by these peoples is a total one and that, therefore, both the Arabs and the Japanese ‘se han hecho franceses en lugar de gringos [have become French instead of Gringos]’ as far as gastronomy is concerned. Finally, in (55), because a reference is made to the Spanish colonization period, it makes the most sense to think about a total change; expressed differently, that Spaniards became Creoles instead of behaving as such.

11. Cfr. Morimoto (1998: 20–21).

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As can be seen, the limits between a transitory behavior and a real change of state are blurred and it will be the speaker who – on the basis of context and meaning – will opt for one interpretation or the other. The border between these two schemes is consequently unclear, and it could be represented on a scale which progresses from something more momentary to something more permanent: Hacerse X [To become X] Comportarse como X [To behave like X]

Figure 1.

This ambiguity does not arise when the subject is inanimate because, considering the examples above, un apellido [one surname], un nombre [one name], un extranjerismo [one foreign-origin word], etc., do not have the capacity to ‘comportarse como un francés, un africano [to behave like a French (person), an American (person),’ etc. Finally, regardless of the human or inanimate nature of the affected entity in these cases, what becomes clear is that it acquires a quality denoted by the lexical base and goes through a change of state, as it usually happens in predicates which combine with se (De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2000: 34). Hence the definition of the clitic as a “culminative se” (De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2000: 29), as an “aspectual operator which tells us that the event culminates at a point which eventually results in a change of state” (De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2000: 28), rather than as a telic or perfective clitic (De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2000: 31), which makes sense considering that the inchoative variant not always implies a delimited event.

3.3

Comportarse como X [To behave like X]

This is a highly common argument scheme in the verbalization processes examined here. In these cases, the subject owns a specific characteristic but, unlike the previous ones, it is not an affected entity, insofar as it does not exactly suffer a change of state. Instead, it develops a habitual activity, a dynamic process which takes place with a certain frequency and which is controlled by the subject this time (Cfr. Val Álvaro 1992: 622). Thus, the derived intransitive verbs express modes or forms of behavior. The DRAE allocates them the meaning of seguir las costumbres o la forma de ser de X [to follow X’s customs or behavior], which clearly explains why they could be paraphrased as comportarse como X [to behave like X], X corresponding to what is denoted by the lexical base. Not being affected by the process described by the verb in these cases, the subject develops a specific behavior marked by the element which acts as the base; it appears as an agent (Pena 1980: 82) who voluntarily and deliberately implements this process.



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

(56) Montan a caballo los tres y salen todas las mañanas a gauchear por la Pampa (comportarse como gauchos) [The three of them ride on horseback and go out to behave like Gauchos across the Pampa every morning] (57) No me gustaría correr el riesgo de que mi novia se me engringue (se me comporte como una gringa) [I would not like to run the risk of my girlfriend becoming gringoed] (58) Cuando Mar visita Orense, suele galleguear con sus amigos (comportarse como una gallega) [When Mar visits Orense, she usually behaves like a woman from Galicia with her friends] Any of the preceding examples enables us to check that the subject does not experience a total change of state, but a partial one, since it is under no circumstances interpreted that it acquires an intrinsic quality related to the verb ser. In other words, our interpretation is not that the subject is a gringo, a gaucho or a gallego [a man from Galicia], but simply that it expresses a temporary behavior and, therefore, the subject se comporta como un gringo, gaucho [behaves like a Gringo, Gaucho, etc]. Its meaning would thus be: “usual action or way in which the Agent usually behaves” (Rifón 1997: 53). With regard to the forms in -ear (gauchear, galleguear), Serrano Dolader underlines the fact that the bases from which such verbs stem are characterized by their “categorial vagueness or ambiguity” (1999: 4691) and Pena clarifies that these are elements initially conceived as adjectives which subsequently become re-categorized as nouns and “designate people characterized by their typical, usual way of acting or being (behavior)” (1993: 237) – which is why the derived verb collects that typical behavior designated by the derivative base. That predicative meaning would appear conflated with the verb. On some occasions, these verbs can even have their nominal correlate (it normally takes the suffixes -ada or -ería) which refers to the fact or the result from the activity described by the verb (Pena 1980: 82; 1993: 238): Gallegada: ‘2. f. Palabra o acción propia de gallegos [Word or action typical of Galicia-born people].’ Gauchada: ‘2. f. Arg. p. us. Acción propia de un gaucho [Action typical of a Gaucho].’ It is additionally worth highlighting what is said in the NGLE (2009: 589) about intransitive verbs in -ear: they can be paraphrased as ‘actuar como X [to act like X]’ o ‘hacer de X [to play the role of X]’, paraphrases associated with the idea of ‘comportarse como X [to behave like X]’. It is even argued in the NGLE that they can be interpreted attributively – both those coming from nouns and the ones which derive from adjectives. In aspectual terms and due to their meaning of habituality – as they express frequent everyday actions – they could be related to those predicates which denote multiple events (Cfr. De Miguel 1999: 3040). In any case, the fact that they express dynamic events, that they imply a certain temporal extension – i.e. that they are not delimited – leads us to think that these are activities, and also that they are characterized by their homogeneity (Cfr. Morimoto 1998: 15). In other words, if they go out to act

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like Gauchos across the Pampa every day, it can be said that they carried out the same activity throughout that period, namely: ‘gauchear’. That is why “the activity events, regardless of the moment when they cease or are interrupted, have already occurred” (De Miguel 1999: 3031). Other characteristics can be mentioned in addition to their homogeneity. In the first place, due to their non-delimited character, these predicates can combine with time objects introduced by durante [for] and even by hasta [until]. It is even possible to check that the imperfect form of the verb implies the situation described by the perfect tense: (59) Cuando Mar visita Orense, suele galleguear con sus amigos durante una semana [When Mar visits Orense, she usually behaves like people from Galicia with her friends for one week] (60) Montan a caballo los tres y salen todas las mañanas a gauchear por la Pampa hasta medio día [The three of them ride on horseback and go out to behave like Gauchos across the Pampa until midday] (61) Mi novia se me engringaba = Mi novia se me ha engringado [My girlfriend was becoming Gringoed = My girlfriend has become Gringoed] Moreover, being activities, they present the following peculiarities (Cfr. Morimoto 1998: 20–21): – They accept the progressive structure: Están gaucheando por la Pampa [They are behaving like Gauchos across the Pampa]. – They can appear as objects of verbs such as forzar [to force] or persuadir [to persuade]: No puedo forzar a mi novia a que se me engringue [I can’t force my girlfriend to become Gringoed]. – It is possible for them to be used in the imperative form: Galleguea un poco con tus amigos [Behave like Galicia-born people a bit with your friends]. – They accept adverbs such as deliberadamente [deliberately] or cuidadosamente [carefully] (which proves their agentive nature): Mi novia se me engringaba deliberadamente/cuidadosamente [My girlfriend was becoming Gringoed deliberately/ carefully]. – They are likely to appear in emphatic copulative sentences: Lo que hace Mar cuando visita Orense es galleguear con sus amigas [What Mar does when she visits Orense is to behave like people from Galicia with her friends].

4. Conclusions The most outstanding conclusion which can be drawn from the analysis performed in relation to verbs coming from gentilicios is that, regardless of their denominal or deadjectival nature, they all share an underlying argument structure of an attributive type. This is so because all the cases show the allocation of a property, quality or state to an entity which acts as the attribution base and which can syntactically act as a DO



Chapter 1.  The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios

or as a subject. The differences between one scheme and the other consequently have to do with the attribution base (subject or DO) and with the implied process (causative, inchoative or agentive). The quality, property or state denoted by the derivative base is the one that always becomes amalgamated with the verb. An important problem arises in those cases where the attribution base is a human or animate entity, insofar as the structure leads to interpretative ambiguity: it either permits to conceive the change of state in a total way, in which case it would fit the pattern of hacerse X [to become X] or leads us to interpret the change of state as partial or limited – which is why it would adapt to the scheme comportarte como X [to behave like X]. As the present study has allowed us to check, the imperfective argument structure hacerse X and the perfective argument structure comportarse como X not always appear as clearly differentiated patterns – and the limits separating them are often blurred. It would be necessary for us to resort to the context in order to really know how that change is conceived, whether as something momentary or episodic or, on the contrary, as something that happens in a permanent or intrinsic fashion. Lastly, aspectuality has helped us to characterize the verbs belonging to the first scheme as accomplishments, as dynamic events of certain duration which imply a development process resulting in a change of state – that becomes especially visible in their intransitive variant with se. This variant turns out to be problematic because, when the subject is human or animate, apart from adapting to two of the argument schemes analyzed (hacerse X and comportarse como X), it would embody two different aspectual structures: accomplishment, if the change of state suffered by the subject is total; and activity, when the change of state is partial or limited. In turn, the predicates belonging to the last argument structure analyzed are clearly activities: multiple events (for their frequentative and habitual nature) which denote durative, non-delimited actions that, even if they are interrupted, will always have occurred.

References Alcoba Rueda, Santiago. 1993. “Los parasintéticos: constituyentes y estructura léxica.” In La formación de palabras, Soledad Varela (ed.), 360–379. Madrid: Taurus Universitaria. Barrajón López, Elisa. 2011. “On meteorological denominal verbs in Spanish. Syntactic-­semantic properties and argument relationships.” In Spanish Word Formation and Lexical Creation, José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia and Susana Rodríguez Rosique (eds), 3–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/ivitra.1.01lop Bosque, Ignacio. 1989. Las categorías gramaticales. Madrid: Síntesis. Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 2006. “Verbos denominales locales en español.” In Estructuras léxicas y estructura del léxico, Elena de Miguel, Ana María Serradilla Castaño and Azucena Palacios Alcaine (coords), 247–271. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 2011. “Spanish deadjetival verbs and argument structure.” In Spanish Word Formation and Lexical Creation, José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia and Susana Rodríguez Rosique (eds), 65–105. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/ivitra.1.04hon

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Comrie, Bernard. 1985. “Causative verb formation and other verb-deriving morphology.” In Language typology and syntactic description. Volume III. Grammatical categories and the lexicon, Timothy Shopen (ed.), 309–348. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Davies, Mark. 2002. Corpus del Español: 100 million words. 1200s-1900s. http://www.corpusdelespanol.org. Demonte, Violeta. 1999. “El adjetivo: Clases y usos. La posición del adjetivo en el sintagma nominal.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), 129–215. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Demonte, Violeta and Masullo, Pascual J. 1999. “La predicación: Los complementos predicativos.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds), 2461–2520. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Fernández Montraveta, Ana, Vázquez García, Gloria and Martí Antonín, María A. 2002. “Alternancias diatéticas relacionadas con el aspecto.” Verba 29: 389–402. Gómez Torrego, Leonardo. 1999. “Los verbos auxiliares. Las perífrasis verbales de infinitivo.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds), 3323–3389. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. González Vergara, Carlos. 2004. “Sobre la formación de verbos causativos deadjetivales. Algunas regularidades semánticas.” Onomázein 10: 57–92. Levin, Beth and Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 1995. Unaccusativity. At the Syntax-Lexical Semantics Interface. Massachussets: The MIT Press. Miguel Aparicio, Elena de. 1999. “El aspecto léxico.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds), 2977–3060. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Miguel Aparicio, Elena de and Fernández Lagunilla, Marina. 2000. “El operador aspectual se.” Revista Española de Lingüística 30 (1): 13–43. Morimoto, Yuko. 1998. El aspecto léxico: delimitación. Madrid: Arco/Libros. Pena Seijas, Jesús. 1980. La derivación en español. Verbos derivados y sustantivos verbales. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela: Verba. Pena Seijas, Jesús. 1993. “La formación de verbos en español: la sufijación verbal.” In La formación de palabras, Soledad Varela (ed), 217–281. Madrid: Taurus Universitaria. Porroche Ballesteros, Margarita. 1988. Ser, estar y verbos de cambio. Madrid: Arco/Libros. Real Academia Española. 2001. Diccionario de la Lengua Española. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Real Academia Española. 2009. Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa Libros. Real Academia Española. Banco de datos (CREA) [online]: Corpus de referencia del español actual. . Rifón, Antonio. 1997. Pautas semánticas para la formación de verbos en español mediante sufijación. Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Sala Caja, Lidia. 1996. “Verbos parasintéticos formados con el prefijo en-.” Revista de Lexicografía 2: 99–132. Serrano Dolader, David. 1995. Las formaciones parasintéticas en español. Madrid: Arco/Libros. Serrano Dolader, David. 1999. “La derivación verbal y la parasíntesis.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), 4683–4756. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Val Álvaro, José F. 1992. “Representación léxico-semántica y verbos deadjetivales en español.” In Actas del VIII Congreso de lenguajes naturales y lenguajes formales, Carlos Martín Vide (ed.), 617–624. Barcelona: University of Barcelona.

chapter 2

Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality* Olga Batiukova This paper offers a scalar analysis of Russian verbal forms derived with the prefix pro-. The proposed approach is crucially based on two notions integrated into the Generative Lexicon framework: Dynamic Event Structure, a representation of the internal makeup of events in terms of subevents or phases which allows tracking the change of the arguments’ properties over time; and change function, which accounts for the different ways in which these properties may be affected (i.e., initiated, terminated, modified or left unchanged) in the course of the event. Special emphasis is placed on the role of scalar properties of the nominal arguments in the composition of change-of-state predicates. Keywords: scalarity, Dynamic Event Structure, change function, Qualia Structure, Russian prefixation

1. Introduction Scalar approaches to the description of temporal progression of events and its impact on the entities denoted by verbal arguments have contributed greatly to the understanding of fine-grained aspectual characteristics of verbal predicates. Crucially, they addressed some of the major shortcomings of traditional classifications in terms of aspectual features and event types, which put the burden of aspectual interpretation

* Earlier versions of this work have been presented at the Workshop “Verb Classes and Aspect” (Universidad de Alicante, March 2014) and Chronos 11: International Conference on Actionality, Tense, Aspect, Modality/Evidentiality (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, June 2014). I would like to thank their audiences (in particular Chris Kennedy, Beth Levin and Antonio Fábregas) for their feedback. I also gratefully acknowledge the many insightful comments on the final draft by Pier Marco Bertinetto, Olga Kagan, Elena de Miguel and James Pustejovsky. All remaining inconsistencies are entirely mine. This work was financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain under Grant No. FFI2012-33807 (Subprogram FILO). doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.02bat © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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on the verb and require additional mechanisms to account for cases where its features are altered under the influence of other components of the predicate. An example of how referential properties of the arguments are related to the verbal meaning are the incremental theme predicates, which establish a homomorphism between the physical extension of the affected object and the temporal unfolding of the event. Predicates of creation and consumption have been traditionally considered as incremental, since every bit of the event corresponds to a part of the created or destroyed object. If the object is fully effected or affected as a consequence of the event (i.e., if it comes into existence or disappears altogether), the predicate is telic, and if the degree of affectedness is lower, atelic. This work is inspired in several studies of the past two decades (Jackendoff 1996; Hay et al. 1999; Ramchand 1997; Kennedy 2012; Kennedy and Levin 2008; Pustejovsky and Ježek to appear; Rappaport Hovav and Levin 2010, etc.), which have shown that the physical extension of the entity referred to by the incremental argument is not the only aspectually relevant parameter, and that this argument does not need to be the direct object or the unaccusative subject (contra Tenny 1994). According to these authors, an incremental predicate is based on the relation between the event denoted by the verb and a scalar (not necessarily physical) property of one of its arguments. The difference with respect to the classical perspective is that it is not the argument that needs to be affected, but one of its properties. Different groups of predicates are based on different scalar properties. Motion verbs lexicalize spatial scales (paths), Dowty’s (1991) incremental theme predicates are based on physical extension scales, deadjectival gradual achievement predicates are based on property scales encoded by the respective adjectives, etc. It is essential to keep in mind that these properties, in and by themselves, do not imply change. However, they are crucial to obtain a change-of-state interpretation given that the verb almost never lexicalizes a scale by itself.1 The two exceptions are the deadjectival change-of-state verbs (widen, blacken, etc.) and the vertical motion verbs (descend, rise, etc.), which do lexicalize a scale (property and path, respectively) and can be interpreted as telic without the support of their arguments. In the rest of cases, the contribution of verbal arguments is essential for defining the change expressed by the predicate. The existing analyses, however, are usually limited to spatial and adjectival scales, as well as scales lexicalized by incremental themes.2 1. Filip (2008) points out that virtually any verb can serve as a building block from which a telic predicate can be built, whenever the event it denotes can be associated with an overtly expressed or contextually provided scale. 2. Kennedy (2012) adopts an extensional perspective and argues that nouns associated to incremental themes include the measure function NU (natural units), which maps individuals and times to degrees (e.g., the individuals with the property ‘pie’ are mapped to the scale that measures this property in natural units). He does mention that the NU function is based on intensional meaning parameters, but does not elaborate on this further.



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

The other scalar properties of the nominal arguments are still largely unaccounted for: even when acknowledged, they are not studied in depth, and are usually treated as pragmatic or non-linguistic attributes (Kennedy 2012; Hay et al. 1999; Piñón 2008) and not as syntactically relevant lexical-semantic features. Many authors acknowledge that the ‘other knowledge sources’ can enforce the graduality properties of verbs assigning the incremental theme role, such as ‘normal way of eating’ for eat (Krifka 1992: 45). This knowledge interferes with one of the basic mapping properties underlying the incremental relations in Krifka’s theory, mapping to (sub)events, whereby every proper part of the object must be related to a unique subevent: “With mapping to events, it is often the case that only a certain class of parts of the object are relevant. As an example, consider eat the apple and peel the apple; in the first case, all the parts of the apple are involved, whereas in the second case, only the surface parts are. […] To handle these phenomena, we may assume that the verb selects specific aspects of an object (e.g. only its surface)”. Similar remarks can be found elsewhere: Tenny (1994), Kennedy (2012), etc. Piñón (2010) points out two ways of addressing this issue: “The first would be to attempt to build more information into the semantic representations to allow the desired inferences to be drawn. Yet this strategy can easily lead to overly complex semantic representations that are difficult to revise in a modular fashion. The second strategy would be to try to conduct local axiomatic theories of the kinds of events denoted by the verbs of interest. Such local theories are not only easier to revise in a modular fashion but they also allow for a cleaner separation of linguistic and ontological issues”. Piñón adopts the second strategy and proposes treating Krifka’s aspects as the value of functions of the type . For example, the functions skin-of(x) and edible-part-of(x) map ‘apple’ to ‘skin of the apple’ and to ‘the edible part of the apple’, respectively. Here, instead, will be adopted the first strategy. The main goal will be to show that we can gain new insight into the scalar properties of nominal arguments and the predicates hosting them if we take as theoretical background the following representations and mechanisms: – enriched lexical entries of the verb and the verbal arguments, which include the qualia relations as a basic typing information; – a dynamic representation of the event structure, which allows to decompose the event in identifiable subevents and to track the change of the object’s properties over time; – compositional mechanisms responsible for type matching and adjustment within the predicate.

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Pustejovskyan Generative Lexicon theory (henceforth GL3) provides a framework within which this goal may be reached. This compositional and lexically-oriented approach will be applied here to analyze the scalar properties of Russian Aktionsarten using as a case study verbs with the prefix -pro. This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the theoretical framework: the notion of scale and its relation to verbal aspect are outlined in § 2.1; § 2.2 is focused on the Dynamic Event Structure (DES), a formalism for modeling the temporal progression of events; § 2.3 is devoted to the change functions, which relate the DES and the properties of nominal scales. Section 3 provides a brief overview of the Russian aspectual system (§ 3.1); presents the linguistic data to be dealt with (the verbal prefix pro-), lays out the general approach to its semantics (§ 3.2), and goes over the previous scalar approaches to Slavic aspectual morphology (§ 3.3). Section 4 offers a detailed analysis of the main uses of pro-, formalized in terms of DES and a related logical form containing a change function. Section 5 sums up the findings of the previous sections and reflects on their implications for the scalar approach to verbal aspect and event structure.

2. Theoretical framework 2.1

Scales: Definition, types and relation to verbal aspect

In the studies followed here, the scale is defined in terms of three parameters: a set of degrees (D), a dimension (δ), and an ordering relation ( 0), e.g., 68 [degrees Fahrenheit] = 20 [degrees Celsius] × 1.8 + 32. – a ratio scale is based on a measure unit, which is the only arbitrarily chosen parameter. It is order-preserving and the distance between the degrees is constant, plus it satisfies the equality of ratios. A scale based on one measure unit can be derived from another by multiplication by a constant: 6.56168 [feet] = 2 [meters] × 3.28084.

2.2

Dynamic Event Structure5

One of the crucial contributions of the Generative Lexicon (GL) to the study of aspect is the notion of subeventual structure, which renders events not as atomic entities but as complex structured representations (event structures, ESs) composed of lowerlevel components, event phases or subevents (Pustejovsky 1991, 1995 and subsequent work). Lower-level event types are states and processes, which can represent independent events or be combined to derive complex events (transitions). The tree structures contain the specification of the overall event type and the constituent subevents (Pustejovsky 1991):6 5. The content of this section is largely based on Pustejovsky (2013) and Mani and Pustejovsky (2012), with my interpretation of the ES model put forward there. 6. They also include the ordering relation between subevents, but I will ignore this here and assume by default that the subevents are ordered by the relation ‘ do-pis-yva-t’I [to be finishing writing] (ongoing or habitual/iterative).9 In (13b), the base form pisat’ [write, to be writing] is imperfective. The perfective form do-pisat’ [to finish writing] is derived by adding the perfectivizing prefix do-, and the secondary imperfective dopis-yv-at’ [to be finishing writing] is derived from the prefixed form by adding the suffix -yva-. Simple imperfectives are often compared to mass nouns: they do not refer to concrete bounded events but rather to continuous, homogeneous situations. Perfectives, on the other hand, are like count nouns: they are quantified and refer to temporally and spatially anchored, discrete events. 8. Most simple forms are imperfective; a small number (about 30) of simple verbs are perfective and a few simple verbs are ambiguous between perfective and imperfective. 9. The superscripts I and P stand for ‘imperfective’ and ‘perfective’, respectively.

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It is generally assumed in classical descriptive studies (Isačenko 1960[2003], Maslov 1985) that the second and the third members of the derivative chain (dopisat’P and do-pis-yva-t’I) constitute a lexically identical pair differing only in aspectual meaning. By contrast, perfectivizing prefixation is not a purely grammatical process, because it adds extra bits of meaning to the stem. When these additional meaning components lie beyond the domain of aspectual values and lead to the formation of a new lexical item, the prefixes responsible for this change are called qualifying or lexical (Isačenko 1960[2003]; Smith 1991; Ramchand 2004, etc.). Lexically prefixed forms can usually undergo secondary imperfectivization and form a genuine aspectual pair. In other cases, prefixation does not change the verbal meaning that radically and it serves to express aspectual meanings associated with the Aktionsarten (these prefixes are labeled as modifying or superlexical). It should be pointed out that classifying a prefix or even a particular meaning of a prefix as lexical or superlexical is not a trivial matter (Romanova 2006; Tatevosov 2008; Kagan 2015): grammaticalization is a gradual process, and it should be expected that many cases will fall somewhere between its initial stage, that of lexical prefixation, and its final stage, the superlexical prefixation. I will be using both terms for convenience without committing to any particular conceptualization of aspectual distinctions.

3.2

The meanings of pro-

As most perfectivizing prefixes, pro- is highly polysemous. The preposition pro means ‘about, concerning’. When used as a prefix, it connotes penetration, exhaustion, completeness and thoroughness. These meanings are often captured by through in English: Flier (1975) points out that the path denoted by pro- verbs spans the domain from the inceptive to the terminal limit. Even in its superlexical uses, pro- is ascribed to two different Aktionsarten: perdurative and terminative (cf. Batiukova 2008). Terminative forms denote completed events, they are usually transitive and have a theme object, as in (14). The perduratives encode non-culminating events limited to a time period, as in (15): (14) a. pro-čitat’ knigu b. pro-pet’ molitvu

[read (through) the book] [sing a prayer (from the beginning to the end)]

(15) a. pro-čitat’ dva časa b. pro-pet’ ves’ den’

[read for two hours] [spend the day singing]

This division seems rather ad hoc, since the perduratives are tailored for a particular class of quantized DOs, the time measure complements. If we also consider the lexical uses of -pro, the picture gets even more complicated (Flier 1975; Krongauz 1998; Kuznecov 1998; and Janda and Lyashevskaja 2013). The following classification sums up the main uses of pro- and the most frequent syntactic patterns associated to each use. The grammaticality judgments are intended to verify the acceptability of the respective predicates without pro-, the glosses and translations correspond to the prefixed form.



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

1. distance: bounded directed motion

1.1 directed motion covering a certain distance

(16) (pro)jti s načala do konca ulicy pro-walk-dir. from beginning to end of street [walk from the beginning to the end of the street]

1.2 directed motion past a reference point on the path (‘pass by’)

(17) *(pro)bežat’ kiosk / (pro)bežat’ mimo kioska pro-run-dir. kiosk-acc. / pro-run-dir. past kiosk-gen. [run past the kiosk] 2. deformation: penetrate a physical object in a manner denoted by the base verb

2.1 the DO is the pierced object

(18) ?(pro)bit’ stenu pro-hit wall-acc. [make a hole in the wall (by hitting)]

2.2 the DO is the created orifice and the pierced object is introduced by the preposition v ‘in’

(19) (pro)rezat’ polyn’ju vo l’du pro-hack ice-hole-acc. in ice-dat. [make an ice-hole in the ice] 3. total affectednesss: the theme is totally affected by the process denoted by the base verb (20) a. (pro)peč’ testo pro-bake dough-acc. [bake the dough through/thoroughly] b. (pro)solit’ rybu pro-salt fish-acc. [salt the fish] (e.g., to preserve it) 4. spending/consumption: the theme is totally consumed by the process denoted by the base verb

4.1 Spend some time on the process denoted by the base verb

(21) a. (pro)govorit’ dva časa pro-talk two-acc. hours-gen. [talk for two hours] b. (pro)xodit’ dva časa pro-walk-non-dir. two-acc. hours-gen. [walk for two hours]

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4.1.1 The time spent corresponds to the duration of the event denoted by the DO (22) ?(pro)govorit’ vsju lekciju pro-talk all lecture-acc. [talk through the lecture]

4.2 Spend the material good denoted by the DO on the process denoted by the base verb

(23) *(pro)govorit’ den’gi pro-talk money-acc. [spend the money on talking on the phone] This classification evidences that there are notorious semantic (and, sometimes, syntactic) differences even within the same group of uses of pro-. However, the approach defended here is based on a unified analysis: as will be shown in the remainder of this work, the meaning of the derived verbs can be accounted for by postulating an underspecified and unique meaning for the prefix and reducing the variability in its interpretation to the difference in the base verb’s semantics and how it is combined with the meaning of the verbal arguments, in particular their scalar attributes. The first observation to be made in regard to the meaning contributed by pro- is that it consistently derives scalar change-of-state predicates. I will argue that pro- is a crucial component of scalar change predicates, to the point that any predicate it appears in must be interpreted as scalar and telic.10 Pro- does not induce the scale in stricto sensu (except when it adds its own argument, cf. below), but it does signal that there is a scale, and that the upper bound on that scale (test in the terms adopted here, § 2.2) must be reached (and sometimes it may be exceeded). More formally, I will defend that pro- lexicalizes a particular kind of change function in the sense presented in § 2.3: it maps individuals to a function from states to states. Furthermore, it has the following properties: – its meaning is compatible with three of the four types of change functions: modification, initiation and termination (persistence is excluded), which results in a change-of-state interpretation – it always introduces an incremental-change argument, which tracks the change of the relevant scalar property over time – the value assigned to the incremental argument at the end of the event must match or exceed the value introduced by the argument lexicalizing the test. The semantic representation in (24) captures these intuitions:

10. Except when it is combined with the time scale: examples like (21) are usually classified as atelic under most definitions of telicity (cf. § 4.4.1 for details).



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

(24) ⟦pro-V⟧ = λPλAλxλyλz→λe[P(x, e, z→) ∧ A(x)(end(e)) ≥ y]

P – predicate lexicalized by the base verb x – a rgument affected (initiated, terminated or modified) by the action denoted by V A – scalar attribute of the argument x A(x) – value of the scalar attribute A of x end(e) – function mapping the event onto its final point y – value of A lexicalized by the test

As will be demonstrated in § 4, the semantic difference between the uses of prolargely depends on which element of the predicate (the base verb, its argument(s), its adjunct(s), the argument introduced by pro-) lexicalizes the different components of the scalar structure underlying the change-of-state event: – program α, which brings about the state-to-state transitions – scalar dimension – ordering relation – maximal element of the scale (the test). It will also be shown that the relationship between the scalar properties of the verb and its arguments, and the scale lexicalized by the predicate as a whole is determined by the following hierarchy11 (first mentioned in Součková 2004): – if the components of the scale are provided by the base verb (as in the ‘distance’ uses, § 4.1), this scale will be the one acted upon, and pro- will merely signal that the scalar change program has been completed and the test has been reached; – if the combination of the base verb and its arguments and adjuncts does not, in and by itself, lexicalize scalar change, pro- will signal that the predicate must be interpreted as scalar and telic, and that its components must be (re)interpreted in order to be able to provide the scalar components; – if the existing members of the predicate cannot be related to a scale, the prefix will add its own argument in order to provide the missing scalar components. In addition to specifying which elements of the predicate encode the scalar components, this approach accounts for the relation of change with the temporal dimension, which is inherently scalar.

3.3

Previous scalar accounts of prefixation in Slavic

One of the first studies elaborating on the scalar nature of Slavic prefixes is Součková (2004). She claims that the prefixes na- and po- contain extensive measure functions, essentially following Filip (2000). She further develops this idea and argues that these

11. A breach of this hierarchy results in increased idiomaticity and loss of compositionality (§ 4.4.2).

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prefixes can either delimit and measure an interval on a scale (i.e., they apply to a scale and return an interval on the scale, the degree of change), or measure a previously delimited interval on a scale. The Czech examples in (25a, b) illustrate the first scenario: in (25a) the prefix na- delimits the degree of change on the scale of quantity and defines its extent as ‘large/sufficient’; in (25b), the prefix po- delimits the degree of change on the adjectival scale of witheredness and defines its extent as ‘relatively small’. In (25c), po- applies to a previously delimited degree of change on the spatial scale (the distance from the source), therefore its only function is to measure the extent of the spatial interval, which is defined as ‘short’. (25) a. Petr sem na-nosil židle / nábytek / vodu.  [(4a) in Součková 2004] Petr here na-carried chairs / furniture / water [Petr brought a lot of chairs / furniture / water here.] b. Tulipány po-vadly. [(38a) in Součková 2004] Tulips po-withered [The tulips withered a little.] c. Jakub úlekem po-od-skočil.  [(32b) in Součková 2004] Jakub fright-instr po-from-jumped [Jakub jumped (once) a bit away, as he got frightened.] This approach to the semantics of the verbal prefixes as measure functions is compatible with the one defended here in that the prefixes are regarded as elements that define the scalar properties of the derived verb and the predicate it projects, and that interact with the scalar attributes of the other members of the predicate. However, it has only been tested on na- and po-, which makes it challenging to extrapolate to other prefixes. In particular, we will see that, unlike na- and po-, pro- can combine with verbs that do not encode gradual change (e.g., with states, § 4.4.1). It will also be shown that this prefix does not necessarily apply to something that a priori has scalar structure (when there is no scalar structure available, pro- introduces an additional argument to force a ‘completed scalar-change’ interpretation, cf. § 4.4.1.1 and § 4.2) and that, unlike na- and po-, it mostly applies to closed scales (§ 4). Filip (2008) argues that Slavic verbal prefixes are scale-inducing expressions: they specify that the subevents of the event denoted by the predicate are ordered relative to a scale (i.e., they provide an ordering criterion on events) similarly to the goal and result phrases in Germanic (e.g., ‘Mary waltzed into the room’, ‘He wiped the table clean’). The information on which scale it is in each case is provided by the lexical semantics (of the verb and its arguments) and extralinguistic context. According to Filip, the prefixes license the telic (or maximal) interpretation but do not automatically impose it: the indication that the event reaches the upper bound on the scale with respect to which it is ordered is grammaticalized by the perfective (either prefixed or simple) verbal form as a whole rather than by the prefix in and of itself. The ordering criterion, which the scalar predicates must satisfy, has two ingredients (Filip 2008: 9): there must be a scale relative to which an event can be ordered, and a homomorphism by which the ordering on events is induced. I will elaborate



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

on the first component and show that the prefix exploits the scalar components (including the ordering relation) independently encoded by the lexical items making up the predicate rather than adding the scalar meaning components to the predicate. It only provides them when there are none available in the predicate headed by the base verb. The scalar approach to verbal prefixation put forward in Kagan (2012, 2013, 2015, and others) is couched as the Scale Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, “a verbal prefix imposes a relation between two degrees on a scale, one of which is associated with the event denoted by the verbal predicate, and the other is the standard of comparison” (Kagan 2013): (26) The Scale Hypothesis: If Π is a verbal prefix in Russian, then ⟦Π⟧ instantiates the following template: λPλdsλdλxλe.[P(d)(x)(e) ∧ dRds]

R: relation between d (degree associated with the event denoted by the verbal predicate) and ds (standard of comparison) P: event property denoted by the base verb If we assume, with Filip (2008), that prefixes license the maximal interpretation of events, the Scale Hypothesis puts emphasis on what counts as a maximal event. This depends on the relation R lexicalized by any given prefix, i.e., what amount of change with respect to the standard of comparison must be reached by the event. It is argued that R is the same for all the uses of a given prefix, and the following kinds of relations are assumed: ≤ (‘lower than or equal to’), < (‘lower than’), = (‘identity’), ≥ (‘higher than or equal to’), > (‘higher than’), and ⊆ (‘inclusion’). In addition to the relation between degrees, the parameters that yield variation among the prefixes are: – the scalar dimension (to what kind of scale the prefixes apply) – the nature of the standard of comparison (linguistically expressed, contextual, functional) – the ordering relation on the scale (e.g., the assignment of goal, source and direction to path scales) – the nature of the degree associated with the event: it can be the degree of change argument (differential degree to which a scalar property characterizes an event participant), the degree of a scalar property reached by an event participant at the end of the event, the degree of resultant state (when the resultant state is gradable), or the degree defining the event as a whole (for states). In this approach, pro- is argued to impose the relation of identity between the standard of comparison (which is expressed linguistically or contextually) and the degree of change argument. In (27a), the interval covered on the spatial scale is equal to the interval between the beginning and the end of the street; in (27b) the temporal

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duration of the talking event is equal to the standard specified in the measure phrase, ‘for two hours’: (27) a. (pro)jti s načala do konca ulicy pro-walk-dir. from beginning to end of street [walk from the beginning to the end of the street] b. (pro)govorit’ dva časa pro-talk two-acc. hours-gen. [talk for two hours] The fine-grained meaning parameters handled by the Scale Hypothesis make it possible to delve deeper into the issues related to the contribution of prefixes to the construction of scalar predicates. As will become apparent in subsequent sections, many of the elements of the DESs correspond to the parameters singled out within this framework and other previous research on scalarity: e.g., the standard of comparison is embedded in the test in DES, and R is couched as the relation between consecutive states within a complex event and the test (in this respect, I believe that the DES provides a greater flexibility when it comes to relating degrees to specific subevents). However, it will be argued here that some of its postulates are too strong, for example, the requirement that all the uses of the same prefix express the same relation between the standard of comparison and the degree associated with the event. As will be verified in § 4.1.2, some of the uses of pro- lexicalize the ‘greater than’ relation rather than ‘identity’, which would mean that, contrary to the Scale Hypothesis, the same prefix is allowed to lexicalize more than one relation between two degrees. Also, the present analysis will put emphasis on the scalar elements contributed by nominal arguments, which, I believe, is essential for predicates involving degree of change arguments. This will allow us, among other things, to account in a fairly systematic way for the meanings usually considered as idiosyncratic or idiomatic (e.g., the spending/ missing uses, § 4.4.2). As pointed out in this brief review, in many respects the approach argued for in this work picks up where the previous studies left off. One of the main goals I would like to accomplish is to revisit the bearing of pragmatic factors on the interpretation of scalar predicates. Specifically, I believe that what is often referred to as contextuallyprovided scalar elements can, in many cases, be derived compositionally (and independently from pragmatics), based on the lexical semantics of the verbs and their arguments. Since the information encoded in the lexical entries is needed elsewhere in the grammar, it should be taken advantage of before we resort to the much wider and less constrained pragmatic knowledge.



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

4. Analysis of pro- using the Dynamic Event Structure 4.1

distance: bounded directed motion

4.1.1 Directed motion covering a distance Directed motion verbs in Russian (idti [go, walk], exat’ [ride, drive], bežat’ [run], letet’ [fly], plyt’ [swim], etc.) lexicalize not only the manner but also direction, which is a key component of the path (Talmy 2000). Their (otherwise identical) non-directed counterparts (xodit’, ezdit’, begat’, letat’, plavat’) are pure manner-of-motion verbs. Directedness is a key component of scalar change in motion predicates. Directed motion verbs relate to the spatial dimension and lexicalize the ordering relation (defined by directedness), hence they encode directed change programs (cf. § 2.2). However, directed motion can be endless: there is always a beginning (lower bound) but not necessarily an end (upper bound). What is needed in order to obtain a telic predicate is an indication of which is the upper bound of the covered spatial interval (the completion test as defined in § 2.2). This indication can be provided by verbal arguments in different ways (Krongauz 1998): – the beginning and the end of the spatial interval: (28) (pro)jti s načala do konca ulicy pro-walk-dir. from beginning to end of street [walk from the beginning to the end of the street] – its end (the beginning may be recovered from context): (29) (pro)exat’ do vokzala pro-ride/drive-dir. to station [drive (all the way) to the station] – a measure expression: (30) proplyt’ tri kilometra pro-swim-dir. three-acc. kilometers-gen. [swim for three kilometers] – the name of a natural space interval: (31) projti ves’ put’ pro-go-dir. all way-acc. [go all the way] Since all the relevant scalar components are provided by the base verb (dimension and ordering) and the verbal arguments (the upper bound), pro- just signals that the scalar change program has been completed and the test has been reached (i.e. it telicizes the predicate). The respective imperfective form does not entail completion:

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(32) a. Ivan exal na vokzal, no tak tuda i ne doexal. [Ivan was going to the station, but he never got there.] b.  Ivan proexal do vokzala {potixon’ku / za čas}, (*no tak tuda i ne doexal). [Lit.: Ivan went all the way to the station {little by little/in an hour}, but he never got there.] The compatibility with the ‘in x time’ adverbial (za čas) and the gradual adverbial potixon’ku [gradually, little by little] shows that these bounded directed events are accomplishments.12 The DES below represents the Example (29), proexat’ do vokzala ‘pro-ride/drivedir. to the station’: (33)

e[i,j] ride (x,p) →

e1

e11

loc(x) ≠ v? → ride (x,→p) ride (x,p) e1k e12

e2 loc(x) = v?

x – moving theme p – incremental path created by directed motion v – goal (station) →

The event represented in (33) has two subevents. The first one (e1) is the process of the theme x moving along the incremental path p→ created by the ride-program. This process goes on as long as it can be verified (by the inner test [loc(x) ≠ v]) that the theme is not at the goal location, the station. If [loc(x) ≠ v] is false, the ride-program stops and skips to the next program (the outer test [loc(x)=v?]). If it is true, the resultant state (e2) has been achieved and the event is completed. The Event Frame Structure below is more explicit about how the incremental path is built by variable assignment and reassignment. The initial location assigned to the theme x in the first frame (the initial state) is y, and the initial point of the path p is b. In the next frame, the location of x is reassigned the value z, which is ordered by the relation ‘≤’ with respect to the previous location and which is added as a new location to the path ([p:=(p,z)]). The variable reassignment is iterated by the operator [+] as long as [loc(x)≠station] is satisfied. Once it fails, the program skips to the third frame, where it is verified that the final location of the theme is the station.

12. Two recent studies on the interaction of adverbial modifiers with incremental predicates in Russian are Braginsky and Rothstein (2008) and Bertinetto and Lentovskaya (2013). Although potixon’ku belongs to the colloquial register and is not mentioned in these works, one of its meanings (‘bit by bit/gradually’) is incremental (similarly to other adverbs of this class, such as postepenno [gradually]), and it is only compatible with incremental predicates (accomplishments and degree achievements).



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

(34) loc(x):=y, p:=b

[loc(x):=z, y≤z, p:=(p,z)]+ loc(x)≠station?

loc(x):=z, z=station loc(x)=station?

The lambda expression (35) denotes that the predicate headed by the pro- verb treats the goal v and the theme x as persistent arguments, and the incremental path p→ as an initiated argument. (35) λv λ⇀p→λx [pro-ride (x, p→, v)]

4.1.2 Directed motion past a reference point on the path (‘pass by’) In this use of pro-, the base verb does not combine with any of its usual complements, the goal or the path, which, as noted in the previous section, provide the upper bound of the spatial scale. The prefix needs to add its own argument in order to derive a scalar change predicate and, as shown in (36), it converts the PP-adjunct of the base verb into a true argument denoting a reference point on the path: (36) *(pro)bežat’ kiosk / (pro)bežat’ mimo kioska pro-run-dir. kiosk-acc. / pro-run-dir. past kiosk-gen. [run past the kiosk] Under this use of pro-, two interpretations are possible: ‘miss the intended goal’ or ‘pass an intermediate point on the path’. Either way, the predicate is clearly telic (the event culminates after the reference point is reached, see (37b)) even though the reference point is not the maximal telos: the motion event can continue beyond it. This use shows that the test does not necessarily have to be based on an identity relation between the reference point and the final location of the motion event. Thus, it challenges the claim that the relation between the degree reached in the course of the event and the standard of comparison is fixed for each prefix (Kagan 2015).13 13. It could be argued that, within the Scale Hypothesis, this issue may be solved partially by replacing the ‘>’ relation with ‘≥’ in the formal representation of the semantics of pro-, the way we did in (24). This would make pro- nearly synonymous with na-, the difference being that the standard of comparison used by na- is the expectation value, which pro- does not seem to be compatible with. However, I believe that this is not a good solution given the logic of the Scale Hypothesis: unlike with na-, the ‘greater than’ and ‘equal to’ meanings are disjoint in pro- verbs and yield different interpretations. See the following examples for comparison: (i) Nabežalo čelovek sto. na-ran people-gen. hundred. [About a hundred people came running] (this quantity matches or exceeds the expectation value) (ii) On probežal zdanie. He pro-ran building-acc. [He ran past the building] (exceeded the reference point) / [He crossed the building by running] (stayed within the boundaries of the building, identity relation)

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This meaning of pro-, despite its many similarities to the previous one (‘directed motion covering a distance’), fails to satisfy the usual diagnostics applicable to accomplishments: it rejects the time-frame adverbial ‘in five minutes’ and the gradual adverbial ‘little by little’ in (37a), and it is compatible with punctual adverbials (in (37b)), typically licensed by achievements and punctuals:14 (37) a. Ivan probežal kiosk {??za pjat’ minut / *postepenno}.15 [Ivan ran past the kiosk {in five minutes / little by little}.] b. Ivan probežal kiosk rovno v čas. [Ivan ran past the kiosk at one o’clock sharp.] The DES below represents the Example (36), probežat’ kiosk [run past the kiosk]: (38)

e[i, i+1] run (x,→p) e1 loc(x) ≤ v?

e2 loc(x) > v?

x – moving theme p – incremental path created by directed motion v – reference point (kiosk) →

This event is a two-state transition: the state corresponding to the subevent e1 must satisfy the condition [loc(x)≤v] in order to license a single execution of the run-program. The execution of this program takes place after the reference point has been reached, thus satisfying the test [loc(x)>v] in e2 and resulting in the ‘pass by/ miss’ interpretation. This single iteration of the run-program creates a two-point path, which justifies that even in cases like this there is an incremental path argument (p→). The Event Frame Structure in (39) only has two frames: the initial state and the final state: (39) loc(x):=y, p:=b

loc(x):=z, ykiosk?

14. It should be noted that the process subevent is presupposed: the precondition of both the affirmative and the negative form of (37a) is ‘Ivan has run’. Whether or not this presupposed subevent should be included in some sort of extended event structure is not going to be discussed here. 15. This sentences becomes acceptable if the reference object is not point-like and its spatial extent can be interpreted as the interval covered by directed motion, which is identical to the meaning dealt with in § 4.1.1: Ivan probežal park {za pjat’ minut / postepenno} [Ivan crossed the park (by running) {in five minutes / little by little}].



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

As with the meaning discussed in the previous section, the predicate headed by the pro- verb treats the goal v and the theme x as persistent arguments, and the incremental path p→ as an initiated argument. (40) λv λ⇀p→λx [pro-run (x, p→, v)]

4.2

deformation: penetrate/go through a physical object in a manner denoted by the base verb

4.2.1 The DO is the pierced object The base verbs in this group are an interesting mixture of resultative verbs (‘cutting’ and ‘splitting’ groups in Levin 1993) and manner verbs (from the ‘poking’ and ‘hitting’ groups, cf. Levin and Rappaport Hovav 2011; Levin 2014).16 Although resultative verbs encode a directed change program, they refer to the scalar dimension only indirectly (as one of the spatial dimensions of the affected object) and do not lexicalize the ordering relation and the test by themselves. These are ultimately determined by the mereological makeup of the object denoted by the DO: only one of the dimensions needs to be spanned by the action denoted by the verb. If the object is one-dimensional (as in (41a)), the result of cutting is that the affected object is split in two. If it is two- or three-dimensional, one of the dimensions is traversed but it is not entailed that the object is bisected; rather, it is pierced if the object is two-dimensional (41b), or just penetrated if it is three-dimensional (41c): (41) a. rezat’ verjovku [cut the rope] b. rezat’ {tkan’/bumagu} [cut the fabric / the paper] c. rezat’ desnu [cut the gum] Pro- signals that the predicate must be interpreted as scalar and telic (compare the examples with imperfective base verbs and the respective prefixed verbs in (42)), and the missing scalar change components are retrieved from the affected object’s semantics. In particular, the dimensional properties (the thickness) are encoded in the formal role of the QS of the DO (cf. § 2.3). (42) a. Anna rezala tkan’ (no nožnicy byli tupye i ničego u nejo ne polučilos’). [Anna was cutting at the fabric (but the scissors were blunt and she could not do it)] b. Anna prorezala tkan’ (*no nožnicy byli tupye i ničego u nejo ne polučilos’). [Anna made a cut in the fabric / cut through the fabric (but the scissors were blunt and she could not do it)] 16. As noted in Levin and Rappaport Hovav (2011), the cutting and splitting verbs basically lexicalize a result (a clean separation), but they can also be used as manner verbs involving “the handling of a sharp-bladed instrument”. The compatibility with pro- is the ultimate disambiguation test in these cases, the prefix reinforces the resultative interpretation.

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The poking and hitting verbs are surface contact verbs: they involve an “(often forceful) contact with an entity, without entailing a change in its state” (Levin 2014). Since they do not provide any of the scalar components required for the scalar reading, the prefix exerts coercion: the affected object, expressed as an oblique if inanimate with the base verb (43a), turns into a DO (43b) (which, according to Rappaport Hovav and Levin 2010, is the only syntactic function available for entities undergoing a scalar change, cf. also Beavers 2013), and its scalar properties are exploited in the derived scalar change predicate. In (43b), the scalar dimension is the thickness of the wall, and the ordering relation is determined by the relative position of the different layers within the wall with respect to the surface faced by the hitting agent (lower bound) and the surface (the far edge) reached as a result of the hitting event (upper bound):17 (43) a. Ivan bil {po stene /??stenu}. [lit.: Ivan was hitting {at the wall/the wall}.] b. Ivan probil stenu {postepenno / za dva časa} Ivan pro-hit wall-acc. gradually/ in two hours [lit.: ‘Ivan pro-hit the wall (= made a breach in the wall) {little by little / in two hours}.] Let us examine the example probit’ stenu ‘pro-hit the wall’ (an example with a resultative base verb will be examined in the next subsection). As mentioned above, ‘pro-hit’ takes two arguments: the subject (agent) and the DO (affected object, ‘the wall’). The hitting event goes on until the relevant dimension of the affected object is traversed, i.e., until the depth of the created cavity matches the width of the wall: (44)

e[i,j] hit (x,y,z ) e1

e11

W(Z) < W(y)? hit (x,y,z ) hit (x,y,z ) e1k e12

e2 W(Z) = W(y)?

x – agent y – affected object (wall) Z – incremental object created by the process of hitting (cavity in the wall) W(Z) – thickness of the incremental object created by the process of hitting W(y) – extent of the pierced dimension of the affected object (thickness of the wall) W(Z) – thickness of the incremental object created by the process of hitting

The predicate headed by the pro- verb acts as an initiating function on the incremental argument (whose referent eventually becomes a hole in the wall), as a modification function on the affected object wall and as a persistence function on the agent: (45) λ⇀z→ λ↦y λx [pro-hit (x, y, z→)] 17. According to Kagan (2015), these verbs entail a movement of an instrument along a path scale. Since this path scale, in turn, is determined by one of the spatial dimensions of the affected object, I believe that referring to this dimension directly is a more straightforward solution.



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

4.2.2

The DO is the created orifice and the pierced object is introduced by the preposition v ‘in’ The creation predicates analyzed in this section are a typical case of co-composition in the GL theory: a mechanism whereby the identity of qualia values of the verb and the DO results in a meaning not accessible for the verb alone: the base verb rezat’ [hack] does not have a creation meaning, but the predicate in (46) acquires this interpretation because the agentive role value of polyn’ja [ice-hole] is precisely ‘hack’ (i.e., ice-holes are created by the process of hacking): (46) (pro)rezat’ polyn’ju vo l’du pro-hack ice-hole-acc. in ice [make an ice-hole in the ice by hacking] In this case, the verb does not lexicalize a scale either. Hence, the reference to the scale encoded by the effected object is essential to provide the dimension, the ordering relation and the test. ‘Pro-hack’ takes three arguments: the subject (agent), the DO (effectuated object, the ice-hole) and a third argument, introduced by the in-PP, which refers to the affected object (the ice). This is an important point: the in-PP does not just refer to the location of the hole, it is a true argument of the pro-verb even though it may be omitted in certain contexts. The event of hacking goes on until the ice-hole emerges.18 The ice-hole is a natural development of the incremental object created by the hacking process:19 (47)

e[i,j] hack (x,y,z ) e1 Z

e11

hack (x,y,z)

≠ v? e12

Z

hack (x,y,z)

e2 = v?

e1k

x – agent y – affected object (ice) Z – incremental object created by the process of hacking (cavity in the ice) v – effected object (ice-hole)

Two kinds of scales are combined here: an ordinal scale, which drives the incremental change (gradual creation of an ice-hole, denoted by the incremental argument z→ ) and a nominal scale encoded by the DO v, against which the completion of the event is measured (the event stops when z→ becomes an ice-hole). 18. Of course, when exactly the agent stops hacking depends on pragmatic factors, in particular, on what kind of hole (its size, shape, etc.) he has in mind (J. Pustejovsky, p.c.). 19. A more sophisticated analysis of similar cases is possible, which would refer to the mereological complexity of the affected object and its relation to the mereology of the effected object (e.g., along the lines of Beavers 2012, 2013), but I am leaving it for future research.

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The verbal predicate acts as an initiating function on the effected object (v) and the incremental argument (z→ ), as a modification function on the affected object (y), and as a persistence function on the agent (x): (48) λ⇀v λ⇀z→ λ↦y λx [pro-hack (x, y, z→, v)]

A similar approach can be applied to other cases of co-composition: (49) a.  Student progovoril {zaklinanie/skorogovorku/molitvu} (za sčitannye sekundy). [Lit.: The student pro-said the {spell/tongue twister/prayer} (in a matter of seconds)] b. e[i,j] say (x, Z→) e1 →

Z

e11

say (x,Z )

→

Z

≠ y?

→

e12 …

say (x, Z→)

e2 = y?

e1k

x – agent y – effected object (spell/tongue twister/prayer) → Z – incremental object created by the process of saying

c. λ⇀z→λ⇀y λx [pro-say (x, y, z→)]

The predicate in (49a) is an extended transition, a process followed by a change of state. The DO ‘spell/tongue twister/prayer’ is a dot object (Pustejovsky 1995), a complex semantic object typed as [information] and [speech_act] at the same time. Both semantic types become apparent in modification constructions: blagodarstvennaja molitva [thanksgiving prayer] refers to the content of the prayer, and utrennjaja molitva [morning prayer] to the time period when the speech act takes place. The verb govorit’ [say] targets the [information] meaning: what is uttered is information or a propositional content but not a speech act understood as a special kind of event. The resulting predicate has a creation meaning20 due to identity of qualia values of ‘say’ and ‘spell/tongue twister/prayer’: the latter are informational objects generated by the ‘say_act’.

20. Of course, these predicates only have creation meaning when the DOs are interpreted as a token (a particular instantiation of a spell/tongue twister/prayer). When interpreted as a type, they give rise to the reproduction meaning: ‘reproduce an already existing spell/tongue twister/ prayer’. I owe this observation to Olga Kagan (p.c.).



4.3

Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

total affectednesss: the theme is totally affected by the process denoted by the base verb

The base verbs that yield this meaning are change-of-state verbs (‘verbs of creation and transformation’ in Levin 1993: cook, bake, fry, etc.), therefore they encode a directed change program. They also allude to a scalar dimension, which can be defined informally as ‘V-ness’: cookedness, bakedness, etc. However, the ordering relation and the test are defined relative to the theme: every part of the substance making up the affected object must have the property of ‘being V-ed’ by the end of the event: (50) a. (pro)peč’ testo (postepenno / za čas) pro-bake dough-acc. gradually / in hour [bake the dough through/thoroughly (gradually / in an hour)] b. (pro)varit’ mjaso (postepenno / za čas) pro-cook meat-acc. (gradually / in hour) [cook the meat thoroughly (gradually / in an hour)] The combination of prefixed forms with collective aggregates and plural nominals (see (51)) shows that pro- does not impose its own ordering relation but rather exploits the scalar dimension and the ordering relation lexicalized by the verb and its arguments.21 If the former was the case, we would get a distributive interpretation, which is the simplest possible ordering: the elements making up the collective aggregate or the plural referent are affected by the event denoted by the base verb one by one (‘Mom baked the {potatoes / cake tiers} one after another’). However, (51) clearly refers to the degree of bakedness of the affected objects: (51) Mama propekla {kartošku / korži}. Mama pro-baked potatoes / cake tiers [Mom baked the {potatoes / cake tiers} through/thoroughly.] The DES (52) corresponds to the Example (50a), (pro)peč’ testo [bake the dough through]. e[i,j]

(52)

bake (x,y, Z→) e1 →

Z

e11

bake (x,y, Z→)

≠ y? e12

→

Z

bake (x,y, Z→)

e2 = y?

e1k

x – agent y – affected object (dough) → Z – incremental object made up of the parts of the dough which have been affected by the process of baking at any point in time (baked parts of the dough)

21. The idea of this test was suggested to me by Antonio Fábregas.

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The verbal predicate acts as an initiating function on the incremental argument (baked parts of the dough), as a modification function on the affected object dough, and as a persistence function on the agent: (53) λ⇀z→ λ↦y λx [pro-bake (x, y, z→ )]

To conclude this section, I want to comment briefly on two specific cases of the ‘total affectedness’ meaning, which will not be treated here in detail for reasons of space, but which can be accommodated within the proposed approach with minor modifications. The first sub-meaning is illustrated in (54). Similar examples are promaslit’ kožu [oil the leather], proparit’ ris [steam the rice], etc.

(54) (pro)solit’ rybu pro-salt fish-acc. [salt the fish (to preserve it)] The base verb solit’ [to salt] is denominal (derived from the mass noun sol’ [salt]), and it refers to the substance added to the referent of the theme. The affected object (fish) is gradually impregnated with this substance, the incremental object is made up by those parts of the fish which have salt in them, and the event stops when every part of the fish is affected. Another sub-meaning is illustrated by the intransitive verb progolosovat’ [take vote / cast a vote]: it encodes a goal-oriented procedure, which spans over a certain time interval and is made up of several standard stages (go to the polling place, present the id, take a ballot, select a candidate, place the ballot in the ballot box). The dynamic representation of this macro-event has to refer to its phases, which must be completed if the verb is prefixed with pro-. The difference with respect to the ES of other verbs (and which makes this kind of events very difficult to formalize) is that the stages of this macro-event can be represented as independent events, which do not necessarily fall under the denotation of the base verb golosovat’ [to vote].

4.4 spending/consumption: The theme is totally consumed by the process denoted by the base verb 4.4.1 Spend some time on the process denoted by the base verb The base verbs in this group lexicalize manner and encode non-directed change programs (including non-directed motion, as in (55b)). As in cases described in § 4.1.2, there is no scalar structure which pro- could exploit, and the prefix introduces its own argument: the time measure phrase, which can appear optionally with the base verb (as an adjunct), becomes a true argument (see (55a, b)).22 Sometimes, it can even appear as the subject in passive constructions (55c): 22. Yadroff and Fowler (1997) analyze the measure phrases required by the pro- verbs as arguments (referential and assigned a θ-role, as in Provesti ves’ den’ [spend the whole day]) or



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

(55) a. progovorit’ *(dva časa) pro-talk two-acc. hours-gen. [talk for two hours] b. proxodit’ *(dva časa) pro-walk-non-dir. two-acc. hours-gen. [walk for two hours] c. God byl prožit. year-nom. was lived [lit.: A year was lived.] Time takes on the role of last-resort scale here (Součková 2004). It should be emphasized that its properties are very different from the scales dealt with so far: it neither affects the structure of the situation (it merely determines its overall duration, there is no distinguishable difference between subevents corresponding to different time points) nor is affected by it. However, the measure phrase does provide the scalar dimension, the ordering relation and the test required by pro-. Time is the only scalar property that can measure out stative events, which do not encode change:23 (56) a. (pro)ljubit’ vsju žizn’ – [love (smb.) all life long] b. (pro)ždat’ dva časa – [wait for two hours] c. (pro)bolet’ nedelju – [be sick for a week] The DES of the sentence Studenty progovorili {dva časa/vsju noč’} [The students talked {for two hours / all night}] is provided in (57): (57)

e[i,j] talk (x, Z→) e1 →

Z

e11

talk (x, Z) →

< y? e12

→

Z

talk (x, Z→)

e2 = y?

e1k

x – agent y – time measure argument → Z – incremental object, which measures out the time spent on the event denoted by the base verb at any point in time

quasi-arguments (non-referential and assigned a θ-role, as in Prorabotat’ ves’ den’ [work the whole day]). 23. Quite unsurprisingly, there are very few truly stative verbs among the bases compatible with pro-. The following were extracted from the corpus ruTenTen using the WordList tool (the translation corresponds to the base verb): probolet’ [be sick], progostit’ [be on a visit], progrustit’ [be sad], prodružit’ [be friends], proždat’ [wait], prožit’ [live], proljubit’ [love], promedlit’ [linger, be slow], prostradat’ [suffer].

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Unlike other tests, the time-measure argument y and the incremental object z→  are external to the event. The incremental argument z→ is an initiated object (see (58)) and the creation function is a partial interpretation function relative to the time domain. Similar examples from the spatial domain have been treated in § 4.1.1, e.g. proexat’ tri kilometra [drive/ride for three kilometers]. The creation function is a partial interpretation function in both cases because the time measure and the space measure are individuated in the universe of discourse but not uniquely: there can be more than one identical time span or spatial path. (58) λy λ⇀z→ λx [pro-talk (x, z→ , y)]

4.4.1.1  The time spent corresponds to the duration of the event denoted by the DO. This is a special case of the use discussed in the previous subsection. By the same token, the DO is introduced by the prefix and it is a true argument. The difference is that the time spent on the event denoted by the base verb is not specified directly but corresponds instead to the duration of the event denoted by the DO: (59) progovorit’ *(vsju lekciju) pro-talk all lecture-acc. [talk through the lecture] The DES is minimally different from the one provided in (57): instead of referring directly to the time interval we have to introduce the temporal trace function which maps the event lekcija [lecture] onto its duration: (60)

e[i,j] talk (x, Z→) e1 →

Z

e11

talk (x, Z)

< τ(y)? e12

→

Z

talk (x, Z→)

e2 = τ(y)?

e1k

x – agent y – lecture event τ(y) – temporal trace function which measures the time length of the lecture → Z – incremental object, which measures the time spent on the event denoted by the base V at any point in time

This use often has an interesting implicature: the agent spends time on the process denoted by the base verb instead of engaging in the event denoted by the DO, hence he does not perform as necessary or expected, i.e., he somehow ‘misses’ the event denoted by the DO. Furthermore, the ‘missing’ component can be interpreted in two different ways (Andreevskaya 1997 and Kagan 2015): the Agent attends the event (is physically present at the venue) but does not engage in it actively (as in (61a)), or does not even attend it (as in (61b)).



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

(61) a. Studenty progovorili vsju lekciju i professor ix otrugal v konce uroka. [The students talked through the lecture and the professor told them off at the end of the class.] b. Studenty progovorili v bare vsju lekciju. [The students spent the lecture talking in the bar.] The meaning of the base verb cannot account for this interpretation. In order to explain it, a deeper look into the semantics of the event nominals is needed. The first observation to be made is that the DOs compatible with this interpretation refer to goal-oriented activities (artifactual events in GL) somehow associated with the idea of ‘attendance’ or ‘purposeful observation’, which is coherent with the fact that the base verbs that yield the ‘miss’ meaning often refer to perception: smotret’/gljadet’ [to look], slušat’ [to listen], storožit’ [to watch over], etc. (Andreevskaya 1997). Natural events do not give rise to this implicature: ‘the rest of the eclipse’ in (62) is interpreted as a mere time interval:24 (62) Oni progovorili ves’ ostatok zatmenija.  [Russian translation of V. Vinge, A deepness in the sky] [They talked through the rest of the eclipse.] Let us look into the lexical entry of lecture: (63) Lecture AS QS

ARG1(x) QS Formal = [animate_ind] ARG2(y) QS Formal = [info] D-ARG(z) QS Formal = [animate_ind]

agentive = write (x,y) formal = [event] • [info] telic = λyλxλe2λeLλzλe1 [C→[attend(e1,z,eL) ∧ listen(e2,z,x,y)] Rattend∧listen(eL)]

Lecture is a dot object (recall § 4.2.2): it can be typed simultaneously as [event] (summer lecture) and as [information] (interesting lecture). Like all artifactual entities, lecture has an inherent purpose, encoded in the telic role: a lecture must be attended by the agent z (as an event) and listened (as information) in order to contribute to the learning process. This inherent purpose is modal and hence subject to specific circumstances (‘C’ in (63), Pustejovsky 2013): if these circumstances are met, the events of attending and listening (e1 and e2) will yield the intended resultant state R attend∧listen, which can be defined as ‘assimilate information’. 24. Of course, natural events may be reinterpreted as goal-oriented activities (e.g., the viewing of the solar eclipse as an organized activity). Once they are assigned a functional interpretation (by the mechanism of telic introduction in GL), the same approach can be applied as for artifactual events.

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In talk through the lecture, the verbal predicate may act as a termination function on the events encoded in the telic role. If the event of listening (e2) is terminated (as represented in (64a)), the event of attending (e1) may persist, and the resulting interpretation will be ‘the agent attended the event but did not benefit from it (did not assimilate the information)’. However, when the event of attending (e1) is terminated (64b), the listening event (e2) is terminated automatically (if the agent misses the event he also misses its content), which indicates that the semantic type [event] is the head type in this context: (64) a. λ⇁e2 λe1 λeL λz [pro-talk (z, eL, e1, e2)] b. λ⇁e2 λ⇁e1 λeL λz [pro-talk (z, eL, e1, e2)]

This account provides a deeper insight into the nature of the lexical-semantic features associated with the ‘miss’ implicature. However, it does not explain what properties of the base verb and the DO trigger the termination of the predicates encoded in the telic role of the DO. Mere temporal overlap of both events or the fact that they are carried out by the same agent is obviously not a good enough explanation, given that even the same predicate can yield different implicatures. In (65a), the agent is successfully engaged in both activities, in (65b) he attends the event but fails to fulfill its purpose, and in (65c) he does not even attend the event: (65) a. Ivan progovoril ves’ obed so Slavoj i vdovol’ najelsja. [Ivan talked with Slava through lunch and ate to his heart’s content.] b. Ivan progovoril ves’ obed so Slavoj i tak ničego i ne poproboval. [Ivan talked with Slava through lunch and did not try a thing.] c.  Ivan progovoril ves’ obed so Slavoj i, kogda prišol v stolovuju, bylo zakryto. [Ivan talked with Slava through lunch and, when he got to the canteen, it was closed.] This variability suggests that, at this point, pragmatic or extralinguistic constraints on which actions can be successfully performed at the same time may come into play.

4.4.2

Spend the material good denoted by the DO on the process denoted by the base verb Despite its apparent idiomaticity, this use of pro- is quite productive, see the following examples: (66) a. *(pro)govorit’ den’gi pro-talk money-acc. [spend the money on talking on the phone] b. *(pro)igrat’ sto dollarov pro-play hundred-acc dollars-gen. [spend a hundred dollars on gambling] c. *(pro)pit’ dom pro-drink house-acc. [drink away the house]



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

Let us analyze the example student progovoril vse den’gi [The student spent all the money on talking (on the phone)]. This predicate is an accomplishment, like most of the examples we have seen so far, although its interpretation is not as straightforward as in the other cases. Crucially, the scalar components provided by the base verbs (which lexicalize a non-directed change program in (66a, b) and a directedchange program in (66c)) are not taken advantage of in the predicate headed by the pro- verb, which breaches the scale hierarchy presented in § 3.2 and gives rise to a higher degree of idiomaticity.25 The DO den’gi [money] is not subcategorized by the base verb; moreover, in contrast with most of the previous cases, it is not compatible with the base verb as an adjunct either, which clearly indicates that it is introduced by pro-. The DO lexicalizes a ratio scale, whose upper bound is fixed contextually (‘certain amount of money’). The reference to the directed-change program of spending/paying is retrieved from the QS of the DO (see (67)): money is a means of payment used to pay for an object or an event (here, the ‘talk’ event). The base verb govorit’ [talk] is downgraded to a manner modifier of the implicit change-of-state event of ‘spending’. (67) Den’gi [money] QS agentive = issue (e2,x,y) formal = [phys_obj] •[payment_medium] telic = λe1λwλyλzλe[C→[spend(e,z,y,w,e1)] Rpay(e)] The lambda formula defining the telic role states the following: if certain circumstances (C) are satisfied, when the Agent (z) spends money (y) on an event (e1) or an object (w), the desired resultant state (Rpay) is achieved (the agent becomes the owner of an object, can participate in an event, etc.). The DES (68) represents this example: (68)

e[i,j] spend (z,→p,eT) e1 p < v? spend (z,p,eT) spend (z,→p,eT) e11 e1k e12 →

e2 p = v? →

→

z v → p eT

– paying agent – total amount of money owned by the agent, contextually determined value – amount of money spent at any given point in time – event of talking

25. Two clearly idiomatic examples are provoronit’ and prošljapit’, both meaning ‘miss / muff ’. The first verb is derived from the noun vorona [crow] and the second from šljapa [hat].

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The event of spending money (and talking) stops when the amount of money spent by the agent matches the total sum owned by him. This money is neither destroyed nor created: what is changed (terminated) is the possession relation (P) between the agent (z) and his money (v), P(z,v): (69) λ⇁ P λ⇀p→ λeT λz [pro-talk (z, eT, p→ , v) ∧ P(z,v)]

5. Final remarks and generalizations Table 1 sums up the distribution of the scalar change components among different elements of the predicates headed by pro- verbs: Table 1.  Distribution of scalar components in predicates headed by pro- verbs26 Pro- meaning

α

Dimension

Ordering

Test

1.

distance

1.1

Directed motion covering a distance [pro-V + goal/distance measure]

V

V

V

Arg

1.2

Directed motion past a reference point

V

V

V

Adj/pro-arg

2.

deformation

2.1

pro-V + affected object

V

Arg

Arg

Arg

2.2

pro-V + Arg1 (effected object) + in Arg2 V (affected object)

Arg2

Arg2

Arg1

3.

total affectedness V

V

Arg

Arg

V

Adj/pro-arg Adj/pro-arg Adj/pro-arg

pro-V + affected object 4.

spending/consumption

4.1

pro-V + time measure

4.1.1 pro-V + event 4.2

pro-V + Adj(Material good)

V

Pro-arg

Pro-arg

Pro-arg

V

Pro-arg

Pro-arg

Pro-arg

Although idiomaticity is always present in the derivational domain, it has been shown that the semantics of the derived verbal forms is more systematic than it may seem at first sight. The proposed account of the different meanings expressed by verbs prefixed with pro- is crucially based on the notion of change function. The change functions allow introducing a multi-dimensional notion of change, whereby certain aspects of the relevant arguments may be initiated, terminated, modified of left unchanged independently from the others, and in close connection with the typing requirements

26. V stands for ‘base verb’, pro-V for ‘verb prefixed with pro-’, Arg for ‘argument of the base verb’, pro-arg for ‘argument introduced by pro-’ and ‘Adj/pro-arg’ for ‘adjunct of the base verb which becomes a true argument of the pro- verb’.



Chapter 2.  Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality

imposed by the verb on its arguments. In particular, I argued that pro- lexicalizes a particular kind of change function and further specified its properties: it can trigger initiation, modification or termination of the scalar properties lexicalized by different components of the predicate, it always introduces an incremental argument which tracks the change of a scalar property over time, and it requires that the value assigned to the incremental argument at the end of the event be equal or superior to the value of the test argument. Although this approach needs to be tested on other verbal prefixes and the formal details of the analysis should be further developed, the results of this study suggest that it is on the right track. One of the main contributions of the framework outlined here is that it pulls together the various elements configuring the aspectual makeup of the predicate into a coherent strategy of aspectual analysis: the inherent aspectual properties of the verb are conceived as only partially fixed (i.e., underspecified, cf. De Miguel 2007) and therefore flexible, and their interaction with the scalar dimensions lexicalized by the verbal arguments allow accounting for the variability of aspectual interpretation (formalized as Dynamic Event Structure) and associated lexical-semantic effects.

References Andreevskaya, A. 1997. “Pristavka i ee kontekst.” In Glagol’naja prefiksacija v russkom jazyke, Maksim Krongauz and Denis Paillard (eds.), 113–120. Moscow: Russkije slovari. Batiukova, O. 2008. Del léxico a la sintaxis: aspecto y qualia en la gramática del ruso y del español, Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Beavers, John. 2012. “Lexical aspect and multiple incremental themes.” In Telicity, Change, and State: A Cross-categorial View of Event Structure, Violeta Demonte and Louise McNally (eds.), 23–59. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693498.003.0002 Beavers, John. 2013. “Aspectual classes and scales of change.” Linguistics 51(4): 681–706. DOI: 10.1515/ling-2013-0024 Bertinetto, Pier Marco and Lentovskaya, Anna. 2013. “Degree verbs. A contrastive Russian– English analysis.” Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica 12: 1–27. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Braginsky, Pavel, and Rothstein, Susan. 2008. “Vendlerian classes and the Russian aspectual system.” Journal of Slavic linguistics 1 (1): 3–55. DOI: 10.1353/jsl.0.0009 Civardi, Eugenio, and Bertinetto, Pier Marco. 2015. “The semantics of degree verbs and the telicity issue”, Borealis: an International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 4(1): 57–77. DOI: 10.7557/1.4.1.339 De Miguel, Elena, and Fernández Lagunilla, Marina. 2007. “Sobre la naturaleza léxica del aspecto composicional.” In Actas del VI Congreso de Lingüística General, Pablo Cano (coord.), vol. 2, 1767–1778. Madrid: Arco Libros. Dowty, David. 1991. “Thematic Proto-Roles and Argument Selection.” Language 67(3): 547–619. DOI: 10.1353/lan.1991.0021 Filip, Hana. 2000. “The quantization puzzle.” In Events as grammatical objects, Carol Tenny and James Pustejovsky (eds.), 39–96. Stanford: CSLI.

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Filip, Hana. 2008. “Events and maximalization. The case of telicity and perfectivity.” In Theoretical and crosslinguistic approaches to the semantics of aspect, Susan Rothstein (ed.), 217–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/la.110.10fil Flier, Michael. 1975. “Remarks on Russian verbal prefixation.” Slavic and east European journal 19(2): 218–229. DOI: 10.2307/306777 Hay, Jennifer, Kennedy, Christopher and Levin, Beth. 1999. “Scalar Structure Underlies Telicity in Degree Achievements.” In Proceedings of SALT IX, Tanya Matthews and Devon ­Strolovitch (eds.), 127–144. Cornell University. Isačenko, Alexandr. 1962 [2003]. Grammatičeskij stroj russkogo jazyka v sopostavlenii s slovackim. Morfologija. Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskoj kul’tury. Jackendoff, Ray. 1996. “The Proper Treatment of Measuring Out, Telicity, and Perhaps Even Quantification in English.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1(4): 305–354. DOI: 10.1007/BF00133686 Janda, Laura and Lyashevskaya, Olga. 2013. “Semantic Profiles of Five Russian Prefixes: po-, s-, za-, na-, -pro.” Journal of Slavic Linguistics 21(2): 211–258. DOI: 10.1353/jsl.2013.0012 Kagan, Olga. 2012. “Degree Semantics for Russian Verbal Prefixes: The Case of pod- and do-.” In The Russian Verb. Oslo Studies in Language 4 (1), Atle Grønn and Anna Pazelskaya (eds.), 207–243. Oslo: University of Oslo. Kagan, Olga. 2013. “Scalarity in the domain of verbal prefixes.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 31(2): 483–516. DOI: 10.1007/s11049-013-9190-z Kagan, Olga. 2015. Scalarity in the Verbal Domain: the Case of Verbal Prefixation in Russian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kennedy, Christopher. 2012. “The Composition of Incremental Change.” In Telicity, Change, and State: A Cross-categorial View of Event Structure, Violeta Demonte and Louise McNally (eds.), 103–138. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693498.003.0004 Kennedy, Christopher and Levin, Beth. 2008. “Measure of change: The adjectival core of degree achievements.” In Adjectives and adverbs: Syntax, semantics and discourse, Louise McNally and Christopher Kennedy (eds.), 156–182. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kennedy, Christopher and McNally, Louise. 2005. “Scale Structure, Degree Modification, and the Semantics of Gradable Predicates.” Language 81(2): 345–381. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2005.0071 Krifka, Manfred. 1992. “Thematic relations as links between nominal reference and temporal constitution.” In Lexical Matters, Ivan Sag and Anna Szablocsi (eds.), 29–53. Stanford: CSLI. Krongauz, Maksim. 1998. Pristavki i glagoly v russkom jazyke: semantičeskaja grammatika. Moscow: Škola jazyki russkoj kul’tury. Kuznecov, Sergej (ed.). 1998 [2009]. Bol’šoj tolkovyj slovar’ russkogo jazyka. Saint Petersburg: Norint. Levin, Beth. 2014. “Event encoding from a crosslinguistic perspective: the view from hitting events.” 16th Workshop on Linguistic Studies “Verb Classes and Aspect”, March 26–28, University of Alicante. Levin, Beth. 1993. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Levin, Beth and Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 2011. “Conceptual categories and linguistic categories.” LSA Linguistic Institute. University of Colorado. Mani, Inderjeet and Pustejovsky, James. 2012. Interpreting Motion: Grounded Representations for Spatial Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601240.001.0001



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Maslov, Jurij. 1985. “An outline of contrastive aspectology.” In Contrastive Studies in Verbal Aspect, Jurij Maslov (ed.), 1–44. Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag. Piñón, Christopher. 2008. “Aspectual composition with degrees.” In Adjectives and adverbs: Syntax, semantics, and discourse, Louise McNally and Christopher Kennedy (eds.), 183–219. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Piñón, Christopher. 2010. “How verbs of change target properties for change.” 10. Ereignissemantik-Workshop, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen. Pustejovsky, James. 1991. “The syntax of event structure.” Cognition 41(1): 47–81. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(91)90032-Y Pustejovsky, James. 1995. The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Pustejovsky, James. 2000. “Events and the semantics of opposition.” In Events as grammatical objects, Carol Tenny and James Pustejovsky (eds.), 445–482. Stanford: CSLI. Pustejovsky, James. 2013. “Dynamic Event Structure and Habitat Theory.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Generative Approaches to the Lexicon, Roser Saurí et al. (eds.), 1–10. Pisa: Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale. Pustejovsky, James and Ježek, Elisabetta. To appear. “Verbal patterns of change.” Based on the talk presented at the Workshop “Scalarity in Verb-based Constructions.” Heinrich-HeineUniversität Düsseldorf, April 7–8, 2011. Pustejovsky, James and Moszkowicz, Jessica. 2011. “The qualitative spatial dynamics of motion in language.” Spatial Cognition & Computation 11(1): 15–44. DOI: 10.1080/13875868.2010.543497 Ramchand, Gillian. 1997. Aspect and predication: The semantics of argument structure. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ramchand, Gillian. 2004. “Time and the event: The semantics of Russian prefixes.” Nordlyd 32(2): 323–361. Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Levin, Beth. 2010. “Reflections on manner/result complementarity.” In Lexical semantics, Syntax, and Event Structure, Malka Rappaport Hovav et al. (eds.), 21–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544325.003.0002 Romanova, Eugenia. 2006. Constructing perfectivity in Russian. PhD thesis. University of Tromsø. Smith, Carlota. 1991. The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-7911-7 Součková, Kateřina. 2004. “Measure prefixes in Czech. Cumulative na- and delimitative po-”. MA thesis, University of Tromsø. Stevens, Stanley S. 1946. “On the theory of scales of measurement.” Science 103/2684: 677–680. DOI: 10.1126/science.103.2684.677 Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Tatevosov, Sergei. 2008. “Intermediate prefixes in Russian.” In Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics 16, Andrei Antonenko et al. (eds.), 423–445. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. Tenny, Carol. 1994. Aspectual roles and the syntax-semantics interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-1150-8 Van Hout, Angeliek. 2000. “Projection Based on Event Structure.” In Lexical Specification and Insertion, Peter Coopmans et al. (eds.), 403–427. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John ­Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/cilt.197.18hou Yadroff, Michael and Fowler, George. 1997. “Pristavka pro- i argumentnyj status imennyx grupp.” In Glagol’naja prefiksacija v russkom jazyke, Maksim Krongauz and Denis Paillard (eds.), 164–185. Moscow: Russkije slovari.

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Lexical synonymy and argumental structure Similarities and divergences in the syntactic-semantic schemes of two cognitive Spanish verbs: recordar and acordar(se)* Celia Berná Sicilia Verbs that present synonymous relations usually articulate, due to their meaning identity, correlations of the syntactic-semantic order, and due to this, they constitute an interesting field of study for delimiting, with exactitude, where the specific character of each lexical unit resides. This work will try to delve into the similarities and divergences of two synonymous verbs, recordar and acordar(se). With this objective in mind, a comparative analysis on their peculiar syntacticsemantic behavior will be performed, using the information extracted from two databases (ADESSE and FramNet). The results point to the existence of zones of convergences, but also to specific features in their semotactic combination that helps with the configuration of their singular syntactic-semantic profile within the semantic class of cognition verbs. Keywords: synonyms, cognitive verbs, verb valency, argumental structure, recordar-acordar(se)

1. Introduction The semantic affinity relations that verbs from a determined language have usually generate parallelisms in their semantic and syntactic configuration. This means that two verbs that have similar meaning usually presuppose the appearance of the same semantic participants and imply the activation of similar syntactic schemes, where these roles adopt very similar formal or expressive structures, as has been shown in linguistic research studies originating from different fields, such as Cognitive linguistics, Functional linguistics (Dik 1981), Valence Theory (Tesnière 1994; Helbig 1994;

* This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.03ber © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company



Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

Wotjak 2006), Case grammar (Fillmore 1968, 2003, 2007), Construction grammar (Goldberg 1995, 2010), Lexicogrammar (Lamiroy 1991) or the lexical focus on syntax (Levin 1993; Levin and Rappaport 1992; Pustejovsky 1995), among others. This work will try to delve into the inter-relations that the lexical meaning of two cognitive verbs such as recordar and acordar(se) and their constructional meaning show. For this, we will show the similarities and divergences of both verbs, which are considered to be synonyms due to their syntactic-semantic behavior. For this comparison, we will use the information gathered in two current, linguistic databases: ADESSE (corpus ARTHUS), from the University of Vigo, and Spanish FrameNet, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of California, Berkeley. The general objective that this investigation pursues is to show the interactions between the lexical verbal meaning and the constructional meaning, evincing that the semantic relationship generates analogies of syntactic-semantic nature, and that the syntactic structure is determined in great lengths by the type of event’s structure the verb subscribes to. For this goal, we will determine the syntactic-semantic configuration of two cognitive verbs – recordar and acordarse – based on the information provided by the corpus ARTHUS and FrameNet. We also will delimit what correlations exist between the structural arguments of both verbs, showing similarities and divergences that operate in their syntactic-semantic behavior. Thus, we will be able to identify which are the specific syntactic-semantic features of each verb that grant them singularity as lexical units, as well to become acquainted with the clues that will allow us to adequately use them in context. This characterization will also allow us to offer a closer notion of concepts such as verbal valency, argumental structure or phrasal scheme.

2. Theoretical framework 2.1

The verbs and their syntactic and semantic configuration

Verbs are lexical units that possess an especially complex syntactic-semantic structure, as they constitute the core of relational webs/networks that establish strong and close syntactic interconnections with the rest of the components that form the statement, with the objective of granting it meaning. As such, the verbal lexical units do not act isolated in the sentence, but shape themselves as true “orchestra conductors” within the clause, simultaneously interacting with different sentence components and conveying, with it, the meaning that needs to be transferred to the interlocutor. The linguistic phenomenon that alludes to the inter-relations that the verbal core generates with the rest of the sentence components has received different denominations within the linguistic tradition, although, normally, we allude to this phenomenon through notions such as “verbal valency” within the framework of the structural-type valence theory (Tesnière 1994; Àgel 2000; Wotjak 2006; Helbig 1992), “argumental

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structure” within the field of functional linguistics and the generative paradigm (Dik 1981; Levin 1993) or “sentence schemes” (Báez 1988, 2002; Devís 2000) in approaches that are more eclectic in nature. Many have been the notions in the field of linguistic reflection on the question of the nature of the components that shape the argumental structure, but in general terms, it has been established that the valency of a verb is formed starting from a series of elements that are considered essential, denominated actants or arguments. These are complements that are demanded according to the semantic features of the verbal lexical unit and that habitually need to be formalized to be able to articulate statements. These components contrast themselves, in turn, with other non-valencial elements, denominated surroundings or adjuncts, considered to be non-fundamental in the semantic conceptualizing of the verb, and whose level of demand for formalization in the clause is considerably inferior to that of the actants. Therefore, even though the establishment of a consensus in the field of theoretical discussion, that can offer an unequivocal definition that is able to determine with exactitude the limits and the components that form verb valency or the argumental structure of the verbs has not been possible, this concept has been essentially linked, within specialized literature, to the specific combinatorial potential of the lexical units that emanates from their meaning, and that consists of semantic participants that adopt more or less fixed syntactic functions and formal structures that are relatively stable in the practice of discourse.

2.1.1 Relations between semantic parentage and argumental structure Within the framework of linguistic research, many are the researchers that have tried to establish more or less stable categories where verbal lexical units that are similar from the point of view of meaning and that also possess a similar syntactic-semantic behavior agglutinate. These approaches are fundamentally based on the idea of the constant interaction between syntax, semantics and lexicon, these proceeding from approaches from authors such as Tesnière (1994 [1959]), Fillmore (1968, 1976, 1977), Dik (1981) Wotjak (2006), Helbig (1992), Langacker (1987, 1991 and 2000), Levin (1993), Levin and Rappaport (1992, 1998), Lamiroy (1991), García-Miguel (1995a, 1995b), García-Miguel, Costas and Martínez (2005), García-Miguel, González and Vaamonde (2010), Cifuentes (1999), Mendikoetxea (1999), Schumacher et al. (2004) among others. In agreement with these considerations, the verb’s type of event or semantic class predetermines, in great lengths, which will be the verbal conduct, as the syntactic patterns activated by the verbs imply, to a degree, the formalization of its semantic features. But, at the same time, the semantic relationships are also organized according to a determined type of grammatical relations. Nevertheless – and in agreement with diverse investigations developed regarding the syntactic-semantic behavior of the verbs that belong to the same semantic categories – the semantic parentage does not generate an absolute identity between the argumental structures of the verbs that have semantic affinities. The total or partial



Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

significant identity that two or more verbs present does not mean, however, that these are interchangeable in every context, or that they possess exactly the same semantic features, or, of course, the same syntactic or expressive properties. This means, in truth, that a “specular” relationship or of total isomorphy between semantics and syntax cannot be established (Helbig 1992; Báez 1988: 101; Pinker 2007: 55). There are evident parallelisms between the semantic and syntactic structures of verbs with similar semantic features, but the number of actants that corresponds to each verb and their peculiar syntactic-semantic behavior are specific to each verb and are conditioned by: 1. The chosen verbal lexeme. 2. Compatibilities or incompatibilities between predicates and actants that appear as a virtue of the meaning compatibility and the restrictions that are partially arbitrary and peculiar to each predicate as established in linguistic use (García-Miguel 1995a: 20). Thus, despite the existence of parallelisms or convergences, the lack of reciprocity or correspondence between the semantic and syntactic configurations of the verbs makes is important to tend to, in the description of the verbs, to the idiosyncratic features that are attributed to each verbal core.

2.2

Cognitive verbs: Characteristics and syntactic-semantic features

Cognitive verbs (from this point on, CV), the semantic category where the verbs studied – remind and remember – belong to, are semantically categorized as those alluding to events that happen in our own conscience. In this sense, as Halliday (2004: 198) explains, they are not formed by material acts, but instead are compared to flows of human consciousness. One of the particularities of the syntactic-semantic behavior of the CVs resides precisely in their biactantial nature, as these types of verbal lexical units entails “the obligatory nature of the two participants that their cognitive process of the verbs brings along: the [Exp], or subject, and the Phenomenon, or the CV’s object of knowledge” (Carretero and Villamil-Touriño 2011: 43). According to García-Miguel and Comesaña (2004: 5), the cognitive processes imply an asymmetric and unidirectional relation between the participant Cognizer with semantic + human features as the subject and a propositional Mental Content role as the object. The syntactic constructions of the CVs have, as well, some characteristics in common, according to authors such as Achard (1998), García-Miguel and Comesaña (2004), Comesaña (2002), Delbecque and Lamiroy (1999), Halliday (2004) and Weber and Bentivoglio (1991), such as transitivity, their characterization as stative processes or the frequent construction with substantive subordination, among others. Once the syntactic-semantic profile of the CVs is sketched, in general terms, we can determine how the semantic class of the cognitive verbs is defined in two

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databases – ADESSE and Spanish FrameNet. These databases are dedicated to the syntactic-semantic characterization of the verbal lexical units, in order to offer more clues on the way they are configured syntactically and semantically. According to ADESSE, a verb belonging to the semantic class cognition and the subclass knowledge – as in the case of the verbs recordar and acordar(se)- presupposes, in general terms, a scene where an “entity endowed with intellectual capacity (A1), possesses, amplifies, conserves, modifies or decreases its knowledge on the objective reality (A2)”. In this sense, and for this database, two are the number of basic semantic participants that are presupposed, as understood from the meaning expressed by the cognition verbs, and as a consequence, this pair of components would be habitually placed or subsumed within the scene evoked by them: Cognizer and Mental Content. Similarly, ADESSE takes into consideration some other roles or semantic participants that have a lesser degree of prominence within the semantic class: Initiator, Source, Mental Content 2 and Topic. In FrameNet, on the other hand, there are many semantic categories that have an effect on the CVs, but we are going to focus on “Memory”, as recordar and acordar(se) are included within it. This semantic class appears to be defined as a process where “a Cognizer remembers or forgets a determined Mental Content”. All in all, the database does not distinguish two main participants within this category, as it happened in ADESSE, but three: Congnizer, Mental Content and Topic. It also has a wider catalogue of peripheral roles (or non-core roles) where the participants Category (Mental Content 2), Circumstances, Degree, Duration, Representative, Manner, Time, Meaning, Experience, Reasoning and Result are included.

3. Methodology The comparative analysis of the syntactic-semantic structures of the cognitive verbs recordar and acordarse was performed by utilizing the empirically-based information extracted from two databases that work with wide corpuses of the Spanish language. Specifically, the exhaustive examination of the syntactic and semantic behavior of these synonymous verbal lexical units was performed thanks to the frequency and co-occurrence data offered by ADESSE and Spanish FrameNet. In total, information from 869 clauses was extracted in the case of remind, and from 280 in the case of remember. The higher number of samples extracted for remind is due to the greater index of frequency that this verb had in the corpus of reference as compared to remember. ADESSE, (Alternancias de Diátesis y Esquemas sintáctico-semánticos del Español), is a Project from the University of Vigo, led by José Miguel García-Miguel, that compiles syntactic-semantic information on the clauses where the verbs registered in the ARTHUS corpus (University of Santiago de Compostela) are inserted.



Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

FrameNet, on the other hand, is a research project developed by the Autonomous University of Barcelona under de supervision of Carlos Subirats, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley, and the FrameNet Project. It counts with 350 million words, and its objective is to show the semantic and syntactic combinatorial possibilities of the lexical units. As a first step, an individual analysis of each of the objects of study will be performed. Therefore, taking into account the data found in ADESSE and FrameNet, the following information will be provided: Table 1.  Analysis sheet. Source: author generated 1. Definition (DRAE/DUE (Moliner 1998)). 2. Semantic structure: (main and peripheral), indicating the frequency of appearance that each participant has in the clauses registered in the corpus. 3. Syntactic structure: sentence schemes: frequency of syntactic patterns activated during the production of discourses using both verbs and examples of their syntactic performances. 4. Syntactic-semantic correspondences: Identification of semantic roles with syntactic functions and syntagmatic structures.

Subsequently, and once the individual analysis has been performed for each verb, a comparison of the extracted data will be performed to establish the similarities and divergences that can be observed in the syntactic-semantic behavior of the verbs remind and remember. This will allow us to determine the conjunction zones that place the verbs under the paradigm of the CVs, as well as what other features contribute to the singular syntactic-semantic profile of each of the verbs, despite their being synonymous lexical units. Finally, it should be noted that in order to simplify the representation of the syntactic structure, a series of abbreviations has been established when denominating syntactic functions and syntagmatic structures. Table 2.  Abbreviation data sheet. Source: author generated Function/syntagmic structure

Abbreviation

Nominal Syntagma Prepositional Syntagma Subject Verbal Syntagma (nucleus of the predicate) Direct object Indirect object Predicative Prepositional complement Noun clause/Infinitive clause Direct completing proposition Subordinate proposition of substantived relative pronoun

NS Prep. S. S VS DO IO Pve PC NC DCP Sub. Prop. Sust. Relat. Pron.

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4. Comparative analysis recordar-acordarse 4.1

Recordar

ADESSE: 828 examples in the corpus; FrameNet: 41 examples in the corpus Definition: Retain things in the mind. Bring something to someone’s mind at a certain point in time. (Entries 1 and 2 of the DUE). Bring something to memory. To notify someone about something that he or she was in charge of or was taking care of. (Entries 1 and 2 of the DRAE). Semantic structure: Roles According to ADESSE, the verb recordar possesses a semantic structure that fundamentally contemplates the interaction between two semantic roles, Cognizer (98.2%) and Mental Content (92%), although eventually, in the cognitive scene that this verbal lexical unit presupposes, a third semantic participant can have prominence: the Initiator role (10.3%, that is linked to the entity that triggers the cognitive process in the Cognizer. In the case of FrameNet, there are two core participants in the argumental structure: Cognizer (100%) and Mental Content (100%), although in this database other peripheral roles are specified for this verb as well, such as Meaning (2.4%), Time (9.7%), Representative (2.4%), Experience (2.4%), Manner (12.1%), Category (4.8%), Circumstances (2.4%). Syntactic structure: Sentence patterns The data on frequency of sentence patterns found in FrameNet and ADESSE reveal that recordar evidences a clear preference for the classic active, transitive predicate syntactic pattern S + P + DO or with any of its variations. The great majority of the examples found in the corpus – around 90% of the clauses – show this type of syntactic construction (ADESSE, 89.5%; FrameNet, 92.7%), even if other minor syntactic constructions are annotated in both databases as well. ADESSE, for example, shows a frequency of 7.3% of the active, intransitive, scheme S + VS, and FrameNet has an appearance index of 4.8% of the scheme containing the impersonal reflexive, active, transitive, VS + DO scheme. On Table 3, we can observe the frequency of sentence schemes the verb has in both databases as well as some examples in greater detail. Syntactic-semantic correspondences The review of the syntactic-semantic annotation found in both databases allows the abstract visualization of a series of generalizations surrounding the correspondences between the semantic structure of recordar, its syntactic configuration and its syntagmatic or formal materialization in the discourse. Thus, in general terms, the role Cognizer is usually defined as Subject and mainly shows a syntagmatic structure of NS in the discourse. The role Mental Content, on the



Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

Table 3.  Sentence schemes for recordar. Source: ADESSE and FrameNet Syntactic patterns

Frequency Frequency Examples index index ADESSE (%) FrameNet (%)

1. Active: S+VS+DO

79.6

92.7

Austrias se desmoronaba. Ahora que se da una sensación generalizada de crisis apenas brillan los genios. El que manda es el consumo. ¿Quién recuerda, por ejemplo, a Juan José Mira, ganador, por ejemplo, del primer premio Planeta de novela, hace cuarenta años? ¿Se acordará alguien dentro de cien años de “El manuscrito carmesí”, de Antonio [1VOZ: 10, 3, 1, 022]

2. Active: S+VS+DO+IO

 9.9

 –

Santo es puro éxtasis contemplando a Jesús. El viejo, sin darse cuenta, reproduce esa expresión porque el niño le recuerda a Brunettino, sosteniendo el globo del mundo como una pelota. “Pero mi Brunettino es más listo, más pícaro. [SONRISA: 182, 30]

3. Active: S+VS

 7.3

 –

Inf. A. -Claro, yo no sé qué pensaron en ese momento, que faltaba o… o no lo habrán tomado muy en serio: yo no… no recuerdo. Enc.- ¿Pero cuánto hacía que estaban de novios? Inf. A.- Y un año, menos de un año. [BAIRES: 066, 02]

4. Passive expressed as: S+VS

 1.5

 –

menos triste fue la actitud de la izquierda y de sus intelectuales, sobre todo si se recuerdan sus recientes y ruidosas profesiones de fe democrática y pluralista. A la manera [TIE:127.07]

5. Impersonal expressed as: VS+DO

 0.15

 4.8

Cuando se recuerda a la mujer y al hijo de de apenas un año que deja Gregorio Ordóñez, se hace un silencio emotivo.

6. Passive: S+VS+Pve

 0.15

 2.5

Velázquez será recordado como una ficha clave y un poder en sí mismo, en el terreno bizantino de la política mexicana.

7. Other patterns

 1.47

 –

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other hand, plays, in the syntactic order, the function of DO, even if it adopts a greater variety of forms in its representation in the discourse. All in all, fundamentally, there are two main expression formulas that are used in their formalization: NS and Noun or infinitive clause, introduced by the conjunctions que, and si, by the infinitive or by pronouns or interrogative adverbs. Finally, the role Initiator is established when a close correlation with the Subject function appears, using as the main expressive support the structure of NS. Next, in Table 4, we show more detailed information on how the set of correspondences between the syntactic and semantic structures is produced, according to the data offered by FrameNet and ADESSE. Table 4.  Syntactic semantic correspondences recordar. Source: ADESSE and FrameNet Roles

Active voice

Reflexive, passive

Syntactic function

Syntagmatic structure

Syntactic function

Syntagmatic structure

Cognizer

Subject IO

NS NS Prep. S. Preposition: A. Reduplication

–

–

Mental Content

DO

NS Noun clause, introduced by QUE or si, infinitive or pron./adv. Interrogative words. DCP Sub. Prop. Sust. Relat. Pron. introduced by lo que. Prep. S. Preposition: A.

Subject

NS Noun clause, introduced by que

Initiator

Subject

NS

–

–

4.2

Acordar(se)

ADESSE: 259 examples in the corpus; FrameNet: 31 examples in the corpus Definition: Recall something or someone. Recall something on your own. Realize something. Have something in memory. (Entry 3 of the DUE). Bring something to memory. Recall. (Entries 5 and 6 of the DRAE). Semantic structure: Roles In accordance with the data extracted from ADESSE and FrameNet, the semantic structure of remember is configured starting from two main participants, Cognizer (100% in both databases) and Mental Content (64.9% frequency index in ADESSE and 100% in FrameNet). Nonetheless, in FrameNet, the eventual importance that a



Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

peripheral role such as Time (19.3%) and Place (3.2%) within the semantic conceptualization of this verb could have, is addressed. Syntactic structure: Sentence schemes Acordar(se) has, according to the information from ADESSE and FrameNet, little syntactic variety in its use in the discourse. In both databases, there is a main scheme: the medium, active, intransitive construction S + VS + PC. In agreement with ADESSE, the pattern in middle voice S + P is also relatively frequent, as it is found in more than a third of the clauses found in the corpus. In Table 5, we show the frequency index of each syntactic scheme as well as some examples of the current clauses containing this verb in the corpuses analyzed. Table 5.  Syntactic patterns for acordarse. Source: ADESSE and FrameNet Syntactic scheme

Frequency index ADESSE (%)

Frequency Examples index FrameNet (%)

1. Middle: S+VS+PC

64.5

96.8

El presidente afirmó que no se acordaba de ese parentesco, que se remonta a su infancia, ya que después de la muerte de su padre en 1951, los lazos quedaron rotos con esa rama de su familia.

2. Middle: S+VS

35.1

 3.2

Huyen de sus casas buscando algo desesperadamente. Como la vieja canción, ¿te acuerdas?, esperan llorando algo más. Pero ¿qué esperan? No sé si un día encontrarán la respuesta. [JOV: 029.07]

 –

Eso me hace acordar a Marta L que resulta que … eh, internaron a un primo…en [BAI: 488: 12]

3. Active:  0.4 S+ P+IO+DO

Syntactic-semantic correspondences After reviewing the syntactic annotation data provided by these databases on the voice remember, the set of parallelisms that is established between the semantic configuration, the syntactic structure and specific expression formulas that these roles adopt in the discourse become set in the following manner. The role Cognizer normally works syntactically as Subject and repeatedly adopts the NS structure in the discourse, while the role Mental Content, on the other hand, establishes a rapport with the syntactic function of Prepositional complement in the sentence order and employs, as a expressive support of its discursive action, mainly two structures: Prepositional S. (preposition: DE) or a noun/infinitive clause introduced by the conjunctive expression de que, the preposition de + infinitive or the preposition de + pronoun, determinant or interrogative adverb. In Table 6, we show in a syntactic way, which are the correspondences in syntactic-semantic order that are generated in the verbal lexical unit remember.

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Table 6.  Syntactic semantic correspondences of acordar(se). Source: ADESSE and FrameNet Roles

Medium voice Syntactic function

Syntagmatic structure

Cognizer

Subject

NS

Mental Content

Prepositional complement

Prep. Preposition: DE Noun clause, introduced by de que, de + infinitive, de + pronoun/ determinant or interrogative or exclamation word. Noun clause, introduced by que or pronoun/determinant or interrogative or exclamation word.

4.3

Comparison of acordarse-recordar

The comparative analysis of the data obtained for recordar and acordar(se) reveals some interesting clues. In first place, we can observe many similarities as for their semantic configuration, as in both conceptualizations two participants essentially intervene: Cognizer and Mental Content. Nevertheless, some semantic specificity can also be observed, such as: – The typification of the role Initiator in recordar, a participant that is not registered in the acordar(se) clauses. – The greater presence of peripheral or non-important roles in the discursive actions of recordar, as opposed of what happens with acordar(se), where they are not considerably important. Place

Acordarse FrameNet

Initiator

Acordarse ARTHUS Recordar FrameNet

Circumstances

Recordar ARTHUS

Category Manner Experience Representative Time Meaning Mental content Cognizer 0

50

100

Figure 1.  Comparison of semantic roles. Source: FrameNet and ARTHUS



Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

As for their syntactic configuration, we observe greater divergences, although some common features are also detected. In both cases, there is a main syntactic scheme (more than 50% of the clauses found in the analyzed corpus answer to a determined sentence pattern). Therefore, in one as well as with the other, a syntactic uniformity in their verbal behavior can be observed. However, in recordar, the predominant construction is the simple, active, transitive pattern (S + VS + DO) whereas in acordar(se), the intransitive scheme is medium voice S + VS + PC. This syntactic specialization of recordar and acordar(se) operated early on in the writing of discourses, as evidenced by the examples consulted from the 13th century in Spanish diachronic corpuses (Spanish language corpus): “E luego que esto ouieron puesto acordaronse de como dixiessen al rey que los dexasse yr: & porque tan ayna no pudieron hallar buena razon que mostrassen ouieron de esperar algunos dias” (Gran conquista de Ultramar. Corpus del español). Both verbs possess, in their lexical base, the latin voice cor-cordis ‘corazón’ [heart], but, according to Corominas-Pascual (2014), acordar(se), in the sense of ‘having memory of something’, derived from recordar, and was first seen in the first half of the 13th century. From the beginning, and perhaps due to searching for differentiation, in the case of acordarse, the pronominal verb, having a prepositional complement with de was used, and, in fact, what can also be perceived is the alternative use of prepositionals (with ‘de’ and ‘en’) and transitives in the verb acordar with the meaning ‘to reach an agreement’: “Pero todos los otros maestros que fueron despues destos acordaron que era meior que diessen las primicias segund que auien costumbrado de las dar en” (Siete partidas I); “Mas despues desso los clerigos de occidente que obedecieron siempre ala eglesia de Roma; acordaron de beuir en castidat” (Siete partidas I. Corpus del español). On the other hand, in the syntactic order, a certain disparity in the frequency of the active, intransitive scheme S + VS can be observed, according to the data from ADESSE, from which we derive that the omission of the object in the formal expression of acordar(se) (35%) are more common. This pattern, in recordar, is seen in a lesser number of occasions (7%). This characteristic seems to be associated to the verbal process of recordar, considered to be durable and controlled, while the verbal process of acordar(se) reveals itself to be more specific and uncontrolled (Nicita 2002: 93). Finally, another feature that differentiates the syntactic structures of both verbs is that is seems that the syntactic alternation is greater in the case of acordar(se). As opposed to recordar, acordar(se) seems to have more rigid sentence restraints, which impedes the use of other constructional possibilities. Lastly, as for the set of core participating correspondences, syntactic functions and formal structures, similarities and divergences are detected, divergences that have to do, overall, with differential features that are found in the syntactic structure.

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Acordarse FrameNet

9. Other syntactic patterns

Acordarse ARTHUS

8. Middle: S+V

Recordar FrameNet Recordar ARTHUS

7. Middle: S+V+Preposition … 6. Pasive: S+V+ Predicative 5. Impersonal V+DO 4. Pasive: S+V 3. Active: S+V1 2. Active: S+V+DO+IO 1. Active: S+V+DO 0

20

40

60

80

100

Figure 2.  Comparison of syntactic patterns. Source: ADESSE and FrameNet

The role Cognizer is predominantly linked to the function of subject, and it is updated in the discourse with the structure of the NS. The role Mental Content, however, is associated with the functions of the DO and PC, respectively, and more importantly, this role adopts syntagmatic structures of NS and prepositional Syntagma (de) or Noun clause. In Table 7, a few of the divergent characteristics that are shared by both verbs, such as those referring to the correlations between roles, syntactic functions and syntagmatic structures, are specified in more detail, as well as the concrete percentages of representation of the functions and the expression supports found in the corpus.

5. Conclusions The analysis performed on the information provided by the corpus reveals that the verbs recordar and acordar(se) share zones of convergence in their syntactic-semantic structures. The existence of syntactic and semantic parallelisms in the in verbal lexical units that are semantically near corroborated the theoretical presupposition of the intimate inter-relation between syntax, semantics and lexicon. These verbs co-activate, in essence and as a virtue of their peculiarities, the same scene in a world where very similar participants potentially intervene. More specifically, there are two essential participants that are subsumed in their semantic configuration: Cognizer and Mental Content. The semantic similarity that these synonymous have, however, does not seem to be too decisive when predicting their syntactic behavior. Hence, recordar and acordar(se), although having some similarities in the sentence patterns used, do not act upon the same syntactic schemes, and, due to this, not all the roles involved appear formalized in the expression plane through similar syntagmatic functions and structures.



Table 7.  Table of comparisons between syntactic-semantic correspondences. Source: ADESSE and FrameNet Roles

Recordar

Acordar(se)

ADESSE Cognizer

ADESSE

FRAMENET

Function

Syntagmatic structure

Function

Syntagmatic structure

Function

Syntagmatic structure

Function

Syntagmatic structure

Subject 89.6%

SN 100%

Subject 100%

SN 100%

Subject 100%

SN 100%

Subject 100%

SN 100%

IO 10.4%

NS 87.1% Prep. S. A 12.9%

–

–

DO

NS 54.8% NC 35.1% DCP 3% Prep. S. A 7.1%

NS 43.9% NC 29.2% Prep. S. A 19.5% Sub. Prop. Sust. Relat. Pron. 7.3%

NS 39.6% NC 31.6% Prep. S. A 21% Sub. Prop. Sust. Relat. Pron. “Lo que” 7.8%

PC 99.4%

Prep. S. DE 58.7% NC 37.1% Sub. Prop. Sust. Relat. Pron. 4.2%

PC 100%

NC 71% Prep. S. DE 25.8% Sub. Prop. Sust. Relat. Pron. 3.2%

Subject

NS

DO 0.6%

NS

–

–

Chapter 3.  Lexical synonymy and argumental structure

Mental Content

FRAMENET

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The observable divergences in the semantic and syntactic configurations are fundamentally due to issues that are more related to lexical-verbal aspects (inchoativity of “recordar”) and also due to the lexical unit’s own idiosyncrasy, which generates restrictions and specific combinatorial singularities within its discourse. Each verbal lexical unit will be, then, as a virtue of what our analysis shows, the one responsible for defining, in the last case scenario, the characteristics of its syntactic-semantic structure, as well as the individual set of correspondences that are produced between the syntactic and semantic planes. The comparative analysis performed reveals, thus, that the meaning of a verb is not enough to determine what its combination will be: recordar and acordar(se) constitute two predicate cores that possess very similar meanings, but, nevertheless, cannot be found in the same constructions. All in all, the existence of constructional variants in the syntactic-semantic schemes of verbs with semantic affinity such as those studied does not contravene the presupposed interaction between the lexical meaning and the constructional meaning of the verbs, as these “deviations” are the ones that help us delimit with greater precision, the limits between verbal lexical units that are very close in their meaning, pointing to some clues that will allow us to adequately use them in context, according to the usage patterns established by the practice of discourse. Future works that will delve into the research lines that have come from this study will not only facilitate a better definition of the concepts of valency or argumental structure, but can also be considered to be efficient tools in the prediction of verbal behavior, and due to this, can be of great utility in different fields of applied linguistics such as language didactics or automated translation.

References Achard, Michel. 1998. Representation of Cognitive Structures. Syntax and Semantics of French Sentential Complements. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110805956 ADESSE. Base de datos de verbos, alternancias de diátesis y esquemas sintáctico semánticos del español [ADESSE]. Retrieved from http://adesse.uvigo.es. [15/02/2014] Ágel, Vilmos. 2000. Valenztheorie. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Báez San José, Valerio. 1988. Fundamentos de la gramática de dependencias. Madrid: Síntesis. Báez San José, Valerio. 2002. Desde el hablar a la lengua. Prolegómenos a una teoría de la sintaxis y la semántica textual y oracional. Málaga: Ágora. Carretero, Marta and Villamil-Touriño, Asunción. 2011. “A contrastive study of verbs of remembering and forgetting in English and Spanish.” Language in Contrast, 11 (1): 40–69. Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 1999. Sintaxis y semántica del movimiento. Aspectos de gramática cognitiva. Alicante: Instituto de Cultura Juan Gil Albert. Comesaña, Susana. 2002. “Los verbos de conocimiento en español: caracterización sintáctica.” Verba 29: 243–260.



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Comrie, Bernard. 1993. Argument structure. In Syntax: An international handbook of contemporary research. Vol. 1. Edited by Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld, and Theo Vennemann, 903–914. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Delbecque, Nicole and Lamiroy, Béatrice. 1999. “La subordinación sustantiva: las subordinadas enunciativas en los complementos verbales.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), 1965–2082. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Devís, Pedro Pablo. 2000. Fundamentos teóricos de la morfología y semántica oracionales. ­Málaga: Ágora. Dik, Simon. 1981. Gramática funcional. Madrid: Sociedad General Española de Librería. Fillmore, Charles J. 1968. “The Case for Case.” In Universals in Linguistic Theory, Emmon Bach and Robert Harms (eds.), Universals in Linguistic Theory. Nueva York. Fillmore, Charles J. [1971] 1976. “Algunos problemas de la Gramática de casos.” In Semántica y sintaxis en la lingüística transformatoria, II, Víctor Sánchez de Zavala (ed.), 171–200. Madrid: Alianza Universidad. Fillmore, Charles J. 1977. “The Case for Case Reopened.” In Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 8: Grammatical Relations, Peter Cole and Jerry Sadock (eds.), 59–81. New York: Academic Press. Fillmore, Charles J. 2003. “Double-decker definitions: The role of frames in meaning explanations.” In Sign Language Studies 3, Spring Academic Research Library, 263–295. Fillmore, Charles J. 2007. “Valency issues in FrameNet.” In Valency: Theoretical, descriptive, and cognitive issues, Thomas Herbst and Katrine Götz-Votteler (eds.), 129–160. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. García-Miguel, José María. 1995a. Las relaciones gramaticales entre predicado y participantes. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade, Servicio de Publicacións e Intercambio Científico. García-Miguel, José María. 1995b. Transitividad y complementación preposicional en español. Verba. Santiago de Compostela, Anuario Galego de Filología. Anexo 40: Universidade, Servicio de Publicacións e Intercambio Científico. García-Miguel, José María and Comesaña, Susana. 2004. “Verbs of Cognition in Spanish: Constructional Schemas and Reference Points.” In Linguagem, Cultura e Cogniçao: Estudos de Linguística Cognitiva, Augusto Silva, Amadeu Torres, Miguel Gonçalves (eds.), 339–420. Coimbra: Almedina, vol. 1. García-Miguel, José María, Costas, Lourdes and Martínez, Susana. 2005. “Diátesis verbales y esquemas construccionales. Verbos, clases semánticas y esquemas sintáctico-semánticos en el proyecto ADESSE.” In Entre semántica léxica, teoría del léxico y sintaxis, Wotjak, Gerd and Juan Cuartero Otal (eds.), 373–384. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. García-Miguel, José María, González Domínguez, Fita and Vaamonde, Gael. 2010. “ADESSE. A Database with Syntactic and Semantic Annotation of a Corpus of Spanish.” Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), Valletta (Malta), 17–23 May. Goldberg, Adele. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Goldberg, Adele. 2010. “Verbs, constructions, and semantic frames.” In Syntax, Lexical Semantics, and Event Structure, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Edit Doron, and Ivy Sichel (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Halliday, Michael. 2004. An introduction of functional grammar. New York: Routledge. Helbig, Gerhard. 1992. Probleme der Valenz und Kasustheorie. Tubinga: Niemeyer.

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DOI: 10.1515/9783110938326 Lamiroy, Béatrice. 1991. Léxico y gramática: estructuras verbales de tiempo y espacio. Barcelona: Anthropos. Langacker, Ronald. 1987. Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, Ronald. 1991. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Vol. 2: Descriptive Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, Ronald. 2000. Grammar and Conceptualization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Levin, Beth. 1993. English verb classes and alternations: a preliminary investigation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Levin, Beth and Rappaport, Malka. 1992. “The Lexical Semantics of Verbs of Motion: The Perspective from Unaccusativity.” In Thematic Structure: Its Role in Grammar, Iggy M. Roca (ed.), 247–263. Berlin: Foris. Moliner, María. 1998. Diccionario de uso del Español. Madrid: Gredos, 2 vol. Nicita, Linda. 2002. Cognitive Verbs in Spanish: A Discourse Profile of ‘Acordarse’, ‘creer’, ‘saber’ and Related Verbs. Ph-Dissertation. University of Colorado, Boulder. Pinker, Steven. 2007. El mundo de las palabras. Introducción a la naturaleza humana. Barcelona: Paidós. Pustejovsky, James. 1995. The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press. Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Levin, Beth. 1998. “Building Verb Meaning.” In The Projection of Arguments, Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder (eds.), 97–134. Stanford: CSLI Publications. Real Academia Española. 2001. Diccionario de la lengua española. (21ª edición). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Schumacher, Helmut, Kubczak, Jacqueline, Schmidt, Renate and Ruiter, Vera. 2004. VALBU Valenzwörterbuch deutscher Verben. Tubinga: Narr Francke Attempto. Spanish FrameNet. Retrieved from: http://sfn.uab.es:8080/SFN. [20/02/2014] Tesnière, Lucien. [1959] 1994. Elementos de sintaxis estructural. Madrid: Gredos. Weber, Elisabeth and Paola Bentoviglio. 1991. “Verbs of cognition in Spoken Spanish: a discourse profile.” In Discourse pragmatics and the verb. The evidence from romance, Suzanne Fleishman and Linda Waugh (eds.), 194–213. Londres: Routledge. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Wotjak, Gerd. 2006. Las lenguas, ventanas que dan al mundo. Salamanca: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Salamanca.

chapter 4

Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement* Ignacio Bosque The lexical structure of Spanish displacement verbs is argued to be built up out of prepositions, whether covert or overt, subject to a number of incorporation processes. Some fine-grained semantic distinctions are introduced on the concepts of ‘goal’ and ‘path’. These and other conceptual components (specifically, direction and source) are shown to participate in various configurations involving conflation proceses at the lexical structure of verbs of vertical movement. A relationship is established between redundancy in transitive structures derived from unergative predicates and similarly redundant V-P structures with displacement verbs. Keywords: verb, movement, preposition, conflation, lexical structure

1. Introduction This paper deals with some of the roles that prepositions play in the syntax and semantics of movement verbs in Spanish. I will argue that displacement verbs (DVs) include a preposition as the backbone of their lexical structure. The grammatical representation of these verbs contains a number of syntactic layers above and below this preposition, which may lack phonological features in certain circumstances.1 The lexical properties of this preposition, its internal argument, and the conflation processes in

* I am very grateful to Ana Bravo, Antonio Fábregas, Luna Filipović, Ángel Gallego, Brenda Laca, Paloma Andrés and Ángel Sáez for their very useful comments on a previous version of this paper or some parts of it. This text was written for the Alicante meeting on Verb Classes. Extracts of this material were presented at the University of Porto (January 2015) and the University of Roma Tre (April 2015). I want to thank these audiences for their suggestions and remarks. Needless to say, all possible remaining errors are my own. 1. Manner of motion verbs will not be considered here. On the limits, sometimes fuzzy, between these verbs and DVs in Spanish, see Cifuentes Honrubia (1999), Morimoto (2001), Zubizarreta & Oh (2007), Cuartero Otal (2010) and references therein. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.04bos © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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which it participates determine the lexical structure of the DV, as well as its overt syntax to a large extent. The idea that prepositions are the basic pieces of DVs grammar is compatible with the possibility (not addressed here) that prepositions display more abstract compositional structures, with or without vectors, as in analyses such as Zwarts (1997, 2005), Zwarts and Winter (2000), Svenonious (2006, 2007) or Romeu (2014), the latter on Spanish. Here is partial list of Spanish DVs: (1) a. up-verbs: subir [climb, go up]; alzarse [rise up, raise]; ascender [ascend]; elevar(se) [rise, increase]; levantarse [get up]; izar [hoist]; aupar [help up, hitch up]; promover [promote]; empinarse [raise]; enarbolar [hoist, wave]; escalar [climb, scramble up]; trepar [climb up]; encaramarse [climb on top, houl out]; coronar [reach, culminate]. b. down-verbs: bajar [go down]; descender [descend]; hundir(se) [sink]; caer(se) [fall]; decaer [decay]; agacharse [crouch, bend down]; apearse [get off, drop off]; abatirse [grind down, dampen]; precipitarse [fall out]; despeñarse [tumble]; derrumbar(se) [collapse]. c. in/into-verbs: entrar [get in, enter]; meter [put into]; introducir [introduce]; insertar [insert]; penetrar [penetrate]; sumergir(se) [dive, immerse]; adentrarse [get into, head out]; invadir [invade]. d. out-verbs: salir [go out]; sacar [get out]; brotar [sprout out]; germinar [germinate] surgir [arise]; surtir [spout]; emerger [emerge]; extraer [draw, extract], sonsacar [dig out, beat out]; expulsar [expel]; exportar [export]; echar [throw]. e. from-verbs: partir [leave, depart]; alejarse [get away, walk away]; separar(se) [separate]; huir [get away, flee]; partir [depart]; despegar [take off]; zarpar [sail, shove off]; escapar [escape, get away]; marcharse [leave]; emigrar [emigrate]. f. through/across verbs: pasar [pass]; cruzar [cross]; atravesar [get through]; recorrer [go through]. g.  around-verbs: rodear [surround]; circunvalar [circumvent, bypass]; bordear [scorch, go around]. Some verbs may belong to more than one group. For example, Sp. salir may be an out-verb, as in Salgo de mi cuarto [I’m going out of my room], but also a fromverb, as in El autobús sale de la estación central [The bus departs from the central station]. As it is obvious, the verbs in (1) are DVs in a broad sense of this concept,



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

since directional and/or goal PPs are admitted by only a part of them (for example, penetrar en un lugar [penetrate a place] sharply contrasts with *invadir en un lugar [invade a place]). See below. In this paper I will deal with a few aspects of the grammar of groups (1a) and (1b), which I will call vertical movement verbs (VMVs). Due to space limitations, other issues regarding these very groups, as well as the other groups in (1), cannot possibly be addressed here. Even if a large part of the discussion below is centered around the first verb in (1a) – that is, subir – I want to stress that this paper is not a case study. The argumentation will be carried along by highlighting the grammatical contribution of each semantic component to the VMV’s lexical structure, as well as the specific role that overt and covert prepositions play in their syntactic and semantic characterization.

2. On verticality The role that the notion of ‘verticality’ plays in the grammar may be considered from a semantic or a syntactic perspective. Take the semantic side first. Verticality is not a direction, but a dimension or a spatial axis (thus, a relational concept, not necessarily a dynamic one). Most likely, its grammatical relevance is conditioned by our experience with gravity. It comes, then, as no surprise that up and down are considered to be universal concepts (Wierzbicka 1996), even if sometimes they show up decomposed in simpler atoms. Interestingly, verticality is often characterized in dictionaries through ostensive definitions. The Spanish adjective vertical [vertical] is commonly defined as ‘perpendicular to the horizontal dimension’ (the adjective horizontal, in its turn, being referred to horizonte [horizon]). Similarly, alto [high] is often defined by reference to tierra [earth], etc. The fact that these and some other similar notions (ex., cardinal points) are given ostensive definitions in dictionaries is hard to avoid on conceptual grounds, and it simply shows the close relationship that all these concepts bear to human experience. Basic items involving vertical movement make often reference to concepts such as ground, earth, summit or sky (with various possible degrees of transparency and lexicalization) in human languages; again, a hardly surprising fact.2 Still, I will argue that the grammar of DVs, and specifically that of VMVs, can be analyzed without introducing ostensive information in their lexical structures. Two interpretations of the notion ‘verticality’ may be distinguished: a broad one and a narrow one. The narrow one might perhaps be appropriate in geometry, but

2. An extensive literature exists on these and other related cognitive aspects of movement based on experience. See Herskovits (1986), Levinson (2003), Shay and Seibert (2003), Hickmann and Robert (2006), Aurnague et. at. (2007), and Filipović and Jaszczolt (2012).

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the one relevant to grammar, I will argue, is the broad one. This is the interpretation relevant to both subir un muro [climb a wall] and subir una rampa [climb up a ramp], even if the second involves no vertical movement in a strict sense, but just upward movement. The broad interpretation, as opposed to the narrow, is the one we apply to rivers, currents or flows, in which movement is horizontal (subir el curso del río [go up the course of the river], bajar la corriente [go down the river flow], río abajo [downstream], remontar el río [go upstream]). The verbs subir [go up, climb] and bajar [go down, descend] are also used to talk about vehicles. Again, the appropriate interpretation of the concept ‘verticality’ must be the broad one if we want to cover all these natural extensions. Notice that the reason why someone living in Seville may talk about “subir a Madrid” [going up to Madrid] is simply that the north is associated with the upper part in maps. Let’s take the syntactic side of the issue now. As it is obvious, verticality is the dimension that the prepositions up and down lexicalize, as well as the adjectives high and low. Spanish distinguishes the particles arriba [up] (originally coming from riba [riverbank]) and encima [above] (lit. “on-summit”) – arguably, an (in)transitive preposition3 – together with the preposition sobre [on]. Interestingly, French builds up these and other related items from the notions on and high. The intransitive preposition dessus [above] is formed out of the old preposition sus [on]. From dessus (lit. “of-on”), one obtains au-dessus [over, so far beyond] (lit. “to-of-on”). French has the literal equivalent of Eng. on high (Fr. en haut), but no lexical item for up is present in this language, since all the relevant expressions are compositionally obtained from on and high. There is little doubt that Sp. subir involves the meaning of arriba [up], but the possible lexical structure of this particle is not obvious. Emonds (1985) takes Eng. up to either be an intransitive (go up) or a transitive (go up the hill) preposition. Sp. arriba displays both possibilities in many varieties of American Spanish (arriba ~ arriba de la mesa [up ~ on top of the table]). In European Spanish, arriba is not transitive, as opposed to encima, but it is in several varieties of American Spanish, and it seems to lexicalize a full PP, such as at the top or on the top. In any case, one must recall that complex Ps often lexicalize full PPs, together with the P heading the subsequent DP, as in de acuerdo con [in accordance with], con vistas a [in order to], and many other similar cases. One might see a syntactic problem in the very fact that arriba displays properties of both NPs and PPs. It behaves as a PP in that it allows coordination with other PPs (2a, b) and rejects coordination with NPs (2c), but it parallels NPs in the fact that it may alternate with some other NPs (3a) in certain contexts, and in that it may be paraphrased with a NP (3b):

3. Arriba and encima are considered to be adverbs in most traditional grammars of Spanish, in which the concept ‘intransitive preposition’ plays no role. On the adverb vs. preposition categorization controversies in Spanish classical grammar, see Pavón Lucero (1999, 2003).



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

(2) a. Subí [[arriba] y [al piso de tu hermana]]. [I went upstairs and to your sister’s apartment] b. ¿Te espero arriba o en el portal? [Shall I wait for you upstairs or at the entrance?] c. *Te puedo ver desde [[arriba] y [mi casa]]. [I can see you from upstairs and my home] (3) a. Voy para {arriba / mi casa}. [I am going {upstairs / home}] b. Hacia {arriba ~ lo alto}. [Upwards ~ the top] I will thus accept this double syntactic nature of arriba. Interestingly, this double categorization is not a specific property of arriba, but extends to other particles, such as relative adverbs.4 An integrated solution of all these cases without duplication of lexical entries may be possible, but falls beyond the scope of this paper.

3. On direction From Talmy (1975, 1983, 1985) and Langacker (1987) onwards, a broad agreement exists on the fact that the semantic components of movement configurations include (at least) figure, goal, path and source. I will distinguish terminological preferences, such as Talmy’s for path vs. Langacker’s for trajectory, from conceptual issues, such as whether or not dir(ection) and goal should be kept apart as different elements of DVs lexical structures. In fact, I will argue that they should. To these basic semantic ingredients of movement structures, one should add manner (Harley 2005), also incorporated into many DVs. As regards VMVs, natural candidates for manner incorporation include Fr. dévaler [to descend quickly], as in dévaler la montagne [climb down the mountain quickly] or Sp. encaramarse, which allows for paraphrases such as ‘climb to the top with difficulty’. Other VMVs may be thought of as the result of targeting other conceptual components with some restrictive predicative information. The lexical components targeted include figure in izar [hoist, raise (for flags, boats, etc.)] or levar [weigh (for anchors)], but also source in precipitarse [precipitate], involving “from a high place”, or goal in coronar [reach the top]. More generally, one may reasonably argue that there is such a large number of VMVs because these (sub)lexical modifiers are rather numerous, not because the basic

4. Notice that cuando [when] lexicalizes a PP in (ia), but a NP in (ib): (i) a. Me alegré mucho cuando llegaste. (Cuando [at the moment at which]) [I was so glad when you arrived] b. No me olvido de cuando llegaste. (Cuando [the moment at which]) [I haven’t forgotten about the time when you arrived]

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lexical structures built up from the elementary components (figure, goal, path, etc.), or the syntactic processes applied to them, are equally varied or abundant. The minimal information that one needs to express oriented movement involves two components: figure and direction. But even these minimal conceptual requirements are a bit more complex than one might think. Apparently, the sentences in (4) are synonymous: (4) a. The smoke goes up. b. El humo va arriba. But they are not. The reason is that Eng. up is ambiguous, since it may express direction (go up = ‘go upwards’) or goal (go up = ‘go above, go to a high place or position’). On the contrary, Spanish arriba is not ambiguous: it implies only goal: ir arriba means ‘go to some high place’. In order to express direction, an explicit overt directional preposition is required (hacia arriba, para arriba [upwards]). The natural conclusion is simply that Spanish lacks a null directional P (that is, a null -wards), as opposed to English. That is English, conflates up and P (Ø) at lexical structure (Jackendoff 1983, 1990; see also Gehrke 2008; Terzi 2010), but Spanish cannot do so because it lacks the appropriate null lexical item: (5) a. go [DIR Ø [PLACE up]]. b. go [DIR upi + Ø [PLACE (upi)]]. I will follow Gehrke (2008) in the idea that goal or directional interpretations of locative prepositions are obtained in the syntax, not in the lexicon. We may then suppose that Spanish contains a null P for goal (i.e., an empty a [to]), as opposed to dir, subject to a distribution to be analyzed below (§ 4.2). (6) a. ir [GOAL Ø [PLACE arriba]]. b. ir [GOAL Ø+arribai [PLACE (arribai)]]. Since this empty preposition is only selected by directional verbs, no information is lost. English displays the same preposition. In fact, Collins (2007) argues that it is necessary to account for the goal interpretation of there in I went there: (7) I went [[TO Ø] there]. As opposed to Spanish, English allows for resultative PPs modifying DVs. This implies that the ambiguity of (8) (Gehrke’s 2008 example), as explained in (9), does not extend to Spanish. The directional reading is accounted for along the incorporation process sketched in (10): (8) He walked in the room. (9) a. He walked [GOAL in the room] (= ‘into the room’) b. He walked [PLACE in the room] (= ‘being in the room’)



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

(10) a. He walked [GOAL [Ø] [PLACE in the room]]. b. He walked [GOAL [ini + Ø] [PLACE (ini) the room]]. As other verb-framed languages, Spanish allows for conflation of V + DIR. It, then, provides a single verb (namely, subir) for the information that Eng. displays in a V + PDIR structure. As opposed to P incorporation processes such as the ones in (5)– (7), we may argue that the structures now required combine or blend longer fragments of lexical structure followed by late lexical insertion, as generally assumed in Distributed Morphology, Nanosyntax and other frameworks which propose conflation processes in lexical structures. Therefore, we may see the verb subir [go upwards] as the result of lexicalizing a structure that roughly provides the information in (11b): (11) a. El humo sube. b. El humo [V va [DIR para/hacia [PLACE arriba]]]. the smoke goes towards up [Smoke raises] The view that prepositions display aspectual features (Zwart 2005; Gehrke 2008; for Spanish, see Morimoto 2001) gives us a natural explanation for the unbounded nature of (11a) (para and hacia being unbounded prepositions). In a parallel way, the telic nature of VMVs with goal complements may be seen as a consequence of the telicity of goal prepositions (§ 5, below). The conflation process of V and DIR is particularly interesting if considered in a historical perspective. The Spanish verb subir comes from Lat. subire, but the prefix sub- was a source prefix in Latin (Lat. subire means ‘go from below’). French and Italian reinterpreted source as place. In fact, both present-day Fr. subir and It. subire mean ‘bear, suffer’, that is, ‘go under’. The peculiarity of Sp. subir is then a consequence of going a step forward, and reinterpreting Lat. sub- as its antonymous, but phonetically related, supra-, as subsequently changing source into the opposite concept. Notice that, if we assume that subir lexicalizes “movement + direction”, one may wonder how come we have sentences such as (12), in which dir seems to be both overt and covert: (12) El humo sube para arriba. [Smoke raises up] This question allows for several answers. First, lower nouns in the “light V + N” typical lexical structures of unergative predicates (Hale and Keyser 2002) are known to often be both overt and lexically integrated in their transitive correlates, whether inner nouns are taken to be cognates (sing a song) or hyponymic nominals (sing a tango). See Haugen (2009), Gallego (2012) and Haugen and Siddiqi (2013) on these structures. But (12) may also be seen as another instance of modifiers accompanying predicates which partially reproduce their content. Natural candidates include postverbal

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particles in English (as in calm down, rise up, finish off, grow up, prostrate down, and many more), as well as resultative phrasal verbs in Romance, such as echar fuera [cast out, drive out], volver atrás [go back], tirar abajo [tear down, bring down] and some others that Mateu and Rigau (2010) analyze in detail. I do not mean that all these forms of redundancy are to be associated with the same lexical structures, but they provide evidence for the idea that several types of complex predicate formation involve similar reduplicative structures. In the next section I will deal with other aspects of these forms of redundancy.

4. On goal 4.1

goal and embodied direction

Let us consider goal complements now. Structures such as (13) express goal, but they do not make reference to verticality: (13) ir [goal a [place mi casa]]. [go to my house] Various possibilities exist to include this missing notion. Fábregas (2007) suggests, in a Nanosyntax framework, that subir [go up] in subir a mi casa [go up to my place] is the result of lexicalizing Proc(ess) and Path in (14): (14) [ProcP [Proc [PathP [PlaceP [Place a [DP mi casa]]]]]]. A problem with this structure is the fact that, if one assumes that path is the node responsible for the directional import related to verticality, then it should not form a constituent with a mi casa. The natural dependency that we want to express is the one existing between the place PP a mi casa and the DV go, not between the dir head and the PP complement. In fact, *arriba a mi casa [up to my house] is not a constituent on either conceptual or syntactic grounds, but it should be one according to (14). On the other hand, the preposition a seems to introduce goal in this structure, rather than place, as argued by Demonte (2011). We have two options, at least, to account for (15a) avoiding these problems. One is to assume that dir encapsulates the relevant information on verticality that subir expresses, so that addition of a goal PP to the V + DIR complex integrated in subir is all we need: (15) a. El humo subió a mi casa. [Smoke went up to my house] b. El humo [V+DIR subió [goal a [place mi casa]]]. According to this analysis, dir stands for a whole PP (as in Engl. upwards or Sp. hacia arriba). This option might be accurate, even ultimately correct, but there is another,



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

perhaps less obvious, interesting alternative. We may keep to the simple structure in (13) and treat the information related to the upper position as an inner predicate of place. We can thus say that (15a) is equivalent to El humo fue a mi casa [Smoke came to my house], plus the presupposition Mi casa está arriba [My place is upstairs]. I realize that this alternative forces lexical duplication. That is, subir would mean ‘go upwards’ in (11), but ‘go to a high place or position’ in (15a). Even so, the alternative presents some interesting advantages: 1. This analysis implicates that goals of subir should be located at high places, hence the pragmatic anomaly of #subir al sótano [go up to the basement] or #bajar al ático [go down to the attic]. 2. It naturally relates (15a) to other DVs involving presuppositional (predicational) information of locative nature. If I say Me acerqué a la tienda [I came up to the store], I am basically saying that I went to the store, and presupposing at the same time ‘The store was near’ (acercarse is a parasynthetic verb derived from cerca [near]: a-cerca-rse). This paraphrase is parallel to the one given for (15a). 3. There is no greater redundancy in subir arriba [go up, raise up] than in subir al ático [go up to the attic]. That is, subir arriba is interpreted as ‘subir a arriba’, more specifically, as ‘go to a place located at a high position’, as in Fr. monter en haut (see González Fernández 1997 for a similar analysis). Notice that traditional prescriptive discussions on the possible anomaly of subir arriba simply dissolve from this perspective. I will not develop a formal analysis of the alternative to (15b) that I have just sketched, but only a hint on how it might be worked out: just as hyponyms of N in the V + N complexes may be overt substitutes of cognate nominals incorporated into abstract verbs, as I have recalled above, nominals from which some locative information is predicated in DVs structures might also stay as syntactic complements, so that the locative predicate associated to them incorporates into an abstract DV. At the end of the next section (§ 4.2), I will present more arguments for an approach along these lines.

4.2

Three types of goal in vertical movement

Since we have two goal prepositions in Spanish (that is, a [to] and its null counterpart Ø), something must be said on their grammatical distribution. This distribution is based on categorial features: Ø is chosen if P precedes another P; otherwise, a is selected. The contrasts in (16) and (17) are, then, expected: (16) a. *Subió a junto a ella. [S/he came up near her] b. Subió [Ø [junto a ella]]. [S/he came up near her]

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(17) a. *Lancé la pelota a sobre el tejado. [I threw the ball onto the roof] b. Lancé la pelota [Ø [sobre el tejado]]. [I threw the ball onto the roof] But something must be added, since this analysis wrongly predicts the grammaticality of (18c): (18) a. La bandera está [PLACE en la torre] [The flag is at the tower] b. *Subió [GOAL a [PLACE en la torre]] [S/he got up to the tower] c. *Subió [GOAL Ø [PLACE en la torre]] I will argue that the compatibility of goal and place prepositions lies in our interpretation of the very concept of goal. This notion is more complex than generally thought, at least as upward movement is concerned. I will distinguish three types of goals in upward movement: a. The first one is upper-place goal. In this interpretation, some upward displacement reaches a goal located at a high place, as in subir a la cima [climb to the top] or subir a una ermita [climb to a hermitage]. b. The second is onto goal. In this interpretation, the upward displacement ends up on top of something, as in subir a una silla or subir encima de una silla [get up on a chair]. c. The third is end-of-path goal. In this interpretation, the upward displacement takes place along a path which contains its endpoint, as in subir a una colina [climb a hill] or subir a una torre [get up to a tower]. Since these three goal types involve different movement configurations, some grammatical differences are expected among them. I will point out six grammatical consequences of this semantic distinction: 1. Alternations of direct objects and oblique PPs are obtained in end-of-path goals, as in subir una colina ~ subir a una colina. These alternations are rejected in all the other types. Therefore, subir a una mesa [stand/get on a table] and subir una mesa [move a table up] are not equivalent. See Section 5 on the former pattern. 2. The alternation subir-subirse is typical of onto goals, as in Me subí a una silla [I got on a chair]. It is strange with upper-place goals (??Me subiré a tu casa [I will come up to your place]) and end-of-path goals (??Me subiré a la colina [I will climb the hill]). Some apparent counterexamples, such a subir(se) a un árbol [climb a tree] display special characteristics that I will discuss below. On other prepositional restrictions imposed by Spanish pronominal DVs, see Aaron (2003) and De Miguel (2013).



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

3. Choice of goal prepositions depends on the three goal types introduced above. The Spanish preposition sobre [on] and its equivalents in other Romance languages are appropriate for onto goals, but French and Italian extend this preposition to endof-path goals, unlike Spanish. No Romance language extends it to upper-place goal, for which a [to] (and its equivalents) is the only choice: (19) Choice of prepositions according to upward movement goals Spanish

French

Italian

onto goal

subirse {a / sobre} el escenario [get on the stage]

monter sur la scène [get on the stage]

salire {sul-sopra il} palcoscenico [get on the stage]

end-of-path goal

subir a la torre [climb up to the tower]

monter sur la tour salire sulla torre [climb up to the tower] [climb up to the tower]

upper- place goal

subir al castillo [go up to the castle]

monter au chateau [go up to the castle]

salire al castello [go up to the castle]

As shown in (19), the preposition a is admitted in Spanish for the three goal types, but it alternates with sobre in onto goal. It is not surprising that certain nouns complementing the preposition allow for on (that is, Fr. sur or It. su) or to (i.e, Fr. à or It. a) depending on whether they are interpreted as ends of paths (so that some way across is implicit) or upper-place goals. Nouns such as “tree” or “tower” are natural candidates for this double categorization: (20) a. Monter à un arbre. [upper-place goal] (French) [Go up to a tree] b. Monter sur un arbre. [end-of-path goal](French) [Climb a tree] 4. The preposition en [in, on] behaves as sobre in Spanish. Its rejection by upperplace goals (*subir en una ermita [climb to a hermitage]) or end-of-path goals (*subir en una torre [climb up to a tower]) is then expected (but see below). As in (20), one expects the choice of the preposition to depend on the semantic categorization of the noun. Notice that a ladder is both a path for upward movement and a physical object with an upper part. An alternation between a [to] and en [on, in] is then expected: (21) a. Subir a una escalera. [end-of-path goal] [Climb a ladder] b. Subirse en una escalera. [onto goal] [Get on a ladder] Interestingly, all three goal types could be constructed with the preposition in in Latin: upper-place goals (in caelum ascendere [climb to the heavens]), onto goals (in tabulam ascendere [get on a table]) and end-of-path goals (in murum ascendere

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[climb a wall]). Old Spanish kept these three options as well.5 Since the pattern in (18c) was standard in Old Spanish, the problem of why it got lost (around the xvii century) becomes a historical syntax puzzle. The crucial point for the incorporation of place prepositions is the fact that there is no conceptual incompatibility between the prepositions a and en. See Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2003) on the alternation entrar en – entrar a in present-day Spanish. 5. The nominalization subida [rise, increase, ascent] is fully appropriate in only two of the three types of goals of upwards movement: (22) a. ??La subida del gato al taburete. [onto goal] [The cat’s going onto the stool] b. La subida de los ciclistas a la cima. [upper-place goal] [The bike racers’s ascent to the summit] c. La subida a la torre [end-of-path goal] [The ascent to the tower] 6. The last difference among goal types of upward VMVs concerns auxiliary selection. As it is well-known, Italian and French pick up essere/être for unaccusative DVs, but Spanish makes no distinction on auxiliaries depending on the (un)accusative or unergative properties of the verb. However, Spanish introduces an interesting difference on DV auxiliaries, which – I will argue – is related to the distinction on goal types above: estar is chosen for onto goals, but rejected for the two other goal types: (23) a. Estaba subido {a / en} la silla. [onto goal] [He was standing on a chair] b. #Estaba subido a la iglesia. [upper-place goal] [He had climbed up to the church] c. #Estaba subido a la colina. [end-of-path goal] [He had climbed the hill] 5. One example for each type is provided in (i)–(iii). Many others are easy to find in old texts. (i) upper-place goal with en: “¿Dónde yré, Señor [….] Sy me subiere en el çielo, Tú allí eres; sy deçendiere al ynfierno, Tú presente eres”  (A. Martínez de Toledo, Corbacho, 1438; CORDE). [Where shall I go, Lord […] If I rise to heaven, there You are; if I descend to hell, You are present there] (ii) onto goal with en: “E subio en la siella & començoles a fablar desta guisa” (Alfonso X, Estoria de Espanna, 1270; CORDE) [And s/he went on the chair and s/he started to talk to them in this way] (iii) end-of-path goal with en: “con sus trezientos cavalleros fue a subir en una sierra alta que vio” (Anonymous, Historia de Enrique, 1498; CORDE) [With his three hundred knights he climbed a high mountain that he saw]



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

As expected, (23b) would be grammatical if referred to someone who has climbed to a church dome (onto goal), but it is not if we mean that someone has gone up to some church located in a hill’s summit (upper-place goal). The pattern in (23a) is, then, resultative. I would now like to suggest that onto goal upward movement reduces to a typical change of state structure, that is, a structure built up on a resultant state. Let us take a look at (24) from this perspective: (24) Subió sobre sus hombros. [S/he climbed on his/her shoulders] There is some redundancy in (24), since the verb subir and the preposition sobre share a part of the information they convey on upward movement. At first sight, the non-interpretable (i.e., redundant) information is provided by the preposition. Nevertheless, I will argue for the opposite option; that is, for the idea that in these cases it is the verb that partially reproduces the content of the preposition, rather than vice versa. First of all, as explained in Filipović (2007), a number of Serbian directional prepositions are reproduced into verbs as prefixes. If you wish to say He ran into the room in Serbian, you have to say “He into-ran into the room”.6 Latin displayed the same structure, apparently on an optional basis. If you wanted to say enter the room in Latin, you might choose the “go + [in N]” pattern (with accusative case in N), as in (25a). But you might also choose the “in-go +N” variant in (25b), where the preposition incorporates into the verb, or even the option in (25c), in which both items are present, as in the Serbian pattern I have just referred to: (25) a. Ire in cubiculum. go in room.acc [go into the room] b. Inire cubiculum. in+go room.acc [enter the room] c. Inire in cubiculum.7 in+go in room.acc [enter the room]

6. Thanks to L. Filipović and A. Pejović for making this clear to me. Here is an example: (i) On je utrčao u sobu He ran-into into room [He ran into the room] 7. The Latin verb inire was lost in Spanish, but its postverbal noun inicio [beginning] remained, as Paz Alfonso (2014) observes.

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The pattern in (25c) is also standard in some present-day Spanish V-P combinations, including interponerse entre ellos [get in between them] or convivir con mis compañeros [live with my mates].8 As it is obvious, the redundant, non-interpretable, information is provided by the prefix, not by the PP, in all these cases. Suppose now that the verb in (24) merely denotes a change of state (approx. ‘come to be’). Then we may think of subir in (24) as the result of lexicalizing a complex head, that is, the one constituted by the verb plus the two consecutive prepositional heads in (26b). The last preposition appears twice (that is, both overly and covertly), as in the cases mentioned above: (26) a. [V [GOALØ [PLACE sobre sus hombros]]]] b. [[V + ØGOAL + sobre PLACE] [PLACE sobre sus hombros] Alternations between the patterns in (25b) and (25c) are not surprising. In fact pairs such as those in (27), in present-day Spanish, may be thought of as a manifestation of the same phenomenon: (27) a. Excede (de) sus competencias. [It exceeds their competence] b. Penetra (en) la piel. [It penetrates (in) the skin]

5. On path In the preceding sections I have separated the specific contribution of direction and goal to the grammar of upward movement in Spanish (and partially, other languages). Since some authors use path in a somehow broader sense, which covers direction, it may be appropriate to stress that these notions are kept apart here: direction is the notion provided by Eng. -wards or Sp. hacia or para, whereas path is the space covered by movement, thus an incremental theme.9 There are some interesting restrictions on possible paths. Notice that you may “climb a tree” in English, but not in Spanish:

8. A similar difference exists in Portuguese (thanks to A. Leal for this information). The prefix com-, which doubles the preposition com [with], is optional in the verbs (com)pactuar [agree on, make a deal] and (com)partilhar [share], so that you can say pactuar com alguém or compactuar com alguen [make a deal with someone], as well as partilhar algo com alguem [share something with somebody] or compartilhar algo com alguem. 9. The notion path involves many other problems and controversies that cannot be addressed here. On the role of this concept in the grammar of DVs, see Aske (1989), Talmy (1991), Tungseth (2008), Mateu and Rigau (2009) and Pantcheva (2011), among others. See Imbert (2012) for an overview.



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

(28) a. Climb {a mountain / a tree}. b. Subir {una montaña / #un árbol}. To be more precise, you cannot climb a tree in Spanish… unless you are an ant: (29) Una hormiga estaba subiendo un árbol de 24 pies de alto  [from Google Books] [An ant was climbing a 24 feet tall tree] More specifically, one expects a number of nominals to qualify as prototypical path nouns, including carretera [road], cuesta [hill], camino [trail], etc. but other options are pragmatically available if they provide the space covered in some (homogeneous) upward movement: árbol [tree], poste [post], pierna [leg], etc. Recall that these nouns are also natural candidates for end-of-path goal in non-transitive structures with PP complements (§ 4.2). Before going into the grammatical structure of the transitive sentences in (28), another conceptual distinction seems to be in order: path will be opposed here to way. I take path to represent the space covered by movement. The Spanish preposition por corresponds to English along in this sense, as in (30a). As opposed to this, way introduces some specific conduit, channel or trail followed in a displacement process, often as opposed to others. The Spanish preposition por corresponds to English through or by using in this sense, as in (30b): (30) a. Juan está subiendo por la cuesta. [path] [John is climbing the ramp] b. Debes subir por la cuesta (no por la escalera). [way] [You must come up through the ramp, not through the stairs] As one might expect, way PPs may be substituted by cómo [how], unlike path PPs. I will point out two grammatical consequences of the distinction between path and way: 1. Since way is not a basic conceptual component of movement (in fact, it constitutes an adjunct), it is expected not to incorporate into the verb. I will argue that a null preposition for path (i.e. an empty correlate of por [through]) may be lexically incorporated into the verb, as sketched in (32): (31) [V+DIR subir [PATH por [PLACE la cuesta]]]. [Climb the ramp] (32) a. [V+DIR subir [PATH Ø [PLACE la cuesta]]]. b. [V+DIR+PATH subir + Ø] [PLACE la cuesta]. A similar process obtains with downward VMVs, as in bajar (por) la escalera [walk downstairs], descender (por) el muro [descend the wall], etc. As in the pattern in (27) and other similar cases, P incorporation changes case relations, since the structure in (32b) is transitive. Notice that a non-incorporated P in an argumental PP might prevent the DP from receiving accusative case. If non-incorporated null Ps are possible at

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all, they are expected to appear in adjuncts, perhaps in temporal DPs/PPs, as in María llegó un lunes [Mary arrived on some Monday]. A change in telicity is, nevertheless, expected in the path structures in (31)–(32). That is, the transitive option gives rise to an accomplishment, whereas the intransitive one is interpreted as an activity. Similar aspectual differences are standard in wellknown examples of N-to-V incorporation, such as light verb complexes giving rise to unergative predicates. Notice that these asymmetries do not constitute arguments against the very existence of these lexical processes: (33) a. Dar un paseo (en media hora). [Take a walk in half an hour] b. Pasear (*en media hora). [Walk in half an hour] The optional incorporation of path prepositions extends to trepar [climb with one’s hands] in most varieties of American Spanish, but not in European Spanish, in which *trepar un árbol is an ungrammatical expression. The process is also optional with various across-verbs (remember (1)), as in La pelota le pasó (por) debajo de las piernas [The ball passed across his legs]. This is fully expected; in fact it is strictly parallel to the optionality of in in English with enter, penetrate and other similar verbs. 2. way is compatible with goal, as opposed to path (34): (34) a. Subí a tu casa [WAY por la cuesta]. [I climbed to your place through the ramp] b. *Subí a tu casa [PATH por la cuesta]. Since only path incorporates, the anomaly in (35a) obtains. The grammaticality of (35b) is not relevant, for the goal PP is a complement of the noun: (35) a. *[Subí la cuesta] [a tu casa]. [I climbed the hill to your house] b. Subí [la cuesta a tu casa]. [I climbed the ramp that leads to your house] I will take the incompatibility in (35a) to be a natural consequence of Tenny’s (1994) constraint on measuring out an event already bound. That is, if subir la cuesta is a telic predicate, it is expected to reject a bound PP which measures it out again. On similar grounds, differences on lexical aspect such as those in (33) are also expected, but do not lead to the postulation of two different lexical items for pasear [walk]: (36) a. Nos hemos paseado por la ciudad. [atelic] [We have walked through the city] b. Nos hemos paseado la ciudad. [telic] [We have walked the city]



Chapter 4.  Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement

6. On source This conceptual component of VMVs displays two main properties. The first one is strictly parallel to path, namely the incompatibility with goal complements for – I will assume – the same constraint on measuring out events already bound: (37) a. Bajar la pendiente. [Go down the slope] b. Bajar de la cima. [Get down from the summit] c. * [[Bajar la pendiente] de la cima]. [Go down the slope from the summit] The fact that substitution of de [from] by desde [from] makes (37c) grammatical is not a counterexample, since desde… hasta… [from… to…] is a complex preposition not necessarily related to DVs, then unlikely to play a role in measuring out processes. In fact, it is able to modify state predicates, as in La finca se extiende desde la carretera hasta el río [The farm extends from the road to the river], as well as non-movement action verbs, as in Yo solía silbar desde casa hasta mi oficina [I used to whistle from home to my office] (see Móia 2000). The second property of source is more intriguing: goal is fully compatible with up-verbs and down-verbs, but source is incompatible with the former (again, desde is not considered here for the reasons just mentioned): (38) a. ¡Baja de ahí! [Come down (from up there)] b. *¡Sube de ahí! [Come up (from up there)] (39) a. El avión bajaba de las nubes. [The plane came down from the clouds] b. *El avión subía de la pista. [The plane went up from the airstrip] (40) a. El agua cae del cielo. [Water falls from the sky] b. *El vapor sube del géiser. [Steam rises from the geyser] If source is fully compatible with out-verbs, from-verbs and down-verbs in Spanish, how come it is not with up-verbs? Interestingly, subir cancels the incompatibility if it is able to be interpreted as a from-verb, instead of an up-verb, as happens in (41): (41) Acabo de subir de la calle, y está diluviando. [I’ve just come up from the street, and it’s pouring]

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I will suggest that the incompatibility of up-verbs with source is due to the extension of a markedness factor. The lexical aspect of verbal predicates depends on whether or not their end (i.e., the telos) is marked, rather than their beginning. Somehow similarly, non-oriented movement predicates select for (complete) paths or for goals by default, rather than just points of departure, especially if indexical information on the speaker’s location is involved, as in El tren {*va / viene} de Madrid [The train {goes / comes} from Madrid]. I suggest that the irregularity of the “b” examples in (38)–(40) fits within this general tendency to characterize events on the basis of closed (i.e. end-bound) information. In any case, since nothing in the outside world seems to call for such a restriction, the question remains of what specific conceptual requirements make it necessary in (at least a number of) languages.

7. Conclusions In this paper I have argued that the lexical structure of DVs is built up from prepositions. I have concentrated on the role that prepositions play in the lexicalization of the conceptual components of VMVs (path, source, goal, etc.), with specific attention to subir [go up]. I have made three general points: 1. A number of differences between English and Spanish syntactic structures on movement configurations follow from differences in the prepositions that can be null or empty in these two languages (specifically those expressing goal, direction and path), together with the incorporation and conflation processes associated to them. 2. Some fine-grained distinction on the basic conceptual components of movement are necessary, including three types of goals in VMVs, and the distinction between path and way. 3. Redundancy is a fundamental aspect of the grammar of DVs, since the information provided by P is often present (either covertly or overtly) in V, with a certain degree of syntactic variation across languages. The preposition has been shown to provide interpretable information in some of these cases, in a way somehow similar to that in which DP complements provide cognate or hyponymic nominals in V-N complexes. In all these structures, the lexical information on the verb turns out to be a mere non-interpretable copy of the one provided by the lower P/N.

References Aaron, Jessica E. 2003. “Me salí a caminar: Pronominal constructions with intransitive motion verbs in northern New Mexican Spanish.” In Selected Proceedings of the First Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, Lotfi Sayahi (ed.), 123–133. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.



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Aske, John. 1989. “Path predicates in English and Spanish: A closer look.” In Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 15: 1–14. Aurnague, Michel, et al. (eds.). 2007. The categorization of spatial entities in language and cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.20 Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 1999. Sintaxis y semántica del movimiento. Aspectos de gramática cognitiva. Alicante: Instituto de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert. Collins, Chris. 2007. “Home Sweet Home.” NYU Working Papers in Linguistics 1: 1–34. Cuartero Otal, Juan. 2010. “Estructuras argumentales de los verbos de desplazamiento del sujeto: una descripción del español frente a una descripción del inglés.” The Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 87.2: 149–168. DOI: 10.3828/bhs.2009.9 De Miguel, E. 2013. “Verbos de movimiento en predicaciones sin desplazamiento espacial.” Verba Hispanica (Ljubljana) XX/1: 185–207. Demonte, Violeta. 2011. “Los eventos de movimiento en español: construcción léxico-sintáctica y microparámetros preposicionales.” In Estudios sobre perífrasis y aspecto, Juan Cuartero Otal, et al. (eds.), 16–42. München: Peniope. Emonds, Joseph. 1985. A unified theory of syntactic categories. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. Fábregas, Antonio. 2007. “The exhaustive lexicasation principle.” Nordlyd: Tromsø Working Papers on Language & Linguistics 34.2: 126–164. Filipović, Luna. 2007. Talking about motion: A crosslinguistic investigation of lexicalization patterns. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.91 Filipović, Luna, and Jaszczolt, Kasia. (eds.). 2012. Space and time in languages and cultures: linguistic diversity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.36 Gallego, Ángel J. 2012. “A note on cognate objects: cognation as doubling.” Nordlyd: Tromsø Working Papers on Language & Linguistics 39.1: 95–112. Gehrke, Berit. 2008. Ps in motion. On the semantics and syntax of P elements and motion events. Doctoral Dissertation. Utrecht: University of Utrecht LOT Dissertation Series. González Fernández, Mª Jesús. 1997. “Sobre la motivación semántica de las expresiones pleonásticas de movimiento: subir arriba, bajar abajo, entrar adentro y salir fuera.” In Cambios diacrónicos en el español, Concepción Company (ed.), 123–141. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma. Hale, Kenneth L. and Keyser, Samuel J. 2002. Prolegomenon to a theory of argument structure. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press. Harley, Heidi. 2005. “How do verbs get their names? Denominal verbs, manner incorporation, and the ontology of verb roots in English.” In The syntax of aspect. Deriving thematic and aspectual interpretation, Nomi Erteschik-Shir and Tova Rapoport (eds.), 42–64. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Haugen, Jason D. 2009. “Hyponymous objects and late insertion”. Lingua 119: 242–262. DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2007.10.008 Haugen, Jason, and Siddiqi, Daniel. 2013. “Roots and the derivation.” Linguistic Inquiry 44.3: 493–517. DOI: 10.1162/LING_a_00136 Herskovits, Annette. 1986. Language and spatial cognition: an interdisciplinary study of the prepositions in English. Cambridge: Cambridge. University Press. Hickmann, Maya, and Stéphane, Robert (eds.). 2006. Space in languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/tsl.66 Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide. 2003. “Entering in Spanish. Conceptual and semantic properties of entrar en / a.”Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 1: 29–59. DOI: 10.1075/arcl.1.03iba

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Imbert, Caroline. 2012. “Path: ways typology has walked through it.” Language and Linguistics Compass 6.4: 236–258. DOI: 10.1002/lnc3.329 Jackendoff, Ray. 1983. Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Jackendoff, Ray. 1990. Semantic Structures. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of cognitive grammar I. Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Levinson, Stephen C. 2003. Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511613609 Mateu, Jaume and Rigau, Gemma. 2009. “Romance paths as cognate complements: a lexicalsyntactic account.” In Romance Linguistics 2007, Pascual J. Masullo et al. (eds.), 227–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/cilt.304.15mat Mateu, Jaume and Rigau, Gemma. 2010. “Verb-particle constructions in Romance: A lexicalsyntactic account.” Probus 22: 241–269. DOI: 10.1515/prbs.2010.009 Móia, Telmo. 2000. Identifying and computing temporal locating adverbials with a particular focus on Portuguese and English. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation. Lisbon: University of Lisbon. Morimoto, Yuko. 2001. Los verbos de movimiento. Madrid: Visor. Pantcheva, Marina. 2011. Decomposing path. The nanosyntax of directional expressions. PhD dissertation, Tromsø University. Pavón Lucero, Mª Vitoria. 1999. “Clases de partículas: preposición, conjunción y adverbio.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), vol. 1, 565–655. Madrid: Espasa. Pavón Lucero, Mª Vitoria. 2003. Sintaxis de las partículas. Madrid: Visor. Paz Alfonso, Ana. 2014. Semántica cognitiva e historia del léxico: evolución de los verbos entrar y salir. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Romeu, Juan. 2014. Cartografía mínima de las construcciones espaciales. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation. Madrid: Universidad Complutense. Shay, Erin and Seibert, Uwe (eds.). 2003. Motion, direction and location in languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/tsl.56 Svenonius, Peter. 2006. “The emergence of axial parts.” Nordlyd: Tromsø Working Papers in Linguistics 33.1: 49–77. Svenonius, Peter. 2007. “Adpositions, particles and the arguments they introduce.” In Argument structure, Eric Reuland, et al. (eds.), 63–103. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/la.108.08sve Talmy, Leonard. 1975. “Semantics and syntax of motion.” In Syntax and Semantics, vol 4, John P. Kimball (ed.), 181–238. New York NY: Academic Press. Talmy, Leonard. 1983. “How language structures space.” In Spatial orientation: Theory, research and application, Herbert L. Pick and Linda P. Acredolo (eds.), 225–282. New York: Plenum. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4615-9325-6_11 Talmy, Leonard. 1985. “Lexicalization patterns: semantic structure in lexical forms.” In Language typology and syntactic description, III: Grammatical categories and the lexicon, Timothy Shopen (ed.), 57–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Talmy, Leonard. 1991. “Path to realization: A typology of event conflation”. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 17: 480–519. Tenny, Carol. 1994. Aspectual roles and the syntax-semantics interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-1150-8 Terzi, Arhonto. 2010. “On null spatial Ps and their arguments.” Catalan Journal of linguistics 9: 167–187.



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Tungseth, Mai. 2008. Verbal prepositions and argument structure: Path, place and possession in Norwegian. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/la.121 Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zubizarreta, María Luisa and Eunjeong, Oh. 2007. On the syntactic composition of manner and motion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Zwarts, Joost. 1997. “Vectors as relative positions: A compositional semantics of modified PPs.” Journal of Semantics 14: 57–86. DOI: 10.1093/jos/14.1.57 Zwarts, Joost. 2005. “Prepositional aspect and the algebra of paths.” Linguistics and Philosophy 28.6: 739–779. DOI: 10.1007/s10988-005-2466-y Zwarts, Joost and Winter, Yoad. 2000. “Vector space semantics: A model-theoretic analysis of locative prepositions.” Journal of Logic, Language and Information 9: 169–211. DOI: 10.1023/A:1008384416604

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Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish* José Antonio Candalija Reina This research paper deals with the reciprocity relationships in Spanish. It is our intention to establish the conditions needed in reciprocal constructions and their distinctive characteristics. One of these features is the presence of an argument characterized by being semantically obligatory and syntactically marked by the Spanish preposition con. This argument is referred to as ‘argumental comitative’ and is determined by a certain kind of symmetrical reciprocity, which is gradual and is related to the active role of the agent. This argument has to do with some types of alternations in Spanish verbs that present a syntactic constraint that is referred to as complemento de regimen preposicional in Spanish and is the syntactic function that represents the argumental comitative in these types of reciprocal constructions. Keywords: reciprocity, argument, comitative, alternations, Spanish, obligatory prepositional object

1. Reciprocity: Reciprocal constructions The present research paper has as its aim to know what the term ‘reciprocity’ describes in Spanish, as well as to find the constructions that seemingly fulfil the conditions needed to establish this relationship. It is also our intention to identify the classes of reciprocal constructions existing in Spanish along with their distinctive characteristics. This will allow us to achieve our main goal, which is no other than proving that one class of reciprocal construction exists in Spanish which has to appear with a new argument – referred to as ‘argumental comitative’ here. This argument is characterized by being semantically obligatory and syntactically marked through the presence of Spanish preposition con, since it is governed by a class of reciprocal constructions

* This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R; by the University of Alicante, under grant GRE 11-17; and by the Generalitat Valenciana, under grant GV/2014/089. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.05can © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company



Chapter 5.  Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish

which contain two arguments – the agent and the patient – that are involved in a gradual kind of symmetry. It is additionally our conviction that the aforementioned patient argument could be represented by the argumental comitative, which is determined by a kind of symmetrical reciprocity. It can finally be highlighted that such reciprocal constructions have to do with some types of alternations in Spanish verbs, and also that one of these alternations presents a semantic argument which is known as ‘argumental comitative’ – a syntactic function with an obligatory prepositional object that is referred to as complemento de régimen preposicional in Spanish.

1.1

Symmetry and reciprocity

According to Siloni (2012: 268), “reciprocal sentences involving two participants will usually express a symmetric relationship between them”. However, it is firstly necessary for us to understand what a symmetric relationship implies in certain verbs, and how the latter deal with such a relationship. By way of example, let us see the verb to talk in English. Different constructions may occur with this verb, such as

(1) Sara and Lidia talked about their suits.



(2) Sara talked with Lidia about her suit.



(3) Sara talked to Lidia about her suit.

In (1), it is impossible to know whether a symmetrical reciprocal relationship exists or not by the meaning of the verb alone. There are only two participants supposedly performing the action in a reciprocal manner. Neither is there a syntactic mark to let us know the kind of relationship maintained by those two participants. The only thing which is known to us is that they were talking about something, but there is no way to know if Sara was talking in an active manner (which would mean that she was the ‘agent’) and Lidia was just passively listening to here (and therefore played the role of ‘patient’). Furthermore, the plural of the noun (suits) as well as the plural possessive determiner (their) – both of them morphological marks – could help us set this relation as reciprocal. However, even that is ambiguous because the said morphological marks are directly dependent on the fact that more than one person participate in the action; and no more information is given about the symmetry in this relationship. Instead, (2) and (3) show us that, although there are two participants too, Sara and Lidia, the sentence structure allows us to identify Sara as the agent and Lidia as the patient. Nevertheless, even though the verbal meaning has not changed with respect to (1), the presence of two syntactic marks – more specifically, prepositions with and to – can gradually imply a certain degree of asymmetry.

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In this sense, Haspelmath (2007: 2087–8) questioned the accuracy of the term symmetry when applied to the definition of reciprocal constructions. He actually proposed the term mutual in accordance with the following statements: a. Mutual relationships are not totally symmetrical (Kemmer 1993). The term symmetry derives from logical and mathematical concepts that are not suited to natural languages. b. The mutual situation is described by Haspelmath as: “a situation with two or more participants (A, B, …) in which for at least two of the participants A and B, the relation between A and B is the same as the relation between B and A”. Therefore, the relation in (2) and (3) could be mutual but not symmetrical since Lidia appears as a patient, and Sara as an agent of the action. It is also possible to go further and examine the meaning of the preposition used in each sentence. While in (2) the preposition with implies that the link between Sara and Lidia is comitative and, therefore, a higher degree of mutual relation exists; in (3), the goal meaning of preposition to lead us to consider a lower level of mutual relation and symmetry. Therefore, our proposal is that symmetry or mutual relations do not depend on the meaning of a verb – i.e. they are no lexical matter. Instead, the reciprocal relation might depend more on verb meaning and on the types of arguments that combine with the verb in question. These types of arguments can also determine the syntactic and semantic relations within reciprocal constructions together with the marks representing them.1 With regard to the symmetrical or mutual relations existing in reciprocal constructions, Quintana Hernández (2013) considers two classes of reciprocity: strong or bidirectional reciprocity; and weak or linear reciprocity. The first one – bidirectional – involves the compulsory double roles or participants (agent and patient) and a semantic symmetry. These double roles appear like a couple of participants, as seen in the Spanish sentences below:

(4) Lidia y Sara se abrazan [Lidia and Sara hug/embrace each other]

(5) Lidia, Sara y Pilar se abrazan [Lidia, Sara and Pilar hug/embrace one another] It follows from the above that bidirectionality is not possible when there are more than two participants, as in (5), insofar as one cannot categorically conclude that all participants simultaneously act as agents and patients. Our intention is consequently to demonstrate that this bidirectionality can exist not only by the presence of two participants in the reciprocal construction with the mutual double role of agent and patient, but also using other arguments, such as the comitative. 1. Quintana Hernández (2013: 75) studies semantic interpretation in reciprocal constructions focusing on the lexical elements that lead to ambiguity through their reflexive or reciprocal meanings: los narcisistas se aman/los narcisistas se aman mutuamente, los barberos se afeitan/los barberos se afeitan mutuamente.

Chapter 5.  Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 101



The sentences below can prove illustrative in this regard: (6) Sara besa a Lidia [Sara kisses Lidia] (7) Sara y Lidia se besan [Sara and Lidia kiss each other] (8) Sara se besa con Lidia2 [Sara kisses Lidia] (9) *Sara besa con Lidia In (6) and (7), Sara and Lidia are participants with a mutual double role (reciprocal and bidirectional), but (8) shows Sara as an agent and Lidia as the comitative. And the latter argument predetermines the presence of pronoun se, which is only a mark of reciprocity – as exemplified in (7) – and not a mark of reflexivity, as in… (10) Sara se besa en el brazo con cuidado [Sara kisses herself in the arm carefully] Unlike con Lidia in (8), the complement con cuidado used in this last construction (10) is not an argument, since the reflexive construction does not require a comitative argument. Instead, the reciprocal construction exemplified by (8) needs two participants in the action; and these participants are two arguments: the agent; and the comitative. Notwithstanding, it remains unclear whether the comitative plays the same role as the patient/agent Sara y Lidia in (7). Consequently, a need exists for us to study the gradual agentivity relationship in both reciprocal constructions, namely: the bidirectional agent/patient double role; and the reciprocal construction with a comitative argument.

1.2

Agentivity and reciprocal constructions

As suggested above, the thematic roles assigned to transitive or intransitive verbs seem to influence reciprocal constructions. It has already been seen that the role of the agent in constructions such as… (11) Sara y Lidia discuten [Sara and Lidia quarrel]; and (12) Sara discute con Lidia [Sara quarrels with Lidia] is not completely clear because Sara and Lidia could be agents at the same time in (11) – but our perception about (12) is that only one agent exists: Sara. The role of comitative in (12) seems to attribute a patient role to Lidia, since the place of the agent 2. En un costado una mujer se besa con un viejo y la chica, mientras canta, trata de no llorar [On one side, a woman kisses an old man/a woman and an old man kiss each other and the girl, while she is singing, tries not to cry] REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA: Banco de datos (CREA) [en línea] [Royal Academy of the (Spanish) Language: Databank (CREA) [online]. Corpus de referencia del español actual [Reference corpus for present-day Spanish]. [29/08/2014]

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seems to correspond to Sara – placed before the verb. Therefore, it becomes clear to us that Sara quarrels with Lidia and has a dominant role in their argument, but it is unclear if Lidia replies to Sara or, at least, if her role is not as active as the one played by Sara. Along the same line of reasoning, Rákosi (2003: 56) explores the thematic roles of the arguments in reciprocal constructions and assigns the thematic role partner to comitative arguments, assuming that this role has not the same semantic content as the agent argument. Quintana Hernández (2010: 150) also stresses the need to take the meaning of the verb into account, especially when it describes inergative actions, as in discutir, bromear, or hablar. She explains that these verbs denote a psychological activity of one human participant who implies another human participant, and this is why these verbs need an obligatory prepositional object with con. In turn, Hurst (2010: 306–7) argues that it is not necessary for comitative entities to have an identical participation in the event as the agent entity, stressing that they are often less agentive. This leads him to conclude that certain reciprocal constructions containing an obligatory prepositional object introduced by preposition with have a weaker symmetry between the two participants involved in the action. He uses the following example taken from Rákosi (2008: 423): (13) Én num veszeked-t-em  János-sal o veszeked-ett vel-em I not quarrel-pst-1sg John-with he quarrel-pst  with-1sg [I was not arguing with John, he was arguing with me] In this respect, Hurts and Rákosi do not agree from the assumptions made by Dimitriadis (2008: 378) about irreducible symmetry. This is so because the reciprocal predicate must express a binary relationship but its two arguments will necessarily have an identical participation in any event described by the predicate. The analysis presented here requires proving that, although symmetry and agentivity in reciprocal constructions are not necessary conditions, the comitative role is an argument and not an adjunct or complement in such predicates.

2. Arguments in reciprocal constructions: The comitative Haspelmath (2009: 513) classifies the comitative inside the group called concrete nonspatial case in his study about case terminology, assuming that it has the meaning of ‘together with’. This consequently suggest the possibility for us to assume that this last meaning involves not only the reciprocal interpretation conveyed by the adjective ‘together’ but also the meaning – and the presence – of preposition ‘with’. These two elements will actually help us confirm our assumption that the comitative is an argument, and not an adjunct – as shown by Komlósy (1992, 1994).



Chapter 5.  Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 103

Rakósy (2003: 50) has also confirmed this difference in Hungarian3 and it is our intention to do the same in Spanish. The following sentences will allow us to compare the co-ocurrence of a comitative argument with a manner complement as well as the agrammatical co-occurrence of two manner adjuncts: (14) Francisco discute con Sonia [Francisco quarrels with Sonia] (15) Francisco discute con Sonia con prudencia [Francisco quarrels with Sonia prudently] (16) *Francisco discute con prudencia con vehemencia [*Francisco quarrels prudently vehemently] Although the obligatory presence of the comitative argument con Sonia is explained by the fact that the meaning of the Spanish verb discutir implies two individuals as arguments,4 the issue of agentivity and symmetry discussed above can help us identify the difference between the argument con Sonia and the adjuncts con prudencia or con vehemencia – since these last two complements do not play the role of an agent and, therefore, cannot receive a symmetrical treatment in the reciprocal construction. Thus, it is also possible to present the comitative argument as an agent argument – although Rákosi calls it partner. Indeed, one can dare say that an argumental comitative is not a weaker agent – as suggested by Rákosi (2008: 423) – but a strong participant in the verbal action: (17) Francisco y Sonia discuten [Francisco and Sonia quarrel] (18) Francisco y Sonia discuten con prudencia [Francisco and Sonia quarrel prudently (with prudence)] (19) Francisco discute con Sonia [Francisco quarrels with Sonia] (20) Francisco discute [Francisco quarrels] The construction in (19) is similar to that illustrated by (17) and (18) from a syntactic point of view, since only one or two agents exist and no other argument appears in 3. A comitative argument and a comitative adjunct may co-occur in the same clause, whereas two comitative adjuncts cannot: a. Péter-rel (együtt) ritkán veszeked-t-em Kati-val Peter-with together rarely quarrel-past-1sg Kate-with [I rarely quarreled with Kate together with Peter] b. *Péter-rel (együtt) ritkán fut-ott-am Kati-val Peter-with together rarely ran-past-1sg Kate-with [I rarely ran with Kate together with Peter] 4. Maria Moliner: 3 (“de, por, sobre; con [of, by, about/on; with”) intr. Sostener dos o más personas opiniones o pretensiones opuestas en un diálogo o conversación [(of two or more people) to hold opposite opinions or claims in a dialogue or conversation]: “Discuten de política. Los dos chicos discuten por quién va a ir por el periódico [The two boys quarrel about who is going to buy the newspaper]”. Argumentar, disputar [To argue, to dispute].

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the sentence. However, it is impossible to know exactly how many agents there are in (17), whereas (14) allows us to easily discover that there are two agents through the presence of preposition with – caused by the other argument, the comitative, which can be an agent. Therefore, although the semantic constraints found in (17) and (18) do not help too much when it comes to determining the double agentivity – and, consequently, the potential symmetry in the reciprocal action – the argumental comitative in (19) offers a syntactic mark to explain the reciprocity of this construction. In fact, the semantics of the comitative shows us the meaning of ‘together with’, which involves neither the agentivity nor the symmetry in this construction but it does reflect a kind of reciprocity which is more marked than the plural agent in (17) and (18) – which have no other argument or syntactic evidence of reciprocity. The same is true about these sentences: (21) Sara y Lidia quedaron en el cine [Sara y Lidia met/arranged to meet at the cinema] (22) Sara quedó con Lidia en el cine [Sara arranged to meet Lidia at the cinema] (23) Sara se quedó con Lidia en el cine [Sara stayed with Lidia at the cinema], which show how the meaning of the Spanish verb quedar5 in (21) and (22) needs a construction where the agents are more or less active and, therefore, there is a comitative argument in (22) – insofar as it represents a planned appointment. Instead, the meaning of the verb changes in (23)6 and it now refers to a physical presence of Sara near to Lidia. In other words, the complement with Lidia is an adjunct with a spatial nuance. And this more concrete or spatial meaning in this context is also marked by pronoun se, which seems to be a morphosyntactic mark that reveals the change in the meaning of the verb quedar – as opposed to the reciprocal interpretation that this verb has in (22).

3. The argumental comitative in Spanish reciprocal constructions After studying the constraints and features that explain how the argumental comitative is constructed, it is now our intention to describe the specific conditions in which the comitative appears as an argument in Spanish reciprocal constructions. Our attention will firstly focus on showing which conditions have been taken into account by other previous works devoted to the study of the argumental comitative in 5. María Moliner: 7 Concertar una cita: “Quedé con él a las cinco en la parada del autobus” [“Make an appointment/date: I arranged to meet him at the bus-stop at five”]. 6. María Moliner: prnl. No marcharse de cierto sitio en ocasión en que correspondía hacerlo o se podía haber hecho [Not to leave a certain place on an occasion when it was logical to do it or it could have been done]: “Aquel verano nos quedamos en Madrid. Mi mujer se ha quedado en casa [That summer we stayed in Madrid. My wife has stayed at home]”.



Chapter 5.  Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 105

Spanish, as this could prove useful to determine which of those conditions could prove useful for our research purposes. The role of the comitative as a case or a semantic function was defined by Givón (1984) and Dik (1989) but it is Díaz de Cerio (1998: 423) that applies the concept of comitative as an argument to reciprocal constructions in ancient Greek. She studies verbs with two participants coded as first and second argument: (24) Sara y Lidia pactaron/Sara pactó con Lidia [Sara and Lidia made a pact/Sara made a pact with Lidia] (25) Sara y Lidia se reconciliaron/Sara se reconcilió con Lidia [Sara and Lidia made up/Sara made up with Lidia] (26) Sara y Lidia negociaron/Sara negoció con Lidia [Sara and Lidia negotiated/Sara negotiated with Lidia] Afterwards (2006), she specified the role of these arguments: they are simultaneously co-agents and co-patients: (27) Sara y Lidia bailaron [Sara and Lidia danced] (28) Sara bailó con Lidia [Sara danced with Lidia] Apparently, the explanation for this aspect of reciprocity tends to be that it is a condition for reciprocal constructions in Spanish. The prefix co- in the terms co-agents and co-patients semantically marks the active role of agent and patient in each argument, and it seems to be more present in (28) than in (27). This prefix in Spanish (coagente and copaciente) has a closer link with the Spanish preposition con and it is somehow more motivated by the semantics of the comitative case (‘together with’) and, as suggested below, by the meaning of preposition con: (29) Sara y Lidia coinciden en sus gustos [Sara and Lidia coincide in their tastes] (30) Sara coincide con Lidia en sus gustos [Sara coincides with Lidia in her tastes] In her book about instrument and comitative as semantic roles, Conti (2004) establishes the comitative as a mark which designs a reciprocal or symmetrical relation. For Quintana Hernández (2013), the lexical properties of reciprocity in Spanish reciprocal constructions are the following: a. Plurality: the presence of at least two participants is necessary in the construction: one coded as an agent argument; and the other as a patient argument. b. Double role in each argument: co-agents and co-patients. c. Agentivity: this is an obligatory role for one of the two arguments present in the construction, and the strength of agentivity makes the action be reciprocal to a greater or lesser extent. d. Symmetry: this property derives from agentivity and the double role of arguments, since the less agentivity of each participant, the less double role and symmetry can exist in the reciprocal construction.

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e. Pronoun se: it is a syntactic mark used by some verbs to denote reciprocity. f. Lexico-semantic mark: mutuamente. To these properties can be added another which helps determine whether the construction is reciprocal or not: the argumental comitative marked by the Spanish preposition con. A table (see Table 1) was prepared with all these features for the purpose of studying which ones could help better understand some of the reciprocal verbs in Spanish: symmetry (agentivity, double role); lexico-semantic mark (mutuamente); se pronoun; and argumental comitative (with preposition con). Table 1.  Reciprocal construction (lexical, without marks)

Symmetry

LexicoPronoun se semantic mark (mutuamente)

Sara y Lidia bailaron

+

− *Sara y Lidia se bailaron

*Sara y Lidia besaron

+

− *Sara y Lidia bailaron mutuamente + Sara y Lidia se besaron mutuamente − *Sara y Lidia discutieron mutuamente − *Sara y Lidia lavaron mutuamente − Sara y Lidia hablaron mutuamente

− *Sara y Lidia quedaron mutuamente en el cine

− *Sara y Lidia se quedaron en el cine (spatial and specific meaning, not reciprocal)

Sara y Lida discutieron +

*Sara y Lidia lavaron

+

Sara y Lidia hablaron

+

Sara y Lidia quedaron en el cine

+

Preposition con (argumental comitative) + Sara bailó con Lidia

+ − Sara y Lidia se *Sara se besó con besaron Lidia − + *Sara y Lidia Sara discutió con Lidia se discutieron + Sara y Lidia se lavaron (mutuamente) + Sara y Lidia se hablaron (emphasis?)

− *Sara se lavó con Lidia +/− *Sara se habló con Lidia/ Sara no se habla con Lidia/ Sara no se habló con Lidia (time or aspect?) + Sara quedó con Lidia en el cine *Sara se quedó con Lidia en el cine (comitative adjunct)

Chapter 5.  Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 107



Our study also focused on identifying the kind of reciprocal relationships that some verbs with prefix con- have with the argumental comitative (see Table 2) and the properties shown in Table 1: Table 2.  Reciprocal construction (lexical, without marks)

Symmetry

LexicoPronoun se semantic mark (mutuamente)

Sara y Lidia contactaron

+

− *Sara y Lidia contactaron mutuamente

− + *Sara y Lidia Sara contactó con se contactaron Lidia

*Sara y Lidia − consultaron (+ object)

+ *Sara y Lidia consultaron mutuamente

+ + Sara y Lidia se Sara consultó con consultaron Lidia

Sara y Lida compiten

+

− *Sara y Lidia compiten mutuamente

− *Sara y Lidia se compiten

+ Sara compite con Lidia

Sara y Lidia conviven

+

− *Sara y Lidia conviven mutuamente

− *Sara y Lidia se conviven

+ Sara convive con Lidia

− *Sara y Lidia confundieron mutuamente

+/− *Sara y Lidia se confundieron (no symmetry)

+/− Sara se confundió con Lidia (pronominal verb)

*Sara y Lidia − confundieron (+ object)

3.1

Preposition con (argumental comitative)

Analysis of Tables 1 and 2

It becomes clear after examining the two preceding tables that the lexical verb with a plural subject fulfills the symmetry condition in most cases. This is actually due to its semantic content and the plurality. In the vast majority of cases, the lexico-semantic mark mutuamente is redundant (Tables 1 and 2) because the semantics of the verb and the plurality already involves symmetry (double agent-patient arguments). The examples provided in these two tables additionally reveal that a kind of alternation exists between the presence of pronoun se and the argumental comitative construction: except for the verb consultar, where pronoun se marks both symmetry and reciprocity – and it is thus not possible to have the argumental comitative

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construction; and vice versa: if pronoun se cannot appear in a symmetrical construction, it will become necessary to construct reciprocity with the single subject and the argumental comitative phrase. In short, the comitative argument in reciprocal constructions can help us determine if a reciprocity relationhip exists between the subjects/objects of the verbal action.

4. Conclusions The analysis of the properties shown in Tables 1 and 2 led us to draw the following conclusions: a. Symmetry and double agentivity are semantic conditions to take into account when studying reciprocal constructions. However, they are not necessary conditions, as proved by the existence of a certain degree of ambiguity – illustrated throughout this chapter – when it comes to deciding about double roles: co-agents and co-patients. b. Lexico-semantic marks such as mutuamente cannot combine with all reciprocal constructions, and they are redundant in most cases too, because of the reciprocal meaning of the verb. c. There seems to be an alternation between the reciprocal construction with pronoun se and the argumental comitative construction that uses preposition con. d. Those verbs which have the prefix con prefer the argumental comitative prepositional phrase, since there is a motivated relation between the prefix and the said preposition con. e. These last syntactic marks (preposition con and pronoun se) could be the main aid to determine if the semantics of the verb and the construction are showing a reciprocal relation between the participants. Finally, there is also a possibility to incorporate this reciprocal construction with an argumental comitative into the verbal alternation that Cifuentes Honrubia (2006) – following Levin (1993) – calls transitive simple reciprocal alternation. It is equally worth remembering that the last edition of the R.A.E. Grammar (2009) presents the argumental comitative in Spanish as an obligatory prepositional object (or complemento de régimen preposicional) which can combine with a number of symmetrical verbs or appear with a reciprocal meaning. In short, the argumental semantic and syntactic properties shown by this class of complements lead us to classify them into the syntactical function known as ‘obligatory prepositional object’, the semantic function of which is the argumental comitative.



Chapter 5.  Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 109

References Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 2006. “Alternancias verbales en español.” Revista Portuguesa de Humanidades, 10.1/2: 107–132. Conti, Carmen. 2004. Papeles semánticos (instrumento y comitativo). Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Díaz de Cerio, Mercedes. 1998. “La codificación de la asociación-compañía como segundo término argumental de la predicación en griego antiguo.” Revista Española de Lingüística 28: 421–452. Díaz de Cerio, Mercedes. 2006. “Sintaxis y semántica del dativo en griego antiguo.” In Sintaxis griega, María Dolores Jiménez (coord.), Online, Portal de Humanidades Liceus, 30 pp. Dimitriadis, Alexis. 2008. “Irreducible symmetry in reciprocal constructions.” In König and Gast (eds.) 2008. Dik, Simon. 1989. The theory of functional grammar. Part I: The structure of the clause. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. Givón, Talmy. 1984. Syntax: A functional-typological introduction. Volume I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/z.syn1 Haspelmath, Martin. 2007. “Further remarks on reciprocal constructions.” In Reciprocal constructions, Vladimir P. Nedjalkov, (ed.). 5 vols., 2087–2115, Amsterdam: Benjamins. Haspelmath, Martin. 2009. “Terminology of case.” In The Oxford handbook of case, Andrej ­Malchukov and Andrew Spencer, (eds.), 505–517. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hurst, Peter. 2010. “The syntax of lexical reciprocal constructions.” In Proceedings of the LFG10 Conference, Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (eds.), 290–310. Kemmer, Suzanne. 1993. The middle voice. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/tsl.23 Komlósy, András. 1992. “Régensek és vonzatok.” In Strukturális Magyar Nyelvtan 1, Ferenc Kiefer (ed.), 299–527. Mondattan, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. Komlósy, András. 1994. “Complements and Adjuncts.” In Syntax and Semantics: The Syntactic Structure of Hungarian. Volume 27, Ferenc Kiefer and Katalin É. Kiss (eds.), 91–178. Academic Press: San Diego. Levin, Beth. 1993. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Quintana Hernández, Lucía. 2010. “Aktionsart, agentividad y reciprocidad en español.” Philologia hispalensis 24: 143–166. Quintana Hernández, Lucía. 2013. Construcciones recíprocas. Madrid: Arco libros. Rákosi, György. 2003. “Comitative arguments in Hungarian.” In Uil-OTS Yearbook 2003, ­Willemijn Heeren, Dimitra Papangeli and Evangelia Vlachou (eds), 47–57. Utrecht: Institute of Linguistics OTS. Rákosi, György. 2008. “The argument structure of inherently reflexive and reciprocal predicates.” In Reciprocals and reflexives: theoretical and typological explorations, Ekkehard König and Volker Gast (eds.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Real Academia Española (R.A.E.). 2009. Nueva gramática de la lengua española, Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Siloni, Tal. 2012. “Reciprocal verbs and symmetry.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 30: 261–320. DOI: 10.1007/s11049-011-9144-2

chapter 6

Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish* José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia This paper analyzes the transitive/intransitive alternation in class 2 psychological verbs of Belletti and Rizzi. The transitive variant implies an agentive subject and an aspectual change of state. The intransitive variant implies a cause and a locative state. Spanish class 2 psychological verbs are causative due to the cause component conflated in the verbal structure which gives rise to the verb: most of the psychological verbs with a transitive/intransitive alternation are denominal or deadjetival causative verbs from Romance origin. Some others come from a Latin denominal or deadjectival structure or from a causative meaning which comes as a result of an evolution in their meaning (usually agentive and local). Psychological verbs result from a conflation process by means of which the verb semantically incorporates the psychological element – as it results from a verbal lexicalization of the emotional or psychological noun or adjective, thus shaping a complex predicate. Psychological verbs are consequently complex predicates with a semantically incorporated psychological element. Keywords: causativity, psychological verb, dative

1. Introduction A paradigmatic study about psychological verbs carried out by Belletti and Rizzi (1987) established a triple distinction in Italian according to the syntactic position occupied by the experiencer argument; and the equivalents in Spanish follow the same distinction drawn for Italian: a. the first class of verbs – for which temere acts as a model – have a subject as the experiencer, and the direct object as the theme, thus sharing the syntactic pattern of transitive constructions with an agentive subject, and belonging to the category of states: Juan teme a las mujeres [Juan fears women]. * This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.06cif © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company



Chapter 6.  Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish

b. The second class – and also the most problematic one – is defined from the example of preoccupare; that is to say, it has a theme as the subject and an experiencer as the direct object. Now then, Pesetsky (1995) argues that these verbs may show two argument structures: (a) a stative and unaccusative one; and (b) another eventive one with no unnacusative properties. The eventive structure appears transitively, with a subject that causes the state and which, in the opinion of many authors, is likely to have an agentive interpretation: Bea preocupa a Juan [Bea worries Juan]. The unaccusative structure occurs with a dative as the experiencer and a theme as the subject, as explained above: A Juan le preocupa la crisis [Juan is worried about the crisis] with the peculiarity that this kind of subject-theme may be characterized by means of various features, such as involuntariness or inagentivity. c. The third class has piacere as its model, although its examples are not numerous in any language. This class is characterized by a dative experiencer and a theme as the subject, with no transitive alternation: A Juan le place sentarse en el porche por la tarde [Sitting at the porch in the evening pleases Juan]. The present chapter has as its aim to report the differences in meaning which can derive from class 2 alternations. Our approach will consist in defending a cause-­ component within the argument structure of the state intransitive variant. Such component will result from a semantic conflation process determined by the origin of the verbal formation: noun and adjective, essentially.

2. Aspectual alternations and values Type 2 permits the transitive-intransitive alternation, with the added inconvenience of an extremely common fluctuation in the use of clitics and their differentiation as datives or direct objects. In any case, it seems clear to us that Belletti and Rizzi’s type 2 has a transitive variant and an intransitive or stative one – the latter becoming very obvious when the (syntactic) subject is expressed in the form of an infinitive or a subordinate noun clause. When that subject is non-animate and lacks the control and agentivity features, it apparently tends to combine with a stative dative construction (that is definitely our perception); however, a large number of speakers are bound to have interferences with transitive constructions, especially when direct object topicalization takes place in the transitive construction. (1) a.  Juan alegró a todos los presentes > los alegró [Juan made everyone present happy > made them happy]. b.  A Juan le alegra cantar / *a Juan lo alegra cantar [Singing makes Juan happy]. c.  A Juan le alegra que le hagan la pelota / *a Juan lo alegra que le hagan la pelota [It makes Juan happy when people suck up to him]. d.  A Juan le alegran las cosas bien hechas /??a Juan lo alegran las cosas bien hechas [Things well done make Juan happy].

111

112 José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia

Therefore, this verb class generally makes three types of alternating constructions possible: (a) transitive; (b) intransitive with a dative experiencer; and (c) inchoative: (2) a. Juan enfureció a su mujer [con su impuntualidad] [Juan infuriated his wife [with his unpunctuality]]. b. A Juan le enfurece la impuntualidad [Unpunctuality infuriates Juan]. c. Juan se enfureció con las tontas preguntas de su vecino [His neighbor’s stupid questions made Juan furious]. The contrast between the different constructions implies a series of dissimilarities which have been attributed to a variety of factors, and more specifically to two of them: (a) the subject’s degree of agentivity (Campos 1999; Gutiérrez Ordóñez 1999); and (b) the aspectual content of predication (Parodi and Luján 2000; Di Tullio 2004). On the whole, it can be stated that, if the subject is an animate entity, the experiencer appears in the accusative case; instead, the dative case is preferred with a nonanimate entity as the subject – with even fewer doubts regarding the tendency to use the dative when it is an infinitive or a subordinate noun clause that act as the subject. Nevertheless, it is also frequently possible to find inanimate, non-intentional subjects in the transitive structure, which highlights the fact that alternation cannot be exclusively based on the subject’s features: (3) Y en ese rato tuvo un sueño espantoso que logró aterrorizarla [And, during that period, she had a dreadful dream which eventually terrified her]. Somehow, and regardless of the aspectual values that will be dealt with below, the construction itself imposes a pattern upon syntactic structures with psychological verbs. Thus, if the construction has an OVS pattern, there is a high likelihood of identification with the intransitive construction; however, an SVO order favors the adoption of a transitive construction, essentially reflected on the exposed clitic – irrespective of type of subject.

2.1

The aspectual content of predication

The pages written on the aspectual content of psychological are somewhat chaotic. Most authors analyze experiencer subject verbs (Belletti and Rizzi’s class 1) as states (Vanhoe 2002) and, in some cases, they even consider them unbounded states (Marín 2001)1 – which does not exclude the possibility of some author describing them as 1. Robinson (1994) was the first to propose the distinction between bounded and unbounded states which is to some extent equivalent to the distinction originally drawn by Carlson (1977) between individual-level predicates and stage-level (or episodic) predicates: certain (stative) predicates denote properties of individuals that are valid for any time interval, whereas other predicates (also stative) denote properties of individuals that only apply to a specific time interval. Marín (2001: 57) links the preceding subdivision with the tradition to distinguish two states: momentary and non-momentary, perfective and imperfective, dynamic and non-dynamic, relative and non-relative to an interval, or permanent and transitory.



Chapter 6.  Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish 113

bounded states (Wanner 2001). Starting from Marín, Vanhoe’s test analysis (2002: 158– 163) clearly seems to prove that they are bounded states. Few authors mention class 3 verbs, those with a dative experiencer, perhaps due to their little clarity in English, but those who do mention these verbs seem to characterize them as states. Both Grimshaw (1990: 29) and Marín (2001) explicitly characterize them as states, although Marín further specifies them as unbounded states. The analysis carried out by Vanhoe (2002: 163–165) seems to suggest that they are unbounded states, although he highlights the peculiar functioning of delimitation tests. Kailuweit (2007) has no doubts either about their being states, but he leaves the possibility for them to be either bounded or unbounded. Class 2 verbs are the most difficult ones to classify from an aspectual point of view, mainly due to the lack of unanimity in the linguistic bibliography dedicated to this matter. The vast majority of authors analyze class 2 verbs as delimited verbs, though sometimes failing to specify whether they are achievements or accomplishments. Other authors simply state that they are causative verbs (Pustejovsky 1995; Van Valin and LaPolla 1997, etc.), even though causativity seems to imply an aspectual delimitation. Van Voorst (1992) analyzes such verbs as achievements, whereas Grimshaw (1990) and Wanner (2001) consider them accomplishments. In turn, Marín treats them as bounded states, while Tenny (1994) and De Miguel (1999) argue that these verbs can express a change of state, which entails seeing them as delimited verbs (achievements or accomplishments). The analysis presented here does not start from a unitary treatment of class 2; instead, our approach insists on the need to give a differentiated treatment to each one of the different alternations which they make possible in Spanish: inchoative; transitive, and intransitive. The intransitive alternation, with a dative experiencer – the same as in constructions with class 3 psychological verbs – is understood as a state. These are constructions with a non-human subject, an infinitive clause or a subordinate clause. Marín (2001) sees them as bounded states. The transitive variant in class 2 seems to be commonly characterized as a changeof-state construction, especially because it appears with agentive animate subjects, their aspectual delimitation as achievements or accomplishments remaining unclear. Marín (2001) regards this group of verbs as bounded states, though. Our proposal can be basically summarized from Parodi and Luján (2000), and it deserves to be mentioned that transitive constructions mean a change of state in the object; they are consequently dynamic, whereas intransitive constructions with a dative experiencer conceptualize the scene using location as a reference point; in turn, the stimulus or cause (the syntactic subject) originates a state in the experiencer (the dative), and it is this local-emotional state that is transmitted. Somehow, the construction with a dative marks the origin and the inception of the new state, unlike the transitive construction, which transmits a change of state, a new state, in the experiencer. This approach is grounded on the subject’s agentivity, whereas the intransitive construction tends to include non-animate and inagentive subjects that do not control the situation, and finds its ultimate expression not so much in constructions with a

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subject in the infinitive or a subordinate clause but rather on impersonal constructions, while transitive constructions usually have animate subjects which cause an (emotional) change of state in the experiencer. The action is moved in both types of constructions: towards the change of state in the transitive construction; and towards the inception or origin of the state in the intransitive one – insofar as a new state is located in the experiencer. The aforesaid new state in the intransitive construction is discursively defocalized, since the construction tends to highlight (in word-order as well as in the syntactic structure) the location and possession of this new state in the experiencer. In other words, together with the idea of agentivity mentioned above, the other essential element in the interpretation of the aforesaid constructions is the experiencer’s role as a locator of emotions and feelings.2 The scene focuses not on the change of state, of emotion or sentiment (transitive variant), but on the personal location or possession of that new sentimental state. The consideration of the verb as one conflated with a cause component acquires great importance in this respect because the subject is not agentive and, therefore, does not provoke a change of state in the experiencer; instead, it causes a state in the experiencer. A sort of metonymic relationship somehow exists between these two alternations: the intransitive variant implies the inception of the state; something causes a state in the experiencer, whereas the transitive variant entails the result of the state because the direct object suffers a change of state. In spite of the obvious differences, it is our conviction that the ingressive character mentioned by Vanhoe (2002) could be reinterpreted for this purpose in the previous sense, which would explain why there is a stative interpretation in some cases and a rather punctual one in others. The intransitive variant expresses the entry into a new state – the one which the dative has or possesses. A change of state in the direct object (DO) occurs in the transitive variant. The case of inchoative alternation is even less clear. What seems clear indeed is the need to distinguish two types of reflexive psychological verbs within class 2 (Marín and McNally 2011; Marín 2011; Fábregas, Marín and McNally 2012): those which have aburrirse [to get bored] as their model, essentially stative, and those grouped together around enfadarse [to get angry], mainly punctual. It seems clear that if we say that somebody se está aburriendo [is getting bored], está aburrido [(he) is bored]; however, if we say that someone se está enfadando [is getting angry], no está todavía enfadado [(he) is not angry yet]. The aforementioned authors establish a set of tests to prove that verbs belonging to the aburrirse-type are neither telic nor dynamic, which is why they can be understood as states, whereas those belonging to the enfadarse-type are rather situated in the sphere of achievements, because they are not telic but they are indeed punctual. More precisely, those included in the group of enfadarse would be 2. For Landau (2010), all the experiencers are mental locations, since the experiencer owns a certain psychological state. Jackendoff (1990), Bouchard (1995), Baker (1997), Arad (1998) or Becerra (2007), amongst others, also claim that stative subject-experiencer verbs denote locative relationships.



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represented as the initial limit of a state, unlike those grouped together around aburrirse, which would indicate not only the initial limit but a state interval. Therefore, reflexive verbs would not reflect a change of state. In the transitive variant, there is an agent subject because he is the one who enfada [angers] or aburre [bores] someone else. This change of state in the DO is carried out by the subject voluntarily or involuntarily, and, anyway, it always responds to some added motivation which can appear in the form of an oblique object. That is to say, the subject does algo [something] (voluntarily or involuntarily) which causes the change of state in the DO: lo enfadé/aburrí con mis historias [I angered/bored him with my stories]; in other words, a metonymic link exists between the subject and the motivation for the change of state. In the intransitive variant, though, the agent subject disappears from the scene and the external motivation provoking the state appears as the subject: a Juan le enfadan/ aburren mis historias [My stories anger/bore Juan]. This is a construction where the dative is the locator, the container of a state caused by a non-animate subject. Both the subject’s non-animacity and the OVS syntactic arrangement lead us to believe that the subject does not exactly provoke a change of state but simply presents the scene as an abstract locative state, an abstract stative possessive location, insofar as it causes a state in the dative; hence what was said above in relation to the inception of the state. The animate subject of the inchoative variant can neither control nor govern a state on its own, since it cannot aburrir or enfadar [to get bored or angry] at will and be responsible for it (unless they are lying and, then, the psychological predication expressed is not true). The inchoative can only cause a psychological affection in the event that external motivation exists over which the subject has no control and for which the subject is not responsible either. If yo me enfado cuando me tocan las orejas [I get angry when somebody touches my ears] or yo me aburro con las películas de la tele [I get bored with the films on TV], yo [I] is the one who carries out the action, but the motivation is external: the cause will be internal, but the motivation is external and totally uncontrolled by the subject. The motivation remains external in the transitive variant, but a metonymic link exists with the subject; hence our conviction that it is an agent subject, even though the subject may not be necessarily aware of it. There is no link whatsoever between the external motivation and the subject in the inchoative variant: they are independent. As for the aspectual type of the inchoative variant, the aforesaid proposal made by Marín and McNally could be admitted, because a part of them (the non-punctual ones) might be understood as states, more specifically as the initial limit of the state and a state, while the rest (the punctual ones) would be achievements and would thus simply represent the initial state limit. Nevertheless, in our opinion, doubts arise about many of the examples given by the authors. In any case, they are arguably located at an intermediate point between the intransitive variant (an abstract locative state which expresses the inception or causation of a state) and the transitive variant, which implies a change of state.

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Therefore, class 2 verbs have the possibility to be constructed transitively, Juan enfureció a su mujer [Juan infuriated his wife], with an agent subject that causes a new state in the theme direct object; or intransitively, A Juan le enfurece la impuntualidad [unpunctuality infuriates Juan], with a theme subject characterized by the lack of agentivity and involuntariness (and which constitutes the cause of experimentation), and a dative which experiences the state. Another alternation also becomes visible, namely the one established from a construction with se and, generally, an object which identifies the origin or the cause of the state, and which can be often introduced by de [of/from], por [by] or con [with], that all the previous verbs also permit: (4) a.  Juan enfureció a su mujer [con su impuntualidad] [Juan infuriated his wife [with his unpunctuality]]. b. A Juan le enfurece la impuntualidad [unpunctuality infuriates Juan]. c.  Juan se enfureció con las tontas preguntas de su vecino [Juan became furious with his neighbor’s stupid questions]. d. ?Juan enfureció con las tontas preguntas de su vecino [Juan became furious with his neighbor’s stupid questions]. e. A Juan se le enfurece fácilmente [Juan can be easily infuriated]. As can be checked through the oblique variant, the theme subject in the dative construction causes a state in the dative experiencer. That is why the experiencer is conceived as a locative, because the change of state takes place there. It would be possible to think of an origin that transmits a change of state in the dative, which is the recipient of the said change of state. However, the truth is that the dative currently tends to be conceived as the locative in which that change of state takes place, with marks in analytic paraphrases: (5) A Juan le enfurece la impuntualidad [unpunctuality infuriates Juan] / la impuntualidad [causó/ocasionó] una gran furia en él [unpunctuality [caused/provoked] (a) great fury in him] / la impuntualidad le [causó/ ocasionó] una gran furia [unpunctuality [caused/provoked] him (a) great fury]. In other words, the dative construction implies an originally local conceptualization of the scene, since the experiencer is the element where the new state is located. That new state comes or originates from an involuntary or inagentive external causation which is transmitted to the experiencer. The transitive construction Manuel enfureció a Juan [Manuel infuriated Juan] shows a change of state, but the scene has been slightly modified because location is no longer used as a reference point. Furthermore, the subject is agentive and the DO could consequently be regarded as a theme or patient rather than as an experiencer. The conception of the experiencer as a location additionally allows us to easily understand the subsequent possession relationship, insofar as what is located inside oneself, one has it; one owns it.



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Transitive constructions are agentive, as shown by the fact that they admit the imperative construction, the appearance of will verbs, and the possibility of adding purposes:3 (6) a. ¡Enfurécela! [Infuriate her!]. b. La enfureció deliberadamente [He deliberately infuriated her]. c.  La enfureció para que cometiera un error [He infuriated her to cause her to make a mistake]. Intransitive constructions with verbs of psychological affection and dative, where the subject is obligatorily non-human, represent a metonymic movement from the action to the cause. There is not an agent carrying out a change of state in the DO, which appears as the object affected by the action; instead, the intransitive construction conceptualizes the causation of an affection in the person (in the dative case). Since the communicated content is the causation (through a local schema for state location), it should not consequently surprise us to check that the group of verbs expressing psychological affection in Spanish are causative. There are three main types: denominal causatives, deadjectival causatives, and Latin causatives. Many authors point out that the essential distinction between temer-type psychological verbs and preocupar-type psychological verbs is due to a difference in causativity (Vanhoe 2002). The generativist tradition has argued that all the predicates in the group of preocupar include an underlying causative predicate. Nevertheless, this approach has a serious problem (Vanhoe 2002: 178): how could it be explained that verbs such as asustar have only two arguments and not three, like periphrastic causative predicates? Our response to the problem mentioned by Vanhoe lies in the conflation processes4 – as explained by Talmy (2000)– that preocupar-type verbs show, because they are all denominal 3. F. Martin (2010: 372 and ff.) remarks that not all the psychological verbs (type 2) in French are agentive. And this author’s analysis is most probably appropriate for French. Nevertheless, in the case of Spanish, in my opinion, it is still possible to maintain that transitive constructions are agentive, in some high degree, because even a verb like preocupar, which parallels one of the examples suggested by Martin, may show agentivity: La preocupó deliberadamente para que cometiera un error [He deliberately worried her to cause her to make a mistake]. ¡Preocúpala con historias del pasado! [Worry her with stories from the past!] Le ordenó que la preocupara para que olvidara lo ya hecho. [He ordered him to worry her to cause her to forget what had already been done]. 4. The idea that two or more singular thematic roles (or conceptual components) may conflate seems firmly rooted in the linguistic tradition. Vogel (1998: 169) even stated that he had not heard of any thematic theory questioning that possibility. Vid. Cifuentes 2004 in this regard. Bouchard (1995: 274–275) even suggests the possibility of a conceptual incorporation, but without developing it in a theoretical way, confronting examples such as Pedro teme a María [Pedro fears María] and Pedro tiene miedo/temor de María [Pedro is afraid of/has fear of María], where the psychological affection may be explicit or incorporated into the verb.

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and deadjectival causatives, and the psychological state caused in the experiencer has conflated with the actual verb in all of them; and that would be third argument put forward by Vanhoe. Psychological verbs make explicit a change of state carried out by the subject – as it is generally a psychological state. However, that change of state has its origin in an external cause, the latter being the factor which triggers the change of state in the subject. In the construction with dative, the external cause appears as a syntactic subject, and the experiencer of the new state is shown as a dative (a Juan le enfurece la tensión del fútbol [Football tension infuriates Juan]). This type of construction permits the alternation with se (Juan se enfurece por/de/con la tensión del fútbol [Juan becomes furious because of/at/with football tension]), where the experiencer appears as the subject of a reflexive passive construction that expresses a state caused or originated by an oblique object, the external cause, and conceptual independence exists between the subject and the external motivation. The verb in such constructions also permits patterns where a slight change of scene can occur, mainly as a result of the subject’s agentive nature (with control and voluntariness) (Juan lo enfureció con tanta tensión futbolística [Juan infuriated him with so much football tension]), which turns the hypothetical experiencer into the affected object, theme or patient, of the action, expressing what was the external cause in the previous constructions (given either as a subject or as a prepositional object) as the instrument or means through which the agent achieves his aim, whether it is consciously or unconsciously and, in any case, a metonymic dependence between the subject and the external motivation is required. Obviously, and due not only to leistic variations, the thin conceptual boundary that separates constructions often causes overlaps on one side or the other. Therefore, psychological verbs result from a conflation process by means of which the verb semantically incorporates the psychological element – as it results from a verbal lexicalization of the emotional or psychological noun or adjective, thus shaping a complex predicate. Psychological verbs are consequently complex predicates with a semantically incorporated psychological element.

3. Denominal causatives A verb like emocionar implies the argument conflation ‘causar emoción [to cause emotion],’ the psychological affection or state being the noun from which the verb derives (emoción [emotion]): (7) Juan emocionó a Pepe [con su llanto] [Juan moved Pepe [with his tears]. Lavale Ortiz (2013) organizes denominal causative verbs into 5 main groups: i. The first group is formed by causative-locative verbs. These verbs conflate two semantic contents: causativity or the externally caused physico-material change of state and the location or expression of a spatial position. These predicates denote



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verbal actions through which an external entity provokes a physical or material change in another entity, and a local content is implied in this process. Such verbs can in turn be subdivided depending on whether it is a locatum or location schema: a. The locatum ones indicate the action of constructing something in one place; and the action can only be performed by agentive entities. Its argument structure follows the pattern [hacer-causar algo [to make-cause something] (the conflated noun, and the derivation base, is the figure) in DO (location ground)]; in other words, they conflate the figure or element which moves with the action and the connecting factor (which may be explicit as a prefix or implicit) in the denominal verb, the location ground appearing as a direct object: (8) Abarrancó el terreno [He ‘ravined’ the land]: [to make-build ravines in the ground]. The change of state takes place in the location base (DO): the ground now has/ owns ‘ravines’ which are formed or built into it. b. The location ones, which conflate in the verb the ground that serves as a location reference and the local link between the figure (which appears as a direct object in this case) and the ground. Their argument structure follows the pattern [hacercausar en algo [to make-cause in something] (the conflated noun from which the verb derives is the ground) + DO (location figure)], that is, they conflate the ground or target element of the movement and the connector (which may be explicit as a prefix or implicit) in the denominal verb, the location figure appearing as a direct object: (9) Los rompió y los amontonó [He broke them and piled them up]. [hacer-localizar en montones [to make-locate in piles] + los [them]]. The change of state takes place in the location figure (DO), since it is positioned by the ground in the aforesaid way. The set formed by this subgroup of causative-locator verbs is not constructed with the subject-cause + dative-experiencer schema, since it seems pragmatically difficult to conceptualize a person as a location ground in the action. Moreover, these would be physical actions, not psychological states. There could be some isolated example which could pragmatically allow it, though: A Juan le agrieta el frío [Juan is chapped by the cold]. ii. The second group – that of causative-inchoative denominal verbs – includes a series of predicates where two clearly semantic contents conflate and coexist: the change of state that is typical of causativity and the transformation with conversion that characterizes inchoativity. Unlike what happens in the previous group, a transformation – instead of a location – is involved in the causation process this time. The aim is to cause-convert an entity into something else either totally or partially. Among those describing a total conversion are the ones which express the division of an entity

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into fragments (fragmentar, desgajar, despedazar, etc.: [hacer-convertir en fragmentos un elemento [to make-convert an element into fragments]); whereas those involving a partial conversion include similative verbs: [hacer algo como X [to do something like X]: its shape, aspect, property, etc.: enrollar: ‘dar a algo forma de rollo’ [to give something the shape of a roll]. Very few verbs can select a person as the DO. To this must be added that, because these verbs are considered resultative, it seems very difficult to separate a cause-experiencer construction from the agent-theme transitive tendency, which makes the DO clitic become the preferred one – and, if anything, hesitation becomes visible in the use of the pronominal forms le/lo: (10) a.  José animalizó a Pepe con los secretos de su mujer [José animalized Pepe with his wife’s secrets]. b.  A Pepe le/lo animalizaron los secretos ocultos de su mujer [Pepe was animalized with his wife’s hidden secrets]. c.  Pepe se animalizó con los secretos de su mujer [Pepe became animalized with his wife’s secrets]. It becomes really hard to distinguish ‘convertir a alguien en un animal [to turn somebody into an animal]’ (lo animalizó) from ‘causar convertir a alguien en un animal [to cause to convert somebody into an animal]’ (le animalizó), as the verb’s perfective tendency privileges the agentive value of the affected object. Nevertheless, if the semantic evolution suffered by any of these verbs results in the emergence of new meanings linked with the physical or psychical affection, the likelihood for the appearance of a causative structure with an experiencer is inescapable (cabrear, abrasar, enrollar, emputecer, etc.): Cabrear: ‘hacer que alguien se comporte como una cabra [to make someone behave as a goat’ > goats are irascible > ‘hacer que alguien se comporte de forma irascible [to make somebody behave in an irascible way]’. (11) a. Juan cabreó a Pepe con sus chistes [Juan annoyed Pepe with his jokes]. b.  A Pepe le cabrea que Juan cuente chistes [That Juan tells him jokes annoys Pepe]. c. *A Pepe lo cabrea que Juan cuente chistes [That Juan tells him jokes annoys Pepe]. d.  Pepe se cabrea con los chistes de Juan [Pepe becomes annoyed with Juan’s jokes]. Abrasar: ‘hacer-convertir en brasas X [to make-convert X into embers]’ > embers are caused by fire > fire burns > ‘quemar [burn]’ > to burn physically and emotionally: (12) a. Juan abrasó a Pepe con las ascuas [Juan burned Pepe with the embers]. b.  A Pepe le abrasó por dentro conocer los secretos de su mujer [Knowing about his wife’s secrets burnt Pepe inside].



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c. *A Pepe lo abrasó por dentro conocer los secretos de su mujer [Knowing about his wife’s secrets burnt Pepe inside]. d.  Pepe se abrasó por dentro al conocer los secretos de su mujer [Pepe burnt inside when he knew about his wife’s secrets]. Enrollar: ‘hacer algo como un rollo, dar forma de rollo [to do something like a roll, to give the shape of a roll]’ > a roll is easy to unfold > easiness also means a tendency and predisposition to it > to have a predisposition to (and, in excess, to be a bore): (13) a.  Juan enrolló a Pepe con sus aventuras y disparates [Juan got Pepe involved with his adventures and silly things]. b.  A Pepe le enrollan mucho las salidas nocturnas [Pepe really loves nights out]. c. *A Pepe lo enrollan mucho las salidas nocturnas [Pepe really loves nights out]. d.  Pepe se enrolla con las salidas nocturnas que no veas [You can’t imagine how much Pepe gets into nights out]. iii. The third group of denominal causative verbs is that of sensitive-emotional ones. Because the argument structure of these verbs is ‘causar-provocar una determinada sensación, sentimiento, etc., en una entidad humana o animada [to cause-provoke a certain sensation, feeling, etc. in a human or animate entity]’ – their derivation base noun being the sensation, feeling, etc.– it seems logical to conclude that most of these verbs permit the agent-theme/cause-experiencer alternation. These verbs can somehow be placed on a level with causative-locative ones, though with a twofold difference: this is a metaphorical location in a subject – and not a location in an object/place; and the located object is a sensation, feeling, etc. – and not a physical object, which is why it must have a human being as its ground: (14) a.  Juan atemorizó a todos los presentes con su comportamiento extraño [Juan frightened everyone present with his strange behavior]. b.  A Juan le atemoriza tener que hablar en público [Having to speak in public frightens Juan]. c. *A Juan lo atemoriza tener que hablar en público [Having to speak in public frightens Juan]. d.  Juan se atemorizó con el extraño comportamiento de Pepe [Juan became frightened with Pepe’s strange behavior]. e. A Juan se le atemoriza fácilmente [Juan is easily frightened]. iv. The so-called ‘creative’ ones are the fourth group differentiated by Lavale Ortiz within denominal verbs. They are characterized by the common feature of implying the creation of a specific entity; hence their appearance in transitive patterns. Entity creation is interpreted as a kind of causativity in a broad sense, which marks the passage from non-existence to existence, even though the originator of a creative action is always an agentive entity. Three subtypes are distinguished in this section: (a) verbs

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with a created object (analizar, sopar) and with a performed act (confeccionar, parodiar); (b) local construction creative verbs where an object is created following a construction or manual type of activity; they are therefore created-object verbs, but a clear local value is added to these ones (alcantarillar, festonear, alomar, coleccionar); and (c) verbs expressing the creation of an act of speech or writing, that is, verbs dicendi and scribiendi (atildar, escoliar, biografiar, piropear, parafrasear). The set formed by these verbs does not permit the dative-experiencer/ subjectcause schema. Even though they are transitive, it turns out pragmatically very difficult to be able to conceive an object affected by this type of action as a person with the aforesaid verbs. Maybe because these are activities typically carried out by humans, it is impossible to conceive a cause which locates a physical affection in a subject. There are some examples which contradict the above, such as amenazar [to threaten], but it becomes necessary to consider that threats can not only be physical, which is why it makes sense to think of affection causes because they create a psychological state in the experiencer: (15) a. A Juan su pasado le amenaza con sacar historias turbias [His past threatens Juan with bringing out murky stories]. b. A Juan se le amenaza fácilmente [Juan is easily threatened]. v. The last distinct group is that of agentive-inchoative verbs expressing a change of state. Agentive-inchoative denominal verbs are the semantic counterparts of causative-inchoative denominal verbs. The difference lies in the type of process expressed as well as in the entity acting as the initiator: on the one hand, causative-inchoative verbs combine causativity and inchoativity or transformation into a new state, whereas those involved in agentive-inchoative ones are agentivity and inchoativity processes; and, on the other hand, the entity acting as the initiator in causative-inchoative verbs was a cause which could appear as an agent or as a force, unlike what happens in agentive-inchoative ones, where it is always going to be an exclusively agentive entity that performs the action in an intentional, deliberate way. Therefore, these predicates cannot alternate with an intransitive, non-agentive construction.

4. Deadjectival causatives In parallel to denominal verbs, a deadjectival verb such as entristecer [to sadden] entails the argument conflation ‘X hace que Y esté/sea triste [X makes Y be sad],’ as a result of which Y has/owns the quality or state described by the adjective: (16) a.  X entristeció al niño con historias pasadas [X saddened the child with past stories]. b. Al niño le entristecen las historias pasadas [Past stories sadden the child]. c.  El niño (se) entristecerá con historias pasadas [The child will become sad with past stories].



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Once again, the same as in causative denominal verbs, the possibility exists to find inchoative pronominal constructions showing a new state in the subject – but an externally motivated one. Nevertheless, curiously enough, despite seeming to be the usual one, the pronominal construction may alternate with non-pronominal intransitive structures: el niño (se) entristeció de/con/por las historias narradas [the child became sad at/with/by the narrated stories], which did not happen in the case of denominal verbs:?el niño emocionó de/con/por las historias narradas [The child was moved at/ with/by the narrated stories]. A particularly important issue when it comes to deadjectival verbs is the border line separating physical and psychical affection, which is not discreet among the verbs belonging to this group – apart from the fact that many elements may convey both types of affections. There are many physical-affection deadjectival verbs, insofar as they express the causation of a state or physical quality – and no longer psychical. Their behavior will be exactly the same as that of psychological-affection verbs: (17) a.  La madre engorda al niño con pastelitos [The mother fattens the child with small cakes]. b. Al niño le engordan los pastelitos [Small cakes fatten the child]. c.  El niño engorda con pastelitos de crema [The child gets fat with cream cakes]. d. ?El niño se engorda con pastelitos de crema [The child gets fat with cream cakes]. As shown by these examples, the main difference seems to be found in the construction with se – which sounds a little odd – and intransitive constructions without se seem preferable. They consequently allow the transitive affected element and change of state alternation with the dative-experiencer causative construction. The intransitive construction with a subject experiencer and an oblique cause is possible as well – but not the pronominal construction. The impersonal construction is feasible too. Similarly, sympathetic partitive constructions – either transitive or intransitive ones – may be common. The following scale-like tendency seems to exist: – Psychical denominal verbs: they tend to use pronominal constructions with se. – Psychical deadjectival verbs: they show a proneness to the alternation of pronominal constructions with and without se, although they apparently prefer the construction with se. – Physical deadjectival verbs: they are prone to adopt the construction without se. Deadjectival verbs imply an argument structure of four types (Cifuentes 2011). Nevertheless, they all share the same type of argument conflation: attributive conflation. All the cases analyzed show the assignment of a property, quality or state to an attribution base, the difference consisting in the type of base and the type of process involved. Every example reveals some type of attributive/predicative pattern, either with a subject or a DO, and the same thing can be highlighted on the conceptual level:

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a single argument schema exists, which is the attributive one, with differences according to the process involved and the attribution base. The argument configuration of deadjectival verbs in Spanish is organized here from the following categories and intermediate points: a. It is possible to define a stative argument structure, infrequent in Spanish, where it sometimes becomes necessary to distinguish a perfective behavior as opposed to another imperfective one, represented by paraphrases with ser and estar, but where the usual thing will be a diffuse zone when it comes to delimiting that differentiation. These are intransitive constructions where the impact of attribution falls upon the subject. b. There is a second type of argument structure, a causative one, which can paraphrased by hacer X a Y [to make X get Y], from which aspectual variants can be developed that lead to the stative argument structure, and thus somehow act as intermediaries with them: it is the case of paraphrases with dejar X a Y [to leave X to Y], as well as the frequentative or ingressive values which are very often indicated by verbs. c. and d.  The imperfective argument structure, hacerse X [to become X], and the perfective argument structure, comportarse como X [to behave like X] are not separated by clearly-defined border lines. These two structures are related to stative constructions by means of formations indicating the idea of result, with the variant quedarse [to become], or an ingressive aspect, which constitute the bridge or intermediate point towards the state. These are all intransitive constructions, with or without pronominalization, where the attribution base is the subject. Constructions with comportarse como X [to behave like X] also clearly make possible argument patterns requiring a patient that is affected by the process developed through the verb, making the construction transitive in this case. In short, and despite the argument diversity described above, it is consequently possible to understand the existence of a single argument schema for deadjectival constructions in Spanish: the attributive schema. The differences between the aforesaid patterns come from the impact that the schema has on the subject and the DO, as well as from the previously mentioned aspectual variations, and from the possibility of additional arguments being found. a. Those deadjectival verbs which imply the conflation ‘estar/ser X [to be X]’, whether it is a physical or a mental change of state, do not permit the dative structure with causation and experiencer; thus, there is obviously not a change of state, but a state, as these are intransitive verbs: (18) Juan cojea, ronquea, rojea [Juan limps, be hoarse, be red]. As the possibility of causation does not exist, it becomes impossible to locate a state in the animate being (dative).



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b. The second schema, ‘X causa a [Y llegar a ser/estar Z(adjetivo)] [X causes [Y to become Z(adjective)]’, stands out as the most common one in Spanish. Because it is a causative pattern, it makes sense to conclude that if the verb can combine with a person as a DO – as it does happen in most cases – chances exist for the appearance of a cause as the subject and a dative as an experiencer. They can reflect both a physical and a psychical state: (19) a.  Luis acobardó al niño con los gritos [Luis intimidated the child with the (his) shouts]. b.  Al niño le acobarda que le griten [That they shout at him intimidates the child]. c.  El niño se acobardó con los gritos [The child became intimidated by the shouts]. d. ?El niño acobardó con los gritos [The child became intimidated by the shouts]. c. The third schema is ‘Y se comporta como X [Y behaves like X]’. The verbs belonging to this set must be divided into two groups: the pronominal ones (acanallarse, agringarse, etc.); and the strictly speaking intransitive ones (bobear, bufonear, etc.). In the case of intransitive verbs, there are no possibilities for the appearance of a cause as the subject and a dative as an experiencer: (20) a.  Rafa bobea cada vez que te ve [Rafa is fascinated every time he sees you]. b. *A Rafa le bobea que aparezcas en escena [That you come into the scene fascinates Rafa]. This intransitive construction has an agent subject which could under no circumstances be regarded as the experiencer of an action. By contrast, if the verb is pronominal, even though the clitic always agrees with the subject, it still expresses affected element and result of the change of state, which is why it is possible to find constructions containing an experiencer and a cause of the action: (21) a.  Juanito se ha agringado con tanta hamburguesa [Juanito has become ‘gringoed’ with so many hamburgers]. b. ?Juanito te ha agringado con tanta hamburguesa [Juanito has ‘gringoed’ you with so many hamburgers]. c.  A Juan le agringa su pasión por las hamburguesas [His passion for hamburgers ‘gringoes’ him]. d. The last schema is the one illustrated by a set of verbs constructed from the conflation ‘hacerse X [to become X]’. Most of these verbs are pronominal, although some are simply intransitive (amarillecer, empalidecer, enflacar, etc.). Evidently, being pronominal, it is possible for them to be constructed with the subject-cause/dative-experiencer schema:

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(22) a. Juan se bestializó [Juan became brutalized]. b. A Juan le bestializa su manera de comer [His way of eating brutalizes him]. As for the intransitive ones, they show a considerable degree of confusion, since the few visible cases raise plenty of doubts. For example, enflaquecer [to get thin] and encanecer [to get grey (hair)] appear as intransitive verbs in the DRAE, but examples of transitive uses can be found in the CREA and the CORDE. In fact, both group (c) and (d) show a lot of confusion because the verb has a perfective behavior, which is why the action implies an affected element; hence the great difficulty to draw a distinction between the conceptualization of the affected state and the result in the transitive construction, and the cause of the state in the intransitive construction. Since the predicate always refers to the result derived from the change of state, it becomes very difficult to distinguish causation. For that reason, the presence of dative clitics is anecdotal, the presence of the DO prevailing to a larger extent – even with non-animate subjects.

5. Latin causative verbs Many psychological and physical affection verbs express the alternation agent-subject and DO-theme vs. subject-experiencer and dative-cause, which have a Latin origin. They can be grouped together into three sets: (a) Latin deadjectival/denominal verbs; (b) verbs with a causative meaning not given through denominal or deadjectival derivation; and (c) verbs with a confusing etymology.

a.  Deadjectival/denominal verbs This is a very large group of verbs: alterar, cegar, conturbar, enervar, envanecer, exasperar, extrañar, inquietar, moderar, obcecar, ofuscar, perjudicar, perturbar, turbar, etc. The explanations for them follow the same patterns as the ones seen for Spanish. For example: Cegar [to make blind]: According to Corominas and Pascual (1987), it comes from Latin caecare, with the same meaning. Ernout and Meillet (1985) accredit that the verb caecō5 is deadjectival, coming from caecus, -a, -um, ‘ciego [blind]’, which can therefore mean a causative argument conflation similar to hacer ser ciego a Y [to make Y be blind]. Conturbar [to perturb]: According to the RAE, it comes from Latin conturbāre (con+ turbō). Ernout and Meillet (1985) accredit turbō as being derived from turba, -ae, 5. It was clearly transitive in Latin, and the causative meaning can be clearly identified in OLD (Glare 1980): 1. to make blind, deprive of sight; (phr.) astu, ~are, to throw dust in the eyes of, deceive. b (fig. phr.) ~are oculum, to choke the eye or bud (of a plant). 2. to make morally blind; obscure the judgement of. 3. to make obscure.



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‘agitación, desorden [agitation, disorder]’, and would have the causative meaning of ‘causar desorden, agitar [causing disorder, agitate]’. In other words, this would be a locative denominal causative: causar desorden en [to cause disorder in]. Enervar [to enervate]: According to Corominas and Pascual (1987), it comes from ēneruāre, with the same meaning. OLD seems to construct the transitive verb ēneruō from the adjective ēneruis, is, e, with the meaning of ‘weak of energy, without strength, languid’, It would therefore be a deadjectival causative: hacer ser/estar débil a Y [to make Y be weak].

b.  Verbs with a causative meaning There are various examples in which, the same as in Spanish, the psychological value of the verb is given by a metaphorical-metonymic motivation, normally from an agentive meaning and a physical action, very common in the local context: cansar, conmover, corromper, divertir, excitar, incitar, indisponer, influir, joder, ofender, satisfacer, sorprender, etc. It becomes evident in all cases that they were originally transitive verbs with an agentive subject. The metonymic-metaphorical link from an agent subject to subject cause, along with the evolution of the actual meanings in the verbs considered, makes it clear that they all have a causative meaning. For instance: Divertir [to amuse]: According to Corominas and Pascual (1987) it comes from Latin dīuertere (dis- + uertō) ‘apartarse [to move away]’, and from there ‘distraerse [to distract oneself]’. The meaning of affection is consequently not the original one; instead, it is provoked from movement, mainly by means of metonymic relationships: apartarse [to move away] > distraerse físicamente [to distract oneself physically] > distraerse mentalmente [to distract oneself mentally]. OLD highlights the confusion between diuerto and deuerto, in relation to the value of movement, but its transitive functioning is made clear; hence the possibility for a non-animate cause as the subject. Joder [to fuck]: According to Corominas and Pascual (1987) it comes from Latin fŭtŭĕre ‘practicar el coito [to have sexual intercourse]’, with an easily understandable broadening of meaning: ‘tener sexo con una mujer [to have sex with a woman]’ > ‘mancillar física y emocionalmente a esa persona [to sully that person physically and emotionally]’ > ‘molestar [to disturb]’. Ernout and Meillet (1985) do not clarify the etymology of the Latin verb, undoubtedly linked with *fūtō ‘to hit’.

c.  Verbs with a confusing etymology There are some cases about which one cannot to give an explanation due to the confusion derived from its Latin etymology. These are only a few, though: aburrir, afligir, deprimir, estremecer, irritar, preocupar, tentar, and some others. The cases described below can serve as examples: Aburrir [to bore]: According to Corominas and Pascual (1987), it comes from Latin abhorrēre ‘tener aversión (a algo) [to have an aversion (to something]’, derived from

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horrēre ‘erizarse [to get goose-bumps]’: ab- + horreō. The etymology of horreō is insecure; OLD assures that it comes from Sanskrit, but Ernout and Meillet (1985) present its etymology as insecure, even with the possibility of a popular etymology between horreō and hordeum ‘cebada [barley]’. Afligir [to afflict]: According to Corominas and Pascual (1987), it comes from Latin affligĕre ‘golpear contra algo [to hit (against) something]’, ‘abatir [to knock down]’ (ad + flīgō), and the latter from fligĕre ‘golpear [to hit]’. The metaphorical link between the physical affection and the emotional and moral one (which already existed in Latin) is quite simple. Its etymology also seems unclear, since Ernout and Meillet (1985) consider it very rare and archaic, connected with the noun flīctus, -ūs, ‘choque, golpe [crash, blow]’, equally rare and archaic, but no proof exists about the existence of a denominal causative link between them, although there is indeed evidence of its transitive, agentive value. The conclusion drawn from our analysis is that, with the exception of those cases where no clear proof exists about their etymology, Latin verbs have a causative value due to several factors: denominal formation; deadjectival formation; and the evolution of meaning from an agentive value until reaching the psychological affection causative value.

6. Conclusions 1. The transitive/intransitive alternation in class 2 psychological verbs is essentially determined by three factors: the subject’s degree of agentivity; the aspectual content of predication; and the order of elements in the construction. 2. The transitive variant in class 2 psychological verbs implies a subject agent and an aspectual change of state. 3. The intransitive variant in class 2 psychological verbs implies a cause and a locative state. 4. In Spanish, class 2 psychological verbs are causative because of the cause component conflated in the verbal formation which gives rise to the verb. 5. Most of the psychological verbs with a transitive/intransitive alternation are denominal or deadjetival causative verbs of Romance origin. The remaining ones find their origin in a Latin denominal or deadjectival formation or in a causative meaning which comes as a result of an evolution in their meaning (usually agentive and local). 6. Many physical verbs follow a pattern resembling that of psychological ones when it comes to the appearance of the dative.



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References Arad, Maya. 1998. VP-Structure and the Syntax-Lexicon Interface. PhD dissertation, University College London. Baker, Mark. 1997. “Thematic roles and syntactic structure.” In Elements of Grammar, L. Haegeman (ed.), 73–137. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-5420-8_2 Becerra Bascuñán, S. 2007. Estudio diacrónico y sincrónico del objeto indirecto en el español peninsular y de América. Copenhague: Museum Tusculanum Press. Belletti, Andrea and Rizzi, Luigi. 1987. “Los verbos psicológicos y la teoría temática.” In Sintaxis de las lenguas románicas, Demonte, V. and Fernández Lagunilla, M. (eds.), 60–122. Madrid: El Arquero. Bouchard, Denis. 1995. The Semantics of Syntax: A Minimalist Approach to Grammar. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London. Campos, Héctor. 1999. “Transitividad e intransitividad.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, I. Bosque and V. Demonte (dirs.), 1519–1574. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Carlson, G. N. 1977. Reference to kinds in English. Doctoral dissertation. University of Massachussets. Cifuentes Honrubia, J. L. 2004. “Verbos locales estativos en español.” In Estudios de Lingüística: el verbo, J. L. Cifuentes Honrubia and C. Marimón Llorca (eds.), 73–118, Alicante: University of Alicante. Cifuentes Honrubia, J. L. 2011. “Spanish deadjectival verbs and argument structure.” In Spanish Word Formation and Lexical Creation, J. L. Cifuentes Honrubia and S. Rodríguez Rosique (eds.), 65–105. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/ivitra.1.04hon Corominas, J. and Pascual, J. A. 1987. Diccionario crítico-etimológico castellano e hispánico. Madrid: Gredos. De Miguel, E. 1999. “El aspecto léxico.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, I. Bosque and V. Demonte (dirs.), 2977–3060. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Di Tullio, Á. 2004. “Los verbos psicológicos y la estatividad: realizaciones del español.” Cuadernos de Lingüística del Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset 11: 23–43. Ernout, A. and Meillet, A. 1959. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine. Histoire des mots. París: Klincksieck. Fábregas, A., Marín, R. and McNally, L. 2012. “From Psych Verbs to Nouns.” In Telicity and change of state in natural languages: implications for event structure, V. Demonte and L. McNally (eds.), 162–184. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Glare, P. G.W. (ed.). 1980. Oxford Latin Dictionary. Nueva York: Oxford University Press. Grimshaw, J. 1990. Argument Structure. Cambridge: MIT Press. Gutiérrez Ordóñez, S. 1999. “Los dativos.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, I. Bosque and V. Demonte (dirs.), 1855–1930. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. Jackendoff, R. S. 1990. Semantic Structures. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Kailuweit, R. 2007. “El enlace de los verbos de sentimiento. Un cálculo de rasgos.” In Actas del VI Congreso de Lingüística General, 2–1, (Las lenguas y su estructura (IIa)), P. Cano López (ed.), 1699–1708. Madrid: Arco Libros. Landau, I. 2010. The Locative Syntax of Experiencers. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Lavale Ortiz, R. 2013. Verbos denominales causativos en español actual. Doctoral dissertation. University of Alicante.

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Marín, R. 2001. El componente aspectual de la predicación. Doctoral dissertation. http://www. tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/4856/rmg1de3. pdf?sequence=1 Marín, R. 2011. “Casi todos los predicados psicológicos son estativos.” In Sobre estados y estatividad, Á. Carrasco Gutiérrez (ed.), 26–44. Munich: Lincolm. Marín, R. and McNally, L. 2011. “Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity: evidence from Spanish reflexive psychological verbs.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29: 467–502. DOI: 10.1007/s11049-011-9127-3 Martin, F. 2010. Prédicats statifs, causatifs et résultatifs en discours. Sémantique des adjectifs évaluatifs et des verbes psychologiques, http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/45/08/03/PDF/ these_versionfinale_21juin2006.pdf Parodi, C. and Luján, M. 2000. “Aspect in Spanish Verbs.” In Hispanic Linguistics at the Turn of the Millennium, H. Campos et al. (eds.), 210–221. Sommerville: Cascadilla Press. Pesetsky, D. 1995. Zero Syntax: Experiencers and Cascades. Cambridge: MIT Press. Pustejovsky, James. 1995. The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge: MIT Press. Robinson, M. 1994. “States, aspect and complex argument structures,” Proceedings of the Edinburgh Linguistic Department Conference ’94, 183–193, Edimburgo. Talmy, L. 2000. Towards a Cognitive Semantics, II. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Tenny, C. 1994. Aspectual Roles and the Syntax Semantics Interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Van Valin, R. D. and LaPolla, R. J. 1997. Syntax. Structure, meaning and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139166799 Van Voorst, J. 1992. “The aspectual semantics of psychological verbs.” Linguistics and Philosophy 15: 65–92. DOI: 10.1007/BF00635833 Vanhoe, H. 2002. Aspectos de la sintaxis de los verbos psicológicos en español. Un análisis léxico funcional. Doctoral dissertation. University of Gent. http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/ RUG01/000/483/575/RUG01-000483575 _2010_0001_AC.pdf Vogel, R. 1998. Polyvalent Verbs, Doctoral dissertation. Humboldt University of Berlin. Wanner, A. 2001. “The optimal linking of arguments: the case of English psych-verbs.” In Competition in Syntax, Müller, G. and Sternefeld, W. (eds.), 377–399. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

chapter 7

Lexical agreement processes On the construction of verbal aspect* Elena de Miguel Aparicio This paper examines the construction of verbal aspect as a sub-case of generation of verbal lexical meaning. The analysis is based on Pustejovsky’s (1995) Generative Lexicon and assumes the existence of a set of lexical agreement processes that match the lexical features of arguments (and adjuncts) with the information contained in the meta-entry of the verb in the mental lexicon. Verbal meta-entries include distinct sub-structures, among them the Event Structure, which is composed of different phases or sub-events. The materialization of some subevents or others depends on the agreement processes triggered by the arguments and adjuncts and gives rise to different aspectual meanings for the same verb. Keywords: verbal aspect, lexical agreement processes, lexical features, aspectual meaning

1. The construction of verbal aspect. General remarks The construction of verbal aspect is a complex phenomenon wherein the different types of information provided by words making up the predicate are involved. This interaction, which was considered as problematic in classical literature on aspect, was attributed to the compositional nature of lexical aspect. Recently, it has been described as the result of the functioning of mechanisms responsible for generating the lexical meaning. Specifically, it is assumed that there is a mechanism of aspectual coercion whereby argument information determines the lexical aspect of verbs.

* The research behind this paper has been funded by the Research Project FFI2012-33807, financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government. I wish to thank Zoltan Zato for his comments on the first draft of this work, and Olga Batiukova for the many discussions on the issues dealt with here and for her help with the English version. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.07dem © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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In this line, the present paper addresses the problem of the construction of verbal aspect as an instance of a general process of creation of lexical (not only aspectual) meaning. Specifically, it is proposed that verbal aspect is determined by the intervention of a number of (sub)lexical agreement processes.

2. Lexical aspect: The contribution of predicates, arguments, and adjuncts 2.1

Verbal aspectual classes

Lexical aspect, also called Aktionsart or inner aspect in the literature, is defined as the information provided by predicative words regarding the event that they denote. Verbs are predicative words par excellence; they have been ascribed to different aspectual classes depending on what type of event they denote. The most well-known event classification was proposed by Vendler (1967), who distinguished four classes (states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements) according to three parameters: change, end, and duration. A non-changing durative event without an end is a state, as in (1a); a changing durative event without an end is an activity, as in (1b); a changing durative event with an end is an accomplishment, as in (1c); and a non-durative changing event with an end is an achievement, as in (1d): (1) a. Juan sabe japonés [state] [Juan knows Japanese] b. Juan está estudiando japonés [activity] [Juan is studying Japanese] c. Juan estudió la forma -teiru en japonés [accomplishment] [Juan studied the form -teiru in Japanese] d. Juan pronunció -teiru en japonés [achievement] [Juan pronounced -teiru in Japanese]

2.2

The compositional nature of lexical aspect: Arguments and adjuncts in the construction of the aspectual meaning of the verb

The expression compositional nature of lexical aspect refers to a problem frequently attributed to Vendler’s classification, but it also affects any attempts to distinguish classes of verbs according to their lexical aspect: the problem is that verbs often change their aspectual class depending on the arguments, adjuncts, and other elements they combine with (De Miguel 1999). This behavior poses an important theoretical issue, namely that it complicates the possibility of classifying words according to their lexical content, since lexical content would depend on syntax.1 Moreover, this problem gives 1. The linguistic models that argue for a distinction between lexicon and syntax provide different explanations regarding their relationship. According to projectionist models, the lexical information maps onto syntax, and determines it. On the other hand, for constructionist models,



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rise to a terminological paradox: what is called lexical aspect would actually turn out to be a syntactic phenomenon. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence is obvious. As shown in (2a), the verb comer [eat] denotes an accomplishment if it appears with a definite direct object (DO) delimiting it. However, if the verb does not appear with a DO, as in (2b), or if the DO does not delimit the event − because it is a bare plural noun, like tallarines [noodles] in (2c), or a mass noun, like pasta [pasta] in (2d) −, the event will be an activity: (2) a. Ana (se) comía un plato de tallarines [accomplishment] todas las semanas en la cafetería de la universidad [Ana ate (up) a dish of noodles every week in the university cafeteria] b. Ana (*se) comía [activity] todas las semanas en la cafetería de la universidad [Lit. Ana ate (up) every week in the university cafeteria] c. Ana (*se) comía tallarines [activity] todas las semanas en la cafetería de la universidad [Ana ate (up) noodles every week in the university cafeteria] d. Ana (*se) comió pasta [activity] todas las semanas en la cafetería de la universidad [Ana ate (up) pasta every week in the university cafeteria] When classifying the event as either an accomplishment or as an activity, we must also take into account its effect on the syntax of Spanish: (2a) is compatible with the aspectual clitic se, but (2b–d) are not, because this clitic only appears in bounded contexts (cf. De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2000). The subject also has influence on the construction of the verbal aspect, as shown in (3): (3) a. Juan está saliendo (*aún) de la fiesta [Juan is (still) leaving the party] b. El ejército está saliendo (aún) de la ciudad [The army is (still) leaving the town] c. Está saliendo (aún) agua de la habitación [The water is (still) coming out of the room] d. Están saliendo (aún) invitados de la fiesta [Some guests are (still) leaving the party] In (3a) the verb salir [leave, come out] denotes a punctual event, i.e. an achievement, and it is incompatible with aún [still] when the subject is individual, discontinuous and singular. In contrast, it denotes a durative event if the subject is collective (el ejército [the army] in (3b)), mass or continuous (agua [water] in (3c)), or plural (invitados [guests] in (3d)). In these three cases, salir can combine with aún.

syntax determines the meaning. The assumption that a verb cannot be ascribed to an aspectual class unless it enters a syntactic context, which is behind constructionist analyses, implies that constructions determine meaning.

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Apart from the DO and the subject, arguments embedded in prepositional phrases (PPs) are also involved in the construction of verbal aspect, as illustrated in (4): (4) a. Juan está saliendo (*aún) del ascensor [Juan is (still) leaving the elevator] b. Juan está saliendo (aún) {del país / de la depresión} [Juan is (still) {leaving the country / coming out of depression}] As shown in (4a), salir del ascensor [leave the elevator] denotes a punctual event, which is incompatible with aún [still] when the subject is definite, discontinuous and individual. However, the same verb and the same subject express a durative event and are compatible with aún when the PP signaling the source of the motion event (the place which someone leaves) has a certain extension − in space (el país [the country]) or time (la depresión [the depression]) − which contributes to extending the duration of the event, as in (4b). Finally, adjuncts can also modify the aspectual information: in (5a) a una edad temprana [at a young age] focuses on the moment when a change of state or location occurs; in (5b) por la ventana [through the window] indicates the point through which a change of location occurs. As a consequence, (5a) accepts the delimiting clitic se, while (5b) does not: (5) a. Doña Inés (se) salió del convento a una edad temprana [Lit. Doña Inés left the convent at a young age] [Doña Inés {came out of the convent / stopped being a nun} at a young age] b. Don Juan (*se) salió del convento por la ventana [Don Juan left the convent through the window] The examples of aspectual alternations with motion verbs, such as salir in (3)–(5), are very frequent and occur in many languages; the sentences in (6) illustrate the influence of the arguments on the type of event denoted by a motion verb, like ir [go], llegar [arrive], and rodear [surround]: (6) a. Juan va del valle a la montaña (≈ ‘Está yendo’) [Juan is going from the valley to the mountain] b. La carretera va del valle a la montaña (≈ ‘Hay carretera del valle a la montaña’) [The road goes from the valley to the mountain] (≈ ‘There is a road from the valley to the mountain’) c. El atleta llega a la meta (≈ ‘El atleta {está llegando a / ha llegado a > está en} la meta’) [The athlete reaches the finish line] (≈ ‘The athlete {is reaching / has reached > is at} the finish line’) d. La carretera llega a la montaña (≈ ‘La carretera está en la montaña > ‘Hay carretera en la montaña’) [The road reaches the mountain]’ (≈ ‘The road is in the mountain > There is a road in the mountain’)



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e. La policía rodea el edificio (≈ ‘La policía está {rodeando el /alrededor del} edificio’) [Lit. The police surrounds the building] (≈ ‘The police is {surrounding / around} the building’) f. La valla rodea el prado (≈ ‘La valla está alrededor’) [The fence surrounds the field] (≈ ‘The fence is around the field’) In (6a) the subject Juan participates in a dynamic event, whereas in (6b) la carretera [the road] cannot do the same, which triggers the stative reading of the verb ir [go]. Likewise, the verb llegar [arrive] denotes a dynamic event or its result when combined with the subject el atleta [the athlete], as in (6c); in contrast, in (6d), where it is combined with the subject la carretera [the road], which lacks dynamism, it cannot describe a change of location and, consequently, denotes a stative event. In this case, the subject “forces” (coerces) the verb to losing its phase of change (from ‘not being here’ to ‘being here’) and llegar is downgraded to a stative verb. The examples (6e–f) illustrate a similar contrast: when combined with the subject la policía [the police], in (6e), the event denoted by rodear [surround] can be interpreted as either dynamic or stative; the latter is the only possible reading with the subject la valla [the fence], in (6f). As seen in the sentences (2)–(6), what is known as lexical aspect is related to the presence of certain arguments and adjuncts, which confirms the traditional claim about the compositional nature of aspect. The verb ver [see] constitutes a paradigmatic example of compositionality, since it can be ascribed to any of the four aspectual classes of (1) depending on the complements it appears with: (7) a. Sofía ve [state] muy bien (‘Sofía tiene muy buena vista’) [Sofía can see very well] (‘Sofía has good eyesight’) b. Sofía ve [activity] el futuro (‘Sofía adivina el futuro’) [Sofía is seeing the future] (‘Sofía is predicting the future’) c. Sofía vio [achievement] el castillo en el horizonte [Sofía saw the castle on the horizon] d. Sofía vio [accomplishment] la película en versión original [Sofía saw the movie in the original version] Nevertheless, the examples (7b–d) show another behaviour not mentioned so far: the fact that ver [see] can be ascribed to different aspectual classes is not due to either the (in)definiteness of the DO or the fact that it delimitates or not the verb (depending on whether it is individual or collective, singular or plural, continuous or discontinuous). Rather, the difference between ver el futuro [see the future], ver el castillo en el horizonte [see the castle on the horizon], and ver la película en versión original [see the movie in the original version] stems from certain sub-lexical features that are included in the definition of futuro [future], castillo [castle], and película [movie]. These features trigger different senses, which are also contained in the definition of ver [see], by means of a lexical agreement process that will be described in § 3. So, when the verb appears without a complement, as in (7a), the resulting event is homogeneous, durative, and does not have an end; in other words, it is a state that

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characterizes the referent of Sofía, as a property (she has good eyesight). In contrast, when the verb appears with a complement, the sub-lexical features of the noun that refers to the seen object determine the type of event: in (7b) ver [see], combined with el futuro [the future], describes a dynamic and durative event without an end, i.e., an activity; in (7c), where ver is combined with el castillo (en el horizonte) [the castle (on the horizon)], it refers to a non-durative dynamic event with an end, i.e., an achievement; finally, in (7d), where ver is combined with la película (en version original) [the movie (in the original version)], the denoted event is dynamic, durative, and it has an end, i.e., it is an accomplishment. In the following section, it will be shown that the verb ver illustrates another phenomenon that is even more intriguing: in contrast with what was argued regarding (7c) and (7d), ver el castillo [see the castle] can denote an accomplishment, while ver una película [see a movie] can denote an achievement.

2.3

An additional problem: Different aspectual meanings for the same combination of verb plus arguments

The most conspicuous facet of the construction of the lexical aspect is that the same predicate (i.e. the same verb plus the same argument) can sometimes be ascribed to several aspectual classes. The examples in (8b) and (8d) have the same DOs as (7c) and (7d) − repeated below as (8a) and (8c). However, these DOs trigger a different aspectual meaning for the same verb and, as a consequence, different syntactic behavior, illustrated in (9): (8) a. Sofía vio la película [accomplishment] en versión original [Sofía saw the movie in the original version] b. Sofía vio la película [achievement] dentro de su caja, encima del televisor [Sofía saw the movie inside its box, on the television set] c. Sofía vio el castillo [achievement] en el horizonte [Sofía saw the castle on the horizon] d. Sofía vio el castillo [accomplishment] una vez restaurado, en un recorrido guiado [Sofía saw the castle after it was restored, in a guided tour] (9) a. La película fue vista por Sofía y por muchos otros espectadores [The movie was seen by Sofía and many other spectators] b. El castillo fue visto por Sofía tras su restauración [The castle was seen by Sofía after its restoration] c. Sofía se vio la película en un hueco del fin de semana [Sofía saw the movie in her spare time during the weekend] d. Sofía se vio el castillo en un par de horas [Sofía saw the castle in a couple of hours] e. *La película fue vista encima del televisor por Sofía [The movie was seen on the television set by Sofía]



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f. *El castillo fue visto en el horizonte [The castle was seen on the horizon] g. Sofía (*se) vio la película encima del televisor [Sofía saw the movie on the television set] h. Sofía (*se) vio el castillo en el horizonte [Sofía saw the castle on the horizon] As shown in (9a–d), when the predicate ver {la película/el castillo} [see {the movie / the castle}] denotes an accomplishment, it accepts the passive construction and the aspectual clitic se. In contrast, when it denotes an achievement, as in (9e–h), the predicate does not accept the passive nor the aspectual clitic. The sentences in (10c) and (10d) illustrate again the “strange” case in which the same verb, llegar [arrive], plus the same argument, el niño [the kid] and el agua [the water] respectively, trigger different aspectual readings. In (6c) and (6d) – repeated as (10a) and (10b) below – it was shown that the subject el atleta [the athlete] triggers the dynamic reading of llegar, whereas la carretera [the road] triggers a stative reading. However, (10c) and (10d) show that the same subject, el niño [the kid] or el agua [the water], can “exploit” different aspectual interpretations of llegar: (10) a. El atleta llega a la meta (≈ ‘El atleta {está llegando a / ha llegado a > está en} la meta’) [The athlete reaches the finish line] (≈ ‘The athlete {is reaching / has reached > is at} the finish line’) b. La carretera llega a la montaña (≈ ‘La carretera está en la montaña > Hay carretera allí’) [The road reaches the mountain] (≈ ‘The road is in the mountain > There is a road in the mountain’) c. El niño llega al botón del ascensor (≈ ‘El niño {ha llegado al botón del ascensor / es así de alto}’) [The kid reaches the elevator button] (≈ ‘The kid {has reached the elevator button / is that tall}’) d. El agua llega hasta la ventana (≈ ‘El agua se desplaza hasta alcanzar la ventana / Hay agua hasta la ventana’) [Lit. The water reaches the window] (≈ ‘The water is flowing up to the window / There is water up to the window’) The example (10c) is ambiguous, since el niño [the kid], like el atleta [the athlete] in (10a), has the feature [+dynamism]. This is the reason why it can either participate in a motion event, which culminates when the kid touches (arrived at) the button, or it can be interpreted as an entity endowed with spatial extension, like la carretera [the road]; in this case, the adjunct al botón del ascensor [to the elevator button] refers to the point up to which the subject extends, i.e. its height (cf. De Miguel 2004). Similarly, the subject el agua [the water] is endowed with dynamism and it can take part in a motion event. In addition, as a continuous noun referring to a physical

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entity, it has spatial extension and it can also take part in a stative event; in this case, hasta la ventana [up to the window] signals the borderline of the extension that the water occupies.

2.4

Summing-up. The analysis of the data from a new point of view

The aspectual variation shown in (2)–(10) has been traditionally attributed to many different contextual factors involved in the construction of lexical aspect, that is, to the compositional nature of lexical aspect. This implies that event information is linked to syntax and not to the lexicon; in other words, the aspectual meaning would be built in the syntax. However, in recent literature on event types, these “event reinterpretations” have been explained in terms of aspectual coercion (cf. Moens and Steedman 1988; Pustejovsky 1995; Bott 2010; Batiukova et al. 2015). This kind of coercion emerges when the event type denoted by the predicate is modified in context, for example under the influence of adverbial modifiers, as in (11): (11) Mi tío descargó su camión durante quince años [My uncle unloaded his truck for fifteen years] In this sentence an event lexically encoded as bounded is interpreted as iterative. The verb descargar [unload] denotes a durative and resultative event, therefore it can be modified by time-frame adverbials, which refer to a bounded time period (descargó su camión en dos horas [unloaded his truck in two hours]), or durative adverbials compatible with the typical duration of the event of unloading (descargó su camión durante dos horas [unloaded his truck for two hours]). However, since the typical duration of the unloading event is much shorter than durante quince años [for fifteen years], (11) only makes sense if we assume that there have been many events of unloading trucks during the time period defined by the adverbial. According to Bott (2010), this event reinterpretation from single to iterative is due to the operation of the so-called iterative coercion.2 2. Other kinds of aspectual coercion are the following: –  Subtractive coercion (annulled-result accomplishments): predicates lexically encoded as durative and telic are interpreted as atelic, as in (i). –  Additive coercion: a preparatory or resultant state phase is added to the event type encoded by the predicate, as in (ii) and (iii), respectively. (i) Juan pintó la valla durante veinte minutos [Juan painted the fence for twenty minutes] (ii) Juan encontró la llave en cinco minutos [Juan found the key in five minutes] (iii) Juan salió durante diez minutos [Juan left for ten minutes]  (See Bott 2010; De Miguel and Batiukova 2014; Batiukova et al. 2015)



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Note that the aspectual reinterpretation analysis based on coercion presupposes that there is information typically associated with the duration of the event, in this case descargar [unload]. Assuming that this information is not pragmatic, it must be included in the definition of the verb. Thus, it would be necessary to define (and maybe widen) the set of relevant sub-lexical features that license or rule out combinations of words. Indeed, the aspectual reinterpretations shown in (2)–(10) are all related to the sublexical features of the arguments and adjuncts involved, such as [individual] (Juan) or [collective] (el ejército [the army]); [−continuous] (Juan) or [+continuous] (agua [water]); [+dynamic] (el atleta [the athlete]), [–dynamic] (la ca­rretera [the road]), or [±dynamic] (la policía [the police], el niño [the kid], el agua [the water[); [+extension] (la carretera [the road], la policía [the police], la valla [the fence], el niño [the kid], el agua [the water], del país [of the country], a una edad temprana [at a young age]), [–extension] (por la ventana [through the window]), or [±extension] (el castillo [the castle], la película [the movie]). Other relevant semantic type features are [object] vs. [event]: la película [the movie] can be both; the same holds for convento [convent], because it denotes both the [object] (building) and the [event] that occurs within it (the activity carried out in the building). It seems evident that the sub-lexical features of arguments and adjuncts are crucial to build the type of event denoted by the verb. Nevertheless, the construction of the verbal meaning (not only of the aspectual one) is a compositional process, materialized in context, but triggered because of lexical reasons and performed by means of lexical operations. Therefore, the apparent compositional nature of lexical aspect is not a problem at all, since it can be reformulated more appropriately as the lexical nature of compositional aspect (De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2007). This new type of analysis is based on the hypothesis that word definitions are complex and decomposable meta-entries that include different kinds of sub-lexical information, not only event information but also information related to features like [individual/collective], [point/extension], [object/event] and others – to be examined in § 3 and § 4.3 Specifically, the aspectual information is encoded in a complex and decomposable structure, known as event structure.4 The diverse arguments and adjuncts of a predicate focus on different fragments or subevents of the event structure of the verb. When the different fragments or subevents are focused, the verb acquires one specific sense or another, which results in the different aspectual readings (dynamic/stative, single/ 3. Some of the features that are syntactically relevant are [±container], [±instrument], and [±preexisting]; we will come back to them in § 4. As for the definition and nature of these features, see De Miguel (2015) and De Miguel (2012). 4. In terms of the Generative Lexicon model, as we will see in § 3. The conception of verbal aspect as information about the “inner structure of events, i.e., how they start, end or repeat, and whether they are perceived in their entirety or shown only partially”, is also present in some descriptive works, such as Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española, from which this quote is taken. (RAE and ASALE 2009: 23.2a; the translation and italics are mine).

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iterative, punctual/durative, etc.). In fact, as defended in De Miguel and Batiukova (2014), adopting an articulated event structure representation allows analyzing the aspectual alternations as manifestations of the different possibilities encoded in the lexical entry of the verb and not as instances of aspectual coercion. This explanation allows avoiding the terminological paradox and the theoretical problem: the lexical meaning of the verb (included in its underspecified definition) determines the selection of its arguments and adjuncts, which are combined with the verb in context and specify it aspectually. The resulting meaning specification is virtually contained in the underspecified definition of the verb and is triggered through certain processes of lexical agreement that select, reject, or accommodate the features of the words that are combined in a given context. In § 3.1 we will present the concepts of underspecification and lexical agreement and the hypothesis which they are based on. In § 3.2 we will briefly describe the hypothetical structure of a lexical meta-entry according to GL, and in § 3.3 we will examine the set of mechanisms that operate on the features included in underspecified lexical entries in order to license certain combinations, render others as uninterpretable, and occasionally rescue some of the latter. In § 4 we will analyze how the verb tocar [touch] changes lexically and aspectually depending on its complements; in addition, we will offer some predictions of the analysis defended here. Finally, § 5 is the conclusion.

3. Aspectual specification as a case of sub-lexical agreement 3.1

The hypothesis. Basic assumptions

The hypothesis of this work is that the so-called aspectual specification process is a case of sub-lexical agreement. It is based on Pustejovsky’s (1995) Generative Lexicon (GL, henceforth) model and, specifically, on three basic assumptions: (a) the underspecification assumption, or the lack of specification of lexical entries, which enables them to intervene in different syntactic structures and, consequently, in different operations of semantic composition (Pustejovsky 1995); (b) the decomposition assumption: it establishes that word meaning is decomposed into different sub-lexical features (eventive, qualia, etc.) encoded in its inner or sub-lexical structure;5 this sub-lexical structure is not transparent, but it becomes visible in the syntactic behavior of the lexical item; and (c) the meaning compositionality assumption: it presupposes the existence of a set of principles and (sub-lexical feature agreement) mechanisms, which are able to generate many meanings from the underspecified definition of a word when the word is combined with others in the syntax. According to (a, b, c), lexical items are provided with underspecified definitions in the mental lexicon, which enables them to acquire more specific meanings when 5. I will return to these concepts and terms in § 3.2.



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combined with other words in different contexts. The meaning specification, in one sense or another, results from how the features that form the underspecified definition of words agree; and it accounts for the polysemy displayed by words in context: (12) a. una maleta ligera [a lightweight suitcase] b. una comida ligera [a light lunch] c. una comedia ligera [a light comedy] d. !una laguna ligera [a light pond]6 e. !un eclipse ligero [a light eclipse] The adjective ligero [light] predicates different properties of different nouns: when applied to una maleta [a suitcase], it means ‘lightweight’; with una comida [a meal], it is ‘easy to digest’; and with una comedia [a comedy], it implies that the show or the play does not demand a serious reflection from the audience. It should be noted that these paraphrases do not exhaust all the possible uses of this adjective: for instance, with brisa [breeze] and combustible [fuel], the meaning of ligero is very different from the senses just mentioned. However, it can be objected that words do not combine freely, as confirmed by the examples in (12d–e), which sound odd to native Spanish speakers. The mismatch between ligero [light], on the one hand, and laguna [pond] and eclipse [eclipse], on the other hand, can be explained by a lack of agreement of the sub-lexical features of the respective lexical entries. The meaning construction proceeds as follows: the underspecified lexical entries subsume all the meanings that a lexical item can display in context. Words whose features agree can be combined and, when this happens, these (initially underspecified) features are further specified. For example, the adjective ligero [light] can be predicated of an object [container] – inherently defined by its size and dimensionality – or of an event that takes place [without effort]. Thus, when ligero is applied to maleta [suitcase] in (12a), it refers to the weight and the volume of the object [container] denoted by this noun. In (12b–e), by contrast, the features of noun and adjective do not agree. This mismatch may lead either to an interpretive clash, as in (12d–e) (!una laguna ligera [a light pond]; !un eclipse ligero [a light eclipse]), or it may trigger a rescue mechanism forcing one of the words to be recategorized: the head coerces its argument in order to make it compatible and to build an interpretable expression. This is what happens in (12b, c): given that comida [meal] or comedia [comedy] are not typed as [container], ligero cannot refer to the weight and the volume of an object. Instead, it expresses the events which both objects are used for: ‘be digested’ in the case of comida and ‘be read or watched (and understood)’ in the case of comedia. In the latter case, ligero means that the prototypical event which comida or comedia are meant to cause (‘to digest and assimilate’) can be performed effortlessly. The lexical features that license or rule out the combinations in (12) are included in the underspecified but highly structured word definitions in the mental lexicon. 6. The exclamation mark “!” is used to indicate semantic anomaly (Asher and Pustejovsky 2006).

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According to the second basic assumption of the GL model, lexical entries are structured in four levels of representation, each encoding a specific kind of lexical information, as briefly outlined in § 3.2.

3.2

The levels of representation in the lexical meta-entry

The four levels of representation assumed in GL are the Argument Structure (henceforth, AS), the Event Structure (ES), the Qualia Structure (QS), and the Lexical Inheritance Structure.7 The AS contains the specification of number and type of arguments in a predicate: their semantic type ([animate individual], [physical object], [event], etc.), and how they are realized syntactically: NP, PP, etc. The ES contains the definition of the event type of a lexical item or a predicate. In the GL framework, events are not viewed as atomic entities. Rather, they have a complex internal structure, which can be decomposed into subevents or phases. For instance, an event typed as a transition – such as descargar el camión [unload the truck], in (11) – is composed of two phases: the initial process (‘be unloading the truck’) and a resultant state (‘the truck is unloaded’).8 Subevents may be foregrounded (focused) or backgrounded depending on the context, for example under the influence of temporal and manner adverbials (cf. Fernández Lagunilla and De Miguel 1999 for Spanish). Thus, both subevents of the event denoted by descargar el camión [unload the truck] are focused on by the time-frame adverbial en dos horas [in two hours], and the process subevent is focused on by the durative adverbial durante dos horas [for two hours], as mentioned above. However, the durative adverbial durante quince años [for fifteen years] in (11) is incompatible with the canonical duration assigned to this kind of events. Therefore, the whole event has to be reinterpreted as iterative: ‘a series of completed actions carried out for a period of fifteen years’. The analysis provided here implies that there is information about the typical duration of unloading events that must be included in the meta-entry of unload, specifically in the QS, the most innovative level of representation proposed by the GL.9 The QS level encodes the basic meaning dimensions of words denoting entities, properties, and events, such as: (a) what kind of entity or event is referred to by the word and how it is related to other words in the same domain; (b) what are its constituent parts; (c) how it was brought about; and (d) what is its purpose. These meaning 7. The Lexical Inheritance Structure will not be dealt with in this study. In classical GL, it is assumed to specify “how a lexical structure is related to other structures in the type lattice, and its contribution to the global organization of a lexicon” (Pustejovsky 1995: 61). See De Miguel (2009: § 2.2.4) for an overview of related Spanish data. 8. A transition is an accomplishment, in terms of Vendler (1967). 9. The qualia are inspired in the aitiai or modes of explanation, the ontological (non-linguistic) parameters postulated by Aristotle in Physics, as noted in Moravscik (1975, 1991) (cf. Batiukova 2008: § 1.10.1, and De Miguel 2009: footnote 21).

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parameters are encoded in four qualia roles: the formal quale (FQ), the constitutive quale (CQ), the agentive quale (AQ), and the telic quale (TQ). Their respective information is brought out by adjectival and prepositional modifiers, as shown in (13): (13) a. una comedia romántica [FQ = ‘object of certain class’] [a romantic comedy] b. una comedia en tres actos [CQ = ‘object with inner structure’] [a three act comedy] c. una comedia del Siglo de Oro [AQ = ‘object from certain period’] [a Spanish Golden Age comedy] d. una comedia difícil [TQ = ‘object whose plot is hard to read or follow’] [a difficult comedy] The distribution of the different types of lexical-semantic features in different dimensions within the lexical entry is essential to explain how the compositional mechanisms operate, as will be shown in § 4.

3.3

Lexical agreement processes

The information encoded in the AS, ES, and QS of the underspecified lexical definitions of words may be compatible or not. When lexical features agree (i.e., the information included in the AS, ES, and QS of the combined words is compatible), word definitions are specified in some sense. This agreement can be directly or indirectly satisfied, as we will see below.

3.3.1 Type matching According to the GL, a set of compositional mechanisms contrast the selectional requirements of the predicates with the sub-lexical features of their potential arguments. When the type required by the predicate is satisfied directly by the argument, the mechanism called type matching (or pure selection) operates and licenses their combination and interpretation, as in (14): (14) a. Dibujar [artistic creation] un dibujo [Draw a drawing] b. Empezar [event] a llover [Start raining] c. Descargar un camión durante dos horas [durative event]10 [Unload a truck for two hours]

10. Predicative nature (i.e. the capacity to select a certain type of argument) is generally attributed to verbs (which choose the subjects and the complements), and to adverbs and predicative adjectives (which choose the verb or the noun they modify). Event nominals choose the light verbs that are compatible with them (cf. De Miguel 2011). In (14c) the adverbial durante dos horas [for two hours] is the predicate which selects for a durative verb.

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The lexical requirements (inside the brackets) imposed by the predicates (in bold) are satisfied directly by their arguments, and this kind of full compatibility of features gives rise to redundancy, with some interesting syntactic consequences: (15) a. El dibujo del niño está en la cocina [The child’s drawing is in the kitchen] [= ‘The one he drew’] b. El niño dibujó mucho ayer [The child drew a lot yesterday] [= ‘The child drew many drawings’] As shown in (15), redundancy licenses the omission of both the predicate (15a) and the argument (15b), since its meaning can be retrieved without explicit reference.11

3.3.2 Type coercion Type coercion is the mechanism intervening when the argument does not have the semantic type required by the predicate.12 If the features of the argument do not satisfy the selection requirements of the verb directly, this additional mechanism enables the access to one of the meanings available in their respective QS and ES. Thus, coercion allows avoiding the interpretive clash – as in (12b, c); but it does not operate indiscriminately. Crucially, the underspecified definition of the argument needs to encode information that can be potentially interpreted in the sense required by the predicate. This explains the unacceptability of, for example, !una laguna ligera [a light pond] and !un eclipse ligero [a light eclipse] in (12d–e): these combinations are rejected because they cannot be salvaged through coercion. There is no information encoded in the QS of laguna and eclipse that can be retrieved to meet the selectional requirements of the predicate ligera/o. Let us now examine some cases of “aspectual reinterpretation” in (2)–(11) from this new approach. The predicate llegar [arrive] selects for arguments typed as [physical object] and positively specified for the feature [dynamic], like el atleta [the athlete] in (6c); when llegar is combined with an argument that does not satisfy its selectional requirements, as la carretera [the road] in (6d), which is [−dynamic], the verb is coerced into losing its change-of-state phase. This is possible because the ES of verbs is composed of fragments or subevents, which can be focused on or hidden by their arguments or adjuncts.

11. In fact, redundancy triggers ungrammaticality in passive constructions without a by-phrase or any kind of adjunct: El dibujo fue dibujado *(por el niño/en la pared) [The drawing was drawn (by the child/on the wall)], or middles, such as *Una bebida se bebe [(lit.) The beverage drinks] (cf. De Miguel 2004, 2012, 2015; Batiukova 2008: ch. 8). 12. Recent work framed within GL distinguished two types of coercion mechanisms, which are licensed differently and applied in different contexts: coercion by introduction and coercion by exploitation. I will not deal with them here; the interested reader is referred to De Miguel and Batiukova (2014) for a review of the compositional mechanisms in GL, and De Miguel (2009) for an overview of related Spanish data.



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The verb ver [see] selects for arguments typed in their FQ as [physical object] which can be seen outside, like el castillo [the castle] in (7c); this event of seeing describes a punctual achievement. When the [physical object] has an inner structure which can also be seen (CQ), like el castillo [the castle] in (8d), the acceptable combination describes an accomplishment event. When ver is combined with an argument that does not satisfy its selection requirements, like el futuro [the future] in (7b), which is [−physical object], the verb is coerced into losing its final phase and denoting an unbounded process different from ‘perceive visually’ (instead, it refers to imagining, predicting or guessing). Descargar [unload] is compatible with adjuncts expressing typical event duration, as in (14c): durante dos horas [for two hours] requires a durative event, like descargar [unload], whose ES includes an initial durative phase. When the adverbial expresses a duration incompatible with the typical event duration, as durante quince años [for fifteen years] in (11), the verb is coerced in order to be interpreted as iterative; in other words, the adverbial predicates a time period during which there have been many events of unloading trucks. Finally, the predicate empezar [start] selects for event complements, such as llover [to rain] in (14b). If empezar is combined with non-event nouns, as in (16), the expression should be uninterpretable, unless the nouns are reinterpreted as the events in which they typically participate. This is the case of empezar {el caballo / la roca} [start the {horse / the rock}], which may mean ‘start drawing {the horse / the rock}’; as for empezar el agua [start the water], it is most likely to mean ‘start drinking a contextually specified quantity of water’.13 (16) Empezar {el caballo / la roca / el agua} [Start {the horse / the rock / the water}] In order to obtain the event interpretation required by the verb, we have to assume that caballo [horse], roca [rock], and agua [water] can be reinterpreted as artifactual or functional objects that are created and used with a specific purpose, by virtue of the information included in their respective QS. Thus, the operations yielding the generation of apparent new meanings (in the case of llegar, ver, descargar, caballo, roca, or agua) are, indeed, lexical agreement processes. Lexical agreement licenses or rules out certain word combinations depending on their lexical meaning. The meaning triggered by lexical agreement processes is potentially contained in the underspecified lexical entry; strictly speaking, those senses are not new but rather expected. 13. A similar interpretation is assigned to agua in querer agua [want water]: querer [want] is another event-selecting verb when it is associated with event complements or artifacts reinterpreted as events, as in querer un cigarro [want (to smoke) a cigarette], querer una bicicleta [want (to ride) a bicycle], or querer una casa [want (to live in) a house]. There is another sense of querer ([love, be fond of]), which is associated with all kinds of physical and abstract entities, including natural types, e.g., quiero a {mi padre / mi ciudad} [I love {my dad / my city}] (cf. De Miguel and Batiukova 2014).

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4. A case study: Different meanings of the verb tocar [to touch] In this section it will be examined the polysemy of tocar [touch] and its different aspectual interpretations. This verb can acquire different readings because of the intervention of different agreement processes that relate the information encoded in its ES to the sub-lexical features that are contained in the QS of its arguments (see De Miguel 2013 and De Miguel and Batiukova 2014).

4.1

Different meanings of tocar [to touch]

The analysis proposed here, in line with what has been defended so far, is based on the assumption that there exist different underspecified definitions and feature agreement processes, whose operation generates many, but not unconstrained, senses for the same verb. This approach results in a scale of meaning extensions that have two endpoints: on the one hand, the “canonical” sense – tocar la ventana [touch the window], as in (17a) – and, on the other hand, the most “figurative” or metaphorical ones (in terms of Pustejovsky and Rumshisky 2010) – tocar las narices [get up someone’s nose], as in (17f). (17) a. Juan tocó {la ventana / la roca / el caballo} [Juan touched {the window / the horse / the rock}] b. Juan toca el piano (todas las mañanas) [Lit. Juan touches the piano (every morning)] (= ‘{He puts his hands on it (every morning) / He plays it} (every morning) / He is a pianist (*every morning)’) c. Juan ha tocado el ordenador sin permiso [Juan touched the computer without permission] (= ‘{He put his hands on it / He used it / He manipulated its internal mechanism} without permission’) d. Yo no toco el pan [I do not touch the bread] (= ‘{I do not put my hands on it / I do not eat it / I do not participate in its production}’) e. Pilar no ha tocado la tesis en los dos últimos años [Lit. Pilar has not touched the thesis in the last two years] (= ‘She has not worked on the thesis for the last two years’) f. Juan tocó las narices al jefe ({con su respuesta / con su constante falta de colaboración}) [Lit. Juan touched his boss’ nose ({with his answer / with his constant lack of collaboration})] (= ‘Juan got up his boss’ nose’) The verb tocar [touch] selects for arguments typed as [physical object], as those included in (17a). In these cases, tocar denotes a punctual event, i.e. an achievement.



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In (17b), by contrast, tocar is combined with el piano [the piano] and the predicate becomes ambiguous: it has a punctual interpretation (‘put one’s hands on the object called piano’), another durative (‘obtain melodic sounds from the instrument called piano’), and even a habitual one (‘be a pianist’), with their respective syntactic differences. In (17c), tocar is combined with el ordenador [the computer] and is polysemous again: it has a punctual interpretation (‘put the hands on the object called computer’), and two different durative interpretations: (‘use it’ and ‘intervene in its working, manipulate its internal circuits’). This polysemy is related to the fact that “tocar a physical object” (‘put one’s hands on an object’) can trigger another meaning (‘manipulate an artifact’) when the physical object is a functional object, such as el ordenador [the computer] (an electronic device). The crucial difference between “tocar an object” inside or outside is the same as in the distinction between ver un castillo [see a castle] inside (an accomplishment) or outside (an achievement), as explained in § 3.3.2 with respect to (8d) and (7c). In brief, the examples in (17a–c) show that the meaning of tocar depends on what kind of object is being touched: in the first case, the FQ of the complement is exploited, yielding the meaning ‘put one’s hands on an object’, and in the second case, either the TQ is exploited, yielding the meaning ‘use for the inherent purpose of an object’ (make sounds, work), or the CQ, yielding the meaning ‘manipulate its internal mechanism’. Therefore, this is not an instance of an unexpected or unconstrained polysemy, but rather the result of a systematic and regular behavior. Finally, with objects in whose production we can participate, the AQ can also be exploited by tocar: in (17e), no tocar la tesis en los dos últimos años [not touch the thesis in the last two years] means ‘not work on the thesis’. This reading is also available for (17b) if the subject is a piano manufacturer: in this case, no tocar el piano desde hace unos días [not touch the piano in a few days] can mean ‘not work on it in a few days’. This is the same meaning we detected in (17d), where tocar el pan means ‘participate in the production of bread’. Given that el pan [the bread] is a physical object (FQ) intended to be eaten (TQ) and created by an agent (AQ), the example in (17d) has three possible meanings: ‘put one’s hands on it’, ‘eat it’, and ‘participate in its production’. The meaning referring to the production of a manufactured object (AQ) is related to the feature [–preexisting], which is encoded in the lexical entry of the noun (tesis [thesis] or pan [bread]). Thus, “tocar a non-existing object” is ‘do something in order for the object to exist’. Finally, tocar las narices [get up someone’s nose] in (17f) is ambiguous: it may have a literal meaning (‘touch the nose’) and an idiomatic one: ‘bother, annoy’. Interestingly, the former sense is an achievement; the latter can be either an achievement or an activity, depending on the cause of the event: the PP con su respuesta [with his answer] triggers a punctual event; con su constante falta de colaboración [with his constant lack of collaboration], a durative (or iterative) one.

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4.2

Tocar el agua ([touch the water])

The predicate tocar el agua [touch the water] is an example of multiple (lexical and aspectual) meanings, depending on the nominal feature exploited by the verb. In (18a) agua [water], as a word that refers to a natural object, combines perfectly with tocar [touch], which is a predicate that selects physical objects. In contrast, in (18b–d) the interpretation is different: agua is recategorized as an object with a function – personal hygiene in (18b) and motion medium in (18c) – and as an artificial (non-natural) object that is created or manufactured, as in (18d). These three senses imply that the physical object agua [water] has been recategorized as a functional object, as we have seen above in (16). (18) a. El gato no toca el agua porque está caliente [The cat does not touch the water because it is hot] b. Tu primo no toca el agua, es insufrible compartir casa con él [Your cousin does not touch the water, being his roommate is a nightmare] (= ‘He does not use water for personal hygiene’) c. Desde que se retiró tras las olimpiadas, no ha vuelto a tocar el agua [Since he retired from the Olympic Games, he never touched the water again] [= ‘He never swam again’] d. Yo no toco el agua, eso es cosa de los expertos, a mí me han contratado solo para la comercialización [I do not touch the water, this is for experts, I was only hired to market it] [= ‘I do not participate in the process of {production/bottling} of an artifact derived from the natural object water’] In fact, the example (18d) may pose a challenge for this approach, because its meaning, related to the AQ, is unexpected for natural objects like agua [water], in contrast the artifacts piano [piano], ordenador [computer], tesis [thesis], or pan [bread]. This apparent contradiction disappears if we adopt a more global perspective; indeed, in (17a), tocar {la ventana / el caballo / la roca} [touch {the window / the horse / the rock}], apart from ‘put one’s hand on it’, can mean ‘alter an artifact’: ‘modify the manufacturing of a window’ or ‘draw a horse or a rock’. Once agua [water] is recategorized as an artifact, by virtue of the information in its QS – as in (16) –, tocar el agua can be interpreted as ‘put one’s hand on it’ (FQ), ‘have a bath’ (TQ), ‘swim’ (CQ), or ‘participate in its production’ (AQ). The first reading corresponds to a punctual event, while the others describe durative events. It is the same difference as between doing something with a physical object from the outside – i.e., see it or touch it – or from the inside: i.e., see or touch one of its inner parts in order to create it (la tesis [the thesis]), modify it (el ordenador [the computer], el agua [the water]), or use it (el piano [the piano], el agua [the water]), depending on their feature specification, as [±instrument], [±preexisting], etc. If any noun combined with tocar can be recategorized as an artifact, it must be assumed that this verb only behaves as a natural predicate when it refers to the information encoded in the FQ (for example, when the exterior of the object is touched).

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Touching the interior (CQ), by contrast, amounts to manipulating the object (for example, ‘swimming in the water’ or ‘altering the image represented in a painting’; and also ‘manipulating its internal circuits’, in the case of touching a computer). Tocar can also mean ‘use an artifact’ when its TQ is exploited, and ‘participate in its production’ when its AQ is exploited.

4.3

Predictions of the analysis

The contextual polysemy displayed by tocar ‘touch’ can be accounted for by the intervention of mechanisms which exploit the features encoded in the QS of words. These mechanisms could seem unconstrained at first glance, but, in fact, they are not. Observe the following examples: (19) a. A Juan se le da muy bien {el ordenador / el piano} [Juan is good at {computers / the piano}] b. A Juan se le da muy bien el pan [Juan is good at (making) bread] c. A Juan se le da muy bien el agua [Juan is good at water] d. *A Juan se le da muy bien {la laguna/el eclipse} [Juan is good at {the pond / the eclipse}] The fact that the meaning of dársele bien a alguien algo ‘someone be good at something’ changes depending on the type of complement confirms that the compositional mechanisms operate. Dársele bien a alguien algo requires its complement to denote an event. With artifacts, as in (19a), the exploited event is encoded in the TQ (‘be good at using the artifact’). With an artifactual kind (e.g. pan [bread]), which encodes information about the event involved in its origin, the meaning is ‘be good at making bread’, as in (19b). Natural objects, on the other hand, have to be recategorized in order to get an agentive or telic interpretation, as in (16): dársele bien a alguien el agua, in (19c), can mean either ‘feel comfortable when moving in the water’ (= ‘be a good swimmer’, CQ) or ‘be good at manufacturing the functional object water’ (AQ). Finally, not all reinterpretations are possible. As shown by the ungrammaticality of the examples in (19d), recategorization is not always licensed. Type coercion is determined by the information included in the highly structured and underspecified definitions of lexical items. In fact, laguna and eclipse seem also incompatible with tocar, which confirms that both constraints are imposed by the values encoded in their QSs. The proposed approach is not unconstrained and therefore has predictive power.14 14. Zoltan Zato (p.c.) suggests that it should be explained why dársele bien a alguien algo [someone be good at something] can coerce agua [water] but not laguna [lagoon] or eclipse [eclipse]. All these are natural kinds, but there must be a reason why agua, unlike the other nouns, can be recategorized as a functional kind when selected by this predicate. I believe that the explanation of this difference has to do with the information encoded in their respective QSs.

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4.4 Summary The contextual polysemy displayed by tocar [touch] can be explained by assuming the existence of mechanisms that interact with the sub-lexical features encoded in the underspecified definitions of words. These mechanisms are lexical agreement processes that only operate if the features of the combined words are compatible or can be made compatible. All the possible recategorizations proposed here, namely from a natural kind to a functional one (agua [water]), from a punctual event to a durative one (tocar el piano [put one’s hands on it] / [make sounds by using it]), from a single event to an iterative one (descargar un camión durante años [unload a truck for years]), from a dynamic event to a stative one (tocar el piano [be a pianist]), etc., are possible because words include complex, decomposable, permeable, and malleable definitions. The inner structure of events may incorporate or lose some phases, not freely, but rather depending on their potentialities and the sub-lexical features of the words combined in context.

5. Conclusion According to the analysis proposed here, the “aspectual polysemy” of verbs is not determined by the syntactic context they enter, but rather by their potential specification included in their underspecified definition. This potential specification is materialized in the syntax, where the features of arguments and adjuncts agree, and it occurs thanks to the maximally structured, complex, and decomposable format of lexical entries. From this point of view, the process of aspectual construction of a predicate is compositional, but the composition is governed by lexical agreement processes that license or rule out word combinations. These processes rescue some unexpected combinations, such as {ir/llegar} la carretera a la montaña [the road go/arrive to the mountain], descargar un camión durante años [unload a truck for years], or dársele muy bien a alguien el agua [someone be good at water], depending on the information contained in the sub-lexical features of their structured lexical entries. The assumption about the existence of underspecified definitions for verbs and mechanisms of lexical agreement that trigger new senses, depending on their combination with the sub-lexical features of their arguments and adjuncts, allows accounting for phenomena which are unexpected for classic studies on aspect (for example, the fact that the same verb with the same complement may belong to different aspectual classes, as in the case of tocar el piano [{touch/play} the piano], which can be an achievement, an accomplishment, or an activity). Given that the construction of the aspectual meaning is due to the interaction between the sub-lexical information of



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the verb and the sub-lexical information of its arguments and adjuncts, the weight of context gets reduced and the operations that occur in the lexicon become crucial. This makes viable the switch from syntax to lexicology when studying aspect. In short, we can reverse the terms of the abovementioned expression and talk about the lexical nature of compositional aspect (cf. De Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla 2007). This reformulation is not a mere word game, but rather a general hypothesis about the verbal meaning construction and its syntactic consequences, in a framework that argues that lexical information is mapped onto syntax and that syntax materializes some of the lexical potentialities and leaves others immaterialized.

References Asher, Nicholas and Pustejovsky, James. 2006. “A Type Composition Logic for Generative Lexicon.” Journal of Cognitive Science 7 (1): 1–38. Batiukova, Olga. 2008. Del léxico a la sintaxis: aspecto y qualia en la gramática del ruso y del español. Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Batiukova, Olga, Bertinetto, Pier Marco, Lenci, Alessandro, Zarcone, Alessandra. 2015. “Identifying actional features through semantic priming: cross-Romance comparison”. In Cahiers Chronos 27, monographic edition, Emmanuelle Labeau and Qiaochao Zhang (eds.), 161– 187. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Rodopi. Bott, Oliver. 2010. The processing of events. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/la.162 De Miguel, Elena. 1999. “El aspecto léxico.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), vol.2, 2977–3060. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. De Miguel, Elena. 2004. “Qué significan aspectualmente algunos verbos y qué pueden llegar a significar.” In Estudios de Lingüística: el verbo. ELUA 2004, monographic edition, José Luis Cifuentes and Carmen Marimón (eds.), 167–206. Alicante: Universidad de Alicante. http:// rua.ua.es/dspace/handle/10045/9773. De Miguel, Elena. 2009. “La Teoría del Lexicón Generativo.” In Panorama de la lexicología, Elena de Miguel (ed.), 337–368. Barcelona: Ariel. De Miguel, Elena. 2011. “En qué consiste ser verbo de apoyo.” In 60 Problemas de Gramática (dedicados a Ignacio Bosque), MªVictoria Escandell, Manuel Leonetti and Cristina Sánchez (eds.), 139–146. Madrid: Akal. De Miguel, Elena. 2012. “Properties an internal structure of the Lexicon. Applying the Generative Lexicon Model to Spanish.” In Advances in the Sciences of Language and their Application to Second Language Teaching, Montserrat Sanz and José Manuel Igoa (eds.), 165–200. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. De Miguel, Elena. 2013. “La polisemia de los verbos soporte. Propuesta de definición mínima.” In Los verbos en el diccionario, Anexos Revista de Lexicografía 20, Sergi Torner and Elisenda Bernal (eds.), 67–109. A Coruña: Universidade da Coruña. De Miguel, Elena. 2015. “Minimal Definitions and Lexical Agreement: Project of a Dynamic Dictionary.” In Planning non-existent dictionaries, Joᾶo Paulo Silvestre and Alina Villalva (eds.), 69–85. Lisboa/Aveiro: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa and Universidade de Aveiro.

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De Miguel, Elena and Batiukova, Olga. 2014. “Compositional mechanisms in a generative model of the lexicon.” In Collocations and other lexical combinations in Spanish. Theoretical and Applied approaches, Sergi Torner and Elisenda Bernal (eds.). Ohio: Ohio State University Press (in press). De Miguel, Elena and Fernández Lagunilla, Marina. 2000. “El operador aspectual se.” Revista Española de Lingüística 30 (1): 13–43. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­De Miguel, Elena and Fernández Lagunilla, Marina. 2007. “La naturaleza léxica del aspecto composicional.” In Actas del VI Congreso de Lingüística General, Pablo Cano, et al. (eds), vol. IIA, 1767–1778. Madrid: Arco Libros, Fernández Lagunilla, Marina and De Miguel, Elena. 1999. “Relaciones entre el léxico y la sintaxis: adverbios de foco y delimitadores aspectuales.” Verba 26: 97–128. Moens, Marc and Steedman, Mark. 1988. “Temporal Ontology and Temporal Reference.” Computational Linguistics 14 (2): 15–28. Moravcsik, Julius M. 1975. “Aitia as generative factor in Aristotle’s philosophy.” Dialogue (Canadian Philosophical Review) 14 (4): 622–638. DOI: 10.1017/S001221730002655X Moravcsik, Julius M. 1991. “What Makes Reality Intelligible? Reflections on Aristotle’s Theory of Aitia.” In Aristotle’s Physics, Lindsay Judson (ed.), 31–47. Oxford: Clarendon. Pustejovsky, James. 1995. The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Pustejovsky, James and Rumshisky, Anna. 2010. “Mechanisms of Sense Extensons in Verbs.” In A Way with Words: A Festschrift for Patrick Hanks, De Schryver, Gilles-Maurice (ed.), chapter 4. Kampala: Menha Publishers. Real Academia Española and Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. 2009. Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa. Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press

chapter 8

Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions Nicole Delbecque Fictive motion expressions blur the distinction between stativity and dynamicity. The paper presents a corpus-based exploration of the variable ways in which structural and procedural knowledge merge in Spanish fictive motion expressions with oriented-motion verbs and manner-of-motion verbs. The metaphorical projection from motion to stativity does not necessarily conform to the aspectual restrictions associated with state descriptions. In addition to the verb’s semantics and the profile of the depicted entity, the degree of dynamicity of the blend is further determined by a range of lexical and grammatical choices. Among them figure the kind of spatial coordinates, grammatical aspect, quantifying and temporal adverbial modifiers, as well as viewing perspective. Per parameter, some factors reinforce the bias towards dynamism, whereas others downgrade it. Keywords: fictive motion, aspectuality, Spanish, blending, dynamism, perspective

1. Introduction When structural knowledge about static situations is worded in terms of procedural knowledge rooted in change-of-state experiences, the construal is one of ‘fictive change’. It can be encoded by quite an array of verbs, e.g. those denoting caused motion, boundary crossing, (dis)appearance, change of position, internal changes-ofstate. The phenomenon raises interesting questions regarding aspectuality, viewing perspective and, more generally, the distinction between stativity and dynamicity. The present paper is only concerned with Spanish fictive motion expressions with oriented-motion and manner-of-motion verbs. While reviewing the clause components susceptible of conveying aspectual and perspectival information, the aim is to distinguish between those which, in line with the motion verb, sustain the “cognitive bias towards dynamism” (Talmy 2000a: 171) and those which enhance the static view on the depicted entity. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.08del © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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In real motion, an agent covers in temporal order every point of a trajectory. The dynamic, telic events depicted in (1) and (2) are of delimited duration and qualify as ‘realizations’. In (3) and (4), on the contrary, the verbs descender [descend, go down] and recorrer [traverse, cover] depict a static, atelic event with a stationary subject entity: the spatial entities [avenue] (calzada) and [paths] (senderos) do not undergo any change of state and their geometric properties are conceived of as permanent. (1) La esquiadora desciende / descendió / descendía siempre por la ladera este. [The skier descends / descended-pret / descended impf always on the east hillside]1 (2) Descendiendo deliberadamente a más de 60 km/h, la esquiadora recorre / recorrió / recorría siempre la distancia en menos de 3′. La ha recorrido en un tiempo récord. [Descending deliberately at more than 60 km per hour, the skier covers / covered-pret / covered impf always the distance in less than 3′. She has covered it in a record time] (3) La calzada desciende (/ descendía/ *?descendió/ *?está descendiendo) (*?siempre) (*?deliberadamente) por la ladera este. [The avenue descends (/ descended-impf/ *?descended-pret/ *?is descending) (*?always) (*?deliberately) on the east hillside] (4) Ciertos senderos recorren (/recorrían / *?recorrieron / *?están recorriendo) los parajes serranos de punta a punta. [Some paths traverse (/ traversed-impf/ *?traversed-pret / *?are traversing) the mountain areas from one end to the other] Examples (3) and (4) show that the language user registers non-motion as if some motion were involved.2 More particularly, a stationary entity is viewed as if it were moving, i.e., static location is conceived of in terms of change of location. The overall metaphor can be defined as the conceptual projection from motion to stativity (Figure 1). It testifies to the imaginative capacity to depart from the literal meaning to attribute motion to entities which by themselves qualify as inert or stationary, since they simultaneously and permanently cover the trajectory from one end to the other.

1. The following abbreviations are used in the glosses: impf imperfect, pl plural, pret preterit (simple perfect), refl reflexive, sg singular. 2. “Various aspects of event structure, including notions like states, changes, processes, actions, causes, purposes, and means, are characterized cognitively via metaphor in terms of space, motion and force” (Lakoff 1993: 220). This is referred to as the Location Event Structure Metaphor (Lakoff 1993: 222 ff.).



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Source domain → Target domain kinesis stasis Motion Stativity

Figure 1.  Fictive motion metaphor: projection from motion to stativity

The mapping as presented in Figure 1 is oversimplified and questionable in at least two respects. First, the target domain canonically seems to impose various aspectual restrictions which conform to the nominal entity’s stativity: the present tense can alternate with the imperfect but not with the preterit perfect nor with the progressive and, out of context, temporal modifiers such as ‘always’ (siempre) and agentive adverbials such as ‘deliberately’ (deliberadamente) are, in principle, precluded. However, as will be seen in Sections 6 to 9, the way examples such as (3) and (4) are construed and function in running texts shows that tense, aspect and modality constraints are far from absolute and that fictive motion expressions display dynamicity at varying degrees.3 Second, appealing to metaphor generally supposes that a different, more abstract domain is accessed via a more concrete one. Here, however, both the target domain and the source domain are spatial: in both, the ‘figure’ (theme or trajector) is described with respect to a reference space (‘ground’ or landmark). In simple static location figure and ground coincide, in motion they do not. The transposition thus seems to proceed from a more complex scene to a simpler one. The delimitation of the static figure is all but abstract: it can be defined by the magnitude of the physical area it occupies and localized in relation to an also static reference space. Reversely, the path segments of a translocational motion event can be defined by means of the same measuring units (length in miles or km, incline in %, angular specifications, etc.). The kinetic energy gives vividness to the picture as it activates the conceptualizer’s processing of the information putting it in relation to perceptual interaction schemas rooted in everyday bodily experience. The discourse function of fictive motion expressions can thus be assumed to be a directive one: they attract attention, making an entity more worthy of scrutiny by presenting it as non-coincident with the ground and by integrating the conceptualizer’s perspective in the scenery. The malleability of the linguistic elements and, especially, the variable presence of procedural components which are factually incompatible with a static picture indicate that, rather than the mere metaphorical projection from kinesis to stasis, what is at issue is perhaps more the blending of kinetic energy and locative description. The linking of the figure’s spatial coordinates to the localization of a mobile conceptualizer, requires a double-sided approach. The above observations suggest that fictive motion expressions operate in a conceptual network that escapes a unique description. The mental space model designed by Fauconnier (1985, 1997) offers the analytic tools necessary to account for the kaleidoscopic nature of fictive motion expressions, since 3. This justifies the addition of a question mark to the asterisk before examples which seem infelicitous out of context.

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the blending of elements of different mental spaces is by definition selective, partial and creative (Fauconnier 1997: 150 ff.). The changeability and dynamicity of the web of links between mental spaces, insures the flexibility and variability of the outcome in the blended space. Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 377 ff.) suggest that if the paradox of adding a motion dimension to a static scene is not felt as figurative or complex, it is because projecting motion allows us to reach “the overarching goal of achieving human scale”. This can explain why some fictive motion expressions are highly conventionalized in many languages and easily pass unnoticed. Before articulating the working hypothesis more fully in mental space terms (Section 3), it seems convenient to first briefly survey the bibliography (Section 2).

2. Previous studies The existing studies focus on decontextualized constructions and privilege frequent verbs of oriented motion, e.g. ir [go] (5), and some specific manner-of-motion ones, e.g. zigzaguear [zigzag] (6). (5) Pero el camino que va de México a Veracruz, por Puebla, no es adecuado al tráfico rodado. [But the road which goes from Mexico to Veracruz, over Puebla, is not suited for the wheeled traffic] (6) Y al final caminaron más allá del porche y de la terraza, por el sendero que zigzagueaba hacia los campos del cortijo. [And in the end they walked beyond the porch and the terrace, along the path which zigzagged toward the country fields] The metaphor is generally recognized to pivot on the relation between the path and the action of going over it or traversing it. The phenomenon has been alternatively coined “subjective motion” (Langacker 1987: 175; Matsumoto 1996), “abstract motion” (Langacker 1987: 176), “virtual motion” (Talmy 1983, quoted in Talmy 2000a: 103) or “fictive motion” (Talmy 2000a: Chapter 2; Matlock 2004), as opposed to objective, concrete or factive motion. As indicated by Langacker (1987: 168 ff.), the conception of physical motion is relevant for that of non-spatial domains as well as for localizing and describing entities in space. Identifying the localization of an entity, as well as computing its configuration or extension, requires the mental scanning of a trajectory. This means that the notions of ordering and abstract motion are of semantic significance for the designation of static situations, and that it is natural to turn to a directional construal. The global conceptualization of the static scenery is assembled by means of the progressive activation of the specificities of the complex static configuration, which attributes directionality to the component states (Langacker 1987: 263). This author distinguishes two opposite mental strategies: summary scanning yielding a holistic



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 157

view, which is typical of nominal entities, vs. sequential scanning yielding the progressive segmentation and tracing of the components, which is typical of verbs (Langacker 1987: 145 ff., 264 ff.; 1991a: 22, 78–82). He further specifies that there exists a tendency to interpret multiple entities in serializing terms, i.e., instead of having all the components in focus at once, the entity is rather approached by the successive processing of its components (Langacker 1991b: 114–116). In similar terms, Talmy (2000a: 71 ss.) distinguishes between a “sequential perspective”, which operates by proximity, in motion, and with local attention focus, and a “synoptic perspective”, which implies distance, is stationary, and allows for global attention. “Sequentializing” is defined here as the incremental participation of a nominal referent in a situation. On the basis of subjective factors, an entity can be processed in an incremental way without itself being affected nor undergoing any change of state in the course of the event. Talmy further signals that “languages systematically and extensively refer to stationary circumstances with forms and constructions whose basic reference is to motion” (2000a: 104), and he defines a “coextension path” as “a depiction of the form, orientation, or location of a spatially extended object in terms of a path over the object’s extent. What is factive here is the representation of the object as stationary, and the absence of any entity traversing the depicted path. What is fictive is the representation of some entity moving along or over the configuration of the object. Though it is not specified, the fictively moving entity can often be imagined as being an observer, or the focus of one’s attention, or the object itself, depending on the particular sentence (…)” (Talmy 2000a: 138). This subjective conceptualization thus mentally scans linear entities over their length or attributes them a leading edge which is virtually in motion. The question can also be approached in terms of verbal polysemy. According to Jackendoff (1983: 173), a verb like run can mean “occupy a position [alongside …]”, for the semantic representation of which he turns to the stativity function “GOEXT”. The verb acquires a meaning of “extension”. To signal that an entity X occupies a position along a trajectory Y, Jackendoff (1990: 130) proposes the formula [State Goext ([ThingX], [PathY])], in which a movement is incorporated in a state. This way, in “The road runs along the coast”, e.g., the entity ‘road’ is analyzed in terms of an atemporal relation in which all the points of the trajectory are activated simultaneously (Jackendoff 2002: 362). Reversely, most verbs of extension can be used as verb of motion, as the choice between the extensional or directional reading is determined primarily by the mobility of the subject entity and sometimes also by the verb tense (Jackendoff 1983: 173 ss.). Commenting on German examples such as “die Brücke schwingt sich über den Floss, der Berg erhebt sich” ‘the bridge vaults over the raft, the mountain arises’, with verbs which basically denote motion, Rodenbusch (1911: 281, quoted in Jiménez Delgado and Martínez Vázquez 2011: 278) already suggested that such constructions make us go over the trajectory with the eyes, thus evoking to our mind the impression of motion. According to Vernay (1974: 164), the stability of the relation is defined by the two extreme positions or ends which delimit the extension and form an imaginary line.

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Matsumoto (1996: 190 ff.) shows that while English allows for subjectively induced motion with any kind of paths, Japanese only admits travelable paths; both languages, however, require path information and reject manner information that does not relate to the path. Méndez Dosuna (2009) and Jiménez Delgado and Martínez Vázquez (2011) rely on substantial evidence to draw a typology of similar constructions in Ancient Greek. Neurological studies, especially in the framework of the Perceptual Symbol Systems Theory (Barsalou 1999, 2002) show that language comprehension puts into play perceptual or motoric systems which mentally “simulate” the content of an utterance. Wallentin et alii (2005), for instance, observed that reading fictive motion expressions activates motoricity areas in the brain. Among the most renown psycholinguistic studies that corroborate the cognitive plausibility of fictive motion figure those carried out by Matlock (2004a, 2004b, 2006); the attention focus on the trajectory stands out both in eye-tracking measurements (in time spent) and in drawing experiments (in lengthening). These results confirm that processing fictive motion involves mental simulation of movement. For Spanish, elicitation tests performed by Rojo and Valenzuela (2003: 134 ff.), based on drawings, suggest that travelable paths favor the use of oriented motion verbs. A more recent study further confirms that the more clearly delineated and longer paths yield shorter reaction times in mental simulation, especially with travelable paths (Rojo and Valenzuela 2009: 227 ff.). The above summarized accounts converge in acknowledging that the conceptualization of fictive motion expressions combines structural knowledge with procedural knowledge, thus conciliating two views which, logically speaking, are mutually exclusive, viz. a stationary one and a dynamic one.

3. A usage-based hypothesis: A myriad of possible blends Metaphorical mapping from motion to states is, by definition, common to all fictive motion expressions. Yet, the outcome of the interface between the knowledge structure of the source domain, viz., movement, and that of the target domain, viz., stativity, seems to vary in function of various factors. Beyond the kinesthetic dimension of the verb’s lexical semantics, and the profile of the topographic entity, the dynamicity which determines the vector component direction is further determined in discourse by perspectival and aspectual matters. According to the semantic representation proposed by Jackendoff (cf. supra) for the verb ‘run’, a static structure of extension measurement encapsulates the verb’s dynamicity. With this and other manner-of-motion verbs that are typically used in satelliteframed languages such as English, the manner component can be considered to be metonymically projected to the perceptual grasp of the conceptualizer onto the lay-out of the road. As pointed out by Langacker and Talmy when discussing fictive motion (cf. supra), the verb choice differentiates between various possible ways of performing

.



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 159

a sequential mental scanning. In fictive motion, while conveying the subjective perspective, the manner-of-motion verb further informs on motion components such as speed and rhythm and also on the geometrical dimension of the denoted entity and its surroundings. While ‘run’ and ‘plunge’, for instance, are marked for high velocity, the former rather implies horizontality and regularity, while the latter is associated with verticality and suddenness. And while slowness is common to ‘straggle’ and ‘wander’, the first suggests untidiness while the second evokes lack of purpose. Verb-framed languages like Spanish, however, tend to prefer oriented motion verbs, such as descender [descend, go down] (3), recorrer [traverse, go over] (4) and ir [go] with incorporated direction, trajectory or perspective, respectively.4 Paraphrasing, translocational notions such as ‘descent’, ‘traversal’ or simply ‘going’ concomitantly apply to the very ‘avenue’, ‘path’ or ‘road’, to the travelers and to the conceptualizers’ mental processing. In other words, ‘motion’ seems to permeate the different meaning layers of the construal. In addition, both types of language also use verbs such as curvarse [bend], serpentear [meander] or zigzaguear [zigzag] which specify the form of a track’s segment, while suggesting an internal change-of-state, independent from the traveler’s or the conceptualizer’s ‘eye’, as it were, e.g. (6). Each verb thus brings in its proper image-schematic basis of the path schema or path configuration.5 While factive or objective motion involves conceived time, i.e. time as object of conceptualization, an axis along which cognition actively takes place, fictive or subjective motion only involves processing time. Following Langacker (1991a: 149),6 the way the verb modulates the directional progression can be assumed to be transposed from conceived time to processing time. At the same time, fictive motion expressions convey a hybrid conceptualization, which is partly static and partly dynamic. A more detailed analysis is needed to determine which elements reinforce the static view associated with the subject entity, and how they relate to factors which enhance the dynamic meaning component, involving change of location, directionality and temporality. 4. The well-known typological distinction between “verb-framed” and “satellite-framed” languages was introduced by Talmy (1991, 1996, 2000b: 223 ff.). In “verb-framed” languages the path is lexicalized in the verb, whereas in “satellite framed” languages the verb conflates motion and manner, while path information is stored in “satellites”, i.e. in particles or affixes that appear separate from the verb. 5. Among the basic image schemata, Johnson (1987: 126) includes “path”, the pattern of which presents three component parts: “(1) a source, or starting point; (2) a goal, or endpoint; and (3) a sequence of contiguous locations connecting the source with the goal. Paths are thus routes for moving from one point to another” (Johnson 1987: 113). 6. “I make the further (and I think quite plausible assumption) that any conception involving ordering or directionality at the experiential level implies some type of seriality at the processing level; an ordered conception necessarily incorporates the sequential occurrence of cognitive events as one facet of its neurological implementation, and this sequencing is taken as being constitutive of the conceptual ordering” (Langacker 1991a: 149).

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Instead of relying only on structure-mapping in terms of metaphor and analogy, it seems more fruitful to consider fictive motion as a way of imaginatively integrating action, i.e. of prompting the evocation of the unfolding of some scenario along spatial and temporal coordinates. In the blending approach proposed by Fauconnier (1997: Chapter 6) and Fauconnier and Turner (2002: 279 ff.), metaphorical expressions are characterized as cueing a blend of mental spaces,7 one for the source domain and one for the target domain. The organizing frame of the blend may come from one of the domains, but it can also draw structure form both input spaces. In this model, the conceptual blend mapped by a metaphorical expression remains connected to the different input spaces. This view permits to account for fluctuations in the interpretation of the outcome of the blending process. The network model of conceptual integration given in Figure 2 is modelled after the basic diagram laid out in Fauconnier and Turner (2002: Chapter 3). Key to our understanding of fictive motion is that it arises as a blend in a network of mental spaces. The minimal network comprises four mental spaces: two input spaces, the generic space and the blended space. Conceptual integration means that there is partial matching between input spaces. The solid horizontal line in Figure 2 indicates the analogical connection between the italicized counterparts of the spatial coordinates in Input Space 1 and Input Space 2. The abstract encompassing structure elements shared by the input spaces belong to the abstract ‘ception’8 framework and form the so-called ‘Generic Space’. Among its most salient components figure the following notions: processing time, location schema, spatial coordinates and additional facets that can be activated.9 The conceptual organization of the input spaces itself can be characterized schematically.10 The entrenched frames it draws on are that of stasis and motion, respectively. Input Space 1 contains the specificities of the entity’s static configuration, viz.,

7. “Mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk, for purposes of local understanding and action” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 40). 8. As defined by Talmy (2000a: 139) ‘ception’ “covers all the cognitive phenomena, conscious and unconscious, understood by the conjunction of perception and conception”. In addition to current processing, it also includes that of sensory stimulation and mental imagery. 9. Unlike the diagram proposed by Fauconnier (1997: 178), which only focuses on the interface between the input spaces in the specific terms of one concrete example, the one given in Figure 2 transcends the peculiarities of individual cases by (i) mentioning the basic ‘ception’ elements of the generic space, (ii) including the reference frame of the two input spaces, (iii) listing the most relevant facets of their respective profiles, (iv) proposing a maximally unrestricted definition of the composition of the blended space. 10. A workable basic definition of schematicity is provided by Tuggy (2007: 83): “a schema is a superordinate concept, one which specifies the basic outline common to several, or many, more specific concepts. The specific concepts, which are called elaborations or instantiations or subcases of the schema, fill in that outline in varying, often contrasting ways”.



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 161

Generic Space CEPTION FRAME Location schema Spatial coordinates Potentially activated facets (measures, etc.)

Input Space 2

Input Space 1

MOTION FRAME

STASIS FRAME Configuration: magnitude, extension, shape, no conceived time

Dynamics of change: progression, directionality, conceived time

Topological disposition

Source-path-goal schema

Localization: environment, spatial contiguity relations

Translocation: perspective, distance

BLENDED SPACE: composition with variable fusion of elements from input spaces

Figure 2.  Integrated network representation of fictive motion expressions

­ agnitude, extension, shape, next to its topological disposition and parameters which m define its localization with respect to the environment, e.g. in terms of spatial contiguity relations. Input Space 2, on the other hand, draws its characteristics from the motion frame. It conveys the typical elements of the dynamics of change, viz., progression, directionality, and conceived time; it thus allows for the instantiation of the source-path-goal schema and captures successive positions relative to a mover’s progression, the conceptualizer’s subjective vantage point and distance. As a selection of relevant information is carried from both input spaces into the blend, the resulting meaning construction can be considered compositional and variable.

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This model has the flexibility to account for the variability with which, in usage, stativity and dynamicity intertwine in fictive motion expressions not only from one language to the other, and from one verb to the other, but even within the same language and with the same verb. The analysis will show that the possibilities of modulating the overall blend are manifold. The notion of fictive motion can therefore best be understood as a prototypical category, in which the relative weight of the dynamic view in the overall conceptualization of the scenery hinges on the interface between lexical aspect, grammatical aspect and clausal aspect. A variety of lexical and grammatical clausal components can be assumed to play a role in the overall blend. The induction of a static, a-temporal representation, congruent with the in se stationary nature of the depicted entity, relies on tempo-aspectual restrictions, marked in the verb’s inflection. Verbal morphology by itself, however does not fully restrain the interpretation of the event structure, so as to block progress in the conception of time. Other indices of various sorts are susceptible of activating, or deactivating, the dynamic perspective. Insofar as the verb conveys a dynamic conceptualization in terms of motion or change-of-state, the mental image of the scenery will remain at least minimally dynamic. In addition, the projection of a certain sequentiality in the processing time can be strengthened by an array of elements susceptible of inducing some kind of dynamicity: the semantic subclass the verb belongs to, its lexical aspect, the profile of the arguments, spatial, temporal and modal modifications can play a role, as well as the syntactic aspect of the verb phrase. The aim of the analysis presented in the following sections is to single out the parameters that are accountable for the conceptual tension generated in Spanish fictive motion expressions between the two input spaces, in particular with their different aspectuality levels, and to distinguish which factors favor or disfavor a more dynamic reading. As shorthand notation, they will be dubbed ‘dynamizers’ and ‘stabilizers’, so as to order them along a ‘dynamicity scale’. Unless stated otherwise, the examples are taken from CREA, the reference corpus of the Royal Spanish Academy. The focus is on two verb classes, oriented-motion verbs and manner-of-motion verbs (Section 4). After describing the configurative and functional structure of the subject entity (Section 5), the role of spatial coordinates in the argument structure is given consideration (Section 6) and special attention is drawn to the presence of human participants – moving or non-moving observers – in the current discourse space (Section 7), before dwelling on the import of variation in grammatical aspect, as manifested by the reading attached to verb tense and to periphrastic constructions (Section 8). Finally, the attention moves to the concomitant role of adverbial modifiers, in particular, quantifying and temporal ones, as well as non-periphrastic gerunds (Section 9).



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 163

4. Oriented-motion verbs and manner-of-motion verbs The coercion exerted by factors from various parameters will be examined primarily for two verb classes, viz. directed motion and manner-of-motion verbs. While the former is not internally heterogeneous as far as aspectuality is concerned, the latter only includes atelic movement verbs. The oriented-motion verbs are oriented towards the trajectory (Moreno Cabrera 2003: 115). They encode motion and path, yielding the successive activation of segments of the directional configuration. A distinction can be made between kinetic, or non-topological, and topological deixis. The dynamics inherent in the kinetic directed motion is by definition stronger than in topological directed motion. Neither of these subgroups, however, is aspectually homogeneous. Kinetic verbs either depict oriented translocational motion on a horizontal axis, e.g. avanzar [advance, move forward], dirigirse [set out, set off, go], girar [turn], ir [go] (cf. (5)),11 llegar [arrive], volver [return], venir [come], or on a vertical axis, e.g. ascender [ascend, rise], bajar [go down], descender [descend] (cf. (3)), subir [go up]. Path information comes in the form of adpositions; while it can remain rather vague, as in (3) (por la ladera este [on the east mountainside]), it can also be highly specified, as in (5) (de México (source) a Veracruz (goal), por Puebla (point in the trajectory) ‘from M. to V., by P.’). Explicit mention of various points of the trajectory, as in the latter case, yields a strong activation of the motion frame (Input Space 2), and can therefore be assumed to score high on the dynamicity scale. (3) La calzada desciende por la ladera este. [The avenue descends on the east hillside] (5) Pero el camino que va de México a Veracruz, por Puebla, no es adecuado al tráfico rodado. [But the road which goes from Mexico to Veracruz, over Puebla, is not suited for wheeled traffic] Other oriented motion verbs also found in fictive motion expressions rather qualify as topological. They involve a geometric conceptualization, e.g. bordear [border, go along the edge of], circundar [surround], desviarse [deviate, change course], recorrer [traverse, go over, go across, go through], rodear [go around, surround], transitar [pass through, move through]. Unlike the non-topological verbs, the topological ones evoke some distribution pattern: the position of the fictively moving entity in relation with a reference space, e.g. in (4), the location of senderos [paths] is defined with respect to the overall setting parajes serranos [mountain areas]. (4) Ciertos senderos recorren los parajes serranos de punta a punta. [Some tracks traverse the highland areas from one end to the other] 11. Repeated for convenience.

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Among the manner-of-motion verbs the same distinction can be made between kinetic and topological ones. The former depict the way of moving, e.g. andar [walk], caminar [walk], correr [run], deslizarse [slide], discurrir [run, flow, wander], gatear [crawl], rodar [roll], the latter the shape of the trajectory, e.g. culebrear [wriggle (along), wind], llanear [cruise, coast along], reptar [creep, crawl], serpentear [snake, meander], trepar [climb], zigzaguear [zigzag]. Three points are worth noticing. First, the use of mannerof-motion verbs in fictive motion expressions is aspectually restricted to atelic and relatively continuous events; verbs such as caer [fall (down), drop] or saltar [jump, leap, spring] do not occur. Second, manner-of-motion verbs can be used to describe only a part or portion of the stationary entity, e.g. a particular segment of a road, as in examples (13) and (19) below. Third, Spanish being a verb-framed language,12 the use of manner-of-motion verbs obeys the same boundary-crossing constraint as when they express factive motion: path expressions are only admitted provided no boundary is crossed; El camino serpentea a partir del bosque / hasta el bosque [The road snakes from the wood on / till the wood] is o.k., while *El camino serpentea del bosque [The road snakes out of the wood] is unacceptable; with an oriented motion verb this is fine, of course, e.g., El camino sale del bosque [The road comes out of [literally: leaves] the wood].13 The higher the verb ranks on the dynamicity scale given in Figure 3, the more the conceptualization of the fictive motion blend bends toward the motion frame of Input Space 2 (cf. Figure 2). Kinetic oriented motion verbs figure at the upper end of the dynamicity scale because they combine dynamicity with the instantiation of the source-path-goal schema. Next come kinetic manner-of-motion verbs; they can be assumed to score higher than topological oriented motion verbs since they highlight the figure’s dynamicity without reference to the locative setting. Topological oriented motion verbs score lower on the dynamicity scale given the entity’s embedding in a broader region, as in (4), or the global adjacency relation, as in the first segment of example (8) below, viz., bordea dichas tierras [borders those lands]. Topological manner motion verbs, finally, are situated at the lower end because the image they convey informs both on the figure’s configuration and on its disposition with respect to the locative setting, thus giving more prominence to Input Space 1 elements. + ................ kinetic oriented motion

>

Dynamicity scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . –

kinetic manner of motion

>

topological

>

oriented motion

topological manner of motion

Figure 3.  Relative dynamicity associated with the motion verbs 12. See footnote 5. 13. While with oriented motion verbs path expressions are typically assigned argument status, they are rather treated as optional adjuncts with manner-of-motion verbs (cf. Morimoto 2001: 129 ff.).



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 165

This differentiating view is congruent with the general observation, made e.g. in Levinson and Wilkins (2006: 533), that within the class of motion verbs the notion of change-of-state is more closely associated with the semantics of some verbs than with that of others.

5. Configuration and functionality of the stationary entity The interest of describing and measuring up an entity is often linked to some sense of utility. It is being envisaged in view of some purposeful action. The functional load associated with the configuration of a stationary entity is therefore relevant for determining the relative dynamicity of the fictive motion representation, as it can facilitate or complicate the conceptualizer’s mental scanning along a continuum of static path segments. By virtue of common conceptual frames or idealized cognitive models,14 some stationary entities are automatically seen in relation with particular mobile entities. This pragmatic dimension can be assumed to highly favor the subjective projection of movement. With other entities, no such metonymic relationship is readily available; it then seems less straightforward to traverse different segments at different points of processing time, i.e. to activate the virtual motion reading with that entity as figure. Depending on the figure’s proper geometry and functionality, a gradient can be postulated going from the most to the less susceptible of promoting a dynamic reading. The stationary configuration can be more or less linear and elongated, and the entity can be conceived of as two- or tri-dimensional. According to its functionality as support for a path, a distinction can be made between three types of figures. Type A instantiates a containment relation involving a mobile content, type B includes potentially walkable surfaces, and type C groups solid, yet canonically non walkable entities. User-friendliness decreases from type A to type C. As shown in Figure 4, the container class, i.e. type A, can be further subdivided in four subclasses, taking into account the container-content relation and the kind of mobile content, which can be an animate entity, some sort of vehicle, or some fluid, including electric current.

14. Following Fillmore and Atkins (1992: 75), we use the notion of ‘frame’ in the sense of “cognitive structure”, i.e. the experiential knowledge or set of concepts, activated by an item in the speaker’s mind, so that to understand the item one has to relate it to the set or system in question. The notion of ‘frame’ fits in with that of ‘idealized cognitive models’. ICMs are a typical way in which humans organize and structure knowledge, without directly reflecting an objective state of affairs in the world. Through perceptual and conceptual processes, ICMs involve an abstraction from the complexities of the physical world. While they are thus idealized, they also crucially impart structure. Lakoff (1987: 284–287) describes propositional models as linked with entities, their properties, and the relations between the entities.

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+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dynamicity scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . – A1 río river

A2 >

camino road

A3 >

vena vein

A4 >

cable cable

B >

campo field

C >

linde border(line)

Figure 4.  Relative dynamicity associated with the depicted entities

Subtypes A1 and A2 apply to topographic entities, subtypes A3 and A4 to body conducts and artefacts. The container entities have in common implicit reference to (potential) physical motion by virtue of their functionality as support for a path. Subclass A1 groups (more or less easily) navigable entities, such as those designated by the nouns río [river], canal [canal], arroyo [stream, brook]. The metonymic chain, which goes from the riverbed, over the water and the means of transportation, to the travelers (pilot and passengers), enhances the motoric capacity dimension, e.g. (7). It thus favors the import of Input Space 2 in the fictive motion blend. (7) La naturaleza del suelo, o mejor, de los suelos por donde el río corre harán que este se encaje en profundos cañones o que discurra superficialmente. [The nature of the land, or better, of the lands through which the river runs will make that the latter be pressed in profound canyons or flows superficially] Subclass A2 includes walkable or travelable two-dimensional nominal entities such as calle [street], callejuela [alley, narrow street], camino [road, trip, journey], jardín [garden], ruta [route], sendero [path], carretera [highway], pradera [meadow], bosque [wood, forest], valle [valley]. They allow for the possible projection on it of the (track of the) walker or traveler, as well as of some engine or means of transportation, e.g. (8). (8) El camino bordea dichas tierras, por una especie de ancha cornisa sobre el abrupto barranco que se profundiza a la izquierda, y, por una zona de suave empradizado, sube a las eras. [The road borders the edge of the mentioned lands, by a kind of ample ledge on the abrupt cliff which deepens to the left and, through an area of smooth field, goes up to the threshing floor] The dynamic conceptualization of entities of the subclasses A3 and A4 rests on the analogy between their functionality and that of anthropomorphic or vehicle-like motoric functions. Subclass A3 consists of tri-dimensional body internal conduits serving as passage for organic materials, e.g. arteria [artery], intestine [intestine], tubo digestivo [digestive tract], vena [vein] (9). Other non-travelable conduits, which are not corporeal and can be malleable, are comprised in subclass A4, e.g. cable [cable], manga [sleeve], tubo [tube, pipe], tubería [piping]. The notion of intrinsic mobility can be considered to persist due to the intervention of a movement previous to their installation, e.g. (10).



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 167

(9) El esófago va desde la faringe al estómago.  [The esophagus goes from the pharynx to the stomach]

(DRAE)

(10) ¿Hay un cable que va al ordenador? [Is there a cable which goes to the computer?] Class B includes surfaces such as campo [field, pasture], finca [ranch, farm], sierra [mountain range], terreno [field, (piece of) land]; pared [wall, slope] (11). Here, the framing in terms of an idealized cognitive model which legitimizes a more dynamic conceptualization is less readily accessible than for the class A entities. (11) La heredad, circundada por una valla de piedra, llegaba hasta el riachuelo. [The demesne, surrounded by a fence of stone, arrived at the rivulet] The solid entities grouped in class C, finally, are canonically non-travelable elements in a landscape, e.g. alambrada [wire fence, wire netting], árbol [tree, mast], linde [border], línea de árboles [line/row of trees], muralla [wall, rampart], muro [wall], torre [tour, pile], valla [fence, billboard] (12). The picture is therefore more in line with the stasis frame of Input Space 1. (12) La valla de piedra recorre toda la divisoria de aguas. [The fence of stone traverses the whole watershed]

6. Spatial coordinates In line with the general hypothesis, attention has to be paid to the kind of spatial delimitation provided. It is convenient to comment on the absence of locative adpositions, before distinguishing between ‘demarcating’ and ‘canalizing’ ones. Without spatial delimitation, abstraction is made of the extent. Construed without reference space nor measure information, the deictic verbs sube y baja [ascends and descends] in (13) do more than define each a segment of the road: they jointly denote an iterative two-phase macro-event viewed from the perspective of an individual walker and matching the rhythm of his progression on the road. The correspondence with one’s conceived time (Input Space 2) is corroborated by the ingressive mental process predication (uno se pone a pensar [lit.: one refl puts to think]) and the naturehuman interface evoked in le rodea [surrounds him]. The scenery with the alternation between path segments of opposite vertical orientation thus proceeds from a specific deictic center and merges a complex state description with conscious motoric activity. (13) El camino sube y baja, y uno se pone a pensar cómo denominar a esa vegetación que le rodea. [The road goes up and down, and one starts wondering how to call this vegetation which surrounds him] Demarcating adpositions position the figure with respect to its surroundings. Unlike canalizing adpositions, they function as area specifications, and blur the path view.

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They therefore fit in less easily with sequential perception and tend to yield an a-temporal view, which makes them more suited for expressing states than dynamic events. This is the case of the “distributive” “covering” interpretations of sobre [over, above] (cf. Dewell 2007: 280 ff.), e.g. (14), of the inclusive part-whole reading of en [in], and of the approximate readings of por [throughout, around] (cf. Delbecque 1996: 279 ff.), e.g. (15). The approximate adjacency relations expressed by means of a lo largo de [along(side)], cerca de [near], entre [among, between], e.g. (16), also yield a globalizing view. Such adpositions disfavor the fictive motion reading, since they downgrade the verb’s change-of-state interpretation. This is especially noticeable by the substitutability of the by default kinetic ascender (14) and correr (15) by the static locative encontrarse/ hallarse/situarse en [be situated/located on] and by the presentative hay [there is], respectively. In sum, with adpositions which do not require moving attentional focus, the Input Space 1 components prevail over those of Input Space 2, and the construal is less obviously one of subjective motion. (14) Un pueblo blanco, que asciende sobre [~ se encuentra en] la montaña de piedra oscura, pelada, tan seca e impenetrable que el corazón se encoge al mirarla. [A white village, which rises over [~ is located on] the treeless mountain of dark stone, which is so dry and impenetrable that the heart shrinks while looking at it] (15) Por aquí corre [~ hay] un camino que construyeron los rojos y no figura en este plano. [Around here runs [~ there is] a road built by the red which does not figure in this plan] (16) El río Baspa serpentea entre prados en este silente valle conocido como Baspa o Sangla. [The river Baspa meanders between fields in this silent valley known as Baspa or Sangla] On the contrary, ‘canalizing’ adpositions activate a specific path schema: they identify the source (de/ desde [from]), delimiting the trajectory (por/ a través de [through]), indicate the direction (hacia/ en dirección a [towards] (17)) or the goal (a/ hasta [(up) to] (18)). Since they usually depict a motion’s extension in terms of sequential progression, mental tracking can be profiled by using such an adposition. The impossibility to turn to a static locative verb confirms the dynamicity of the construal. (17) El camino baja [/*está] en dirección a la playa […] [The road descends in the direction of the beach] […] (18) La calleja subía [/*se situaba] en una pendiente suave hasta una placita sombreada de acacias […]15 [The alley went up in a smooth slope up to a square shaded with acacias […] 15. En una pendiente suave [in a smooth slope] specifies the form of the gradient.



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 169

The predominance of Input Space 2 elements can be further strengthened by relating the fictive motion expression to a perceptual event, as in (19). The way of perceiving (a delimited part of) the entity evolves as the focus of attention moves. The displacement of the observers’ gaze over the depicted entity is determined by the deictically marked perspective (a la vuelta, en el lado izquierdo… [on the way back, at the left…]) and enables topological manner-of-motion verbs, e.g. serpentear [meander] to combine with path components, thus coercing an oriented-motion reading, as shown in (19) by the impossibility to use a static locative verb. (19) A la vuelta, en el lado izquierdo de la carretera que serpenteaba [/ iba / *estaba en forma de serpiente] desde San Juan de Luz a la frontera, los chicos vislumbraron las luces parpadeantes de una discoteca. [On the way back, at the left of the highway which meanders [/ went / *was (located) in the form of a snake] from San Juan de Luz to the border, the kids discerned the flickering lights of a night club] The dynamizing effect seems the strongest when the path is instrumental to the observers’ own motion. In (20), the snake-like shape of the highway unfolds before their eyes as they themselves advance on it. The source and goal indications highlight the blended conceptualization of shape-description, progressive discovery and goal-oriented motion. (20) Se fueron caminando lentamente por la carretera que serpenteaba desde la villa del ingeniero hasta el pueblo. [They went walking slowly along the highway which meandered from the engineer’s villa to the village] Figure 5 summarizes the above observations. Without spatial adposition, the motion event is in maximal focus as activity or accomplishment, and the figure is primarily conceived of as instrumental to it. The delimitation of path components by canalizing adpositions favors the assimilation of the sequential scanning or “visualization” with the progression of an accomplishment. The interdependency between the figure and the surroundings, as charted by demarcating area specifications, on the other hand, yields a landscape view which stimulates global summary scanning. + ..................

Dynamicity scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . –

NO SPATIAL

CANALIZING

DEMARCATING

coordinates

PATH specifications

AREA specifications

Figure 5.  Relative dynamicity of the spatial coordinates

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7. Viewing arrangement There are many contexts like (20) above, in which the fictive motion expression is integrated in a larger motion frame. The dependency relation with factive motion reflects its functionality for “frame-relative motion” (Talmy 2000a: 130). In (21), the verb (bordea) and the spatial adposition (entre…) do not score high on the dynamicity scale (cf. Sections 4 and 6); since the fictive motion is casted in a relative clause, however, it concomitantly keeps track of the viewing perspective which accompanies the mover’s progression (me apeo, cruzo, avanzo). (21) Me apeo en la Glorieta del General Pardiez, cruzo la verja del parque y avanzo lentamente por el camino que bordea el estanque de la Serpentina, entre una doble hilera de cipreses. [I get out at the Glorieta del General Pardiez, I cross the fence of the park and I advance slowly along the road which borders the Serpentina pond, between a double row of cypresses] The observer need not be identified as active mover. In (22), e.g., the mental state predicate desolado [devastated], profiles the participant-internal perspective (mira [looks], ve [sees]) with scope over the topologically oriented bordean [border-3pl]. The subsequent dynamization of the blended fictive motion space by means of the deictically oriented vuelve [comes back], suggesting that the traveler has resumed walking, is further corroborated by the temporal adverb luego [then] (cf. Section 9.2), the metalinguistic focus marker ya [already],16 the directional adposition hacia el cielo [towards the sky], and the tempo-aspectual noun modifier continuo [continuous]. (22) Desolado, el viajero mira hacia arriba y lo único que ve es la misma cuesta polvorienta e interminable, las urces y los tajos que bordean las cunetas y, luego, ya al final de la curva, el camino que vuelve y que trepa hacia el cielo en continuo zigzag. [Devastated, the traveler looks upwards and the only thing he sees is the same dusty and interminable slope, the brooms and the steep cliffs which border the mountain-slides and, then, already at the end of the curve, the road which reappears and climbs towards the sky in continuous zigzag] More generally, when an observer is included in the depicted scenery, there is a self ‘onstage’. The linguistic expression then conveys an ‘objectified’, ‘egocentric’ viewing arrangement (cf. Langacker 1987: 128 ff.). Such contexts boost the import of Input Space 2, since the scene is conceived in relation with the, by default, variable spatiotemporal coordinates of the onstage observer. Besides determining the perspective on the scene, the vantage point occupied by the onstage observer also automatically brings in conceived time. 16. On ya, see Delbecque (2006), Delbecque and Maldonado (2011).

Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 171



This often occurs in a covert way. In (23), e.g., the metonymic relation between the localization of the river as topographic entity (Input Space 1) and the flowing of the water (Input Space 2) is activated by the deictic copula estar [be-(seen)-in-a-state]17 linked up to the possessor (mi casa [my house]), by definition familiar with the scene. As a result, both facets concur in the predication relation established by means of rodear [go around, surround]. (23) Me encantan los bosques y que el río que rodea mi casa esté limpio. [The woods make me happy and [the fact] that the river which surrounds my house is clean] There are thus various ways in which the attentional focus can be attributed to specific discourse referents. Their impact on the dynamicity of the fictive motion blend can be graded differently according to their more or less agentive role with respect to the depicted scene. As shown in Figure 6, the continuum goes from the active mover, over the virtually moving observer (caminante, paseante [walker] or viajero [traveler]) and the static observer of the scene, to some individual reporter. Contexts without explicit discourse internal viewpoint marking occupy the lower end of the scale. + ..................

Dynamicity scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . –

active mover – virtually moving observer – static observer – reporter – no animate referent

Figure 6.  Relative dynamicity of the viewing arrangement

8. Grammatical aspect As for grammatical aspect, tense (8.1) and periphrastic constructions (8.2) both play a role in the interpretation of fictive motion expressions.

8.1

Tense

As deictic category, tense localizes an event in time. Since imperfect tenses by definition leave out of the picture possible beginnings and ends, they are a priori best suited to represent the stability of spatial relations: the summary scanning, i.e., the compression of the component parts, makes that the telicity proper to quite a few motion verbs is abstracted away from. This does not mean, however, that the verb ceases expressing motion. At a more abstract level the conceptualizer also proceeds by sequential mental scanning, “moving” to successively activate the various locative specifications belonging to the horizontal, vertical and/or gradient projection of the 17. Cf. Delbecque (2000) on the difference with the copula ser ‘be’.

172 Nicole Delbecque

depicted entity. The mental eye’s motion can be more or less pronounced, depending on the context. The characterizing, descriptive, a-temporal interpretation of the present tense, as in (24), is congruent with the subject’s stativity. Since it appears to define a factual state of affairs, in accordance with the structural knowledge, there is hardly any dynamicity effect. (24) Pedro Erquicia, su director, ha elegido para su regreso un reportaje sobre una ruta muy particular, un intrincado camino que recorre los cementerios nucleares de Estados Unidos. [P. E., its director, has chosen for his come-back a report on a very particular trip, an intricate trip which goes across the nuclear cemeteries of the United States] In other contexts, however, the present tense receives an actual, continuous, amplified or extended reading, thus producing an experiential, phenomenological image which corresponds to procedural knowledge based on direct or referred perception.18 Since this reading matches live experience, it enhances the dynamic dimension and is generally supported by contextual indices, as shown in (25).19 (25) El camino va ahora entre vallas que delimitan prados a ambos lados y en cinco o seis minutos más se llega al puente sobre el arroyo del Pradillo (1 h. 51 min.). [The road now goes among fences which delimit fields on both sides and in five or six more minutes one reaches the bridge over the Pradillo brook] Like the present, the imperfect is also susceptible of receiving a characterizing interpretation (RAE-ASALE 2009: 1745 ff.). Such a global vision downgrades the dynamic dimension of the overall conceptualization because it is not linked to a temporal frame, but qualifies an inherent property, the validity of which extends over the whole of the period to which the observation applies. While there is no distinction of previous or subsequent phases, there can, of course, be one with respect to a preceding or ulterior period, e.g. (26). (26) Nos guió a través del jardín hasta la verja de lanzas y se detuvo a una distancia prudencial de la salida, contemplando la calle que serpenteaba de bajada hacia el mundo real, como si temiera evaporarse si se aventuraba unos pasos más allá. [He guided us through the garden till the iron fence and he stopped at a reasonable distance of the exit, contemplating the street which meandered downwards toward the real world, as if he were afraid to evaporate if he ventured a few steps beyond] 18. Needless to say, no cases of so-called ‘historical present’ have been registered. 19. Bold graphics draws attention to the indicative value of certain elements; cf. Section 9.2 below.



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 173

On the other hand, the imperfect can also receive a continuous phase reading. In (27) and (28), for instance, the elements in italics suppose familiarity with a given temporal frame: arrived at a certain point, one is able to capture the landscape as it unfolds before one’s eyes. To the extent that the cumulative ordering of path segments is clearly dependent on the observer’s viewpoint, it suggests progressivity in the processing of the information, thus reinforcing the dynamic dimension induced by the rest of the construction. (27) En cuanto llegó al sendero que avanzaba a lo largo de la vía, echó a correr. [As soon as he reached the path which advanced along the road, he started running] (28) Se veía desde allí la cinta ocre de una trocha que serpenteaba a duras penas por un terreno baldío y como estragado. [From there appeared [literally: was seen] the ochre strip of a by-path which snaked with great difficulty through a vacant, seemingly ravaged lot] Fictive motion expressions further admit the future tense announcing indefinitely renewable experiences. As shown in (29), the gnomic, universal value is compatible with a deictic sequential frame which enhances the utterance’s dynamic dimension. (29) A partir de este momento el camino subirá hasta conectar con la pista de tierra que viene desde el Barranco del Juncal y llega a la Casa Forestal de Pajonales.20 [From this moment on the road will go up till it connects with the earth track which comes from the Barranco del Juncal and arrives at the Casa Forestal de Pajonales] Even the preterit perfect is possible. In a narrative episode, e.g. (30), it highly favors the dynamic reading. However, it does not do so when it is used descriptively to globally characterize a revolved period, e.g. (31). (30) Pronto los árboles empezaron a ralear y el camino bordeó un ancho claro.21 [Soon the trees began to thin out and the path skirted a wide clearing] (31) Ahora la carretera de Madrid pasa por el norte del pueblo, antes pasó por el centro.22 [Now the highway to Madrid passes to the north of the village, formerly it passed through the center]

20. Source: http://caminosdecanarias.blogspot.be/2013/06/subida-la-montana-de-alsandara. html. 21. This example is drawn from the Spanish translation of an English novel: Ian Tregillis, Semillas amargas, 2013. 22. I. Bosque, p.c.

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Tense choice thus varies and its reading is highly context-dependent. As shown in Figure 7, tense does not by itself determine the dynamicity associated with the fictive motion expression. + .................. experiential - narrative

Dynamicity scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . – characterizing - atemporal

Figure 7.  Dynamicity enhancing vs. dynamicity downgrading tense readings

8.2

Periphrases

In addition to temporality and modality, periphrases also affect the aspectual dimension of an utterance. The ingressive, continuative and iterative especially mark an event’s dynamics. In (32), e.g., the contrast between the auxiliated ingressive (comenzaba a ascender [began to ascend]) and the terminative (se acababan [finished]), while marked topologically (donde [where]), injects a dynamic view on two successive spatial situations. The static and dynamic conceptualizations interact at two levels: while the end of the preceding state is equated with the start of a change, at the same time the start of a new state is equated with the result of a change.23 (32) Caminaban en silencio entre frutales plantados al tresbolillo y tierras de labor en las que el cereal apenas apuntaba. Donde el camino comenzaba a ascender se acababan los cultivos, que quedaban sustituidos por robles y monte bajo. [They walked in silence among the fruit trees planted in staggered rows and labor lands in which the cereal hardly sprouted. Where the road started ascending the crops ended, being substituted by oaks and small vegetation] The continuative presents the situation in its internal development or progression (RAE-ASALE 2009: 1686), with implicit reference to some anterior phase(s) of the same process (RAE-ASALE 2009: 1820). In accordance with the complexity of a stateof-affairs, the experience of progressivity favors the registration of a gradual change and, hence, of the mental simulation of motion.24 In (33), the continuative (continúa bajando [goes on descending]) alternates with two forms which denote the corresponding action (the infinitive descender [descend] and the nominal el descenso [the descent]). This shows that the periphrasis does not only evoke a succession of states and that bajar is not used as a mere state predicate 23. On related matters, cf. Chafe (1970: 132) and Maslov (1985: 15). 24. The incompatibility of the continuative periphrasis with state predicates (e.g., *El libro está conteniendo muchas ilustraciones [The book is containing many illustrations]) indicates that it keeps track of some underlying activity.



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 175

denoting a stable, non-evolving situation.25 The adverbial modification más fuerte [more strongly] further profiles the dynamic facet of the representation. The latter stands out even more clearly under the alternative reading of (33), viz. as the construal of continuar as motion verb, meaning [continue, go on, keep going], and bajando más fuerte as non-periphrastic gerund zooming in on the modality of the road’s unfolding from an experiencer’s perspective. (33) Descender por mitad de la pradera hacia el Norte, hasta encontrar un camino borroso, que continúa bajando más fuerte entre el pinar. El descenso se suaviza enseguida, para salir finalmente a la carretera asfaltada que sube desde la Casa de la Pesca hacia la pradera de la Fuenfría (15 min. desde Navalazor). [Descend halfway the meadow towards the North, till encountering a receding track, which keeps going down more strongly along the pine wood. The descent softens immediately, to lead finally to the asphalted road which goes up from the Casa de la Pesca till the meadow of the Fuenfría (15′ from Navalazor)] The iterative construal, finally, relies on the assumption of an initial limit. Like the adverbs de nuevo [again], nuevamente [(once) again], otra vez [another time], it carries by definition the temporal supposition that the same o a similar event occurred before (RAE-ASALE 2009: 1687, 1697, 2165). Represented this way, the segmentation easily paves the way for comparison with other segments, as shown in (34). (34) El camino vuelve a ascender rumbo SW para poco después virar hacia el NW. [The road ascends again direction SW to turn shortly later towards the NW]

9. Adverbial modifiers Among the adverbial modifiers which are relevant for the tempo-aspectual categorization, two types are incompatible with fictive motion expressions, viz. those adding an evaluative modality to activities and accomplishments, and those specifying the pace at which an activity is being carried out.26 They are compatible, however, with certain modal and temporal indications. Yet, not all of them enhance the dynamicity of the construal. Since this is especially true of degree and extension quantifiers, we consider these first (9.1), before moving on to temporal modifiers (9.2) and to non-periphrastic gerund constructions (9.3). 25. In another context, Bosque and Gutiérrez-Rexach (2009: 299) formulate a similar observation on subir [ascend] and bajar [descend]. 26. The following utterances are judged inacceptable by native speakers: el camino sube *fácilmente/ *difícilmente/ *con facilidad/ *con dificultad [the road ascends *easily, *difficultly, *with ease, *with difficulty]; el camino sube *de un tirón/ *de una vez/ *en un santiamén/ *en un dos por tres [the road ascends *in one go/ *in one go/ *in a flash/ *quick as a flash].

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9.1

Quantification

Degree and extension modifiers present two divergent patterns: they can quantify a dimension of the static subject entity or combine with elements which point to a motion experience, thus contributing to the construal’s dynamicity.

9.1.1 Degree modifiers Adverbs such as fuertemente [strongly], ligeramente [lightly], suavemente [softly] (Bosque 2004: 1057, 1266) typically combine with change-of-state verbs. In fictive motion expressions they factually qualify a dimensional property of an internal part of a state-of-affairs, viz. the incline of a segment of the trajectory. Possible dynamization arises from their contextual embedding: the sequential scanning induced by the concatenation of action verbs (salva (35), haciendo (36)), possibly marked by punctual adverbs (bruscamente (35)), influences the interpretation of the degree modifiers (ligeramente (35), fuertemente (36)). (35) El camino sube ligeramente, salva una loma rocosa, gira bruscamente a la derecha y, por una zona pedregosa, baja en diagonal hacia el fondo de un barranco más hondo, por la que corre el arroyo de la Pasada. [The road goes slightly up, overcomes a rocky hillock, makes an abrupt turn to the right and goes down diagonally, through a stony area, toward the end of a deep canyon, where the brook of the Pasada flows] (36) El camino se estrecha y desciende fuertemente por nuestra izquierda, haciendo zigzags. [The road gets narrower and descends strongly to our left, making zigzags] Adverbs such as gradualmente [gradually], mucho [a lot], más [more], un poco [a little], poco a poco [bit by bit], are particularly ambivalent between temporal quantification and quantification of a property of (a segment of) the trajectory. These degree modifiers of a dynamic, bounded event focus on its progress or increase towards its ending. Since they can signify intensification or attenuation ‘in an important way’, according to a gradual scale, and attaining an ulterior grade or rank in the concerned dimension, they preclude a totally static interpretation.27 Unlike accomplishments, the fictive motion construal is not properly telic, of course. However, it yields the possibility of measuring steps in the unfolding of the motion event and of comparing a segment in relation to others, regardless of whether manner (37), gradualness (38) or time (39) prevails. (37) Continuar por el camino, que poco a poco gira para tomar la pendiente más de frente, y, por una ladera cubierta de piornos, se dirige hacia un pinar que vemos próximo. [Go on by the road, which turns bit by bit to get on the slope more from the front, and sets out, by a hillside covered with brooms, toward a pinewood which we see nearby] 27. E.g. la situación es *gradualmente buena [the situation is *gradually good].



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 177

(38) El camino sube un poco, sale de la vegetación más espesa y queda horizontal, dándose vista al pueblo, ya bastante cercano. [The road goes a bit up, leaves the denser vegetation and remains horizontal, giving a view on the village, already quite nearby] (39) Al llegar a la altura de los primeros pinos, nuestro camino comienza a subir poco a poco, entre jarales de extraordinaria altura. [At arriving at the height of the first pines, our road begins to go up bit by bit, between thickets of extraordinary height] Provided the event is bounded and is conceived of as occurring or culminating at some point, it is possible to qualify the way it evolves, considering it as a macro-event made up of the accumulation of sub-eventive parts or phases. Contextual clues (continuar… vemos (37), vista… ya bastante (38), llegar… primeros… nuestro (39)) show that, by extension, the degree modifiers can signal the intensification or attenuation of the movement at some segment, suggesting a point of culmination. To the extent that they convert a static vision in one of accomplishment, they enhance the import of Input Space 2 in the fictive-motion blend.28

9.1.2 Extension modifiers Adverbs such as completamente [completely], de punta a punta [from end to end], enteramente [entirely], or parcialmente [partially], en parte [in part] can be labeled ‘extension modifiers’. When used to further qualify a path extension, e.g. the 20 km tour in (40), they do not contribute to the dynamicity of the fictive-motion expression. (40) Es un recorrido de unos 20 km que bordea en buena parte las laderas […]. [It is a tour of some 20 km which borders the mountainsides in large part] […]. Yet, these adverbials can also combine with topological oriented-motion verbs without primarily quantifying the spatial entity. In (4)29 and (41), e.g., they rather bring in a spatio-temporal modification which enhances the dynamicity of the expression, as would happen if they were accomplishments. (41) Este corte no produjo retenciones porque la Guardia Civil de Tráfico organizó un itinerario alternativo por la carretera de Utrera, que en parte transcurre paralela a estas vías. [This cutoff did not produce traffic jams because the Civil Traffic Guard organized an alternative itinerary via the road of Utrera, which in part runs parallel to these route]

28. This construal recalls that of the “gradual completion verbs” (cf. Bertinetto and Squartini 1995). 29. See Section 1.

178 Nicole Delbecque

9.2 Temporality To illustrate the dynamizing impact of temporal modifiers, the exemplification is limited to a few adverbials expressing phase, frequency and duration. Phase adverbs dynamize the construal by focusing on the start of the event (cf. García Fernández 1999: 3134 ss.). Forms such as ahora [now], enseguida [immediately], luego [then] are pseudo-deictics with a perspectivizing function: the situation is viewed assuming a coincident viewpoint, in line with the inside-view corresponding to the imperfective. In (25) above and (42) below, the event is viewed as if it occurred at the moment of reference, which is not necessarily the moment of speech. Interestingly, as shown in (42), the mention of the anterior phase can be casted in spatial terms (en los primeros metros). The perspective introduced by nuevamente [again] and otra vez [another time], which focus on the start of a new phase, automatically invites to look beyond the immediately preceding stage to keep track of a previous stage similar to the new one, e.g. (43). (42) Situados en el collado, mirando hacia oriente, seguiremos por un sendero que se ve claramente a nuestra derecha. El sendero es horizontal en los primeros metros, pero enseguida comienza a subir por la ladera cubierta de fuerte matorral de gayuba, con bastante pendiente. [Positioned at the mountain pass, looking toward the east, we will follow a path which is clearly visible at our right. The path is horizontal in the first meters, but it immediately starts going up by the mountainside covered with strong brushwood, with considerable slope] (43) A partir del cruce de Villaverde, el valle del Curueño empieza nuevamente a encajonarse y la carretera y el río comienzan a subir dando curvas y apretándose para ganar en un kilómetro los más de cincuenta metros en que supera Cerulleda la altitud media del valle. [From the junction of Villaverde on, the Curueño valley starts running between steep banks again and the road and the river start going up forming curves and nestling itself to win in one kilometer the more than fifty meters that Cerulleda surmounts the mean height of the valley] A similar dynamic effect obtains with adverbial phrases indicating frequency, e.g. ocasionalmente / de vez en cuando [occasionally], constantemente [constantly], a ratos / a veces [sometimes]: as they quantify on time intervals in relation with the internal constitution of the event, they yield an intermittent view implying iterativity, thus also favoring the dynamic motion reading.30

30. Of course, periodicity adverbials which indicate a precise frequency do not figure in fictive motion expressions: *el sendero sube a diario / cotidianamente / anualmente [the path ascends every day / daily /annually].



Chapter 8.  Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 179

(44) El inspector no se volvió hacia el maestro. Este podía ver su perfil cetrino […]. El sendero comenzó a estrecharse; por momentos serpenteaba entre las peñas, al borde del vacío, para perderse esporádicamente en los deslizaderos y en estrechos pasajes frondosos. La luz era un velo plomizo que se oponía al avance de los cuerpos. [The inspector did not turn toward the teacher. The latter could see his pallid profile […]. The path started to narrow; at moments it meandered between the rocks, at the edge of the space, to get sporadically lost in the slippery spots and in small leafy passages. The light was a gloomy veil which resisted the advance of the bodies] (45) La pista por momentos llanea, asciende ligeramente y desciende, igualmente, de forma suave. [The trail at moments cruises, goes slightly up and goes down, likewise, smoothly] Duration adverbials combine with spatial intervals (N km), yielding a particular spatio-temporal quantification, viz., the measurement of a temporal extension in terms of a spatial distance conceived of as measuring unit relative to the movement. By using a habitually ‘de-telicizing’ durante ‘during’-phrase, the delimitation of a locative segment, with beginning and end, is presented as eventive and, more specifically, evokes the experience of a traveler with a finality perspective. Measuring out the way to go from one segment to another appeals to the conceptualizer’s (mental) mobility to measure the interval bridging and thus corroborates the construal’s dynamicity. (46) Paralelo al canal hay un camino asfaltado que nos permite hacer este recorrido tranquilamente en bicicleta. Además, junto a la central de La Cueva hay un camino que asciende durante aproximadamente medio kilómetro hasta la ermita de San Quílez, desde donde hay una magnífica panorámica de la zona. [Parallel to the canal there is an asphalted road which allows us to make this tour quietly on bike. Moreover, next to the power station of La Cueva there is a road which ascends during approximately half a kilometer up to the hermitage of San Quílez, from where there is a magnificent panoramic view of the area]

9.3

Non-periphrastic gerunds

Non-periphrastic gerunds are typically used in a verb-framed language like Spanish to encode a macro-event of movement: in (43), dando curvas y apretándose [forming curves and nestling itself] gives a vivid view of the manner-of-motion, while directionality is ensured by the oriented-motion verb subir [go up]. In (47), the dynamicity is enhanced by the adjunction of two gerund constructions, one evoking the previous stage and the other the manner of the evolving movement; the ante-posed

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descolgándose [blurting out] strongly dynamizes the separation of the starting point, while the post-posed serpenteando [meandering] accompanies the extension of the river’s descent. (47) El río Esla es el más importante de la provincia que, descolgándose de la cordillera Cántabra baja serpenteando a través de pintorescos valles. [The river Esla is the most important one of the province which, blurting out from the Cantabrian mountain chain descends meandering through picturesque valleys] In the two examples, it is no coincidence that this macro-event representation applies to rivers, i.e. the inherently most dynamic of the topological entities (cf. Section 5, Figure 4).

Conclusion Conceptually, fictive motion expressions do more than simply describe the configuration of a stationary entity. Unlike objects which the user can handle, manipulate and transform, the objects depicted in fictive motion expressions exceed the user’s control. The determination relation rather goes the other way around: by its magnitude, shape, extension, the stationary entity directs the conceptualizer’s perception and actions. The view it imposes largely depends on the conceptualizer’s aptitude to adjust to the entity’s topological disposition. Since this requires a minimum of interaction with the environment, matters of possibly changing perspective automatically come in, as experience is necessarily verbalized from a certain perspective. The focus of attention necessary to regulate the interface with fixed elements of the setting, is automatically endowed with a minimum of dynamism, which implies some facet of the motion frame. Fictive motion expressions can therefore best be defined as the variable manifestation of the conceptual blend between stasis and motion. The stasis and the motion frame can analytically be considered to underlie different mental input spaces. In their fusion, facets from either input space can be activated at quite varying degrees. What all fictive motion expressions have in common, though, is that they suppose some perspectival proximity and mobility, similar to the traveling or advancement of a camera which goes over the entity in a continuous fashion with local attentional focus at any moment of time, viewing or discovering one point or segment at a time. Since the mental scanning proceeds along a continuum of static path segments, the change is by definition one in processing time. However, given the naturalness of the succession in the dynamic experience of a static structure, the potential tension between diverging aspectual dimensions at lexical, grammatical and clausal level gets resolved in the overarching blend. The hybrid make-up of the integrated conceptualization can pass largely unnoticed, and the contrast with ‘factive motion’, occurring in processed time, appears to be less clear-cut than the term ‘fictive



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motion’ suggests. The mental simulation in which the conceptualizer projects himself and/or others as (potential) movers along the evoked path makes that processed time does not completely fade away. As shown throughout the analysis, the relative prominence of the sequential scanning operation follows from the combination of a variety of parameters. Beyond the verb’s semantics and the figure’s defining characteristics, the relative degree of dynamicity has been shown to oscillate in function of the kind of spatial coordinates which situate the depicted entity with respect to reference spaces. The presence of perspectival indications regarding (possible) viewers or movers appears to be crucial for the dynamization of the blend. The data further show that the experiential reading of verb tense, as well as the use of aspectual periphrases, also contribute to project kinetic experience on the comprehension of the configuration of stationary objects. In addition, dynamicity appears to be strongly enhanced by the use of certain quantifying and temporal modifiers. The import of these modulating devices remains to be studied in similar expressions with non-tangible spatial entities such as luz [light], bruma [mist] or sonido [sound], e.g. (48). The tendency to project an anthropomorphic view on nature, as illustrated in (49) by the intentionality marking directional adposition en busca de [in search of], also deserves further study. And, as indicated in the introduction, the notion of ‘ficticity’ is not restricted to motion events but concerns many more change events. (48) A pesar de que la oscuridad crecía, una lóbrega claridad fantasmagórica serpenteaba entre aquel centenar de chozas encaladas. [Although the obscurity grew, a gloomy phantasmagoric clarity winded between that hundred whitewashed huts] (49) El camino serpenteaba en busca del andén del muelle de los Sirios, entre nopales empolvados, matas de hinojo, racimos de salvia enana. [The road winded in search of the sidewalk of the quay of the Syrians, among dusty cactuses, bushes of fennel, bunches of dwarf sage] From the metaphoric uses examined in this paper it is clear that topological description is inextricably linked to our corporeal experience in its relation with the environment. In this sense, fictive motion expressions sustain the experientalist view on the embodiment of language.31

31. Cf. Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Lakoff 1987; Johnson 1987; Lakoff and Turner 1989.

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References Barsalou, Lawrence W. 1999. “Perceptual Symbol Systems.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22: 507–569. Barsalou, Lawrence W. 2002. “Being there conceptually: Simulating categories in preparation for situated action.” In Representation, Memory and Development: Essays in Honor of Jean Mandler, Nancy L. Stein, Patricia J. Bauer, and M. Rabiowitz (eds), 1–15. Mahwah (NJ): Erlbaum. Bertinetto, Pier Marco and Squartini, Mario. 1995. “An attempt at defining the class of ‘gradual completion’ verbs.” In Temporal Reference, Aspect and Actionality. Vol. 1: Semantic and Syntactic Perspectives, P. M. Bertinetto, V. Bianchi, J. Higginbotham, M. Squartini (eds), 11–26. Torino: Roseberg & Sellier. Bosque, Ignacio. 2004 (dir.). REDES. Diccionario combinatorio del español contemporáneo. Madrid: Ediciones SM. Bosque, Ignacio and Gutiérrez-Rexach, Javier. 2009. Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. Madrid: Akal. Chafe, Wallace. 1970. Meaning and the structure of language. Chicago: UCP. Delbecque, Nicole. 1996. “Towards a cognitive account of the use of the prepositions por and para in Spanish.” In Cognitive Linguistics in the Redwoods, The Expansion of a New Paradigm in Linguistics, Eugene Casad (ed.), 249–318. New York / Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Delbecque, Nicole. 2000. “Las cópulas ser y estar. Categorización frente a deixis.” Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada. Volumen Monográfico: Estudios cognoscitivos del español. R. Maldonado (ed.), 239–280. Delbecque, Nicole. 2006. Ya: Aclaración cognitiva de su uso y función. Revista Española de Lingüística 36: 43–71. Delbecque, Nicole and Maldonado, Ricardo. 2011. “Spanish ya. A conceptual pragmatic anchor.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 73–98. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.08.004 Dewell, Robert B. 2007. “Moving over. The role of systematic semantic processes in defining individual lexemes.” Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 5: 271–288. DOI: 10.1075/arcl.5.11dew Fauconnier, Gilles. 1985. Mental Spaces. Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge: MIT press. Fauconnier, Gilles. 1997. Mappings in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139174220 Fauconnier, Gilles and Turner, Mark. 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books. Fillmore, Charles J. and Atkins, B. T. S. 1992. “Towards a frame-based lexicon: The semantics of risk and its neighbors.” In Frames, Fields and Contrasts: new essays in semantics and lexical organization, Adrienne Lehrer and Eva Feder Kittay (eds), 75–102. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. García Fernández, Luis. 1999. Los complementos adverbiales temporales. La subordinación temporal. In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (dir.), Chapter 48, 3129–3208. Madrid: Espasa / Real Academia Española. Jackendoff, Ray. 1983. Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press. Jackendoff, Ray. 1990. Semantic Structures. Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press.



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Jackendoff, Ray. 2002. Foundations of language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. New York: Oxford University Press. Jiménez Delgado, José Miguel and Martínez Vázquez, Rafael. 2011. “Verbos de movimiento virtual en griego antiguo.” EmErita, Revista de Lingüística y Filología Clásica LXXIX (2): 277–300. Johnson, Mark. 1987. The Body in the Mind. The Bodily Basis of Meaning. Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001 Lakoff, George. 1993. “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor.” In Metaphor and Thought, Andrew Ortony (ed.), 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139173865.013 Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: UCP. Lakoff, George and Turner, Mark. 1989. More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226470986.001.0001 Langacker, Ronald W. 1986. Abstract motion. Berkeley Linguistics Society 12, 455–471. Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Vol. I: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, Ronald W. 1991a. Concept, Image, and Symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110857733 Langacker, Ronald W. 1991b. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Vol. II: Descriptive Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Levinson, Stephen C. and Wilkins, David P. 2006. Grammars of space: explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maslov, Yuriy S. (ed.). 1985. Contrastive Studies in Verbal Aspect. English translation by J. Forsyth. Heidelberg: J.G. Verlag. Matlock, Teenie. 2004a. “Fictive motion as cognitive simulation.” Memory & Cognition 32: 1389–1400. DOI: 10.3758/BF03206329 Matlock, Teenie. 2004b. “The conceptual motivation of fictive motion.” In Studies in Linguistic Motivation, Günter Radden and Klaus-Uwe Panther (eds), 221–248. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Matlock, Teenie. 2006. “Depicting fictive motion in drawings.” In Cognitive Linguistics Investigations: Across languages, fields and philosophical boundaries, J. Luchenbroers (ed.), 67–85. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.15.07mat Matsumoto, Yo. 1996. “Subjective motion and English and Japanese verbs.” Cognitive Linguistics 7 (2): 183–226. DOI: 10.1515/cogl.1996.7.2.183 Méndez Dosuna, Julián. 2009. “Movimiento ficticio en griego antiguo: tras las huellas del viajero (in)visible.” REL 39 (1): 5–32. Moreno Cabrera, Juan C. 2003. Semántica y pragmática: Sucesos, papeles temáticos y relaciones sintácticas. Madrid: A. Machado Libros. Morimoto, Yuko. 2001. Los verbos de movimiento. Madrid: Visor Libros. RAE-AALE. 2009. Nueva Gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa. Rodenbusch, E. 1911. „Präsentia in perfektischer Bedeutung.“ IF 28: 252–285. Rojo, Ana and Valenzuela, Javier. 2003. “Fictive Motion in English and Spanish.” International Journal of English Studies 3 (2): 123–149.

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Rojo, Ana and Valenzuela, Javier. 2009. “Fictive Motion in Spanish: Travellable, non-travellable and path-related information.” In Trends in Cognitive Linguistics: Theoretical and Applied Models, Javier Valenzuela, Ana Rojo and Cristina Soriano (eds), 221–238. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang. Talmy, Leonard. 1983. How language structures space. In Spatial orientation: Theory, research, and application, Herbert L. Pick, Jr. and Linda P. Acredolo, 225–282. New York: Plenum Press. Talmy, Leonard. 1991. “Path to realization: A typology of event conflation.” Berkeley Linguistics Society 17: 480–519. Talmy, Leonard. 1996. “Fictive motion in language and ‘ception’.” In Language and space, Paul Bloom, Mary A. Peterson, Lynn Nadel and Merrill Garret (eds), 211–276. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Talmy, Leonard. 2000a. Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Volume 1: Concept Structuring Systems. Cambridge: MIT Press. Talmy, Leonard. 2000b. Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Volume 2: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring. Cambridge: MIT Press. Tuggy, David. 2007. Schematicity. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, Dirk ­Geeraerts and Hubert Cuyckens (eds), 82–116. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vernay, Henri. 1974. Essai sur l’organisation de l’espace par divers systèmes linguistiques. München: Fink. Wallentin, M., Ellegaard Lund, T., Ostergaard, S. Ostergaard, L. and Roepstorff, A. 2005. “Motion verb sentences activate left posterior middle temporal cortex despite static context.” Neuroreport 16 (6): 649–652. DOI: 10.1097/00001756-200504250-00027

chapter 9

Agent control over non-culminating events* Hamida Demirdache and Fabienne Martin This paper investigates a correlation between the availability of non-culminating construals for accomplishments and the control of the agent over the described event (the Agent Control Hypothesis, ach). We consider two versions of the ach, on the basis of a new typology of non-culminating construals. On the strong version, non-culmination requires agent control whether what is being denied is the occurrence of any change of state of the type φ encoded by the verb, or merely that the change of state satisfies the property φ to degree 1. On its weak version, agent control is required in the former case only. The evidence reviewed from Romance, Germanic, Salish, and Mandarin, suggests that the weak version of the ach might indeed hold. The weak version of the ach seems, however, to be too weak for Salish languages. The final section explores how the existing analyses of non-culminating construals could capture the link between non-culmination and agentivity. Keywords: non-culminating accomplishments, agentivity, agent vs. causer subjects, non-culminating causation

1. The Agent Control Hypothesis (ach) In Romance and Germanic languages, a perfective sentence with an accomplishment predicate is taken to describe an event that has culminated – that is to say, an event that has reached its telos or inherent, natural, endpoint.1 * We would like to thank Bridget Copley, Peter Jacobs, Chris Kennedy, Christopher Piñón, Florian Schäfer, Hongyuan Sun, the audiences of the Conference of Aspect and Verb Classes (Alicante, March 2014), the Séminaire sur la causalité (Paris 8, May 2014) as well as the participants of the workshop Agent control over non-culminating events that we organized at Chronos 11 (Pisa, Scuela Normale Superiore, June 2014). The order of authors is purely alphabetical. 1. Abbreviations used: aux: auxiliary; cau: causative; cnj: conjunctive; ctr: control; de: genitive/associative marker; det: determiner; erg: ergative; ind: indicative; lc: limited control; nctr: non control; neg: negation; nom: nominative; perf: perfective; poss: possessive; pl: plural; rl: realis; sg: singular; sub: subject; tr: transitivizer. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.09dem © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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(1) a. Pierre a tué son chat, #mais il n’est pas (encore) mort. b. Peter killed his cat, #but it is not dead (yet). In many languages, however, perfective accomplishments are known to allow for nonculminating readings. Consider the Halkomelem Salish sentence in (2a), from Jacobs (2011). The use of the prototypical accomplishment verb ‘kill’ in the first clause of (2a) does not entail culmination of the described event, the killing of the bear, since the speaker explicitly denies the latter’s death in the subsequent clause. Likewise, in the Mandarin sentence in (3a), the use of the accomplishment verb ‘burn’ with the perfective marker le in the first clause of (3a) does not entail culmination of the described book burning event, since it is felicitous to deny the occurrence of the expected change of state (the book’s being burnt) in the subsequent clause. (2) a. Halkomelem, Jacobs (2011) niʔ cən qa:y-t tθə spəʔəθ aux 1sg.sub die-ctr det bear ʔiʔ ʔəwə niʔ-əs qay. and neg aux-3sg.sub die b. #I killed the bear but it didn’t die. (3) a. Mandarin, Demirdache and Sun (2014) Yuēhàn shāo le tā-de shu, Yuēhàn burn perf 3sg-de book dàn méi shāo zháo. but neg burn-touch b. #Yuēhàn burned his book, but it didn’t get burnt at all. In contrast, the English counterparts to (2a) and (3a) in (2b) and (3b), as well as the French/English example in (1a–b), are contradictory. The infelicity of the latter indicates that French/English causative accomplishments give rise to culmination entailments. Non-culminating accomplishments have been reported in Mandarin (Koenig and Chief 2008 and references therein), Thai (Koenig and Muansuwan 2000), Korean (Park 1993; van Valin 2005), Japanese (Ikegami 1985), Hindi (Singh 1998), Tamil (Pederson 2008), Salish languages (Bar-el 2005; Bar-el et al. 2005; Gerdts 2008; Jacobs 2011; Kiyota 2008; Matthewson 2004; Turner 2011; or Watanabe 2003), Tagalog (Dell 1983), Karachay-Balkar, Mari and Bagwalal (Tatevosov and Ivanov 2009), Adyghe (Arkadiev and Letuchiy 2009). A related phenomena has, moreover, been observed for perfective accomplishments in our more familiar Romance and Germanic languages. For a subclass of (bi-eventive) causative accomplishments, it has been observed that the perfective (simple) past form fails to entail the occurrence of the expected change of state, as shown for French in (4): (4) a.

Marie lui expliqua le problème en une minute, Marie him.dat explained the problem in one minute et pourtant il ne le comprit pas. and nevertheless he neg it understood not



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[Marie explained the problem to him in one minute, and nevertheless he didn’t understand it] b. Pierre lui enseigna les rudiments du russe en deux Pierre him taught the basics of Russian in two semaines, et pourtant il n’apprit rien du tout. weeks and nevertheless he neg.learned nothing at all [Pierre taught him the basics of Russian in two weeks, but he nevertheless didn’t learn anything] Such interpretations have been documented for double object verbs in English by Oehrle (1976), Gropen et al. (1989), and Beavers (2010), and for other verbs such as force by Koenig and Davis (2001). In this paper, we investigate a correlation gone to a large extent unnoticed in the literature, namely, that the availability of non-culminating construals for accomplishments correlates with the control of the agent over the described event: whenever an accomplishment (and particularly a causative accomplishment, see below) admits a non-culminating construal, this is the case only if we can ascribe agenthood to the subject. If the subject of the very same verb is a (pure) causer, culmination cannot be cancelled. Demirdache and Martin (2013) refer to this correlation as the Agent Control Hypothesis, illustrated below in (5)–(6). The sentences in (1)–(4) describe events brought about under the control of an agent. Suppose, however, that we substitute for the animate subject in (3) and (4) an inanimate subject, as shown in (5) and (6). (5) Mandarin, Demirdache and Sun (2014) Huǒ shāo le tā-de shu, fire burn perf 3sg-de book #dàn méi shāo-zháo. but neg burn-touch [The fire burned his book, but it didn’t get burnt at all] The resulting sentence is infelicitous. That is, the non-culminating construal available in (3a) with an agentive subject, is no longer available in (5) with a non agentive subject. Likewise, in (6), which differs from (4) only in having an inanimate subject, the non-culminating reading has disappeared. That is, (6) sounds contradictory because, unlike (4), it gives rise to a culmination inference which is difficult to deny. (6) French, Martin and Schäfer (2012, 2013, to appear) a. Ce résultat lui expliqua le problème de this result him.dat explained the problem of l’analyse, #pourtant il ne le comprit pas. the-analysis nevertheless he neg it understood not [This result made him understand the problem of the analysis, nevertheless he didn’t understand it]

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(6) b. #Ce voyage lui enseigna les rendiments du russe, this trip him taught the basics of Russian et pourtant, il n’apprit rien du tout. and nevertheless, he neg.learnt nothing at  all [This trip taught him the basics of Russian, but nevertheless, he didn’t learn anything] That at least some non-culminating construals correlate with ‘agent control’ has been independently observed for Salish languages (Bar-el et al. 2005; Jacobs 2011, and references therein), Japanese (Tsujimura 2003) and for around fifty German and French verbs in Martin and Schäfer (2012, 2013, to appear) (which they label ‘defeasible causatives’). Moreover, according to Tatevosov (p.c.), this correlation also holds for at least some of the non-culminating readings of Karachay-Balkar investigated in Tatevosov and Ivanov (2009). We seek here to explore the scope of the ach by investigating the different ways in which culmination entailments of accomplishments can be cancelled across a variety of predicate types and languages, and the correlations between the ensuing typology and agent control. This will lead us to consider two versions of the ach, exploring their predictions.

2. On how not to culminate Compare the following crosslinguistic examples of non-culminating readings. (7) Mandarin, Demirdache and Sun (2014) a. Yuēhàn shāo le tā-de shu, Yuēhàn burn perf 3sg-de book dàn méi quán shāo-huǐ. but neg completely burn-destroy [Yuēhàn burned his book, but it didn’t burn completely] b. Yuēhàn shāo le tā-de shu, Yuēhàn burn perf 3sg-de book dàn méi shāo-zháo. but neg burn-touch [Yuēhàn burned his book, but it didn’t get burnt at all] c. Tā shā le Yuēhàn hǎojǐ-cỉ 3sg kill perf Yuehan several-time Yuēhàn dōu méi sǐ. Yuehan all neg die [He killed Yuehan several times, but Yuehan didn’t die]



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(8) Salish a. Halkomelem, Gerdts (2008) niʔ cən qa:y-t tθə spəʔəθ aux 1sg.sub die-ctr det bear ʔiʔ ʔəwə niʔ-əs qay. and neg aux-1sg.sub die [I killed the bear but it didn’t die] b. Skwxwú7mesh, Jacobs (2011) chen ch‘aw-at-Ø te-n siyáy’ 1sg.sub help-tr-3obj det-1sg.poss friend welh haw k’-as ya em’ut conj neg sbj-3conj pres at.home chen melh huyá7 1sg.sub so leave [I (went to) help my friend but he wasn’t home, so I left] c. Saanich, Kiyota (2008) čən-ət sən tsə sqəxəʔ get.buried-ctr 1sg det dog ʔiʔ awa sən hay-naxʷ acc neg 1sg finish-nc [I buried the dog but I didn’t finish it] (9) French, Martin and Schäfer (2012, 2013, to appear) Marie l’a encouragée à partir, Marie her has encouraged to go mais elle ne s’est pas sentie encouragée  du tout. but she neg refl.is not felt encouraged at all [Marie encouraged her to go, but she didn’t feel encouraged at all] These examples show that there are (at least) two different ways in which culmination can be cancelled across predicate types and languages. With causative ‘burn’, in Mandarin (7a), non-culmination involves non completion of the expected change of state since the book burns partially, but not completely. ‘Burn’, in Mandarin, however, can also fail to culminate via the non-occurrence of the whole expected change of state, as in (7b) where the book fails to undergo any burning change of state whatsoever. These two non-culminating construals correspond roughly to the distinction found in the litterature between failed attempt readings and partial success readings (Tatevosov 2008; Tatevosov and Ivanov 2009; and Lyutikova and Tatevosov 2009). The non-­completion/partial success reading is also what is at stake on the non-culminating reading of causative ‘kill’, be it in Mandarin or Salish: Yuēhàn/the bear in (7c)/(8a) is alive; non-culmination thus involves the non occurrence of the entire expected change of state (become dead). Likewise, in (8b), non-culmination involves the absence of any effect/result whatsoever since, as Jacobs himself points out, “no actual helping takes

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place; only an attempt to help took place. ” This is also the case with the French psych verb in (9), where again it is the absence of the expected change of state in its entirety that appears to be at stake. In contrast, with the Salish creation and concealment predicates in (8c), non/partial completion of the expected change of state is what is at stake. The paper is organized as follows. Section 3 reviews three different types of semantic accounts of non-culminating accomplishments developed in the literature. Our goal is not to choose between the different analyses proposed, but rather to introduce the conceptual tools that will enable us to discriminate different non-culminating (henceforth, nc) construals, a typology of which is provided in Section 4. Sections 5 and 6 seek to explore the scope of the ach relative to each of the different ways of cancelling culmination defined in Section 4. The question we ask is whether ach holds across all subtypes of nc construals. To answer this question, we put forth two versions of the ach, a strong one and a weak one (Section 5). Section 6 then assesses the scope of the ach by putting to test the predictions of the ach in each of its two versions across a variety of typologically very different languages: Germanic, Romance, Salish and Mandarin. Finally, Section 7 sketches how the different analyses of nc construals presented in Section 3 could capture the link between non-culmination and agentivity, and briefly addresses the problems raised by these potential accounts.

3. Existing approaches of nc construals In this section, we review three main approaches of nc construals, namely, (i) lexical accounts, (ii) aspectual accounts, and (iii) accounts in terms of an aspectual shift. Lexical accounts of nc readings can be divided in two types. The first category is mainly represented by Piñón (2009). Piñón challenges one of the core ideas of standard theories of Aktionsart (Krifka 1992; Verkuyl 1993) by proposing that accomplishments can be gradable. Basically, Piñón’s idea is that a vp like eat an apple comes with a degree argument d, which is the product of two degree arguments d′ and d″; d′ is the degree to which x is eaten in e, and d″ is the degree to which x is an apple. The vp eat an apple x is then defined as a predicate of events e such that an object x is eaten in e to degree d′, x is an apple to degree d″, degree d is the product of d′ and d″, and d is greater than or equal to the context-dependent standard degree determined by the situation. A culminating accomplishment construal arises when the degree d is 1 (x is an apple to degree 1 and x is eaten in e to degree 1).2 A nc accomplishment construal 2. Note that one can truthfully assert that Peter ate an apple completely in a situation where Peter did not eat the core of the apple he ate. If we suppose, which seems reasonable, that completely entails event culmination, this seems to suggest that culminating construals do not always require d to be 1. We see two options here. The first one is to distinguish two culminating readings: the fully culminating accomplishment construal (requiring that the whole apple be completely eaten, including the core, such that d equals 1), and a standard culminating accomplishment construal, which arises when the realization of the event type ‘eat an apple’ meets a



Chapter 9.  Agent control over non-culminating events 191

arises when it is merely the case that d is greater than 0 but lower than 1. In sum, by introducing a parameter of vagueness (a degree argument) into the semantic derivation of accomplishments, Piñón allows for accomplishments to have both a culminating and a nc reading. The second category of lexical accounts of nc accomplishments are modal in nature in that they attribute nc readings to a modal component introduced by the verbal stem, or alternatively by morphology attached to the stem. Thus, Koenig and Muansuwan (2000) argue that Thai change of state verbal stems displaying a nc reading include a built-in imperfective operator that yields a part of the relevant event type. So, the verbal stem corresponding to English write would mean something like be writing in Thai. As Koenig and Chief (2008) emphasize, there is, however, no morphological reflection of this operator (the semantically complex verb is morphologically primitive/underived). By contrast, for Bar-­el et al. (2005), the source of nc readings is a modality operator expressed by a morpheme attached to the verbal stem. In particular, the control transitivizer -­n in St’at’imcets Salish that introduces the agent has, as part of its denotation, a modal component that serves to switch the culmination from the evaluation world to inertia worlds. Also representative of this approach is the work of Koenig and Davis (2001), who assume that some bi-eventive verbs (like e.g. offer) involve a (silent) sublexical modal component (a modal base), evaluating the verb’s argument and event properties at various world indices, as the paraphrase below of sentence (10) suggests. (10) Susan offered Brenda 10 euros. = Susan caused Brenda to have 10 euros in all worlds where the goal of her offer is achieved. Again, the modal component of these verbs switches the event culmination to the worlds contained in the modal base, such that the result described by these causative verbs does not have to take place in the base world. Aspectual accounts of nc accomplishments differ from lexical accounts in that they impute nc readings to the meaning of perfect(ive) aspect itself. Thus Singh (1998), following Smith (1991), posits a new species of perfective aspect, the neutral perfective. This viewpoint presents the described event as a whole as does the standard perfective, but unlike the latter, when applied to accomplishments, it merely requires the event to reach a final boundary that need not correspond to its telos; hence the possibility of cancelling the culmination inference. (Crucially, when applied to achievements, the neutral perfective does not allow cancelling the culmination inference, cf. Smith 1991; Altshuler 2013, 2014; we come back to this point in the conclusion). non-­trivial lower threshold (d is greater or equal to a context-­dependent standard degree ds, close if not equal to 1). This is the option that Piñón seems to favour. The second one, which is the route we take here, is to consider that the core is not an edible part of the apple, and is therefore ignored in the assessment of d. We thus take the apple to be eaten to degree 1 even if its core is not eaten.

192 Hamida Demirdache and Fabienne Martin

Building on Singh’s work, Altshuler (2013, 2014) proposes a new typology of (im) perfective operators, which has the advantage of dispensing with neutral aspect. His proposal attributes to aspect, and in particularly to partitive aspectual operators, the job (performed by modal operators on the modal lexical accounts described above) of switching culmination in modal worlds. His idea is that not only imperfectives, but crucially also perfectives, can be partitive aspectual operators yielding incomplete events as output: combined with a vp denotation, partitive operators require that there be an event in the evaluation world which is a stage of a vp-­event in a ‘close’ world. The Hindi perfective is a partitive operator in that sense, just as the English imperfective is. However, unlike imperfective partitive operators, perfective operators require the described event, although incomplete, to have attained what Krifka (1989) calls its terminal point (it cannot develop further). This explains the oddity of a sentence like I ate a sandwich, and I’m still doing it in Hindi. For completeness, we mention yet another account that claims that on their ‘nc’ reading, accomplishments are in fact not accomplishments (and therefore are not strictly speaking non-culminating, since denying culmination is only possible for telic predicates). Non-culmination is analysed here as the result of a type-shifting operation deriving an activity predicate from an accomplishment. This is the way Rothstein (2012) analyses English accomplishments combining with for-adverbial, and the Russian ‘partial success predicates’ of Tatevosov and Ivanov 2009 (see below). Granting Rothstein’s analysis of accomplishments with for-adverbial to be correct, we reject, however, extending it to the partial result nc construals under study here (which as discussed above roughly encompass ‘partial success predicates’) since explicitly denying culmination is only possible if the vp is telic in the first place (cf. Parsons 1990).

4. Typology of nc construals 4.1

Preliminaries

The goal of this section is to define more precisely the variety of nc construals (discussed in Sections 1–2) in order to assess which of these construals require imputing (agent) control to the subject. We start by adopting the distinction between ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ transitive verbs introduced by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998) and Levin (1999). The central diagnostic differentiating the two classes is whether a direct object can be omitted: (11) a. non-core transitive Leslie washed/swept/scrubbed (the floor) this morning. b. core transitive Kelly broke *(the plate) tonight.



Chapter 9.  Agent control over non-culminating events 193

For Levin and Rappaport Hovav, these two classes differ in event complexity: core transitive verbs are bi-eventive (result verbs) while non-core transitives are mono-eventive (manner verbs). Moreover, transitive verbs lexicalizing a result state in addition to a process show more readings than mono-eventive transitive verbs when modified by adverbials like again (which yield either a restitutive or a repetitive reading with core transitive verbs only) or a for-adverbial (which can apply to the result state with core transitive verbs only); see e.g. Rappaport Hovav (2008: 33–34) for a summary of the relevant facts. Kratzer (2000) also shows that still can only modify the adjectival passive of verbs that lexicalizes a state besides a process (cp. The plate is still broken vs. *the floor is still washed). The mono-eventivity of non-core transitives also surfaces in the fact that if the denoted event is conventionally associated with a result – which is what happens with what Talmy (2000) calls implied-fulfillment verbs like wash – this result is not entailed but rather implicated by the verb (Rappaport Hovav and Levin 1998). We moreover assume with many authors that telicity is linked to the presence of a maximal or standard value on the scale provided by the verb or the vp. In other words, the telos of events described by accomplishments corresponds to a certain value on the relevant (closed) scale.3 A scale is defined as a set of ordered degrees, degrees being abstract representations of measurement. For mono-eventive verbs like eat an apple, we assume that under the culminating reading of these predicates, the degree d to which corresponds the telos is 1 (see footnote 2). For bi-eventive accomplishment verbs lexicalizing a result state like open/close the door or kill the cat, we assume that the state lexicalized by these verbs (‘open’, ‘close’, ‘dead’ for our examples) is also associated with a closed scale. Following Beavers (2006), we will say that when the derived adjectival predicate is gradable (e.g. completely/half closed), we are dealing with a multi-point scale (there are more than two values for the particular attribute lexicalized by the state predicate). When the adjectival predicate is non-gradable (e.g. #completely/#half dead), we have a two-point scale (either the entity has or has not the attribute). The culminating reading obtains when the degree d to which the result state satisfies the predicate equals 1. Finally, we adopt Kennedy and McNally’s (2005) distinction between predicates like open and close. Open-adjectives (which corresponds to Yoon’s 1996 partial adjectives) only require on their normal use that their arguments instantiate the denoted property to a degree d > 0 (a door is open as soon as we have some minimal positive aperture of the door). This amounts to say, in our terms, that perfective sentences built with verbs like open are true even under a (partial change of state) nc reading. On the other hand, Kennedy and McNally assume that under their normal use, closed-adjectives (which corresponds to Yoon’s 1996 total adjectives) require their arguments to possess the property to the maximal degree 1 (a door counts as closed only if it is totally closed). In other words, perfective sentences with verbs like close should only be true under their culminating reading. Although we endorse Kennedy and McNally’s/Yoon’s distinction, we present an argument below 3. For discussion of the scale structure of verbal predicates, see Kennedy (2010) and references therein.

194 Hamida Demirdache and Fabienne Martin

that suggests that the ‘maximality’ inference associated to close-verbs is cancellable, and should therefore not be analysed as an entailment. In the following sections, we differentiate three nc construals, namely, (i) zero change of state nc construals, (ii) partial change of state nc construals and (iii) monoeventive nc construals. The first two are typically exhibited by bi-eventive verbs, but can also be instantiated by implied-fulfillment verbs like wash, which, although monoeventive, are nevertheless conventionally associated with a change of state.

4.2

‘Zero change of state’ nc construals

Under what we call the ‘zero change of state nc reading’, bi-eventive accomplishments entail the occurrence of an activity e but imply only the occurrence of a change of state satisfying the property encoded by the predicate (let us say φ) in the base world w0. Under this zero change of state nc reading, the occurrence of a φ-change of state can therefore be denied in the evaluation world w0 without generating a contradiction, see examples (9) above and (12). That is, these sentences are true in a situation where no φ-change of state obtains, even to a minimal positive degree. (12) a. Halkomelem, Gerdts (2008) niʔ cən qa:y-t tθə spəʔəθ aux 1sg.sub die-ctr det bear ʔiʔ ʔəwə niʔ-əs qay. and neg aux-3sg.sub die [I killed the bear but it didn’t die] b. Skwxwú7mesh, Jacobs (2011) chen lhích‘-it-Ø ta seplín  1sg.sub 1cut-ctr-3obj det bread  welh es-kw‘áy an tl‘ex w-Ø.  but stat-cannot too hard-3sub [I cut the bread but I couldn’t. It was too hard] c. Mandarin, Demirdache and Sun (2014) Yuēhàn shāo le tā-de shu, Yuēhàn burn perf 3sg-de book dàn méi shāo-zháo. but neg burn-touch [Yuēhàn burned his book, but it didn’t get burn at all] Since implied fulfillment (mono-eventive) verbs like wash are conventionally associated with a result state, we assume that these verbs can also display a zero change of state nc reading, even though they do not encode a change of state to begin with. An example of this reading is given in (13). (13) zero change of state reading I washed the (whole) laundry, but it didn’t get cleaner than before!



Chapter 9.  Agent control over non-culminating events 195

It is crucial not to confuse the φ-change of state encoded by or conventionally associated with a verb and the change of state an entity endures as soon as it is the patient/ theme of the action described by the verb. Take the verb cut. Imagine that I’ve tried to cut a piece of thick rubber with a knife, but didn’t manage to create an incision in it. In this situation, there is no φ-change of state (getting cut). However, if my attempt to cut the rubber was serious, I nevertheless probably induced a change of state in the piece of rubber: I must have exerted a pressure on it which changed its physical constitution. Let us call the change of state an entity is in qua patient of an action the patientive change of state. For wash, the patientive change of state corresponds to something like ‘be put into a liquid’, while the corresponding (conventionally associated) φ-change of state is ‘get clean(er)’. For burn, the patientive change of state might correspond to ‘be put into the fire’, while the corresponding φ-change of state is ‘get burnt’. For kill, the patientive change of state might be something like ‘get injured’, while the corresponding φ-change of state is ‘die’. As these examples already suggest, the nature of the patientive change of state is not lexicalized by the verb and very much depends on the situation: one can wash one’s hair without using water, one can burn things without putting them into the fire, etc. What is important to note for our purposes is that although the patientive change of state might be a precondition for the corresponding φ-change of state to arise, the obtention of a patientive change of state does not amount to the obtention of the corresponding φ-change of state to a positive degree d  undergoer). However, the mismatch between the activity degree of the experiencer at the lexical representation and of the construction level has an impact on the syntax. It explains that the dative construction of lexically transitive verbs is unergative in Italian. In Spanish, the mismatch leads to the fact that the syntactic behaviour of lexically transitive OE-verbs shows a range of variation when they appear in the dative construction. For example, even verbs of Marín’s (2011) non-agentive group (examples in (15)) are marginally acceptable in the passive construction (Whitley 1995).

5. Conclusion and outlook It has been shown in this paper that there is a puzzling heterogeneity of the aktions­ art classifications concerning OE-verbs, not only in Romance languages, but also in English, German and other typologically unrelated languages. However, most authors claim that their analysis is universally valid, i.e. that (almost) all OE-verbs (of any language) are accomplishments, achievements, states or activities, respectively. It was not



Chapter 14.  Romance object-experiencer verbs 331

my aim to refute the Vendler-Dowty classes in general, but to consider them as rough grids for classifying event types. Complex cases, such as the agentive and non-agentive transitive OE-verbs simply cannot be classified just with the help of aktionsart tests. A finer-grained analysis of the subevents that OE-verbs denote elucidated that these verbs first of all denote a punctual perception of the correlate, i.e. at a certain moment in time a situation including the deliberate behaviour of another participant is conceptualised as the correlate of an emotion. This is accompanied with a change of state for the experiencer. The resultant emotional state rests for a while and finds a parallel in a mental state consisting in the awareness of the correlate. Contradictory approaches have focussed on different parts of the complex event structure. While the accomplishment and activity analyses consider the provoking behaviour that may precede the perception and construction of the correlate, the achievement analysis focusses on the punctual change of the emotional state. Finally, yet importantly, the state analysis deals with the ongoing mental states that are essential parts of the semantics of OE-verbs. Another problem consists in combining aktionsart descriptions with causativity. My claim in Section 2 was that only potentially agentive OE-verbs are causative, while non-agentive OE-verbs are not. I showed in Section 3 that the presence or absence of causativity explains the differentiation between two types of experiencer: (a) a causatively affected experiencer, (b) an experiencer undergoing a change of state in a particular situation without being affected by an external causer. In addition, we find a third type: prototypically unaccustative (ergative) OE-verbs, such as verbs of liking, which select a more active experiencer expressing a subjective judgement. The three types are prototypical categories with fuzzy edges. The boundaries are shifting, because, on the one hand, changes in the emotional state are not prototypical cases of causation, and, on the other hand, as in the case of episodic pleasure, subjective judgements may occur in particular situations. In Sections 3 and 4 it was shown that Romance OE-verbs code one or two of the three types at the lexical level. At the level of the constructional inventory, Romance languages code the types in different forms and to a different degree. In Italian, there are two types of dative constructions, an unaccusative and an unergative one, corresponding to type (c) and (b), respectively. Nonetheless, the accusative construction also codes type (b). In European Spanish, there is a clear tendency to use the dative-construction, which is prototypically restricted to type (b) and type (c), but even type (a) occasionally occurs with the dative-construction. In contrast, in Latin American Spanish, there is case-variation for type (b). Section 5 dealt with the formalisation of the results in the light of activity hierarchy (Kailuweit 2013). Deviating from Kailuweit (2013), I assumed that all Romance verbs with an experiencer of type (a) or type (b) in their argument structure are “accusative” at the lexical level. In Spanish, and in some exceptional cases in Italian, the lexical representations can be overridden by a dative construction. The paper did not deal with the reflexive construction of Romance OE-verbs. In Kailuweit (2005), I considered this construction anti-passive. In future research, I

332 Rolf Kailuweit

would like to revisit this analysis in the light of a constructionalist approach to linking that allows modifying the activity degree of arguments at the lexical level via a construction. The reflexive construction of Romance OE-verbs should be compared to different types of anti-causatives to delimit the degree of experiencer promotion that the reflexive construction implies.

References Arad, Maya. 1998. “Psych-Notes.” UCL Working papers in linguistics 10: 203–222. Belletti, Andrea and Rizzi, Luigi. 1988. “Psych Verbs and Theta Theory.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6. Bialy, Adam. 2005. Polish Psychological Verbs at the Lexicon-Syntax Interface in Cross Linguistic Perspective. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Blum, Laurence A. 1980. Friendship, Altruism, and Morality. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Cançado, Márcia. 1995. “A teoria da proeminência de Grimshaw e os psico-verbos do portugûes brasileiro.” D.E.L.T.A. 11/2: 279–299. Carlson, Gregory N. 1978. Reference to kinds in English. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Linguistics Club. Cifuentes, José Luis. This volume. “Causativity and Psychological Verbs in Spanish.” Di Desidero, Linda. 1993. “Psych Verbs and the Nature of Complex Events.” Northwestern Working Papers in Linguistics 5: 11–22. Dowty, David. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. The Semantics of Verbs and Times in Generative Semantics and in Montague’s PTQ. Dortrecht: Reidel. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-9473-7 Dowty, David. 1991. “Non-Verbal Thematic Proto-Roles.” Language 67 (3): 547–619. DOI: 10.1353/lan.1991.0021 Ekman, Paul. 1994. “All Emotions Are Basic”. In Ekman, Paul & Davidson, Richard J. (eds.), The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions. New York: Oxford University Press, 15–19. Filip, Hana. 2012. “Lexical Aspect.” In The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect, R. I. Binnick (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Foley, William A. & Van Valin, Robert D. 1984. Functional syntax and universal grammar. ­Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Grimshaw, Jane. 1990. Argument structure. Cambridge, MA / London: MIT Press. Härtl, Holden. 2001. Cause und Change: thematische Relationen und Ereignisstrukturen in Konzeptualisierung und Grammatikalisierung. Berlin: Akademieverlag. Kailuweit, Rolf. 2005. Linking: Syntax und Semantik französischer und italienischer Gefühlsverben. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI: 10.1515/9783110943351 Kailuweit, Rolf. 2007. “El enlace de los verbos de sentimiento – un cálculo de rasgos”. In Cano López, Pablo (Ed.), Actas del VI Congreso de Lingüística General, Santiago de Compostela, 3–7 de mayo de 2004, Vol. 2, Tomo 1, 2007 (Las lenguas y su estructura (IIa)), 1699–1708. Kailuweit, Rolf. 2013. “Radical Role and Reference Grammar (RRRG): A Sketch for Remodelling the Syntax-Semantics-Interface.” In Linking Constructions into Functional Linguistics. The Role of Constructions in Grammar, B. Nolan and E. Diedrichsen (eds.), 103–141. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.145.05kai



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Kratzer, Angelika. 1989. “An investigation of the lumps of thought”. In Linguistics and Philosophy 12 (5): 607–653. Landau, Idan. 2002. The Locative Syntax of Experiencers. Ms. Ben Gurion University. Landau, Idan. 2010. The Locative Syntax of Experiencers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Marín, Rafael. 2011. “Casi todos los predicados psicológicos son estativos.” In Sobre estados y estatividad, A. Carrasco (ed.), 26–44. München: Lincom. Martin, Fabienne. 2002. “La préposition de du complément d’agent des verbes psychologiques causatifs : un génitif.” Scolia 15: 57–70. Martín, Juan. 1998. “The Lexico-Semantic Interface: Psych Verbs and Psych Nouns.” Hispania 81: 619–631. DOI: 10.2307/345684 Mathieu, Yannik Y. 2000. Les verbes de sentiment. De l’analyse linguistique au traitement automatique. Paris: CNRS. Nissenbaum, Helen F. 1985. Emotion and Focus. Stanford: CSLI. Pesetsky, David. 1995. Zero Syntax: Experiencers and Cascades. Cambrigde, MA / London: MIT Press. Pylkkänen, Liina. 2000. “On Stativity and Causation.” In Events as Grammatical Objects. The Converging Perspectives of Lexical Semantics and Syntax, C. Tenny and J. Pustojovsky (eds.), 417–444. Stanford: CSLI. Reinhart, Tanya. 2001. Experiencing Derivations. [http://www.let.uu.nl/~tanya.reihart]. Reinhart, Tanya. 2002. “The Theta system – Overview.” Theoretical Linguistics 28 (3): 229–290. Rozwadowska, Bożena. 1988. “Thematic Restrictions on Derived Nominals.” In Syntax and Semantics 21. Thematic Relations, W. Wilkins (ed.), 147–165. New York: Academic Press. Ruwet, Nicolas. 1972. “A propos d’une classe de verbes ‘psychologiques’.” In Théorie syntaxique et syntaxe du français, N. Ruwet (ed.), 181–251. Paris: Seuil. Ruwet, Nicolas. 1994. “Être ou ne pas être un verbe de sentiment”. Langue Française 103: 45–55. Ruwet, Nicolas. 1995. “Les verbes de sentiment peuvent-ils être agentifs?” Langue Française 105: 28–39. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1995.5291 Searle, John R. 1983. Intentionality. An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139173452 Tenny, Carol. 1994. Aspectual Roles and the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-1150-8 Van Valin, Robert D. and LaPolla, Randy J. 1997. Syntax. Structure, Meaning and Function. ­Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139166799 Van Voorst, Jan. 1992. “The Aspectual Semantics of Psychological Verbs.” Linguistics and Philosophy 15: 65–92. DOI: 10.1007/BF00635833 Van Voorst, Jan. 1995. “Le contrôle de l’espace psychologique.” Langue Française 105: 17–27. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1995.5290 Vanhoe, Henk. 2002. Aspectos de la sintaxis de los verbos psicológicos en español. Un análisis léxico funcional. Dissertation. Universiteit Gent. Verkuyl, H. J. 1989. “Aspectual Classes and Aspectual Composition.” Linguistics and Philosophy 12: 39–94. DOI: 10.1007/BF00627398 Vermandere, Dieter. 2002. I verbi psicologici italiani. Uno studio semantico e sintattico. Dissertation. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Wanner, Anja. 2001. “The Optimal Linking of Arguments: The Case of English Psychological Verbs”. In Competition in Syntax. Müller, Gereon & Sternefeld, Wolfgang (eds.), 377–399. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Whitley, Stanley M. 1995. “Gustar and Other Psych Verbs. A Problem in Transitivity.” Hispania 78: 573–585. DOI: 10.2307/345307

chapter 15

Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs* Ruth-María Lavale-Ortiz This paper has as its aim to verify the hypothesis according to which a verbal semantic class might correspond to a homogeneous aspectual characterization, since it could be thought that all the lexical items which share semantic features within the same class should be given the same aspectual definition. With that aim in mind, and after considering the whole set of causative denominal verbs in Spanish, our choice was to focus on the subset of causative-resultative denominal verbs where in turn it is possible to distinguish two semantic subtypes. Working on the basis of a corpus and the application of grammatical tests, the present study proves that the aspectual characterization of these verbs is not homogeneous; instead, a certain degree of variation exists within the semantic category. Keywords: verbal semantics, causation, result, aspect

1. Introduction The works focused on the action mode or the lexical aspect of an event stress the fact that the verbs included in a single class share morphosyntactic features and consequently have a similar syntactic behavior. The expression aspectual category refers to “la manera en que un evento se desarrolla u ocurre”1 and “la extensión temporal del evento”2 (De Miguel 1999: 2979). Based on the study carried out by Vendler (1957), four basic aspectual classes can be distinguished, namely: states; activities or processes; accomplishments; and achievements.

* This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R; by University of Alicante, under grant GRE11-17; and by the Generalitat Valenciana, under grant GV/2014/089. 1. “The way in which an event develops or takes place.” 2. “The temporal extension of the event.” doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.15lav © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 335

As pointed out by Coll-Florit (2011: 234), no consensus exists “a la hora de abordar el problema teórico de cómo y en qué medida interactúan la semántica léxica y la sintaxis en la codificación lingüística de la información aspectual.”3 In this respect, De Miguel (1999: 3011) insists on the fact that the types of verbs proposed must be contrasted through their syntactic behavior to end up “por confirmar la existencia de grupos léxicos relativamente estables.”45 Hence our decision to set ourselves the semantic class of causative-resultative denominal verbs in Spanish from the action mode point of view as the aim of our research work, ultimately seeking to check whether the aspectual behavior of verbs belonging to this category is homogeneous or, whether, on the contrary, it is possible to distinguish more or less prototypical verbs; thus, it will be verified whether the internal structuring of aspectual categories permits certain variations and whether it is shaped as a continuum and not as independent sections unrelated to one another. Carrying out this task requires applying the classical tests which have recurrently been presented in the bibliography for the purpose of distinguishing aspectual categories in Spanish. The sample of corpora which serves as the basis for carrying out this research work contains 141 lexemes included within the semantic category of causative-resultative denominal verbs which are later specified in Sections 3.1 and 3.2. This sample, created using an initial compilation of causative denominal verbs extracted from the DRAE (2001), was subsequently completed with usage examples taken from the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual [Current Spanish Reference Corpus] (CREA) of the Spanish Royal Academy. This is the set of lexemes to which the grammatical tests for action modes have been applied in an attempt to define their aspectual behavior; these grammatical constructions will be specified in Section 4, dedicated to aspectual analysis.

3. “When it comes to dealing with the theoretical problem related to how and to what extent lexical semantics and syntax interact in the linguistic coding of aspectual information.” 4. “Confirming the existence of relatively stable lexical groups.” 5. The application of syntactic tests is the basic working practice for the definition of aspectual categories: “Este modus operandi permite restringir el conjunto de las clases aspectuales de verbos que, fiado en exclusiva a criterios semánticos, podría resultar demasiado amplio, subjetivo y heterogéneo […]. Lo que va a importar, en cambio, es el establecimiento de comportamientos gramaticales bien diferenciados para las distintas clases aspectuales […]” [This modus operandi permits to limit the set of aspectual types of verbs which, exclusively following semantic criteria, could turn out to be too broad, subjective and heterogeneous […]. What will matter, instead, is the establishment of clearly differentiated grammatical behaviors for the different aspectual classes […] (De Miguel 1999: 3011 in note).

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2. Theoretical foundation The studies on verbal aspect highlight that both the lexical root of the verb and the context where the latter appears influence the final determination of the aspectual feature (De Miguel 1999: 2979). It becomes evident that the semantics of a verb is going to prove essential when it comes to establishing its combination with certain grammatical constructions, and also that the elements present in the context can modify the basic aspectual meaning transmitted by the verb’s lexical root (a good example might be found in the simpler case of the verbal tense in which the verb is conjugated). Because, in our opinion, both elements are essential and have been duly verified in previous studies, our intention is to focus on the verbs under analysis and to observe their behavior in real examples to which some of the grammatical tests often used to distinguish aspectual classes can be applied. This will ensure that neither the lexical semantics nor the syntactic combination is neglected in our study. Furthermore, Coll-Florit (2011: 235) showed that aspectual categories are likely to contain “miembros más prototípicos y miembros más fronterizos o flexibles;”6 in other words, there are “verbos monosémicos estables [stable monosemic verbs],” “verbos monosémicos flexibles [flexible monosemic verbs]” and “verbos aspectualmente polisémicos [aspectually polysemic verbs],” depending on whether they (a) have single thematic roles or different lexical senses attached to different aspectual categories; (b) impose strong or weak restrictions in terms of syntactic realization; and (c) prefer a specific verbal tense. Because our study starts from a group of verbal lexemes sharing the same semantic characterization (and it consequently ignores other possible meanings of the verb which do not match that characterization) and the same syntactic-semantic distribution, it is our conviction that they will tend to show a similar aspectual behavior, even though room exists for small aspectual variations that can become visible through the application of grammatical tests. Perhaps this method will make it possible to define a continuum or gradation in the aspectual category where causative-resultative denominal verbs are included. The analysis is centered on one group of denominal verbs in Spanish. The expression denominal verb describes a lexical unit with verbal capacity that has a noun as its origin. The application of traditional word-formation rules – more specifically derivation and parasynthesis – permits to create verbs on noun bases. Thus, the category of derived denominal verbs would correspond to lexemes which are created from derivative suffixes, either through the immediate application to a base (with the suffix -ar, like in abanico > abanicar [to fan]) or through its mediate application to a base (i.e. with suffixes preceded by intermediate units or interfixes, like -ear in mosca > mosquear [to annoy]; -izar, in aroma > aromatizar [to aromatize]; -ificar, in sal > salificar [to salinize]; and -ecer, in favor > favorecer [to favor]). Similarly, some parasynthetic denominal verbs can be found where the noun base is simultaneously and

6. “More prototypical members and more borderline or flexible ones.”



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 337

jointly accompanied by a prefix (the most productive ones being a-, en- and des-) and a verbalizing suffix (those suited to derivation, except for -ificar).7 Moreover, from the semantic point of view, the noun and the verbalizing suffix – together with the possible affixes that may accompany them – form a single unit, a complete whole; that is why scholars semantically speak about units resulting from a conflation (in the terms used by Talmy 2000). The assignment of meaning to the resulting verbal unit inevitably requires paying attention to the content of the base noun, of the affix or affixes used, and of the construction into which the verb is inserted; therefore, the final meaning is determined by a set of factors where it is also obviously possible to identify metaphorical or metonymic extension processes that hide the connection between the elements that have been brought together to form the new verb. Spanish denominal verbs can express a causative content, understood as a semantic category which human beings use to understand the world around us. It is a universal principle expressed in every language (Fillmore 1976: 182) and it shows that the events of the real physical world do not happen in an isolated way, that is, without the presence of a cause – which is why cause and effect are inseparable. Whereas all phenomena constitute a causal continuum in the physical world, linguistic causativity allows us speakers to break that continuum and distinguish events which happen on their own, without the presence of a cause (Talmy 1976: 47; Rifón 1997: 81). The causative content can only be actualized in the presence of a force causing the change and the change of state or modification which takes place within an entity as a result of the cause action. Following the postulates of the Force Dynamics system created by Talmy (2000: 413–419), these two entities interact with respect to the force factor: the caused or agonist is the center of attention, and it focuses on whether this entity can express its intrinsic force tendency; the cause or antagonist is defined in relation to what the first entity does, that is, whether the latter can exceed its force or not. The physical world causation in this system is extrapolated to the clash of forces which takes place in the psychical, social and discursive world, where the relationships between entities are more complex and less direct – but can be explained in exactly the same way. This semantic configuration of the causativity concept requires a highly precise syntactic description, insofar as it is necessary to have a transitive scheme where the two definition arguments – cause and caused – are expressed. Furthermore, Spanish allows its linguistic expression through various grammatical elements; three types can be distinguished in the verb context where our study moves: periphrastic or syntactic causative predicates, in which two verbs combine and one of them contains the causative meaning (hacer [to make] + infinitive); lexical causative predicates, in which the causative content is inserted into the lexical item (verbs such as causar [to cause] or provocar [to provoke] or lexicalized pairs where one element is causative and the other is not, like matar [to kill] as opposed to morir [to die]); and morphological causative 7. About the formation of these verbs from a morphological and semantic point of view, see Pena (1991, 1993), Rifón (1997) and Serrano-Dolader (1995, 1999), amongst others.

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predicates, in which the causative meaning derives from the combination of base and affix (denominal and deadjectival verbs are included here). In the set of causative denominal verbs, it is possible to differentiate semantic subtypes taking into account the noun base with which the verb is formed and the final content nuance expressed by the verb. The corpus study carried out among the causative denominal verbs included in the DRAE (2001) has made it possible to distinguish three semantic subclasses. The first subgroup is that of causative-­locating denominal verbs, formed on the basis of nouns denoting either an inanimate entity which is created and moves with regard to a location space (a figure) and is then reinterpreted as a property or state, or an inanimate entity which refers to a group, serves as the location space (a base)8 and is subsequently reinterpreted by the property of unión [union]. A location is expressed next to the causative content in these verbs; in other words, an external cause makes an entity change its physical or material state and a location or change of position is mentioned (therefore, it is not a mere change of position as the one occurring in aceitar [to oil]). It is the case of predicates such as abarrancar [to create ravines] because, as a consequence of an external cause, se forman barrancos en [ravines are formed in] the entity affected (the latter changes its physical or material state and ravines are now located in it), or amontonar [to pile up], since, with the action, an external cause forma montones de/con [forms piles of/ with] the entity affected (the latter changes its physical state and, instead of being a disperse unit, it has turned into another united or piled-up one, as a result of which it is relocated into a set). A second subgroup is formed by sensitive-emotional denominal causative verbs, which have as their base abstract inanimate nouns that refer to feelings, emotions, sensations – both psychological and physical ones – and express a change of psychical or physical state suffered by an experiencer human or animate entity; this type of verbs is divided into subtypes depending on their syntactic-­ semantic structure and can be exemplified in cases such as asfixiar [to asphyxiate], entusiasmar [to enthuse], aficionar [to get someone interested in] or envidiar [to envy]. And thirdly, one can refer to causative-resultative denominal verbs, for which the noun base is an inanimate object (in a small group, it can be a human or animate entity) interpreted as a state or by a characteristic feature or property that the entity affected acquires; the change of state in these verbs is accompanied by a transformation of the entity concerned, either a total conversion into a new state or a partial transformation when the acquisition of some features characterizing the entity designated by the noun conflated in the verb takes place. It is this last subtype that will be our focus of interest in the following sections.

8. This is the traditional distinction between locatum and locative denominal verbs (Clark and Clark 1979: 769–773, Cifuentes Honrubia 2005: 333), with the only difference that the causative content is added here.



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 339

3. Causative-resultative denominal verbs: Semantic characterization Causative-resultative denominal verbs show two semantic contents: the change of state typical of causativity; and the transformation or conversion of the properties characterizing the element affected which culminate (and where it is emphasized) after the action triggered by the external cause. Therefore, two moments can be distinguished in the action expressed by these verbs: the change of state and the transformation, this second step being a consequence derived from the first one; thus, the external cause initiates a state change process in the entity affected, as a result of which the latter not only changes its properties but is also transformed or converted into another entity. That is why the said predicates have come to be known as resultative (Serrano-Dolader 1995: 124; Plag 1999: 132–133) or similative (Plag 1999: 138–139; Lieber 2004: 87–91) or their semantic content is explained using explanatory paraphrases of the type convertir en N [to convert into N] or hacer como N [to do like N] (N being the noun conflated in the verb), depending on whether the transformation provoked by the change of state triggered by the external cause is complete and the entity affected is completely transformed into a different entity or state (i.e. the resultative verbs), or whether the entity which goes through a change of state suffers an incomplete transformation when it acquires certain properties of another entity after cause induction (the similative ones, in this case). Either way, the noun conflated in the denominal verb is reinterpreted as a property, a feature or a state reached by the entity affected. The following two sections have as their aim to explain these semantic subtypes of causative-resultative denominal verbs.

3.1

Those involving a total transformation

In this type of causative-resultative denominal verb, the entity-cause leads to a change of physical state in an inanimate entity which, as a result of the action, suffers and modifies its physical integrity, being completely transformed into another entity. Therefore, after the transformational change has been completed, it will be possible to observe the resulting state that an entity has reached as a consequence of the process initiated by the first entity; due to the features (an inanimate entity which existed before the action) and to the change suffered by the entity affected (which modifies its existence and comes to have a final state that makes its physical characteristics change radically, and thus becomes a different entity), it can be regarded as a converted affected entity. Vaporizar [to vaporize] or fragmentar [to fragment] are some examples of verbs belonging to this group: (1) La sonda Luna 1 (enero de 1959) […] pasó a 6.000 kilómetros de la superficie de la Luna y tuvo gran resonancia internacional, pues cuando se encontraba a 113.000 km de la Tierra vaporizó 1 kg de sodio, lo que produjo una nube artificial de 100 km que pudo verse desde la Tierra

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[The Moon 1 probe (January 1959) […] passed 6,000 kilometers away from the Moon and that had a great international echo because, when it was 113,000 kilometers away from the Earth, it vaporized 1 kilogram of sodium, which produced a 100-kilometer artificial cloud that could be seen from the Earth]. (2) El cometa Shoemaker-Levy 9 pasó tan cerca de Júpiter que las fuerzas de marea lo fragmentaron en ocho pedazos claramente separados, de unos 5 km de diámetro cada uno, que luego se colisionaron con este mundo de gas [The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 passed so close to Jupiter that the tide forces fragmented it into eight clearly separated pieces, with a diameter of 5 kilometers each, which then collided with this gas world]. In (1), vaporizar expresses the action of ‘Convertir un líquido en vapor, por la acción del calor’9 (DRAE 2001), in such a way that a change of state takes place in the object affected “1 kg de sodio [1 kilogram of sodium]” and a transformation to the new state marked by the noun conflated in the verb, since it becomes vapor. Similarly, fragmentar in (2) means ‘Reducir a fragmentos’10 (DRAE 2001), which is why the physical object affected by the action, “el cometa Shoemaker-Levy 9 [the comet ShoemakerLevy]” (represented in the accusative clitic lo), goes through a change of state and is transformed into fragments. In short, the altered and transformed entity turns out to be different from what it was during its existence before the verbal action: “1 kg de sodio” is no longer sodium and becomes vapor; and “el cometa Shoemaker-Levy 9” stops being a unitary body to become a set of fragments. Such predicates can contain lexemes generated through various morphological procedures which are usually distributed into two semantic subgroups. On the one hand, there is a general group made up of 41 lexemes: abrasar, acecinar, achatarrar, afistolar, afistular, amalgamar, amarañar, amasar, amojamar, apelmazar, aplastar, calcinar, carbonar, carbonear, carbonizar, carroñar, cecinar, charquear, chatarrear, cicatrizar, encarroñar, enfistolar, enmarañar, escarar, esterificar, evaporizar, fistolar, fistular 2, ionizar, mesturar, misturar, mixturar, momificar, quilificar, quimificar, resinificar, sacramentar, transubstanciar, transustanciar, vaporear and vaporizar. On the other hand, another group of predicates formed by 25 lexemes refers to the division in parts of the affected converted entity, which stops being a complete unit and is now made into pieces, portions, parts or fragments: apedazar, astillar, atomizar, cachar 1, debandar, desboronar, descuartizar, desgajar, desmembrar, desmenuzar, desmigajar, desmigar, despedazar, despezar 1, espedazar, fraccionar, fragmentar, menuzar, migar, pedacear, ripiar, ruinar, seccionar, segmentar and trozar.

9. ‘Converting a liquid into vapor by the action of heat.’ 10. ‘To reduce to fragments.’



3.2

Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 341

Those involving a partial transformation

Partial transformation causative-resultative denominal verbs have an entity-cause which causes a change of state, either physical in an inanimate entity,11 so that this entity suffers and modifies its state being partially transformed into another inanimate entity (designated by the noun conflated in the verb) from which it takes its aspect, its form, its function or another characteristic property, or psychical-attitudinal in a human or animate entity which changes its state and is transformed acquiring the behavior or attitude of the human or animate entity designated by the noun fused in the verb. Consequently, after the completion of the transformational change, the altered entity turns out to be a hybrid or mixture between what it used to be before the action took place and what it becomes when it takes the (psychical or mental) feature of the entity conflated in the verb, that is, se hace como [it becomes like] another entity; due to the features (an inanimate, human or animate entity that existed before the action) and to the change suffered by the entity affected (it modifies its existence and comes to have a final state whereby it acquires the features of another entity and is partially transformed into it), it can be regarded as an affected/experiencer quasiconverted entity. This behavior is illustrated by verbs such as esponjar [to fluff up] or animalizar [to brutalize]: (3) La lluvia sacaba brillo a los prados y ameraba las tierras de labor, las esponjaba [The rain polished the meadows and wetted the arable lands; it fluffed them up]. (4) La selección de los centauros como integrantes del coloquio ejemplifica de manera notable esas fuerzas en tensión que estallan en la violencia del deseo que animaliza al hombre [The selection of centaurs as members of the colloquium notably exemplifies those forces in tension that explode in the violence of the desire which brutalizes man]. Example (3) shows the verb esponjar, which means ‘Ahuecar o hacer más poroso un cuerpo’12 (DRAE 2001), that is, it implies that an external cause (“la lluvia [the rain]”) makes the entity affected, “las tierras de labor [the arable lands]” (represented in the 11. Despite what has been said, also a human entity can acquire the physical features of an inanimate entity. Think of examples such as “Que estas luchas que en el pasado la templaron, la aceraron, y le permitieron dar sin recibir, luchar sin esperar nada, salvo el triunfo de sus ideas; en el presente nos llevarán también a nuevas metas, a nuevas situaciones que el país exige [That these fights which tempered her and hardened her in the past, and allowed her to give without receiving, to fight without expecting anything but the triumph of her ideas; at present they will actually lead us to new goals, to new situations that the country demands],” where the woman represented by the clitic la takes the features of acero [steel], that is, its hardness and resistance (strength and vigor). 12. ‘To hollow out a body or make it more porous.’

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clitic las), change its state and acquire a feature which is typical of a sponge: its porosity (it becomes similar to a sponge). In the case of (4), “el hombre [man]” partially modifies its state taking the characteristics inherent to animals. As can be seen, the altered and transformed entity turns out to be a mixture of what it used to be when the action existed and what it has become after that action: “las tierras de labor” acquire the property of porosity and “el hombre” assumes some features which are typical of animals – even though he continues to be a man. Verbs expressing this semantic content are also formed by means of various morphological procedures and can be organized into two subgroups. On the one hand, that of verbs indicating a partial transformation in the shape, the aspect, the function or the properties of the entity affected, which includes 51 predicates: abarquillar, abombar 2, acampanar, acerar 1, acombar, aherrumbrar, alabear, alagar, aljofarar, amurallar, apantanar, aplomar, arcar, arquear 1, asedar, atezar, atortujar, avinagrar, ayermar, combar, cosificar, cristalizar, cruzar, desertificar, desertizar, empantanar, empastar 2, empradizar, enacerar, enarcar, encanutar, encañutar, encartuchar, encharcar, enchinar, enerizar, enfajar, engarabatar, engarabitar, enlagunar, envarar, erizar, ermar, escobillar, espadañar, esponjar, guillotinar, imanar, metalizar, mineralizar and yermar. On the other hand, the group of verbs conveying a partial transformation in the behavior or attitude of the experiencer entity, where the following 24 predicates belong: acanallar, ahermanar, ahijar, ajuglarar, angelizar, animalizar, apendejar, aristocratizar, arrocinar, arrusticar, avasallar, cabrear (through a meaning extension), emputecer, encanallar, endiosar, hermanar, libertar, mitificar, picarizar, prohijar, rufianear, travestir, victimar and *victimizar.

4. Causative-resultative denominal verbs: Aspectual characterization The verbs studied here express a change of state in an affected or experiencer direct object, the features of which are altered by the action of a cause which triggers an internal change and transformation process in those objects, which in turn results in a complete or partial conversion of the entity. Before the reality expressed by these predicates – apparently telic, because they reach that ultimate product – it seems clear that our focus is going to be placed within the aspectual class of accomplishments and/ or achievements, and that it consequently will move away from states and activities. Seeking to demonstrate this statement, a decision was made to apply a series of aspectual tests which are used in the specialized bibliography in order to define the action mode of verbs in Spanish. More precisely, the grammatical tests chosen for this work are the ones listed in Table 1. These tests have been applied to the 141 causative-resultative denominal verbs that shape our working corpus. As can be observed, the verbal tense test was not taken into account in our analysis; this parameter was not considered during our search for examples at the time and examples are consequently offered in perfective

Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 343



Table 1.  List of aspectual tests utilized Aspectual tests 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Ocurrir que [To occur that] + verb Después de [After] + perfect infinitive Acabar de [To end up] + infinitive Completamente, del todo o totalmente [Completely, entirely or totally] Lentamente, cuidadosamente [Slowly, carefully] Durante X tiempo [For X time]

and imperfective forms for all the aforesaid semantic subtypes, although it is true that perfective verbs prevail to some extent, since they are the ones preferred for the achievement and accomplishment categories (Coll-Florit 2011: 241).13 The next step will consist in showing the behavior of the aforesaid two semantic subclasses of causative-resultative denominal verbs in relation to such aspectual tests. This will allow us to check whether some kind of relationship exists between semantic class and aspectual classification, and it will additionally give us the chance to see if differences can possibly be found along an aspectuality continuum within the same semantic category; hence our decision to adapt the examples drawn from CREA to the previous grammatical constructions.

4.1

Ocurrir que [to occur that] + verb

The grammatical test “ocurrir que [to occur that] + verb” serves to positively delimit activities, accomplishments and achievements; and it negatively delimits states, insofar as states describe events which do not occur, which do not progress, but take place homogeneously at each moment over which they extend (De Miguel 1999: 3012). States cannot accept this grammatical combination, as opposed to the other aspectual classes, which denote events that occur, change or progress over time, regardless of whether they are delimited or not. According to the analysis carried out, one hundred per cent of the verbs included in our sample accept this grammatical test. Let us see an example of each semantic subtype: two total transformation verbs (5) and (6); and two partial transformation ones (7) and (8):14

13. The distribution of examples by verbal tenses is as follows: 17 verbs in the present; 14 verbs in the preterit imperfect; 86 verbs in the ‘simple’ preterit perfect; 3 verbs in the ‘compound’ preterit perfect; and 21 cases in the infinitive. 14. All the tests will be exemplified like this. The first two examples are total transformation causative-resultative denominal verbs, as opposed to the following two, which form part of the partial transformation causative-resultative denominal verb category.

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(5) Ocurría que Cascellio mixturaba los ingredientes narcóticos, la bellota, el castóreo, la adormidera, la mandrágora, la pimienta… y no paraba de hablar y de prodigar alabanzas al Senador y a quienes, como él, salvaban a la República [It occurred that Cascellio ‘mixtured’ the narcotic ingredients, acorn, castoreum, poppy, mandrake, pepper… and kept talking and offering praise to the Senator and to those who, like him, saved the Republic]. (6) Ocurrió que el fuerte impacto de la caída al mar desde 4.000 metros descuartizó algunos cuerpos, y el deterioro causado por estos días en el agua dificultan su reconocimiento [It occurred that the strong impact of the fall from 4,000 meters dismembered some bodies, and the deterioration caused by these days in the water make it difficult to recognize them]. (7) Ocurrió que el gato enarcó el lomo, mostró retadoramente sus colmillos de fiera y siseó como una culebra [It occurred that the cat arched its back, showed its beast fangs in a defying way, and hissed like an adder]. (8) Ocurre que la violencia del deseo animaliza al hombre [It occurs that the violence of desire brutalizes man]. This grammatical test makes it clear that causative-resultative denominal verbs belong to the group of predicates which describe dynamic events.

4.2

Después de [after] + infinitivo compuesto [perfect infinitive]

As stated by Elena de Miguel (1999: 3017), the constructions with después de [after] followed by a perfect infinitive “se caracterizan por exigir la terminación del evento indicado por el verbo.”15 Therefore, this grammatical test proves useful to distinguish stative verbs – which do not admit it – from dynamic events, which are indeed compatible with this structure. In fact, all the verbs included in our sample accept this grammatical construction, which is why, the same as in the preceding test, our attention will be placed in the aspectual class of dynamic events. Let us see some examples: (9) Montesinos le dice a Durandarte que después de haber amojamado en sal el corazón para eliminar los malos olores en el largo camino, se lo llevó a su esposa [Montesinos tells Durandarte that after having dried the heart in salt to eliminate the bad smell during the long way, he took it to his wife]. (10) Después de haber desmigajado un mendrugo encontrado en el macuto, añadió una pizca de perejil y lo frió todo ello con unas gotitas de aceite [After having crumbled a piece of stale bread found in the knapsack, he added a pinch of parsley and fried it all with a few droplets of oil]. 15. “Are characterized by demanding the conclusion of the event indicated by the verb.”



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 345

(11) Después de haber abombado el pecho, comprobó la botonadura de la chaqueta [After having swollen the chest, he checked the jacket buttons]. (12) Después de haber avasallado al Imperio Inca, las huestes de Pizarro llevaron la papa a Europa [After having subjugated the Inca Empire, Pizarro’s army took the Pope to Europe].

4.3

Acabar de [to end up] + infinitivo [infinitive]

This terminative periphrasis makes it possible to check the event delimitation parameter. Coll-Florit (2011: 239–240) actually argues that, according to the bibliography consulted, “solo los predicados que expresan realizaciones son compatibles”16 with this periphrasis, “que denota la culminación de una situación durativa.”17 Following her study, it is above all the accomplishment category that shows the highest frequency with this structure; nevertheless, also achievements accept it if the periphrasis appears in the present “para indicar los instantes inmediatamente posteriores a un evento puntual (ej. Su marido acaba de morir).”18 For this reason, it was possible to verify the presence of this periphrasis in our sample both in the tense corresponding to the example found and in the present: (13) La dejadez del dueño y las inclemencias meteorológicas acabaron de achatarrar el vehículo [The owner’s slovenliness and the inclemency of the weather ended up scrapping the vehicle]. (14) Las fuerzas puramente físicas pueden romper y acabar de desmenuzar la roca llegando a formar polvo pero no suelo [Purely physical forces can break and end up shattering the rock to pieces forming dust but not soil]. (15) El resplandor de muchas nieves les ha acabado de atezar el rostro y visten zamarras de cuero, con curvas navajas colgadas al cinto [The glare of many snows has ended up bronzing their face and they wear leather jackets, with curved penknives hanging from the belt]. (16) La caída de Machado acaba de apendejar a todos [Machado’s fall has ended up scaring everyone stiff].

16. “Only predicates expressing accomplishments are compatible.” 17. “Which denotes the culmination of a durative situation.” 18. “To indicate the moments immediately subsequent to a punctual event (e.g. Her husband has just died).”

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The results show that causative-resultative denominal verbs accept this grammatical test, which means that they are verbs describing telic situations, or to put it in another way, they express actions with a well-defined time limit and, according to the periphrasis used, they would be bounded in their final part. The next test is also applied to check this statement.

4.4 Completamente, del todo o totalmente [Completely, entirely or totally] The compatibility with adverbial modifiers such as completamente, del todo or totalmente (and others such as hasta el final [till the end], entero [entire] or todo [all]) shows that the event “ha alcanzado efectivamente su final”19 (De Miguel 1999: 3029), which means that this test allows us to center our attention on the telicity feature and on the fact that the event focuses on the final stage or the result. (17) Hitler todavía almorzó. Estaba en la mesa, en el paso central del bunker, mientras su chófer, Erck Kempka, ayudado por cuatro soldados, transportaba al jardín de la cancillería los 180 litros de gasolina que debían servir para poder carbonizar totalmente su cuerpo y el de Eva [Hitler still had lunch. He was at the table, in the central corridor of the bunker, while his chauffeur, Erck Kempka, helped by four soldiers, carried the 180 liters of gasoline which were supposed to suffice in order to reduce his body and Eva’s totally to ashes to the chancery garden]. (18) La caída de Ramón, una caída libre sin ninguna red de protección, desmembró del todo el grupo familiar. Con esta derrota, la tensión interna familiar se agudizó [Ramon’s fall, a free fall with no safety net, entirely dismembered the family group. The family’s inner tension was heightened]. (19) Una impresionante tormenta encharcó completamente el campo azulgrana y provocó un apagón que hizo temer lo peor [An impressive storm completely waterlogged the blue and red pitch and provoked a blackout that made people fear the worst]. (20) Un deseo fuerte y tenaz traviste completamente al protagonista de la comedia [A strong, tenacious desire completely distorts the main character of the comedy]. The compatibility of the verbs included in our corpus with this test is practically total, with the exception of the verb ahijar [to adopt] (a partial causative-resultative by acquisition of a behavior or attitude), where the application of these adverbial modifiers does not seem to be possible: 19. “Has effectively reached its end.”



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 347

(21) Ellos han ahijado *completamente/del todo/totalmente a una niña china [They have *completely/entirely/totally adopted a Chinese girl]. With the specific meaning under examination here, ahijar [to adopt] is ‘to cause a person who is not your son/daughter to acquire the behavior or attitude which are typical of a son/daughter,’ that is, ‘turning someone into a son/daughter.” It seems obvious that this verb indicates the end of a bureaucratic-type process through which a child is adopted; which means that it is really an event indicating the result through which the child is adopted as their son/daughter by his/her new family. The incompatibility with the aforementioned adverbial modifiers may be due to issues of a cultural nature: nobody can adopt a child halfway (partially) or a little; in other words, either they adopt the child as a son/daughter (understanding it as completely or totally) or they do not do so.

4.5

Lentamente, cuidadosamente [slowly, carefully]

After arriving at the context of the aspectual categories that imply a change or progress and have a telic nature (additionally focusing on the last part of the event), it still has to be determined whether the verbs under analysis present some difference in terms of event duration; or expressed differently, it still remains to see if these are accomplishments or achievements or if there is a mixture of both categories. It must be remembered that, in the opinion of some authors, accomplishments and achievements do not shape two aspectual categories, but are actually integrated into a single category.20 However, on the basis of the traditional categorization into four action mode types, two aspectual tests were applied to determine whether the situation expressed by causative-resultative denominal verbs implies duration or not. The application of the adverb lentamente [slowly] or others such as cuidadosamente [carefully] or con parsimonia [calmly] allows us to discriminate whether the event has a duration or not (De Miguel 1999: 3038). This adverb is compatible with events that have some duration but cannot be admitted in instantaneous events or achievements. According to the statistics carried out by Coll-Florit (2011: 238), accomplishments have a higher co-appearance rate with this adverb than achievements – where it rarely appears. Verbs admitting co-appearance with these adverbs are more numerous in our study sample, as can be seen in examples (22) to (25): (22) Catedrático de Operaciones de la Escuela de Medicina San Carlos y dueño de su tétrica colección de monstruosidades, el cirujano –célebre, entre otras cosas, por momificar cuidadosamente a su propia hija–, llegó a un acuerdo con el Gigante para exponer y estudiar su impresionante esqueleto y comprender el origen de su anomalía 20. For the problems when it comes to distinguishing accomplishments and achievements, see the paper by F. Martin (2011).

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[Operations Professor at San Carlos Medicine School and owner of his gloomy collection of monstrosities, the surgeon – famous, amongst other things, for having carefully mummified his own daughter – reached an agreement with the Giant to exhibit and study his amazing skeleton, and understand the origin of his anomaly]. (23) La policía, de momento, no sabe nada del arma homicida con la que el agresor le seccionó lentamente el cuello [For the time being, the police know nothing about the murder weapon with which his aggressor slowly cut off his neck]. (24) Inspirando comenzaremos a arquear lentamente la espalda desde su base hasta la cabeza [Inspiring, we will start to arch our back slowly from its base to the head]. (25) Las drogas, el alcoholismo y el libertinaje sexual puede victimizar lentamente a cualquiera de nuestros hijos sin siquiera sospecharlo [Drugs, alcoholism and sexual licentiousness can slowly victimize any of our children without even suspecting it]. Even though, as has been previously said, a majority of causative-resultative denominal verbs can combine with these modifiers, it has also been checked that this combination is not admitted in some cases. Among total transformation ones, 13 verbs (19.69% of the total) do not admit it; this is sometimes due to the context where the verb appears, like in example (26) and, on other occasions, to the actual meaning of the event expressed by the verbal lexeme, like in (27): (26) Transmite su pesar por la barbarie, recuerda cómo hace 10 años una periodista japonesa murió justo enfrente del lugar cuando, al tratar de grabar imágenes de la batalla entre los soviéticos y los muyahidin que se libró sobre el puente de Sarobi, pisó una mina que despedazó *lentamente/cuidadosamente su cuerpo [He expresses his sorrow by the barbarism; he remembers how a Japanese journalist died ten years ago directly across from the place where, while he was trying to shoot images of the battle between the Soviets and the Muyahidin which was fought on the Sarobi bridge, he stepped on a mine which slowly/ carefully tore his body to pieces]. (27) Cabeceó tres, cuatro veces, astilló *cuidadosamente/lentamente el madero, corneó alguna de las zapatillas que asomaban y siguió su camino, tranquilo, a la orden de otros mozos más avezados [It nodded off three, four times, it carefully/slowly splintered the piece of timber, it butted some of the trainers which leaned out and continued to go on its way, calm, following the orders of more seasoned runners]. It seems evident in (26) that “una mina” [a mine] tears a body in a very rapid, immediate and punctual way; hence the consideration of the verb as an achievement in this context. As for example (27), it is also evident that if the astilla [splinter] is a piece



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 349

of wood which ‘salta o queda de una pieza u objeto de madera que se parte o rompe violentamente’21 (DRAE 2001), astillar [to splinter] will always be a punctual action, an event without duration or achievement; that is why it does not admit the aforementioned adverbial modifiers. In relation to partial transformation ones, there are 12 lexemes (16% of the total) which do not permit this co-appearance, also due to the two causes mentioned for the previous verbs: (28) Una terrible embestida combó *lentamente/cuidadosamente la puerta. Se escuchaban raspaduras de pezuñas, bufidos, el poderoso eco de una enorme presencia exterior [A terrible rush *slowly/carefully bent the door. One could hear scratches of paws, snorts, the powerful echo of an enormous outer presence]. (29) Para las 17.00 horas, Fernández Márquez y su grupo de marineros leales, libertaron *lentamente/cuidadosamente a los jefes de la base naval y consiguieron controlar el centro de operaciones [By 5 pm, Fernández Márquez and his group of faithful sailors, *slowly/carefully released the heads of the naval base and gained control over the operations center]. It seems clear in (28) that the action of combar [to bend] triggered by “una terrible embestida [a terrible rush]” can only be interpreted as a punctual event after the impact of the animal on the door. Similarly, the action expressed by libertar [to release] or “poner en libertad [to set free]” in (29) has no duration, although the event preceding this action probably did take place gradually (remember, for instance, the case of ahijar [to adopt] in (21), since the act of ahijar will also be punctual, even though the previous bureaucratic process can actually take long). According to these data, most of the verbs shaping our study sample would be accomplishments, and only a few of them would be achievements. Therefore, after the application of this grammatical test, it seems that the process through which an entity completely or partially acquires the features of another can have a longer or shorter duration, depending both on the elements involved in the process (the context where the verb is included) and on the process itself. Another durative grammatical construction will be applied next seeking to confirm this hypothesis.

21. “Comes off or remains in one piece from a wooden piece or object which splits or breaks violently.”

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4.6 Durante X tiempo [for X time] The grammatical construction “durante X tiempo” (as well as others of the type “en X tiempo [in X time]”22), as highlighted by De Miguel (1999: 3020–3021, 3032–3035 and 3039), is generally used to differentiate the event delimitation rather than its duration. According to her, delimited events that have some duration accept durante [for] “con valor de evento en desarrollo que aún no ha alcanzado el límite.”23 In other words, it is interpreted that the event “ha sido interrumpido antes de alcanzar su límite”24 and it can also have a “lectura repetida del evento, que implica sucesivas realizaciones.”25 Elena de Miguel also adds that in the case of verbs with an affected or effected object, which always have a limit, the adverbial phrase would indicate “el tiempo que estuvo ocurriendo el evento hasta que acabó.”26 In our view, this last value is the one that most of our verbs have in accomplishments. As for achievements, the author indicates that events without duration accept this durative modifier “con valor de iteración”27 or “con un valor no iterado si enfoca la fase subsiguiente al punto en que realmente culminó.”28 This second value appears in the case of complex achievement events, that is, those which she describes as having stages, since they mark the point where they occur and where they culminate. On the whole, it is our conviction that the verbs included in our corpus belong to this type, and they will consequently have this second value. The verification of these theoretical aspects in our sample leads us to observe that accomplishments are the most frequent aspectual class. Thus, in the case of total transformation causative-resultative denominal verbs, 81.81% (54 lexemes) are catalogued as accomplishments with the event limit interpretation, that is, the one which accompanies verbs with an affected or effected object, as can be seen in (30) and (31); of this percentage, 10 verbs also admit an iterative or repeated interpretation of the event, as exemplified in (32) and (33):

22. Our initial intention was to apply the construction “en X tiempo [in X time]” to the verbs in our corpus too, but the interpretations of accomplishments and achievements – with the meaning that they have in our sample (they are events culminating in one point) – coincide (see De Miguel 1999: 3039 about this), which is why that grammatical test was not going to reveal significant differences. 23. “With the value of an event in progress which has not reached its limit yet.” 24. “Has been interrupted before reaching its limit.” 25. “Repeated reading of the event, which implies successive realizations.” 26. “The time during which the event was occurring until it finished.” 27. “With an iteration value.” 28. “With a non-iterated value if the subsequent stage is focused on the point where it really culminated”.



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 351

(30) Aquella tarde, con las cámaras en la mano se preguntó en la llanura castellana. ¿Qué era aquel objeto que abrasó durante dos horas un campo e hizo cundir el pánico entre los agricultores? [That evening, with the cameras in his hand, he wondered on the Castilian plain. What was that object which burnt a field for two hours and spread panic among farmers?]. (31) Manuel trozó durante una hora un plátano maduro y lo pasó a su plato [Manuel cut up a ripe banana for an hour and put it on his dish]. (32) Es muy arriesgado asegurar que la primera mano que trituró y amasó durante unas horas la pasta de harina fue masculina [It is very risky to assure that the first hand which crushed and kneaded the flour paste for a few hours was a male one]. (33) La constatación de los tres incidentes desboronaba durante unas horas cualquier planteamiento lógico [The verification of the three incidents destroyed any logical approach for a few hours]. An event limit interpretation is performed both in (30) and in (31) because, to our understanding, “it took the object two hours to complete the event of burning the field” and “it took Manuel an hour to complete the event of turning the banana into pieces.” In (32) and (33), apart from interpreting that “it took a few hours to knead the flour paste” and “it took a few hours to destroy any logical approach,” it can be interpreted that “the flour paste was kneaded over and over again for a few hours” and that “any logical approach was destroyed over and over again for a few hours.” As for partial transformation causative-resultative denominal verbs, 84% of them (i.e. 63 predicates) are also accomplishments with an event limit interpretation, like in examples (34) and (35); similarly, from the previous set, 19 verbs admit an additional iterative interpretation, as shown by examples (36) and (37): (34) La sequía abarquilla durante dos horas los ramos de la “Planta de la Resurrección” [The drought curls up the “Resurrection Plant” branches for two hours]. (35) Entre los conocimientos que sirvieron para ajuglarar durante unas horas a Hugo de Saint Circ nombre el biógrafo las historias de personas distinguidas [Among the knowledge which served to ‘minstrel’ Hugo de Saint Circ for a few hours, the biographer can mention the stories about distinguished people]. (36) Los niños encanutaron durante una hora las hojas de papel [The children rolled the sheets of paper in the shape of tubes for an hour]. (37) Comprendí entonces, y eso fue lo que en realidad me cabreó durante horas, que si esas marujas peinadas por electrocución y esos sarasas de mesa camilla se sacan la tarjeta de visita, en ellas podrá leerse: “Periodista”

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[Then I understood, and that was what really annoyed me for hours, that if those gossip housewives combed through electrocution and those ‘brazier table’ queers produce their visiting card, you will be able to read ‘Journalist’ on them]. Our interpretation for (34) and (35) is that “it took the drought two hours for the plant branches to take the ‘curled up’ shape typical of a wafer)” and that “it took a few hours for the knowledge to make Hugo de Saint Circ acquire the attitude or behavior typical of a minstrel.” The previous interpretation can be followed in (36) and (37), more precisely, that “it took the children one hour to make the sheets acquire the shape of a tube” and that “the event of becoming annoyed took a few hours to occur,” or also an iterative interpretation, according to which “the children rolled the sheets of paper in the shape of tubes over and over again for an hour” and “I become annoyed for hours (I acquire the metaphorical features of a goat, that is, its tantrums) over and over again.” The remaining verbs, less numerous, can be aspectually catalogued within the achievement category according to the value of the durative modifier observed. As for the interpretation that they convey, the two possibilities described by Elena de Miguel (1999) can be observed. In the case of complete transformation verbs, 6.06% of them admit both the iterative reading and the non-iterated one, as can be seen in examples (38) and (39), whereas 12.12% of predicates exclusively admit a non-iterated value, like in (40) and (41). (38) Los dos fumaron en silencio, apurando los cigarrillos hasta el filtro, y aplastaron durante unos minutos las colillas contra el suelo casi al mismo tiempo [They both smoked in silence, smoking the cigarettes up to the filter, and crushed the cigarette butts against the floor for a few minutes almost at the same time]. (39) Cabeceó tres, cuatro veces, astilló durante una hora el madero, corneó alguna de las zapatillas que asomaban y siguió su camino, tranquilo, a la orden de otros mozos más avezados [It nodded off three, four times, it splintered the piece of timber for an hour, it butted some of the trainers which leaned out and continued to go on its way, calm, following the orders of more seasoned runners]. (40) En general, las grasas están formadas por acilgliceroles mixtos, es decir, los ácidos grasos que esterifican durante dos horas la glicerina [In general, fats are formed by mixed acylglycerols, that is, the fatty acids which esterify glycerin for two hours]. (41) El cometa Shoemaker-Levy 9 pasó tan cerca de Júpiter que las fuerzas de marea lo fragmentaron durante una hora en ocho pedazos claramente separados, de unos 5 km de diámetro cada uno [The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 passed so close to Jupiter that the tide forces fragmented it for an hour into eight clearly separated pieces, with a diameter of 5 kilometers each].



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It can be interpreted in (38) that they “crushed and were crushing the butts over and over again for a few minutes” or the focus can alternatively be placed on the subsequent stage where the action of aplastar [to crush] culminated; similarly, in (39), a repetition value can be given due to the utterance context (“cabeceó tres, cuatro veces [it nodded off three, four times]”), since the bull “splinters the piece of timber over and over again” with its repeated blows, or a non-iterated value, focusing on the point in time when the action of astillar [to splinter] culminates. However, (40) and (41) cannot have an iterative reading, because it is not possible to interpret that “for two hours, fatty acids turn glycerin into ester over and over again” or that “for an hour, the comet turns into fragments over and over again;” such interpretations are impossible because these verbs are used to focus the subsequent stage on the point where the events of esterificar [to esterify] and fragmentar [to fragment] really culminated. Finally, in the case of partial transformation causative-resultative denominal verbs, only 5.33% of them admit the two aforementioned readings of the durative modifier with the achievement category, as can be seen in (42),29 and 10.66% only admit the non-iterated value, as illustrated by (43) and (44): (42) Caminamos levantando nuestros pies para despegarlos del suelo chicloso. El poni se había quedado en lo hondo del bosque. La enfermera cruzó durante una hora sus brazos debajo de la capa [We walked lifting our feet to detach them from the chewing-gum-like ground. The pony had been left behind deep in the forest. The nurse crossed her arms under the cape for an hour]. (43) Con un escalofrío nemotécnico que le erizó durante dos horas los vellos del pescuezo, el juez, al ver la cara de Gumercindo Tello, recordó la inmutable mirada del hombre de la bicicleta y la revista “Despierta” con el que había tenido pesadillas [With a mnemonic chill that made his neck hairs stand on end for two hours, the judge, on seeing Gumercindo Tello’s face, remembered the unchanging face of the man on the bicycle and the magazine ‘Despierta [Wake up]’ about which he had had nightmares].” (44) En un país que congela salarios para converger en Europa, con dos millones largos de parados inscritos en el INEM, las cifras que endiosan durante horas a Ronaldo suenan a pura realidad virtual [In a country that freezes salaries to converge in Europe, with over two million unemployed people registered at the INEM [(Spanish) National Institute of Employment], the figures which deify Ronaldo for hours sound like pure virtual reality].

29. Only one example is included here because this twofold reading of durante [for] has not been found among verbs indicating the acquisition of a behavior or attitude by an experiencer.

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It can be interpreted in (42) both that “the nurse crossed her arms over and over again for an hour” (i.e. they acquired the shape of a cross) and that it focuses on the final point where that hour has elapsed and the action of cruzar los brazos [to cross the arms] has culminated. In the case of (43), it is difficult to interpret that “the chill made his neck hairs stand on end over and over again for two hours” because, in accordance with the context, it is a single chill and the associated sensation of making the hairs stand on end is punctual and not repeated, which is why it can only be treated as a non-iterated reading. Similarly, it cannot be understood in (44) that “for hours, the figures make Ronaldo acquire the features of a god over and over again;” the focus would be placed on the end of the action of endiosar [to deify]. In short, the application of this grammatical test with the adverbial modifier durante [for] suggests a prevalence of the accomplishment aspectual category inside our verb sample with the basic event limit interpretation, as it corresponds to verbs where the object is affected by the action. Nevertheless, some of these verbs catalogued as accomplishments permit the iterative reading too. To a lesser extent, it is possible to find verbs that can be aspectually classified as achievements according to the application of the durative modifier test and, in these cases, the most common reading is the non-iterative one which focuses on the stage following the point where the event culminates, even though a few verbal lexemes admit this reading as well as the one which has an iterative value.

4.7

Conclusions after the application of aspectuality tests

The first two grammatical constructions applied here, “ocurrir que + verbo [to occur that + verb]” and “después de + infinitivo compuesto [after + perfect infinitive]” have proved useful to verify that the verbs which make up our study sample have a dynamic nature, thus discarding the possibility of their having a stative character. As for the third grammatical construction applied, “acabar de + infinitivo [to end up + infinitive],” it has been proved that the denominal verbs analyzed here describe delimited dynamic events, telic ones; that is why their aspectual characterization had to be confined to accomplishments and achievements, insofar as states and activities or processes have an atelic nature. Seeking to verify that they were resultative verbs, as they had been intuitively characterized by us from a semantic point of view, a decision was made to apply the fourth grammatical test, which consisted in the combination with adverbial modifiers of the type completamente, del todo [completely, entirely] or totalmente [totally]; therefore, attention has been paid not only to their delimited or telic character but also to their impact on the final stage or on the result of the event. However, it still remained to confirm if all the verbs included in our sample were accomplishments or achievements or if, on the contrary, aspectual differences existed among the verbs shaping this semantic category. Insofar as the difference between the aspectual class of accomplishments and that of achievements resides in the duration of the event, the remaining aspectual tests were applied in our study too.



Chapter 15.  Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 355

The higher compatibility shown by the verbs in our sample with adverbs such as lentamente [slowly] or cuidadosamente [carefully] initially served to discriminate that most of our verbs expressed accomplishments, more precisely 82.26%, as opposed to 17.73% of the total, which seemed to be achievements. The adverbial modifier durante was finally applied seeking to reinforce this idea about the event duration feature, and the results lead to the same data: based on this test, our verb sample shows a predominance of the accomplishment aspectual category, with 82.97% of the total, as opposed to the lower frequency of the achievement class – which accounts for 17.02% of the corpus.

5. Conclusions The semantic class of causative-resultative denominal verbs includes those involving an externally caused change in the physical-material or psychical-attitudinal state where an entity acquires a property related to the causative event, and it is furthermore transformed or converted into a new entity. The degree of affectation and conversion of the entity affected can be complete or partial depending on the type of verb. From an aspectual point of view, the verbs examined here are categorized as delimited dynamic events of a terminative nature where the focus is placed on the final stage of the event. In accordance with the grammatical tests applied, they are mostly durative, but some of them have a punctual nature; in other words, the center of the causative-resultative denominal verb category are accomplishments and a small number of them can be aspectually characterized as achievements. Therefore, the present study has allowed us to see that the semantic class of causative-resultative denominal verbs does not correspond to a single aspectual category; instead, the events included in this semantic class move between two of the traditional aspectual categories, namely: accomplishments and achievements. Nevertheless, the overwhelming predominance of accomplishments over achievements proves two ideas: on the one hand, that a certain link exists between semantic category and aspectual category, in accordance with the syntactic evidence observed through the application of specific grammatical constructions; and, on the other hand, that aspectual categories are not closed, ‘watertight’ classes, but they come closer and are related to one another, which is why some lexemes can be found on the sides of these categories depending on their behavior within the syntactic constructions used, as well as on the context where the verb appears.

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References Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 2005. “Sobre verbos locatum y de localización.” In Palabras, norma y discurso. En memoria de Fernando Lázaro Carreter, Luis Santos Río, Julio Borrego Nieto, Juan Felipe García Santos, José J. García Asencio y Emilio Prieto de los Mozos (eds), 333–346, Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca. Clark, Eve V. and Clark, Herbert H. 1979. “When nouns surface as verbs.” In Language 55 (4): 767–811. DOI: 10.2307/412745 Coll-Florit, Marta. 2011. “Aproximación empírica a los modos de acción del verbo: Un estudio basado en corpus.” In Revista Signos. Estudios de Lingüística 44 (77): 233–250. De Miguel, Elena. 1999. “El aspecto léxico.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (dirs), 2977–3060, Madrid: Espasa. Fillmore, Charles J. 1976. “Algunos problemas de la gramática de casos.” In Semántica y sintaxis en la lingüística transformatoria, vol. 2, Víctor Sánchez de Zavala (comp), 171–200, Madrid: Alianza. Lieber, Rochelle. 2004. Morphology and Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511486296 Martin, Fabienne. 2011. “Revisiting the distinction between accomplishments and achievements”. In From Now to Eternity, Cahiers Chronos 22, Jesse Mortelmans, Tanja Mortelmans and Walter de Mulder (eds), 43–64, Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. Pena, Jesús. 1991. “La palabra: estructura y procesos morfológicos.” In Verba 18:  69–128. Pena, Jesús. 1993. “La formación de verbos en español: la sufijación verbal”. In La formación de palabras, Soledad Varela (ed), 217–281, Madrid: Taurus Universitaria. Plag, Ingo. 1999. Morphological Productivity: Structural Constraints in English Derivation. ­Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110802863 Real Academia Española. 2001. Diccionario de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa. Real Academia Española. Banco de datos (CREA) [en línea]. Corpus de referencia del español actual . Rifón Sánchez, Antonio. 1997. Pautas semánticas para la formación de verbos en español mediante sufijación. Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Serrano-Dolader, David. 1995. Las formaciones parasintéticas en español. Madrid: Arco Libros. Serrano-Dolader, David. 1999. “La derivación verbal y la parasíntesis.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (dirs.), 4683–4755, Madrid: Espasa. Talmy, Leonard. 1976. “Semantic causative types.” In Syntax and Semantics 6. The Grammar of Causative Constructions: 43–116. Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Cambridge/London: The MIT Press. Vendler, Zeno. 1957. “Verbs and times.” In The Philosophical Review 66 (2): 143–160. DOI: 10.2307/2182371

chapter 16

Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity from both a lexico-semantic and an aspectual point of view* Nuria Merchán Aravid The present paper deals with a specific verb class: parasynthetic denominal verbs with an inchoative meaning. Analyzing them requires connecting two notions that belong to different linguistic analysis levels: the morphological mechanism of denominal parasynthesis – a particular word formation process starting from a noun – and the semantic notion of inchoativity – which expresses a change of state in the notional subject. This relation is especially productive with affixes such as a- and em-/en-, and with the verbal endings -ar, -ecer and -ear. The aim of this survey is twofold: on the one hand, to show how the study of the conceptualization base in the resulting structure makes it possible to establish different groups of denominal parasynthetic verbs; and, on the other hand, to determine the aspectual characteristics of inchoative denominal parasynthetic verbs so as to try to identify the aspectual class to which they could belong. The outcome is a proposal of characterization and classification that fills the gap concerning inchoative parasynthetic denominal verbs, since they have not been systematically analyzed in Spanish grammars so far. Keywords: verb class, morphology, denominal, parasynthesis, semantics, inchoativity, aspect

1. Introduction This paper has as its aim to present our study about a particular verb class: the one formed by denominal verbs of a parasynthetic nature with an inchoative meaning. It is a type of verb form which has not been systematically and recurrently analyzed in

* This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R; and by the Generalitat Valenciana, under grant GV/2014/089. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.16mer © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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the field of Spanish linguistics; hence the need to focus on these forms. Understanding them will only be possible by linking two concepts which belong to different linguistic study levels: denominal parasynthesis, which has a morphological character; and inchoativity, of a semantic nature. Having established this connection, our first aim will consist in trying to establish a classification for the nominal bases of these verbs through their lexico-semantic analysis. Subsequently, another notion of syntacticsemantic implications will come into play: verbal aspect – our intention thus being to establish an aspectual characterization of the verbs under study.

2. Morphological and semantic connection: Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity are in contact through the following derivative schemes (Serrano Dolader 1995, 1999; Pena 1993): – [a + noun + ar] and [en + noun + ar]. These two derivative structures have a high productivity level in Spanish. Examples are: agusanarse, ajamonarse, empadrarse, and enamoriscarse. – [a + noun + ecer] and [en + noun + ecer]. These two frameworks with the suffix -ecer show a low productivity level. However, the original form of this suffix did have greater linguistic recurrence: -ecer comes from the Latin formant -sc-o/-scere, which belonged to the third Latin conjugation and usually had an inchoative meaning. Examples include: atardecer, embosquecer, and enmocecer. – [a + noun + ear]. It is a semantically well-defined or differentiated category, though not very productive. Examples are: alandrearse, and apendejearse. Obviously, these three morphological structures come to terms with the so-called denominal parasynthesis through affixation – a word-formation procedure (lexical or derivative morphology) that creates verbs (verbal derivation) from other kinds of words, in this case from a noun, following the morphological scheme [prefix + nominal base + verbal suffix]; in other words, it consists in simultaneously combining the other two mechanisms of word formation – prefixation and suffixation – on a nominal base, so that neither of the two units resulting from both processes exists in Spanish. For instance, there is the verb a-jamon-arse (‘about a person, especially a woman: to get fat when youth has passed’), originated from the noun jamón ([ham]), where it is not possible to separate *a-jamon or *jamon-arse, since neither of these two structures constitutes a meaningful grammatical form in Spanish. As for the lexical base, our analysis deals with parasynthetic verbs formed from nouns of Romance origin, i.e., nouns which have been clearly attested in the Spanish language. The aforementioned derivative structures are additionally the most common in Spanish when it comes to expressing the inchoativity semantic content. Inchoative



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 359

verbs, also known as ‘change of state’ verbs,1 are defined (Mendikoetxea 1999) as unaccusative intransitive verbs: verbs denoting states or non-agentive events that semantically require a single participant or argument, which in turn is syntactically realized as the predication subject and explained as the element suffering the action or the one where the denoted event takes place or manifests itself. Their syntactic subjects therefore play the semantic role of a passive or affected theme (notional object of the verb). In this sense, these subjects are the lexical entities which experience the change of physical or psychological condition expressed by the predicative structure (De Miguel 1999; Iacobini 2004). That is why, contrary to what other authors have said (Mendikoetxea 1999), ‘location’ or ‘change of position’ verbs cannot be regarded as inchoative verbs in our opinion since, as discussed above, it is our conviction that the denoted change only affects the physical or psychological state of the notional object, and not its spatial position. Representative examples can be the following verbs contextualized in sentences extracted from the Corpus Diacrónico del Español (corde) [Diachronic Corpus of the Spanish Language]: – the verb agusanarse, which means ‘about a thing: to become infested with maggots’, can be found in this sentence: (1) […] Sawa se me acercó, y me dijo en voz alta y tartamudeando: – Ese besugo podrido… de la reina Victoria… parece que todavía… no ha terminado de agusanarse […] [Sawa came up to me and, in a loud voice and stammering, said to me: ‘That rotten bream… of Queen Victoria … looks like it still has not… finished becoming infested with maggots’]  (P. Baroja, Desde la última vuelta del camino. Memorias (1944–1949),  Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 1978) – the verb enamoriscarse, which has the meaning ‘to fall in love with someone slightly and without great effort or, colloquially, to get a crush on someone’, appears in the following construction: (2) […] pero debe Ud. cuidar que no vaya a enamoriscarse de un pelafustán que la abandone al poco tiempo […] [But you must take care not to get a crush on a ragamuffin that leaves you before long]  (B. Pérez Galdós, Rosalía (1872), Madrid, Cátedra, 1984) – the verb atardecer, which in its first entry (corresponding to its nature as a verbal category) means ‘to get dark’, can be seen in the structure below: 1. Marín and McNally (2011), amongst others, do not treat the concepts of ‘inchoativity’ and ‘change of state’ as interchangeable, because the former refers to expressing the onset of an event (inceptive or ingressive verb), whereas the latter has to do with the expression of a change affecting the physical or psychological state of the experiencer subject.

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(3) […] Gente pobre, harapienta, con una caterva de perros de igual condición. ‘Empezaba a atardecer cuando aparecimos nosotros. Mire, yo nunca he visto nada igual’ […] [Poor, ragged people, with a bunch of dogs in similar conditions. ‘It was beginning to get dark when we showed up. Look, I’ve never seen anything like it]  (R. Walsh, Cuento para tahúres y otros relatos policiales (1951–1961),  Buenos Aires, Ediciones de la Flor, 1997) Another essential feature of inchoative verbs is their causative nature: they require a cause that triggers the denoted change of state. Two kinds of inchoative verbal units were analyzed in our paper according to the nature of that cause: external cause; and internal cause (Levin and Rappaport 1995; Mendikoetxea 1999). A predicate is defined as an ‘external cause’ event when an element external to the ‘passive’ object acts directly on the achievement of the event expressed by the verb. This external element is the cause argument, and it has a twofold expression: (a) on the one hand, there is a ‘dynamic’ or ‘real’ cause which may not appear explicitly in the clause – though it is always presupposed; if it does appear explicitly, it tends to be expressed by means of the prepositional phrase a causa de [because of]; (b) on the other hand, a ‘stative’ cause can be found, designated by the grammatical subject of these constructions. External cause inchoative verbs are characterized by the morphological presence of the clitic pronoun se, as can be seen in these examples: acapullarse (‘to take the shape of a cocoon’), emporrarse (‘about a person: to get under the influence of a joint’), and aniñarse (‘to acquire or adopt traits or behaviors of a child’). Focusing on the last verb and observing it in the following syntactic context… (4) […] Marta […] era un tipo distinto. […] sus facciones sonrosadas, suaves, frescas como las de una muñeca fina, la hacían aniñada y simpática […] [Marta […] was a different kind. […] her rosy, soft, fresh features, like those of a fine doll, made her look childlike and friendly]  (J. O. Picón, La hijastra del amor (1884),  Alicante, Universidad de Alicante, 2003 [corde]) … allows us to suggest a paraphrase as Marta se aniñaba a causa de sus facciones (Marta acquired a childlike appearance because of her features), where “Marta” is the lexical subject which presents the characteristics required to complete the process of “acquiring a childlike appearance” (stative cause), and the phrase “because of his features” appears as the explicit reason which triggers the process of acquiring a childlike appearance (dynamic or real cause). Furthermore, internal cause predicates with change of state verbs are unaccusative intransitive predicates (not agentive) characterized by the existence of a property that is inherent to the single verbal argument, the grammatical subject, which is responsible for the event taking place. Examples include: acogollar (‘about a plant: to breed buds’), emplumecer (‘about a bird: to breed feathers’), and ensarnecer (‘to be filled with scabies’).



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 361

3. Lexico-semantic analysis After introducing and linking the notions of denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity, the first aim sought with this study of denominal verbs of a parasynthetic and inchoative nature is to focus more specifically on the nominal bases of these verbal units for the purpose of trying to classifying them in lexico-semantic terms. From a semantic perspective, our working hypothesis is to check whether the inchoative meaning (change of state) that characterizes these verbal units can already be specifically determined by the noun from which they originated. This led us to distinguish two types of nouns: those denoting state; and those which do not express that idea of state because they refer to objects, concepts, etc., instead. The second type is not significantly numerous. Two examples can be found in the verbs aplayar (from playa [beach]; meaning: ‘about a river: to go out of the channel, extending through the fields’), and embosquecer (from bosque [forest]; meaning: ‘about a lot: to be forest, to become a forest’). The nominal base of such verbal units is an object or an entity, a beach and a forest in this case. These nouns are taken literally in their essence, and the change of state process is based on a total conversion of the lexical subject into the referent for those nominal bases; that is why the corresponding paraphrases are ‘to become a beach’ and ‘to become a forest’. Therefore, since they did not have bases that denoted – or could eventually denote – a state and thus exceeded the scope of the present study, this verb group has been ruled out for the time being. On another note, attention was paid to verbs formed from state nouns, which allowed us to separate two types of nouns according to the way in which they expressed the notion of state. On the one hand, there are nouns which intrinsically denote a state. According to the RAE [Spanish Royal Academy of the Language] (2010: 874–875), these are nouns which indicate a physical, emotional or consciousness state, so they express feelings, impressions, emotions, attitudes and various states of consciousness. Based on the type of state being denoted, it is possible to distinguish three large groups of inchoative denominal verbs: verbs derived from physical state nouns; verbs originated from emotional state nouns; and verbs created from state of consciousness nouns. These three such clearly defined verb types can be paraphrased using either the structure contraer x [to get x] or the structure convertirse en x [to become x] – the value of x being identical to the nominal base in both cases. On the other hand, nouns designating an object or expressing a quality which are likely to be reinterpreted as a state are identified as well.2 In Rifón’s words (1997: 126), “en estos últimos no se toma al sustantivo base como clasificador de una clase, sino como designador de las 2. The difference between this verb group and that formed by the verbs which were ruled out above lies in the following: the former (the one analyzed in this paper) includes verbs which have as their nominal bases nouns denoting objects from which it is possible to extract a quality or characteristic which can be interpreted or understood as a state – which means that the change of state process is based on that deduced and reinterpreted state; instead, the latter (the discarded one) is formed by verbs which originated from nouns denoting objects which are considered in their totality (without the possibility of any trait being reinterpreted as state),

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cualidades de una clase, cualidades que se consideran propias de un estado” ([in the latter ones, the nominal base is not taken as the classifier of a class, but as the instrument which designates the qualities of a class, [qualities] which are considered typical of a state]). Verbs with such a lexical base can be paraphrased using the structure hacerse como x [to make as x]. Table 1.  Classification of verbs depending on their nominal bases3

Verbs with state bases

Verbs with physical state bases

Verbs with bases reinterpreted as states

3.1

Groups

Paraphrase3

Physical state bases

Convertirse en X Contraer X

Emotional state bases

Convertirse en X Contraer X

State of consciousness bases

Convertirse en X Hacerse como X

Verbs with physical state bases

Firstly, a specification will be made of those verbs which have bases indicating a physical condition that can be associated with nature or human beings. Expressed differently, the inchoativity in such verbal units is understood as the expression of a change of state which may be experience either by a person in relation to any aspect of his or her body (condition, situation, feature, etc.) or by some element of nature or the environment. In turn, it is possible to distinguish five subgroups. The first subgroup is made up of verbs the lexical base of which indicates an atmospheric or meteorological condition, such as abonanzar, which means ‘about the weather or a storm: to grow calm, to clear’, and derives from bonanza ([fair weather]) in its meaning of ‘quiet and sober weather in the sea’. The structure convertirse en bonanza can serve to paraphrase this verb: (5) […] yo y toda la gente venimos tan maltratados de la mar, que nos fue necesario tomar algún reposo, y en tanto que el tiempo se abonanzaba y el navío se aderezaba, salí en tierra con toda la gente […] [Me and everyone, we came so damaged by the sea, that it was necessary for us to take some rest, and while the weather grew calm and the ship became straight, I went ashore with everyone (else)]  (H. Cortés, Cartas de relación (1519–1526),  Madrid, Historia 16, 1988 [corde]) the change of state process being consequently based on the complete conversion of the lexical subject into the object or entity in question, and not into one of its qualities. 3. These paraphrases have been proposed from those ones considered by Cifuentes Honrubia (2011) and Lavale Ortiz (2013)



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 363

The Example (5) above shows the verbal form abonanzaba ([grew calm]), the subject of which is el tiempo ([the weather]). This subject undergoes a change of state: the bad state of the sea is made explicit in the previous co-text and, therefore, the inclusion of the verb analyzed involves the expression of a change of weather for the better, since it becomes bonanza, that is, a calm and clear weather. Another verb subgroup is the one formed by verbs linked to states of health, more precisely the lack of health, since these verbs mainly refer to diseases or pathological disorders. For example, acalenturarse, which means ‘to start having/running a fever’ and comes from fiebre ([fever]); in this case, the corresponding paraphrase can be contraer fiebre . (6) […] ¿Verdá, Camila, que amaneciste con mucha dolencia de cuerpo y te sientes acalenturada ahora? […] [Isn’t it true, Camila, that you woke up with a strong body pain and you feel feverish now?]  (M. Azuela, Los de abajo (1916), Ayacucho – Caracas, 1991 [corde]) The verb acalenturar ([to get a fever]) exemplified in (6) appears in its non-personal past participle acalenturada, and it can be reformulated as ‘cuando alguien se calentura’ [when someone gets a fever]. The subject in this case is a human being, a woman called Camila; although that is not explicitly said, it is perfectly understood that she was fine, but when she woke up that day she apparently felt sick, with a fever and body discomfort. Therefore, she got a fever. The third group relates to the transitory physical and non-pathological states that a person can experience. In connection with the state of intoxication, one can find the verb empedarse, which means ‘to get drunk’ and stems from a colloquial use of the noun pedo, when it conveys the meaning of ‘(being) plastered, pissed [drunk]’. The fourth verb subgroup is built around the characterization of people from the point of view of their physical condition. An outstanding example is achaparrarse, which means the following: ‘about a person, an animal or a plant: to acquire a low and thick configuration in its growth’, and derives from the adjective chaparro ([squat, short]). Finally, the lexical base in a number of verbs has to do to with some physical sensation or impression, such as atufarse, which means to receive or take tufo – the meaning conveyed by the noun in this case being ‘pride, vanity.’

3.2

Verbs with emotional state bases

The second large verb group defined according to the type of state denoted by the lexical base is the one corresponding to emotional state. In this respect, the inchoative meaning related to this verb type consists in the expression of a change of state experienced by an animal being – including humans – insofar as animals are the only beings able to feel emotions. This group is made up of verbal units which can be classified

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into two subgroups. The largest subgroup comprises verbs with a nominal base that directly refers to feelings or emotions. On the emotion of melancholy or sadness we have amurriñarse, whose meaning is ‘to become sad’ and comes from the noun morriña ([homesickness]), ‘sadness or melancholy, especially the nostalgia of homeland’; emberrincharse is another representative verb, which means ‘particularly about a child: to get too angry, to get furious’ and derives from berrinche ([tantrum]), ‘great anger, and most commonly that of children’; the paraphrase corresponding to this second verb could be ‘contraer un berrinche’ . (7) […] TERESA. No sabéis bien lo que soy,  si de la suerte que estoy, me emberrincho y enquillotro. BERRUECO. Yo os pido perdón, Teresa […] [TERESA. You don’t know too well what I am, If because the mood I am in, I have a tantrum and become big-headed. BERRUECO. I apologise, Teresa]  (L. Vélez de Guevara, Don Pedro Miago (1614),  Fullerton, Calstate Fullerton Press, 1997 [corde]) The preceding Example (7) provides us with the first person singular verbal form ‘me emberrincho’ ([I have a tantrum]), which has ‘Teresa’ as its referent – therefore, the subject is an animate entity, a human being. This verbal form appears in a conditional sentence that can be interpreted as a threat, which means that the experiencer subject is not angry, but she could get furious, in which case her emotional state would change, and she would experience a new emotion: a tantrum. It is otherwise possible to group a number of verbs which describe personality traits or transitory emotional states of individuals. A significant example is enfierecerse, which conveys the meaning of ‘ponerse hecho una fiera’ [to turn/be turned into a wild animal/beast], where fiera ([wild animal/beast]) refers to a ‘cruel person or one showing a bad and violent behavior’; the structure which can help paraphrase the predicative construction on this occasion is ‘convertirse en una fiera’ . (8) […] A los de Ambers, Bruseles y Gante, viendo crecer el enemigo su vecino ya tan cerca, se enfierecieron tan fieramente que mataron algunos soldados dél […] [Those form Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent, the enemy seeing his neighbor grow so close, they got so fiercely angry that they killed some soldiers]  (L. Cabrera de Córdoba, Historia de Felipe II, rey de España (1619),  Salamanca, Junta de Castilla y León, 1998 [corde]) The verbal form enfierecieron ([got angry]) appears in (8) with the subject ‘los de Amberes, Bruseles y Gante’ ([those from Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent]), an animate entity which refers to the inhabitants of those cities. This verb expresses a change of



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 365

emotional state experienced by the aforesaid human beings: men pass from a more or less peaceful state to become fieras, in the sense of angry and violent beings; which is why those murders are attributed to them.

3.3

Verbs with state of consciousness bases

The third and final group differentiated within verbal units with a specific state base is characterized by having nouns denoting a state of consciousness or the position/role held/performed by a person in his or her social environment. That is, the inchoativity in these verbs involves the expression of a change of state experienced by human beings with respect to their position in society, their status. Two important examples are: the verb aburguesarse, which means ‘to acquire qualities typical of a bourgeois (member of the bourgeoisie/middle class)’ and derives from the noun burgués ([bourgeois]) ‘accommodated middle-class citizen characterized by a certain social conformity’; and the verb adueñarse, which conveys the following meaning: ‘about a person: to become the owner of something or to seize/take over it’ and comes from the noun dueño ([owner]) in the sense of ‘man who has power or lordship over someone or something’. The paraphrases of these two verbal constructions could be ‘convertirse en burgués’ and ‘convertise en dueño’ , respectively. Let us see an example of the first verb: (9) […] La sociedad estaba sin duda trigonométricamente trastocada, como decía Raimundo Bueno de Guzmán. Los aristócratas se aburguesaban, y la señora de Sebo ponía en su sombrero los plumachos que eran signo de distinción social […] [The society was certainly trigonometrically disrupted, as Raimundo Bueno de Guzman use to say. Aristocrats became bourgeois (members of the bourgeoisie), and Mrs. Sebo put in his hat the plumes which were a sign of social distinction] (B. Pérez Galdós, España trágica (1908),  Alicante, Universidad de Alicante, 2002 [corde]) The verbal form used in (9) – ‘se aburguesaban’ ([became bourgeois/members of the bourgeoisie]) – has as its subject ‘los aristócratas’ ([aristocrats]), an animate entity, a group of human beings. The intention sought in this construction is to express the change of state undergone by the lexical subject: aristocrats have stopped being members of the noble and privileged class to become members of the wealthy middle class, which represents for them going down on the social scale.

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3.4

Verbs with bases expressing a noun reinterpreted as state

In addition to verbs where the lexical base designates a state strictly speaking, there is another way for bases to express this notion of state: the base role can be played by nouns denoting an object or a quality which are likely to be reinterpreted as a state. The inchoative meaning is not formed directly from the state specifically denoted by the noun base this time; instead, it stems from a property of the object or entity designated by the nominal base, a characteristic which is highlighted and interpreted as the state towards which the process of change expressed by the verb and experienced by a lexical subject that can be either animate or inanimate is oriented. An outstanding example of this can be found in the verbal form acartonarse, which means ‘to make like cardboard, especially used when talking about people who become scrawny when they reach a certain age’. It derives from the noun cartón ([cardboard]), understood as a ‘set of several sheets of paper plaster overlapping which, when they are wet, adhere to each other by compression and dry up after evaporation’. The scrawny and dry traits stressed by the verb can be inferred from this definition, as shown in (10); therefore, the structure that permits to paraphrase this verbal form would be ‘hacerse como el cartón’ . (10) […] Y comenzó á tener hijos. Y tuvo el segundo y perdió el primero; y tuvo el tercero y perdió el segundo, y así sucesivamente hasta el octavo. Esto acabó de agriar su carácter, la acartonó sin tiempo y empalideció sus carnes hasta la lividez […] [And she began to have children. And she had the second one and lost the first; and she had the third one and lost the second, and so on and so forth to the eighth. This ended up making her character bitter; it made her wizened in no time and made her flesh become so pale that it looked livid]  (J. M. de Pereda, La Montálvez (1888),  Madrid, Imprenta de M. Tello, 1888 [corde]) Another significant verb is alimonarse, which conveys this meaning: ‘about certain evergreens such as the olive tree: to get sick their leaves becoming yellow’. This verb comes from the noun limón ([lemon]), ‘fruit of the lemon tree, ovoid, […] and often yellow in color, […]’; the yellowish trait which the verbal meaning transmits is made explicit by the definition above, which leads us to suggest ‘hacerse como el limón’ as the most appropriate paraphrase, based on the characteristic yellow color of this fruit. A special mention finally deserves to be made of the verb endiosarse, which means ‘to behave like a god, to be arrogant’. It derives from dios ([god]), ‘supreme being which in monotheistic religions is regarded as the maker of the universe’, a definition from which one can easily deduce the traits of omnipotence and grandiosity which are often associated with pride – considered in the verbal form; thus, the paraphrase could be ‘hacerse como un dios’ .

Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 367



Table 2.  Exemplified classification of verbs according to their nominal bases

Verbs with state bases

Verbs with physical state bases

Groups

Paraphrase

Examples

Physical state bases: abonanzar, acalenturarse

Become X Get X

Become bonanza [fair weather] Get calentura [fever]

Emotional state bases: enfierecerse, emberrincharse

Become X Get X

Become una fiera [beast] Get un berrinche [a tantrum]

Consciousness state Become X bases: aburguesarse Verbs with bases reinterpreted as state: acartonarse

Make as X

Become un burgués [a bourgeois] Make as cartón [cardboard]

4. Aspectual characterization The second objective of this study consists in trying to determine the aspectual characteristics which define inchoative denominal verbs of a parasynthetic nature. The notion of verbal aspect describes the syntactic-semantic verbal category which comprises a wide range of information items related to the way in which the event described by a predicate takes place. The three basic criteria which define events from an aspectual perspective are: dinamicity; telicity; and durativity (Vendler 1967; Olsen 19994; De Miguel 1999; Kearns 2007; Real Academia Española 2009; Marín and McNally 2011; Rodríguez Rosique 2013; amongst others). The first aspectual feature that our attention is going to be focused on is dinamicity: inchoative denominal verbal units are verbs used to express events which happen and which change or progress over time while they are happening. According to Dowty (1979), “all dynamic verbs involve change”. Thus, since they describe a change, in this case a change of the state that the lexical subject finds itself in, change of state verbs have a dynamic character. Nevertheless, an essential distinction needs to be drawn between two types of change lexicalized by verbal units: scalar and non-scalar changes (Rappaport and Levin 2008). Verbs denoting scalar change events lexically specify a scale; this scale includes a set of degrees (gradual scale), or points/intervals indicating measurement values, in ​​ a particular property or dimension, with an associated order relationship (Kennedy and McNally 2005; Rappaport and Levin 2002, 2008). In this sense, the group of change of state verbs describes events which contain a scale in a particular property, a property where the change of state experienced by the affected object occurs. In change of state verbs of a denominal nature, such scalar structure is expressed through the base noun: the noun which serves as the origin to form the verbal expression incorporates an adjustable nuance; that is, the noun base should be interpreted as an element expressing a property susceptible to constitute a

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gradual scale in which an object may undergo a change. There are two types of scales, according to Rappaport and Levin (2008): – A two point scale or one with two qualities that experiencer entities may have or not in a particular property: initial state and final state. The transition from one state to another is instantaneous (Beavers 2008). – A multiple-point scale, or one with a variety of intermediate points, during which the theme moves forward gradually or progressively. For these authors, the changes of state contained in this sort of scale are called ‘degree achievement’ or ‘gradual change.’ Kennedy and McNally (2005) and Kearns (2007), amongst others, suggest another parameter when they present the composition of the property scale: the existence of boundary values. The following types of scales can thus be found: – Open scales: scales which lack boundaries and have no minimum and maximum elements or value​s. This type of scale is not compatible with proportional and endpoint-oriented degree modifiers such as half/partially/mostly and completely/fully because they precisely emphasize the final limit of the scale, which open scales do not have. (11) The gap widened. #The gap was half-wide/completely wide. The gap is widening = The gap has widened. – Closed scales: scales which are characterized by having minimum/maximum values or boundaries. In turn, such scales can be divided into: scales with a single minimum value (lower-closed scale); scales with a single maximum value (upper-closed scale); and scales with both minimum and maximum boundaries (totally-closed scale). Those scales are modifiable by the proportional and endpoint-oriented degree adverbs mentioned above. (12) The paint dried. The paint is half-dry/completely dry. The paint is drying ≠ The paint has dried. When Kennedy and Levin (2008) talk about degree achievements, they suggest the concept of ‘measure of change’ function, which measures the extent to which an object changes along a scalar dimension as a result of participating in an event. As they explain: A change necessarily entails a shift along some dimension; when that dimension is a scalar one, the change corresponds to a difference in degree.

Precisely because they are change of state verbs, the verbal units examined here – i.e. inchoative verbs of a denominal nature – are structured through a scale of property; and this scale stems from the actual base noun: the noun which serves as the origin



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 369

to form the verbal expression incorporates an adjustable nuance; more precisely, the base noun should be interpreted as the designator of a property that can constitute a gradual scale where an object may undergo a change. The reference is to an incremental theme in this regard: these verbs designate properties which can be measured, and the theme changes gradually along that property, so the event progresses while the argument or object is simultaneously affected.4 Therefore, incrementality is a specific case of event scalar organization (Rodriguez Rosique 2013). Precisely the nature of the verb’s nominal base is responsible for the creation of the scale, since that scale can be of several kinds depending on the type of base noun from which it comes: – Inchoative denominal verbs with two-point scales. These verbs express a complete change of state, since it is a process based on the transition of the subject entity from an initial state to a final state, with no possibility for this entity to find itself in an intermediate state during the process. Furthermore, this change is semantically complete because the actual meaning of the verb denotes the state in like that: it does not need a pragmatic reinforcement, so it does not accept adverbs of quantity or degree such as un poco/bastante [a bit/quite], proportional adverbs such as medio/parcialmente [half/partially] or endpoint-oriented degree adverbs such as completamente/totalmente [fully/completely]. A representative example would be the verb emberrincharse: (13) Mi hermano pequeño se emberrinchó ¿un poco?/¿completamente? [My little brother had a tantrum ¿a bit?/¿completely?] In (13), the lexical subject “my little brother” changes from not being to being furious or angry (initial state and final state), but it cannot ¿?emberrincharse un poco (to have/throw a tantrum a bit) either ¿?emberrincharse completamente (to have/throw a tantrum completely) since it has no intermediate stages. Inchoative denominal verbs possessing such scales of property are those which can be paraphrased using contraer x [to get/become x], as the meaning goes from not having the value of X to having it, but it cannot have half of it. In addition, the nominal base of these verbs characteristically has a ‘superlative’ sense because it marks the upper boundary of a scale, which is precisely the final point or end state reached by the lexical subject. All of this was verified in the case of the verb emberrincharse, and it is found in these other verbal forms too, namely: acatarrarse (‘to catch a cold’); amelarchiarse (‘to have melancholy’); and enfuriarse (‘to become furious’, ‘about wind or sea: to stir up, to agitate’). If these verbs accept the adverbial phrase a bit or any of the adverbs of quantity or proportion mentioned above, then the adverbial particle has an impact on the amount or extent of the base noun understood as the end state point (a bad cold, a great fury, a big melancholy) and not on the actual process of getting:

4. Rodríguez Rosique adapts the example provided by Dowty (1991) and explains that if someone orders the gardener que corte el césped [to mow the lawn], and after a while he comes back, it is possible to observe how the event has progressed taken the state of the grass as a reference.

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something is contracted or not contracted, but it cannot be ‘contracted a bit’, although it is possible to ‘contract a bit of x’. – Inchoative denominal verbs with multiple-point or intermediate-stage scales. These verbs show a change of state which can be minimal or complete depending on the degree or point of the scale denoted by the verbal form. To that end, it is possible to modify the semantic scope of the verbal unit through the aforementioned adverbs: un poco/bastante, medio/parcialmente and completamente/totalmente. These are consequently pragmatically reinforced changes (they may or may not carry other particles to specify the type of change denoted). (14) a. El nuevo empresario se aburguesó un poco/completamente [The new entrepreneur became a bit/completely bourgeois] b. El mar se encalmó un poco/se medio encalmó/se encalmó completamente [The sea calmed down a bit/half calmed down/calmed down fully] Two inchoative denominal verbs expressing a change of state in the lexical subject can be observed in (14). This eventive process has a multi-point scalar composition, as shown by the adverbs with which verbal units are combined (‘un poco,’ ‘half ’, and ‘completely’): they highlight the different stages that the entity goes through until it reaches the state designated by the nominal base (burgués and calma, respectively), a state which involves a change with respect to the initial state of the event. Inchoative denominal verbs which are structured through such type of scales are those which can be paraphrased using the schemes convertirse en x and hacerse como x, since these structures have a gradual nuance: they are conversions or transformations, processes which can be minimal, halfway or total in terms of their scope. Examples are: achaparrarse (‘about a person, an animal or a plant: to acquire a low, thick configuration during the development’); engranujarse (‘to pretend to be rogue, to go off the rails’); abolsarse (‘to take bag shape’); and arrequesonarse (‘about milk: to curdle’). From the point of view of scale limits, inchoative denominal verbs are characterized by having upper-closed scales or lower-closed scales. On the one hand, there are verbs with minimum values​​which denote a process of change that leads to a state understood as initial, but this process can move forward. This is illustrated by examples such as: ajamqonarse (‘about a person, especially a woman: to get fat when youth has gone’; initial state: to become a bit more stout/fat); encerar (‘about grain: to take the color of wax or to yellow, ripen’; initial state: to turn yellow in the sense of ripe). By contrast, some verbs present maximum values​​; in other words, they denote a process of change that results in an end state, so it is a completed process, as can be seen in: ajaquecarse (‘to feel attacked by migraine’; end state: to have migraine), and emperezar (‘to be overcome by laziness’; end state: to be lazy). The telicity criterion in the verbal units analyzed is determined by the scalar structure which they present. In this sense, they are characterized by a variable telicity (Kearns 2007; Kennedy and Levin 2008). The availability of telic/atelic sense is predicated by the nature of the relevant property scale interacting with a quantity



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 371

implicature of ‘completeness’. Thus, according to the aforementioned authors, these verbs have a telic interpretation by default from a semantic perspective (by their own meaning, without pragmatic reinforcements), given the closed nature of the property scale. Kearns (2007) mentions a test of this telic reading: the possibility of combination with the adverb almost, as shown in (15a), which can have the reading ‘The paint dried to some extent but not completely – it became almost dry’; the event started but it was not fully completed. It contrasts with (15b), in which only the counterfactual reading is possible: ‘The gap didn’t widen in fact but there was a high probability that it would’. (15) a. The paint almost dried. b. The gap almost widened. (16) Casi anocheció cuando llegamos [It almost got dark when we arrived] The sentence in (16) shows us one of the denominal change of state verbs included in the corpus of this study which can be emphasized as a representative example: anochecer ([to get dark]). It is understood from the sentence that it did not get completely dark; in other words, night almost fell but it was not dark yet. Another proof for the telic value of the verbal units analyzed here is the possibility for them to accept modifiers with preposition en [in]: such an adverbial phrase indicates how long it took to complete the event denoted in the construction, i.e., the delay before the event occurred, thus emphasizing the end state point is emphasized. (17) La pared se abolsó en un día debido a la humedad [The wall got baggy in a day because of damp] The event described by the inchoative denominal verb abolsarse in (17) has been completed. It is telic, since the wall has come to get a bag shape; it has become deformed due to humidity. However, telic/atelic variability lies not only in the semantic value of the verb, but also in the syntactic context and the specific collocations. Therefore, a closedscale verb may have an atelic sense where the ‘completely’ implicature is cancelled by modification with an adverbial expression such as durante… [for…] or pero no completamente [but not completely]. Modifiers with durante indicate the time interval during which the event occurred; that is, they express the duration of the state resulting from the verbal process. It can be said that something took place “for x time” when the event described by the predicate occurs as such in all subparts (i.e., in every moment) of the time interval marked by the prepositional phrase. The expression pero no completamente cancels the value of ‘completeness’ which characterizes telic events understood like this by default. (18) a. La pared se abolsó durante un día [The wall became baggy for a day] b. La pared está abolsada, pero no completamente abolsada [The wall is baggy, but not completely baggy]

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In (18) neither sentence shows a completed or finished event, but an event in process, an atelic event, so its end state is not highlighted due to lack of interest or lack of knowledge. There is a repeated reading of the event, or an unfinished reading here. In (18a) the cancellation of the ‘completeness’ implicature is done by the adverbial phrase introduced by durante. The telic value is also cancelled in (18b), on this occasion through the expression pero no completamente. As for the durativity parameter, it is closely related to the distinctions already established. Because they express a change of state, inchoative verbs constitute dynamic events which expand over a time interval or period during which the change of state denoted takes place (De Miguel 1999: 3030–3039; RAE 2009). This interval or period may be longer or shorter. The scalar structure which characterizes these verbal forms allows us to check this durative feature: the existence of several degrees or stages in the eventive development makes the process have a specific durativity – a period of time during which the experiencer entity goes through those various intermediate points. This can be observed in (19) through the adverbs of quantity which identify the stage in which the subject finds itself during the event of aniñarse: (19) Cuando cumplió los 30, se aniñó un poco/bastante/mucho/totalmente [When he was 30, he started to behave a bit childishly/to have a quite/very/ totally childish/childlike behavior] Another test which can prove that the units analyzed incorporate some durativity is their ability to admit the periphrasis (an event which is in progress), as shown in the following examples: (20) a. La leche está arrequesonándose; pronto habrá que tirarla [Milk is separating; we will have to throw it out soon] b. Ese niño se está engranujando demasiado [That child is becoming too roguish] c. #La bomba está explotando [The bomb is exploding] In (20a) and (20b), the verbs arrequesonarse and engranujarse are denominal inchoative and have a durative character. Evidence of this is provided by the fact that they can be built with the aforementioned progressive periphrasis. By contrast, (20c) includes the verb explotar, a specific verb which lacks durativity: it happens in a concrete and specific time, so it does not naturally admit the periphrasis. Moreover, the phase criterion incorporated by De Miguel in her explanation of the aspectual category (1999: 3024) is related to the scalar nature of inchoative denominal verbs. Because it progresses and changes, a dynamic event consists of different phases, which means that a focus can be placed on its initial phase, on its intermediate phase, or on its final phase. In this sense, it needs to be highlighted that, contrary to what some authors have claimed (RAE, Marin and McNally5), inchoative verbs cannot be 5. See footnote 1.

Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 373



regarded as synonyms of inceptive or ingressive ones – those describing the start of an event. On the contrary, as already mentioned, an inchoative verb is one that expresses a change of physical or psychological state which the subject has experienced or is experiencing, and that change of state denoted by the verb can be viewed in different stages of its development, that is, in various stages or degrees of the scalar structure. In other words, it is possible to find: – Inchoative verbs focused on the start of the stage, on the starting point, which means that these verbs are defined as ‘ingressive’ or ‘inceptive’. They are verbs with lower-closed scales. As far as scale degrees are concerned, these verbs can be structured by means of both two-point scales and multi-point scales. Examples are: acalenturarse (from calentura [fever], ‘to start to have a fever’); and asomar (from somo [summit], ‘to have some start of drunkenness’). – Inchoative verbs centered on the development or intermediate point, on its progress, which is why they are called ‘progressive’. These verbs characteristically have multi-point or multi-degree scales, and emphasis is placed on one of the intermediate points. Regarding scale limits, these verbs usually have lower-closed scales. Examples include: ajumarse (from juma [drunkenness], ‘to get drunk’); and envarracarse (from varraco [pig], ‘to fall in love blindly’). – Inchoative verbs targeted at the final stage or phase – and accordingly called ‘resultative’ or ‘terminative.’ They are verbs with upper closed scales. As for scale limits, these verbs own both two-point and multi-point scales. Examples could be: acartonarse (from cartón [cardboard], ‘to become like cardboard, especially used to talk about people who become scrawny when they reach a certain age’); and ensarnecer (from sarna [scabies], ‘to be filled with scabies’). All this characterization of inchoative denominal verbs through different aspectrelated criteria allows us to identify – to some extent – which aspectual class such verbal units belong to, according to Vendler’s classification (1967). This is an issue which has traditionally raised and still raises conflicting opinions and approaches. Table 3.  Characterization of the aspectual classes Aspectual clases

Dinamicity

Telicity

Durativity

Activities Accomplishments Achievements States

Yes Yes Yes No

No Yes Yes No

Yes Yes No Yes

In the first place, the idea that inchoative denominal verbs should be assigned to the state class can be ruled out: they do not denote state events because the latter express change; and states neither change nor progress. The variable telicity which characterizes inchoative denominal verbs, as has already been discussed in this study (in some contexts, they are bounded or telic and, in others, they are non-delimited or atelic), together with the durativity criterion

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(verbal units are analyzed as durative events), suggests the possibility for them to constitute activities as well as accomplishments. The events under study will adapt to the accomplishment class in durative delimited contexts – but they will be included within the activities in durative atelic contexts. (21) a. La señora se encaprichó del vestido [The lady clung to the idea of the dress] b. La señora se encaprichó del vestido durante días [The lady clung to the idea of the dress for some days] c.  La señora se encaprichó del vestido, pero no completamente: no insistió excesivamente en que se lo compraran [The lady clung to the idea of the dress, but not completely: she did not excessively insist on the fact that someone should buy the dress for her] d. El chico se enamoriscó en dos días de Laura [The boy got a crush on Laura in two days] e. Mi amiga se está ajamonando a causa del tratamiento hormonal [My friend is getting plump because of the hormonal treatment] f. […] Se trata de la primera y única comedia escrita por Centeno, quien confiesa […] que escribió la pieza con la intención de ‘poder compensar el teatro basura que se está adueñando de nuestros escenarios’ […] [It is the first and the only comedy written by Centeno, who admits having written the piece with the intention of ‘being able to compensate the junk theatre which is taking control of/taking over our stages] (Prensa La Razón, “‘La visita de Diana’, de Centeno, hoy en  el Español” (2003), Madrid, Grupo Planeta, 2003 [CREA]) g. […] Aquel grandísimo egoísta –por tal le tenían su hijo y su consuegro– parecía ablandarse de corazón y aun aniñarse ante el niño. Solía ir a hacerle dibujos, lo que encantaba a la criatura. ‘Abelito, ¡santos!’, le pedía […]  [That big egoist – that is how his son and his son’s father-in-law saw him – seemed to soften up his heart and even to act childishly in the presence of the child. He used to make drawings for him. ‘Abelito, saints!’ he asked him)  (M. de Unamuno, Abel Sánchez. Una historia de pasión (1917),  Madrid, Turner, 1995 [corde]) Sentences (21a), (21d), (21f) and (21g) contain inchoative denominal verbal forms expressing telic events. Both in (21a) and in (21g), the meanings of the verbs se encaprichó and aniñarse, the former conjugated in preterit perfect simple and the latter in a non-personal infinitive form, are responsible for the delimited nature of eventualities expressed (semantic telicity by default, without any pragmatic reinforcements). Similarly, the verb enamoriscó in (21d) provides the construction with that telic value, although in this case the value is reinforced by the adverbial phrase ‘en dos días’, which indicates how long it took to complete the denoted event. In (21f), the verb appears in the form of a progressive periphrasis: ‘se está adueñando’, which usually indicates duration; however, if the imperfective paradox is applied (si se está adueñando, no se



Chapter 16.  Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity 375

ha adueñado [if it is taking control of, it has not taken control of]), the conclusion drawn would be that the verb has a telic character (until the event is completed, it does not take place). In turn, sentences (21b), (21c) and (21e) contain denominal change of state verbs with an atelic interpretation. In these cases, it is the syntactic contexts that determine the unbounded telicity, since they involve a cancellation of the ‘completeness’ implicature. The phrase ‘durante días’ in (21b) introduces a durativity value: it specifies the time interval during which the event occurred, but the end result or end state is unknown. In (21c), the cancellation of the completeness nature in the telic aspect is due to the appearance of the expression ‘pero no completamente’, which explicitly includes that sense. Finally, the verbal form is periphrastic in (21e): the inchoative denominal verb ajamonarse combines with the periphrasis , which has a nuance of progression, of durativity. In this case, the application of the imperfective paradox (si se está ajamonando, se ha ajamonado [if she is getting plump, she has got plump) implies an atelic interpretation of the construction (although the event has not been completed, it has taken place to a greater or lesser extent). With regard to the achievement class, the verbs analyzed do not fulfill the timeliness criterion: they do not occur at a single moment, at a specific moment, but have certain durativity, although this varies in terms of length (short development or long development). However, the fact that inchoative denominal verbs are structured through a gradual scale of property where the change denoted by the verbal unit occurs has led some authors (Hay, Kennedy and Levin 1999; Beavers 2008; Kennedy and Levin 2008; Levin and Rappaport 2008) to propose another concept or term to classify this verb group: degree achievements. This is a special type of events within the achievement aspectual class characterized by a variable telicity according to the explicit morphosyntactic or contextual information. They express a change of state based on a scale of degrees, which somehow means that the degree achievements are not so specific, they are actually more flexible and may cover a more or less brief period of time. Some of the English verbs which belong to this special class are: cool, darken, dry and widen. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the accomplishment class and degree achievement class share the same characteristics: they are dynamic, telic and durative. However, they differ in terms of process interpretation and end state. Some examples provided by Kearns (2007) with English verbs can help illustrate this explanation: (22) a. The soup cooled in a few minutes. b. The soup was becoming cooler throughout a period of a few minutes, and at the end of that period the soup was cool. (accomplishment) c. At the end of a few minutes the soup became cooler. (degree achievement) Two contrast points become visible between accomplishments and degree achievements in (22): on the one hand, the adverbial with in expresses the delay of the event with a degree achievement, and the durativity of the event with an accomplishment; and, on the other hand, a degree achievement has a comparative end state, whereas an accomplishment has a standard end state.

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Therefore, based on all the above, it is possible to deduce that inchoative denominal verbs do not fit in a single specific aspectual class; they may actually express activities (atelic and durative events), as well as accomplishments (telic and durative events) or degree achievements (telic, durative and with a comparative nuance events). The degree of interpretive variability will depend partially on the specific meaning of the verbal unit and partially on the syntactic and pragmatic context where the verb form in question appears.

5. Conclusions As a conclusion that can be drawn from the goal-oriented analysis, it can be stated that inchoative denominal verbs of a parasynthetic nature permit to express events which are characteristically dynamic and which can focus on any of the three phases or degrees in the process (beginning, intermediate or final). Moreover, such events can be telic or atelic depending on the composition of the scalar structure which defines them and on the pragmatic context which delimits them – and they can also have a shorter or longer duration depending on the time interval that they comprise. Their aspectual classification consequently becomes a broad as well as complex task: they can be classified both as activities and as accomplishments and degree achievements according to the function performed by each specific construction. In short, from a general perspective, our goal in this paper was to try to show the analysis of a limited number of verbal forms considered to be a representative sample of the most common parasynthetic structures presented by inchoative denominal verbs. This analysis can shed light on semantic concepts such as inchoativity and morphological concepts such as parasynthesis – from its lexical configuration. As far as aspect is concerned, our only aim was to provide some proposals for the analysis and classification of the verbs examined. Thinking of possible research works in the very near future, it is our intention to confirm or corroborate the aspectual hypothesis formulated here through a more exhaustive exemplification of this verb group.

References Beavers, John. 2008. “Scalar Complexity and the Structure of Events.” In Event Structures in Linguistic Form and Interpretation, J. Dölling and T. Heyde-Zybatow (eds.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis. 2011. “Spanish deadjectival verbs and argumental structure”. In Spanish Word Formation and Lexical Creation, José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia and Susana Rodríguez Rosique (eds.), 65–105. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. De Miguel Aparicio, Elena. 1999. “El aspecto léxico.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), 2977–3060. Madrid: Espasa. Dowty, David. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-9473-7



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Dowty, David. 1991. “Thematic Proto-Roles and argument selections.” Language 67 (3): 547–619. Hay, Jennifer, Kennedy, Christopher and Levin, Beth. 1999. “Scalar Structure Underlies Telicity in ‘Degree Achievements’.” In Proceedings of SALT 9, 127–144. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Linguistics Circle Publications, Cornell University. Iacobini, Claudio. 2004. “Parasintesi.” In La formazione delle parole in italiano, M. Grossmann and F. Rainer (eds.), 165–188. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Kearns, Kate. 2007. “Telic senses of deadjectival verbs.” Lingua 117: 26–66. DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2005.09.002 Kennedy, Christopher and Levin, Beth. 2008. “Measure of Change: The Adjectival Core of Degree Achievements.” In Adjectives and Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics and Discourse, Louise McNally and Christopher Kennedy (eds.), 156–182. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kennedy, Christopher and McNally, Louise. 2005. “Scale Structure, Degree Modification, and the Semantics of Gradable Predicates.” Language 81: 345–381. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2005.0071 Lavale Ortiz, Ruth María. 2013. Verbos denominales causativos en español actual. Universidad de Alicante. Levin, Beth and Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 1995. Unaccusativity. At the Syntax-Lexical Semantics Interface. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Marín, Rafael and McNally, Louise. 2011. “Inchoativity, change of state and telicity: Evidence from Spanish reflexive psychological verbs.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29: 467–502. DOI: 10.1007/s11049-011-9127-3 Mendikoetxea, Amaya. 1999. “Construcciones inacusativas y pasivas.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), 1575–1629. Madrid: Espasa. Olsen, Mari Broman. 1994. “The Semantics and Pragmatics of Lexical Aspect Features.” Studies of Linguistic Sciences 24: 361–375. Pena, Jesús. 1993. “La formación de verbos en español: la sufijación verbal.” In La formación de palabras, Soledad Varela (ed.), 217–281. Madrid: Taurus Ediciones. Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Levin, Beth. 2002. “Change of State Verbs: Implications for Theories of Argument Projection.” In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 269–280. Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Levin, Beth. 2008. “Reflections on Manner/Result Complementarity.” In Syntax, Lexical Semantics, and Event Structure, Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav and Ivy Sichel (eds.), 21–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Real Academia Española. 2009. Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Rifón, Antonio. 1997. Pautas semánticas para la formación de verbos en español mediante sufijación. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela. Rodríguez Rosique, Susana. 2013. “El valor aspectual de los verbos reversativos: Claves para un proceso de verbalización.” Círculo de Lingüística aplicada a la comunicación 54: 99–129. DOI: 10.5209/rev_CLAC.2013.v54.42374 Serrano Dolader, David. 1995. Las formaciones parasintéticas en español. Madrid: Arco/Libros. Serrano Dolader, David. 1999. “La derivación verbal y la parasíntesis.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte (eds.), 4683–4755. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Vendler, Zero. 1967. Verbs and Times. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

chapter 17

Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs* Herminia Provencio Garrigós This paper shows a diachronic research about the aspectual nature of the verbs doler [to hurt], picar [to itch], arder [to burn], escocer [to sting] and hormiguear [to tingle]. Special attention is paid to physical affection meanings (to suffer or experience pain, itch, burning, stinging and tingling in some part of the body), which basically denote a stative aspectual value. The priority aim of this research is to prove that, throughout the diachrony of the Spanish language, these verbs have traveled between staticity and dynamism, which permits to establish a prototypicity scale within the class of transitory, uncontrolled states where these verbs belong. The existing theoretical proposals about state predicates are considered, and a diachronic-corpus-based is utilized in order to achieve this aim. Our findings suggest that the aspectual continuum results from the combination of three elements: the lexico-semantic characteristics of the verb; the syntactic contexts where it is inserted; and the pragmatic conditions perceived by the person who experiences the affection denoted by the predicate. This union is projected in the different ways to conceptualize transitory, uncontrolled states, and it highlights that, despite being the prototypical physical affection state verb in Spain, doler [to hurt] is the one which presents a higher degree of dynamism because it appears in a greater number of dynamic contexts. Keywords: actionality, transitory states, prototypes, diachrony

1. Introduction The verbs doler, picar, arder, escocer and hormiguear and their corresponding nouns – dolor, picor, ardor, escozor and hormigueo – activate some images about which conceptualization differences are perceived and felt; even if it is, for instance, by applying to each one of those physical sensations or endogenous experiences the gradients * This research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under grants FF2010-19946 and FFI2013-45693-R; by the University of Alicante, under grant GRE 11-17; and by the Generalitat Valenciana, under grant GV/2014/089. doi 10.1075/ivitra.9.17pro © 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 379

of intensity and duration or even by imagining ourselves which part of the body is affected by these complaints (dolor en la cabeza [pain in the head], picor en la pierna [itch in the leg], ardor en el estómago [burning in the stomach], escozor en la boca [stinging in the mouth] or hormigueo en la mano [tingling in the hand]. Nevertheless, these verbal lexemes share a set of qualities among which stand out: belonging to the same semantic class (physical affection verbs); having the same syntactic alternations (subject/locative) to express one of their two arguments; and sharing the same lexical aspect or action mode (uncontrolled transitory states).1 Checking the certainty of this last statement from Spanish language diachrony requires answering the following questions: “Can an aspectual prototypicity scale be established within the semantic sub-class of physical affection verbs?” and “Has the stative aspectual behavior of physical affection verbs been homogeneous in their linguistic evolution?”. The starting point is the hypothesis according to which a correlation exists between the lexico-semantic characteristics of the verb, the syntactic contexts where it is inserted, and the pragmatic conditions perceived by the person who experiences the affection denoted by the predicate. Seeking to answer those two questions, a methodological strategy was designed which has taken into account the theoretical and conceptual approaches that must underpin an analysis like the one carried out here. A semantic and syntactic characterization of the selected verbs is firstly presented (§ 2), followed by the description of the theoretical framework that will encompass the analysis (§ 3), which starts from the quatripartite proposal made by Vendler (1957) about aspectual categories, from the criteria used to establish it, and from the sentential constituents which have an impact on the aspectual image of the event and which will be responsible for the process of approach to dynamic events experienced by physical affection predicates (§ 3.1). The next section has as its aim to list the qualities which have generically been attributed to states and the two sub-types into which the bibliography has divided them (permanent and transitory) (§ 3.1). Subsequently, and as a result of the problems related to adequacy and delimitation that every linguistic category entails in relation to its elements, a proposal is made for a line of research that tries to solve them: the prototype theory (§ 4). The applicability of this theory necessarily leads to consider the aspectual features which are typical of physical affection uncontrolled states. These features are formulated from an analysis of diachronic corpora supported on the empirical combination of the aforesaid five verbs with sentential contexts which are handled in the scientific literature to delimit the four aspectual classes (§ 4.1). The results obtained will mainly prove useful for two things: firstly, to know which physical affection verb is the closest or the furthest from the prototype of transitory states; and secondly, to propose which verb would be the most representative one within the sub-category where it belongs (§ 4.1.6). 1. In English, they would correspond to some of the verbs included in the typology carried out by Levin (1993: 224–226) for “verbs of bodily state and damage to the body” (pain verbs, tingle verbs, hurt verbs).

380 Herminia Provencio Garrigós

Seeking to make this proposal as empirical as possible and with the aim of avoiding that halo of intuition which surrounds the aspectual concept of state (Cuartero Otal 2011: 99), a decision was made to use the following corpora:2 Corpus Diacrónico del Español (CORDE) [Diachronic Corpus of Spanish], Corpus del Español (CE) [Corpus of Spanish], Corpus de Documentos Españoles Anteriores a 1700 (CODEA) [Corpus of Spanish Documents Prior to 1700], Biblia Medieval (BM) [Medieval Bible], online version of the Archivo Digital de Manuscritos y Textos Españoles (ADMYTE) [Digital Archive of Spanish Manuscripts and Texts], and, finally, the recent Corpus del Nuevo Diccionario Histórico del Español (CNDH) [Corpus of the New Historical Dictionary of Spanish]. Using some of these databases has great advantages, for instance, one of the most evident ones is the possibility to have a large number of examples available in a short time, but also great drawbacks, the most often repeated one being the absence of lemmatization and morphological and syntactic labeling in some of these corpora, which implies carrying out laborious searches and, as a result of it, the – probably incomplete – collection of all the interesting examples.3 To this must be added that it is necessary to act cautiously when looking for the grammatical constructions (sentential contexts) which are usually handled to characterize aspectuality, because they have been elaborated from modern Spanish and, therefore, it will not be possible to apply some of them due to the linguistic and graphic changes occurred throughout the diachrony of the Spanish language (cf. Suárez Fernández 1996; Yllera Fernández 1980).4 In the light of the above, it is necessary for us to insist on the idea that statistical data, as well as the examples offered in relation to the action mode of physical affection verbs, must not be seen as absolute, but as a sample that makes it possible to observe the diachronic trend in the aspectual behavior of some uncontrolled transitory-state verbs. As can be deduced from these first introductory words, the present work is included within a research context that focuses on the continuum existing between the present and the past of the Spanish language that raises the most controversy: lexical aspect. 2. All the examples provided in this study have been extracted from the aforelisted corpora. 3. The bibliography about linguistic research works based on diachronic corpora highlights the limitations as well as the methodological benefits derived from using some of these databases. About this, see: the articles included in Enrique-Arias and Torruella (2012) and Rojo (2012). 4. For example, the prepositional phrase , which has among its functions that of “measuring the duration of the event from its beginning to its end” (García Fernández 1999: 3141) combines with transitory-state verbs. However, it must be taken into account that, according to Corominas and Pascual (1980–1994), the preposition durante [for] is documented as such in 1440 and has its origin in the grammaticalization process undergone by the active participle of durar [to last]. Another aspect worthy of attention is medieval periphrases – for the lexical and semantic change processes that they underwent – especially during the early stages of Castilian romance (Yllera 1980).



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 381

2. Physical affection verbs: Semantic and syntactic characterization In Latin, the verbs dolēre (doler [to hurt]), ardēre (arder [to burn]), excoquĕre (escocer [to sting]) and formicāre (hormiguear [to tingle]) were polysemic, and picāre (picar [itch]) was monosemic. They had transitive uses (dolēre, picāre, excoquĕre), intransitive uses (dolēre, ardēre) and impersonal ones (dolēre). Dolēre and formicāre are the only ones which had the meaning of physical affection (Glare 1968): dolēo ~ēre ~uī […] 1. To suffer physical pain, to be in pain, to ache. (…) (of body parts, etc.) to be painful, hurt, (also impers.). formicō ~āre […] 1. (of the skin) To experience formication.

Arder, picar and escocer gradually developed their meaning as a consequence of a metaphorical projection process (Fernández Jaén 2014). The first cases documented in the corpora of doler with the aforementioned meaning appeared in the 13th century, those of escocer and arder in the 14th century, those of hormiguear, in the 15th century and, finally, those of picar, in the 16th century. The following examples illustrate some of these early textualizations: (1) a.  Agora le duele la cabeça agora los ojos agora las muelas agora el estomago [Now his head hurts, now his eyes, now his teeth, now his stomach]. 

(XIII, CE)

b.  Sepas que al ffalcon que arde mucho el pie que a ffiebre [(You should know) that the falcon whose foot burns a lot has a fever].  (a. 1300, CORDE) c.  E dizen que el Rauano que escueze & non cueze / & cuece: quiere tanto dezir: que escuece […] / enla boca y enlos paladares [They say that the radish which stinges and does not boil: (this) means that it stinges […] in the mouth and in the palate]. (c 1381–1418, CORDE) d.  & quando la saliva haze los labros hormiguear & la lengua arder & sudar [When saliva makes the lips tingle and the tongue burn and sweat].  (1494, CORDE) e.  Mal va al gallo / quando / le pica el papo [Something is wrong with the rooster / when its crop itches]. (1549, CORDE) During the diachronic evolution from Latin to Castilian romance, these verbs have maintained their polysemic character, to which picar has been added. Some of their meanings are semantically related; this is what happens with the senses that express phyiscal, psychical or emotional sensations, affections and reactions (RAE 2009: 2687– 2688). Thus, by way of example, the DRAE (2014) proposes the following ones among its six meanings to describe physical and psychical states in the case of doler:

382 Herminia Provencio Garrigós

doler. intr. 1. Dicho de una parte del cuerpo: Padecer dolor, mediante causa interior o exterior [Said about a part of the body. To suffer pain through an internal or external cause]. Doler la cabeza, los ojos, las manos [the head, the eyes, the hands, hurt]. // 2. Dicho de una cosa: Causar pesar o aversión [Said about a thing: To cause sorrow or aversion]. Le dolió la incomprensión de la gente [People’s lack of understanding hurt him].

These meanings – which already appear in the Diccionario de Autoridades [Dictionary of Authorities] – can be observed in (1a) and in (2): (2) Y si antes me dolían las ansias, los sospiros y los continuos desassosiegos de don Felis… [And if Don Felix’s yearnings, sighs and his constant uneasiness used to cause me pain (before)].  (1540, CE) Something similar happens in the remaining verbs: the physical meaning is presented from the Diccionario de Autoridades until the current edition of the DRAE (2014) except for the verb arder [to burn], which was first mentioned in the Diccionario manual e ilustrado de la lengua española [Manual and Illustrated Dictionary of the Spanish Language] in 1983 (“experimentar ardor alguna parte del cuerpo [to experience burning in some part of the body]”) although there are examples documented in previous centuries (3a), which means that it is possible to speak about a metaphorical extension with respect to the meanings of the Diccionario de Autoridades which refer to psychical affection: “hablando de pasiones, es estar poseído de ellas, como de amor, ira, odio &c. [speaking about passions, is being possessed by them, like love, anger, hate, etc.]” (3b): (3) a.  … & vieremos que le arde la boca del estomago mucho… [And if we see that the pit of his stomach burns a lot].  (XV, CORDE) b.  Et ahora arde la mi alma / en mi mismo. [Now my soul is burning / inside myself].  (XIII, BM) The present study focuses on the meaning linked to physical affection in some part of the body. Below can be found a compilation of the definitions offered by the first academic dictionary where they appear, together with those of the 2014 edition, in which no significant variations can be found: doler v. n. Padecer sentimiento alguna parte del cuerpo, que está viciada o lisiada, por medio de alguna causa interior o exterior que la aflige: como Doler la cabeza, ojos, manos, pies &c. (Diccionario Autoridades 1732)

doler. intr. 1. Dicho de una parte del cuerpo: Padecer dolor, mediante causa interior o exterior. Doler la cabeza, los ojos, las manos  (DRAE 2014)



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 383

arder. intr. Experimentar ardor alguna parte del cuerpo. (RAE, Diccionario manual e  ilustrado de la lengua española 1983)

arder. intr. 2. Experimentar una sensación de color muy intesno en una parte del cuerpo. Me arde la lengua.  (DRAE 2014)

picar. Significa también sentir escozor ú comezón en alguna parte del cuerpo, por encendimiento de sangre u otra causa. (Diccionario Autoridades 1737)

picar. intr. 29. Dicho de una parte del cuerpo de alguien: Hacerle experimentar picor. Me pica la garganta.  (DRAE 2014)

escocer. v.a. Ocasionar ó causar un dolor fuerte, que parece quema y cuece la carne: como hace el azóte que levanta el cardenal, ó la sal y vino echados en la herida ó llaga. (Diccionario Autoridades 1732)

escocer. intr. 1. Producirse una sensación parecida a la causada por quemadura.  (DRAE 2014)

hormiguear. v. n. Picar el cuerpo con un comezón entre cuero y carne, lo que más comúnmente sucede en los pies y manos quando se adormecen. (Diccionario Autoridades 1734)

hormiguear. intr. 1. Dicho de una parte del cuerpo: Experimentar una sensación de cosquilleo más o menes intenso, semejante a la que resultaría si por ella bulleran o corrieran hormigas.  (DRAE 2014)

The semantic connection described between the five unaccusative verbs permits to say that they have similar alternations in the syntactic rendering of the two arguments selected, without this meaning that their basic meaning constituents are modified (Cifuentes Honrubia 2010: 13–14). It has been checked in specialized studies (Sánchez López 2003, 2007; Elvira 2006, 2009a, 2009b, 2011;5 RAE 2009: 2544, 2698, 3075) that these verbs are characterized by semantically selecting two arguments which appear in a whole-part relationship: (a) external, represented by the unstressed dative pronoun with a possessive interpretation;6 it designates the person (the ‘whole’) affected by the pain, the itch, the burning, etc., who cannot exert any control over them – see (4); and (b) internal, conceptualized either as a nominative, and it would be the grammatical subject in this case – (4a, b), or as locative through a prepositional phrase with en [in/ on], which is interpreted as the place where it hurts, itches, burns, etc. – (4c, d); the verb is used impersonally in this last case.

5. Certain features of these constructions have been studied from a synchronic point of view by Sánchez López – and from a diachronic point of view by Elvira. 6. This leads to understand that the body parts (head, arm, leg, etc.) affected by the pain or any other physical affection belong as an inalienable possession to the person designated by the dative.

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(4) a. DAT [owner]whole + verb + NP(noun phrase)-subject[owned thing]part b. … me duelen las çeruizes. [… my cervical vertebrae hurt.] (1449, CORDE) c. DAT [owner]whole + verb + PP(prepositional phrase)-locative object [owned thing]part d. … me arde en la piel… [… it burns in my skin…] (1955, CORDE) These two constructions, which have their origin in the Latin language,7 show two basic features of special interest for the present research work: their stative nature and the absence of control over what is denoted by the verb. In accordance with the postulates of Elvira (2011: 191) and in the context of this research, the construction with a subject has been associated over time with stative, non-delimited events: “we may assume that the Dat. + Ver + Nom. pattern is associated in Spanish with an uncontrolled state or event”. This statement can be extended to the structure . A considerable number of verbs have adopted this construction in the diachrony of Spanish, including the old pronominal use of doler, as can be seen in (5): (5) Si el enfermo se duele en los estentinos… [If the sick person has pain in the intestines…] 

(a. 1500, CORDE)8

Because of their double possibility to designate physical and psychical states, these affection verbs have been included in the semantic class of psychological verbs (RAE 2009: 2688),9 which have as their defining feature a rendered experiencer argument, either as a subject (temer [to fear], odiar [to hate]), a direct object (preocupar [to worry], obsesionar [to obsess]), or a dative (placer [to please], gustar [to like],10 apetecer [to feel like/fancy]) (Belletti and Rizzi 1987). The verbs examined in this research would belong to the structure with a dative – as specified in previous lines and in (4) – regarded as an intransitive and stative bi-actantial construction (Gutiérrez Ordóñez 1999: 1879–1880; Elvira 2006, 2009); according to Marín Gálvez (2011: 26, 41), in the existing studies about dative experiencer psychological verbs, there is wide agreement when it comes to allocating them to states and, more precisely, to individual-level ones (§ 3.1).11

7. See Elvira (2006, 2009a, 2009b, 2011) to examine all the clarifications about the evolutionary process that these constructions have gone through from Latin to Castilian (Spanish). 8. The examples found in the corpora of this pronominal use with a locative object of the body part affected by the pain mostly refer to a psychical pain in the heart. 9. According to the RAE (2009: 2688), this terminological identification is “perhaps too strict an interpretation of the ‘psychology’ concept”. 10. In order to obtain a diachronic vision of the change experienced by the verb gustar [to like] from the transitive Latin construction to the stative Castilian one with a dative experiencer and a subject in the nominative, see Elvira (2006, 2009a, 2009b, 2011). 11. Cf. Rivero (2010).



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 385

The idea mentioned at the beginning of this section will be resumed by way of conclusion: these verbs are polysemic, they have other meanings which reflect differences in their argument structure and, consequently, they are likely to show their belonging to other aspectual categories, as highlighted by Coll-Florit (2012: 157–160) with the verbs contener [to contain], pesar [to weigh], reunir [to gather], cruzar [to cross], enmarcar [to frame], proceder [to proceed] and salir [to go out] which have both stative and dynamic meanings. A representative example of polysemy is the verb picar,12 which can be said to have a stative aspectual interpretation – already mentioned and exemplified in (6a) – and dynamic interpretations too: “cortar o dividir en trozos muy menudos [to cut or divide into very small pieces]” (DRAE 2014) – as in Example (6b) – or “golpear con pico, piqueta u otro instrumento adecuado, la superficie de las piedras para labrarlas, o la de las paredes para revocarlas [to hit with a pick, pickaxe or another suitable instrument, the surface of stones to carve them, or that of walls to render them]” (DRAE 2014) – Example (6c).13 (6) a.  … cuando me da el sol, me pican los ojos… [when the sun heats me, my eyes itch].  (1885–1887, CORDE) b.  … toman muchas calabazas verdes y las pican menudas… [they take many green pumpkins and chop them very small].(1504, CE) c.  Voy a […] picar la piedra de la fachada. [I am going to […] render the stone on the façade].  (1876, CE) As it was anticipated in (§ 1), and seeking to ensure that this proposal is as realistic as possible, a search was made for the occurrences of the five verbs under study here in the constructions of (4a, c) and with the meaning that implies physical affection. A total of 682 examples were found, distributed as follows: 538 with doler, 74 with arder, 39 with picar, 18 with escocer and 13 with hormiguear.14 What has been said so far leads us to say that the diachronic evolution of these verbs has made them share a single semantic characterization and, in principle, the same stative behavior. The contents of the next section are meant to focus the reader’s attention on some theoretical approaches of the aspectual theory that underpin the rationale behind this work.

12. Corominas and Pascual (1980–1994) point out that it is an expressive creation word. 13. The basic meanings shown of picar have been maintained since its first inclusion in the Diccionario de Autoridades. 14. It was shown in a previous study (Provencio Garrigós, in press) that the structure with a locative object (4c) in the verbs doler, arder, picar and escocer (documented since the 16th century with the physical affection meaning) exerts its influence on periphrastic personal expressions such as: . The data extracted confirmed that Castilian Spanish preferred to express the local conceptualization of the affected body part using the periphrastic construction with a locative object – impersonal constructions with that object not being used until the 16th century.

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3. Aspectuality and states A debate has remained open in theoretical and applied research for a few years now about the so-called lexical aspect or action mode (Aktionsart, Actionality), that is, about “the aspectual information contained in the lexical units that constitute predicates” (Miguel 1999: 2982), to which it becomes necessary to resort in order to analyze and understand, for example, the grammaticality of (7a) and (7b) as well as the agrammaticality in (7c), where the imperfective form is incompatible with the temporal delimitation; instead, it is not with the perfective verbal form: (7) a.  … & dixo asu padre, duele me la cabeça, du|ele me la cabeça. [said to his father, my head hurts, my head hurts]. (h. 1250, BM) b.  … & dixo asu padre, dolio me la cabeça, dolio me la cabeça en aqueillos dias. [said to his father, my head hurt, my head hurt in those days].15 c. *… & dixo asu padre, duele me la cabeça, du|ele me la cabeça en aqueillos dias. [*said to his father, my head hurts, my head hurts in those days]. Generically, the term aspectuality must be seen as: una noción semánticamente homogénea, una zona de contenido único. Constituye una propiedad general de los predicados que presenta […] muy variadas manifestaciones (a través de mecanismos morfológicos sistemáticos, diferencias léxicas y sintácticas) [a semantically homogeneous notion, a single content zone. It constitutes a general property of predicates that presents […] highly varied renderings (through systematic morphological mechanisms, lexical and syntactic differences)]  (Miguel 1999: 2981)

One needs to look back on 1957 (Vendler) to find the most influential proposal about the aspectual classes of verbs (Miguel 1999: 3030, n. 61) (See Table 1). This proposal takes into account the presence or absence of three features that affect the time shaping of the event denoted by the verb: dynamic vs. static, durative vs. punctual and delimited (telic) vs. non-delimited (atelic). The applicability of these features results in four types of events: states, activities, accomplishments and achievements:16

15. The expression en aqueillos días has been extracted from another fragment of the same work with the aim of showing grammaticality and agrammaticality in the examples. 16. This proposal has been qualified and re-elaborated in subsequent works, for example in those written by Pustejowsky (1991, 1995), Fernández Lagunilla and Miguel (2002) or Miguel and Fernández Lagunilla (2000, 2007).



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 387

Table 1.  Aspectual classes and features Aspectual classes States Activities Accomplishments Achievements

Aspectual features

Examples

Dynamism

Duration

Delimitation

– + + +

+ + + –

– – + +

ser, estar, amar nadar, trabajar escribir, construir descubrir, llegar

Based exclusively on the semantic-aspectual features of the verb, it becomes evident, for instance, that states with the verb ser do not admit their combination with specific grammatical constructions that imply an intrinsic time limit, as in (8a), which predicates a subject condition that is alien to any temporal and/or spatial limitation, and neither can they combine with constructions implying progression and succession of temporal stages, which is what happens (8b) with the progressive periphrasis : (8) a. * De noche17 ellas son mugieres & vos sodes varones; en todas guisas más valen que vos. [*At night, they are females and we (are) males]. (XIII, CE) b. *… ellas están seyendo mugieres & vos sodes varones. [*… they are being females and we (are being) males]. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering what has already been highlighted in the studies about aspectuality (Miguel 1999: 2979, 2994, 2997): the semantic-aspectual features contained by the verb are influenced by other elements which coexist in the sentence (“the syntactic context”) and which can modify, qualify or reinforce their basic aspectual meaning, including: … la información que aportan otros participantes en el predicado (el sujeto y los complementos) y otros elementos como los modificadores adverbiales de tiempo y lugar, la negación y la propia información temporal-aspectual de la forma en la que la raíz del verbo aparece flexionada. [… the information provided by other participants in the predicate (the subject and the objects) as well as other elements such as time and place adverbial modifiers, negation, and the actual semantic-aspectual information of the form in which the verb root appears inflected]. (Miguel 1999: 2985)

This last characterization is shared by the physical affection verbs treated here, regarded by the bibliographical tradition as verbs denoting non-dynamic events (§ 2). However, observing them in real use contexts allows us to verify that physical affection verbs have always moved between staticity and dynamism.

17. de noche has been added to the original text seeking to adapt the example to the explanation.

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3.1

General characterization of states

Descriptions of states usually mention that they have a set of generic qualities that define them as opposed to dynamic events (achievements, accomplishments, and activities) or that they share with them (Miguel 1999: 3012–3014):18 1. A state is an event which exists, that is, which does not occur or happen: (9) a. Estoy un poco delicada; me duele el pecho… [I am a bit weak; my chest hurts].  (1884, CORDE) b. *Estoy un poco delicada, ocurre que me duele el pecho… [I am a bit weak; my chest happens to hurt].19 c. El codico me arde, madre, / madre mía, el codo me arde. [My little elbow is burning, mother / my God, my elbow is burning].  (1641–1643, CORDE) d. *Ocurre que el codico me arde, madre, / madre mía, ocurre que el codo me arde [My little elbow happens to be burning, mother / my God, my elbow happens to be burning]. 2. A state lacks agentivity; it does not have a responsible agent subject:20 (10) a.  Y aun después acá me duelen las muelas de la manera que no puedo sosegar. [My teeth still hurt, which means that I cannot find relief].  (1603, CORDE) b. *Y aun después acá me duelen las muelas muy voluntariamente. [*My teeth still hurt, voluntarily]. c. ¡… me pica la cabeza por dentro! [… my head itches inside].  (1930–1948, CORDE) d. *¡… lo que la cabeza hizo fue picarme por dentro! [… what my head did was itching inside].

18. A decision was made to use the theoretical proposal developed by Miguel (1999), which coincides in many of its items with those made, amongst others, by: Fernández Leborans (1995, 1999), Rodríguez Espiñeira (1990), Vázquez, Fernández and Martí (2000). The examples were extracted from the diachronic corpora and the linguistic tests mentioned by Miguel (1999: 3012–3014) were utilized. The examples including the symbols * and ? were adapted from the original fragments. 19. Miguel (1999: 3012, n. 45) points out that, for cases such as those in (9b, d) ocurrir can also mean “it happens that…”, “the thing is that…”. 20. Gómez Vázquez and García Fernández (2013: 339) highlight that the presence of an agentive subject is feasible in “the sub-class states that have subjects with the capacity to control or maintain the situations described” in examples such as: “Antonio estuvo callado deliberadamente [Antonio deliberately remained silent]”. See also Morimoto (2011: 131–137).



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 389

3. A state always exists in a homogeneous way; therefore, it lacks dynamism; it can neither express nor imply a change or progression during the time in which the conditions of existence for the denoted fact remain valid – which are usually given by the context. This would be the main feature distinguishing states from dynamic events (achievements, accomplishments, and activities): (11) a. El que le duele el diente, lleve la lengua a él [Whoever has a tooth which hurts should place the tongue on it].  (a. 1600, CORDE) b. ?El que poco a poco le duele el diente, lleve la lengua a él [Whoever has a tooth which hurts little by little should place the tongue on it]. Nevertheless, it must be added that these verbs can reflect progress with the periphrases and gradual advance with adverbial expressions such as (12a–d) and (12e). No debate will be introduced at this stage about whether transitory stative verbs accept – or not – to combine with progressive periphrases or constructions, this fact has already been validated in the bibliography – even for permanent stative ones (Miguel 1999: 3013) – as can be attested by the search for examples in the corpora. (12) a.  Y así pensando, toma el rumbo de su casa a paso no muy largo, porque la rodilla le va doliendo cada vez más. [He is on his way home walking slowly, because his knee hurts more and more]. (1870, CORDE) b.  Pero, con todo esto, sería bien, Sancho, que me vuelvas a curar esta oreja, que me va doliendo más de lo que es menester. [However, all in all, it would be good, Sancho, if you cured this ear of mine, which is hurting more than it should, again].  (1605, CORDE) c.  … prefiere detenerse […], aunque su mano izquierda le duela cada vez más… […he prefers to stop […] even though his left hand hurts more and more each time…]  (1945–1964, CORDE) d.  … el brazo derecho le dolía cada vez más y el cuello, debido a la constante y forzada inclinación para sujetar la caja del violin… [… his right arm hurt more and more each time and the neck, due to the constant and forced bow (inclination) to hold the violin…] (2002, CE) e. ?… me están picando poco a poco las narices. [my nose is itching little by little].  (1765, CORDE)21 It deserves to be mentioned that the periphrasis has experienced changes of great importance since it appeared documented back in the 17th century:

21. Example adapted with the periphrasis; the original reads like this: “me pican las narices”.

390 Herminia Provencio Garrigós

… estar significa en nuestros primeros textos “permanecer transitoriamente en un lugar o en un estado”, su función es localizar en el espacio o en el tiempo una situación transitoria. De este valor originario conservará hasta nuestros días su tendencia a construirse con gerundio para expresar acción “que se está desarrollando”, “que permanece”. […] Con determinados verbos de cambio, progreso, puede tomar, debido al contenido semántica del gerundio, un valor progresivo: Se está haciendo un hombre, Se está enfriando el tiempo, etc. Este empleo es totalmente desconocido en la lengua medieval que utiliza ir + ger. en estos casos. […] su introducción con verbos que suponen movimiento físico o movimiento en sentido figurado (cambio, etc.) será posterior a la Edad Media [in our first texts, estar means “to remain temporarily in one place or in one state,” its role is to locate a transitory (temporary) situation in space or in time. Of this original value, it will keep until the present day its tendency to be constructed with a gerund in order to express an action “which is developing”, “which stays”. (…) With specific verbs of change, progress, and due to the semantic content of the gerund, it can take a progressive value. Se está haciendo un hombre [He is becoming a man/grown-up]. Se está enfriando el tiempo [The weather is getting colder], etc. This use is totally unknown in the medieval language, which uses ir + gerund in these cases. (…) its introduction with verbs that imply physical movement or movement in a figurative sense (change, etc.) will occur after the Middle Ages].  (Yllera 1980: 29, 46, 47)

The first cases of found in the corpora with the lexical sense used in this place (physical affection) date back to the 17th century. 4. A state does not have an intrinsic limit or an ending towards which it has to head; it is therefore atelic (a feature shared with activities), but it may actually ‘dejar de darse [cease to exist]’: (13) a.  Por esso dixo bien la otra regla medicinal y proverbial, […], que doliendo la cabeça no pueden dexar de doler o enfermar los otros miembros del cuerpo. [That is why the medieval and proverbial rule says […] that, if the head hurts, the other body limbs cannot stop hurting].  (1589, CORDE) b.  … el pecho […] Gracias a Dios le dejó de doler ese día y pudo terminar con las camisas… [Thank God, her chest ceased to hurt that day, and she was able to finish with the shirts…]  (1970, CORDE) c.  Me di cuenta de que ésta era la puerta porque de repente el brazo dejó de dolerme. [I realized that this was the door because my arm suddenly ceased to hurt].  (1970, CORDE) If the state had a limit, it would be external to the actual event, as it has been repeatedly highlighted in the aspectual bibliography: “el límite a partir del cual el estado cesa es un límite externo al propio evento y no un límite hacia el que el estado avance de forma



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 391

inherente [the limit from which the state ceases (to exist) is a limit external to the actual event, and not a limit towards which the state inherently progresses” (Miguel 1999: 3012). 5. A state is durative or exists over a period of time (a feature shared with accomplishments and activities). For the verbs examined in our paper (doler, arder, picar, escocer and hormiguear), it can be stated that they represent durative states which do not entail a defined limit; thus, the pain, the itching, the burning, the stinging or the tingling may last for a moment, a few hours, several days, etc. (14a–c). (14) a.  Onde un clerigo que havia luengo tiempo que le dolia el ojo, hecha oracion a sant Bartholome luego sanó. [When a clergyman, one of whose eyes had hurt for a long time, said a prayer to San Bartolomé and got well].  (1506–c. 1514, CORDE) b. ¡Caramba, si desde ayer me están escociendo las manos! [Why! My hands have actually been stinging since yesterday] (1911, CORDE) c.  No sé qué es, pero desde entonces me duele la cara en el lugar donde golpeé aquella carne morena con esta mano…  [I don’t know what it is, but since then, my face hurts on the place where I hit that dark flesh/skin with this hand…]  (1961, CORDE) It is recognized from the linguistic discipline that states are not systematic events which can be defined and characterized in a single way, as is reflected by the examples in (11) to (15). Several proposals for classification have been made for this reason. Some of the best-known ones are listed below:22 1. Permanent and non-permanent or transitory states.23 Here it is logically necessary to take into account the mental image that one has about what is permanent or transitory. 2. Perfective and imperfective states (Luján 1980: 39–40). 3. Individual-level or individual predicates and stage-level predicates (Carlson 1977). 4. Bounded and unbounded states (Robinson 1994: 188–189; Marín Gálvez (2001: 58, 77–78). 22. An overall presentation about the classifications made in this regard can be found in Aparicio, Castellón, Coll-Florit (2011: 10–11), Morimoto (2011: 123–124) and Marín Gálvez (2001: 57–58). 23. The terms permanent and transitory – which had already been used, amongst others, by Jespersen (1924) – appear in many of the characterizations for states, even in the typologies mentioned here. This division which, as expressed by Bosque and Gutiérrez-Rexach (2009: 314) is “intuitive, and contains some truth”, does not take into account such relevant exceptions as the already classic example of estar muerto/*ser muerto [to be dead], due to the permanent, immutable nature of muerto. Many theoretical studies categorically refute it. For an overall critical view of the binary classifications used to distinguish ser and estar, see, for instance: Miguel (1999: 2983), Delbecque (2000: 242–245) or (Havu 2011).

392 Herminia Provencio Garrigós

5. Predicates without and with an eventive argument (Kratzer 1995). 6. Permanent, transitory and psychological state (Aparicio, Castellón and Coll-Florit 2011: 11; Coll-Florit 2011: 243). Even at the risk of failing to consider all the nuances entailed by the previous taxonomies, it can be said that physical affection transitory states are characterized by: (a) describing a situation which takes place within a delimited time period that may be known or unknown; (b) denoting individual states or properties that can vary or be applied to a time interval; (c) by being bounded in the context of the sentence; (d) admitting an eventive argument with modifiers that locate the state in space/time; and (e) showing the physical properties of a person.

4. Prototypicity and stativity The immersion into these themes – aspectuality, states, classes – as well as the reading of different opinions, very often similar and on other occasions disparate,24 makes it necessary to resort to the prototype theory (Lakoff 1987: 58–67), formulated from cognitive linguistics.25 Within the framework of this proposal it can be stated that categories have blurred boundaries, they represent a continuum with members sharing more characteristics of the category through which it is possible to identify the prototype as well as the peripheral members, which do not share all the characteristics attributed to the prototype, even though they still belong to this category. A continuum is thus created where some verbs are more representative than others within an aspectual class, as opposed to others which can fluctuate between several aspectual classes. This is how a response can be given to the potential controversy associated with owning or lacking the features of , and as necessary and sufficient conditions to belong to one aspectual category or not. The previous methodological approach can be supported, for example, on the fact that, if states differ from the rest of events in the absence of [−dynamisms] and share the features of [+duration] and [−delimitation] with activities (See Table 1 in § 3), this can be a sign permitting to infer that the boundary between some states and activities is not necessarily clear. This last remark must also be extended to the predicates belonging to the same aspectual category, as highlighted in the examples of (12). Bertinnetto (2004: 305, n. 20) already mentions it when he states that “in addition to 24. Especially when the pragmatic conditions determining the use that speakers make of verbal predicates come into play. 25. The ‘prototype theory’, together with other concepts which develop it (‘idealized cognitive model’, ‘prototypicity effects’, ‘family relationships’) are some of the essential tools of cognitive linguistics. For a thorough review of these concepts, see Cifuentes Honrubia (1999: 149–185) and Cuenca and Hilferty (1999: 31–64).



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 393

the prototypical stative ones, there are some peripheral sub-groups of predicates which show peculiar properties”. A further step along these methodological lines is the one taken by Coll-Florit (2011, 2012) and Aparicio, Castellón and Coll-Florit (2011) when they claim that most aspectual categories are configured around prototypes with more central members (alien to the sentential context for their association with an aspectual category) and more “borderline or flexible” members (which depend on their context for their aspectual interpretation). With a view to implement this idea, they suggest carrying out a corpus analysis26 which can show the presence or absence of these verbs in specific morphosyntactic combinations, referred to in the specialized bibliography as: aspectual tests or grammatical tests/constructions, and which bring to light the aspectual grammaticality or non-grammaticality arising from the combination of the syntactic context with the semantics of the verb.27 It was already highlighted in (§ 2) that the group of verbs referring to physical affection (doler, arder, picar, escocer and hormiguear) in one part of the body share a number of semantic and aspectual properties. It consequently seems logical to deduce that they will present an identical or similar behavior in the sub-category of uncontrolled transitory states where they belong. Nevertheless, it can be inferred from the selection of examples obtained for their semantic and syntactic characterization (§ 2) that some predicates are more prototypical than others, which will make it possible to establish an aspectual gradation. That will be the aim sought in the following sections.

4.1

Aspectual characterization and diachronic analysis of physical affection uncontrolled transitory states

All the considerations made so far lead us to say that the verbs analyzed in our paper are, first of all, states placed within a conceptual image where physical affections are alienable possessions:28 doler es tener dolor [to hurt is to have hurting (an ache)], picar 26. Coll-Florit (2011) uses the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA). 27. The empirical outcomes of their studies show that permanent states (“[which] express properties which are physical or constitutive of an entity, generally an object”: constar, equivaler, caber, anteceder, bastar, consistir) are the most prototypical ones within the category of states; transitory states (“[which] express a physical or emotional property of an entity, generally a person”: estar sentado/triste/preocupado/enfermo) are the ones that move away from the prototype; and psychological states (“[which] express feelings/sensations or thoughts”: conocer, creer, merecer, desear, gustar) are the furthest from the prototype. 28. The alienable possession is conceived as “the one in which what is possessed is not an essential part of the possessor; it is a possession of an extrinsic nature and the entities possessed can be changed, sold or cease to be possessed” (Hernández Díaz 2006: 1068). Unlike the inalienable possession that is established between the dative (experiencer) and the body parts hit by the affection.

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es tener picor [to itch is to have an itch], arder es tener ardor [to burn is to have a burning], escocer es tener escozor [to stinge is to have a stinging] and hormiguear es tener hormigueo [to tingle is to have a tingle]. Being alienable, having those sensations is something transitory or contingent – otherwise these would always be chronic physical affections. They are consequently states which can exist or not; thus, (15) reflects a transitory state which has not taken place or which will never actually occur: (15) Quando te dolieren las tripas, hazlo saber al culo [When your guts hurt, let your ass know]. 

(c. 1549, CORDE)

In the light of the evidence obtained in the corpora, it is possible to state that throughout the diachrony of the Spanish language these physical affection verbs have aspectually denoted: (a) uncontrolled stativity; (b) ‘durative’, almost permanent stativity; (c) stativity which can be progressive; (d) stativity which can be spatially and temporarily delimited; and (e) stativity which can be repeated, frequent or habitual. These are some of the characteristics which globally influence their aspectual definition and which permit to state that verbs are located along a diachronic continuum or prototypicity scale – with more prototypical and more peripheral members – within the sub-category of uncontrolled states to which they have been allocated. With a view to verify this assertion, a search was made for all five verbs in the corpora with the grammatical constructions and verbal tenses used in the bibliography in order to determine their aspectual category. They are grouped together around the five characteristics mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The headings below are going to develop each one of those features with their respective grammatical tests.29

4.1.1 Uncontrolled stativity As already seen in (§ 2), these states characteristically have an experiencer argument rendered as a dative and a non-agentive subject which alternates with a locative object. For this reason, they denote uncontrolled/non-agentive transitory states. The person experiencing these states has no control over them, but he can react when he has a sensation of hurting, itch, stinging, etc. As could be expected, the review of the corpora does not reveal – for instance – manner adverbs of will (deliberadamente [deliberately], intencionalmente [intentionally], voluntariamente [voluntarily]), in the sentential context of all five verbs. That is also the case when they are conjugated in the imperative, except in doler, arder and picar (16a, b, c), when they are utilized with other meanings (§ 2):

29. It must be made clear that other aspectual tests (poco a poco; alguandre; durante/en/por X tiempo; cada día/semana; en todo momento; a veces, las más veces; acabar/cesar/terminar de + infinitivo; fincar + participio; querer/soler + infinitivo; tornar a + infinitivo; yacer/ser/ llevar + gerundio) were chosen for this work in addition to the grammatical tests appearing from Sections 4.1.1 to 4.1.5, but the search for them in the corpora with the lexical meaning of physical affection and with the structures of (4a) and (4c) was fruitless.



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 395

(16) a.  … deziendole asi merçet/ conde señor doled vos de nuestro mal… [I am telling you, lord Earl, share the pain of our illness]. (1344, CORDE) b. ¡Arded, coraçon, arded! [Burn, heart, burn].  (1550, CORDE) c.  Picad, picad el pan del esposo, que en cada granito le comeréis todo. [Peck, peck at the husband’s bread]. (1599, CE) The same happens with other grammatical tests used to distinguish permanent stative events from dynamic ones (Bosque and Gutiérrez-Rexach 2009: 301–304; Miguel 1999: 3012–3018; Marín Gálvez 2011: 28–40; Morimoto 2011; Gómez Vázquez and García Fernández 2013; Havu 2011).

4.1.2 ‘Durative’, almost permanent stativity Taking into account that the verbs doler, arder, picar, escocer and hormiguear are states (though transitory), it seems pertinent to verify whether they coexist in the sentential syntax with adverbs and constructions which emphasise the durative situation without actually specifying the time period or intervals where they appear. Six contexts were found that bring the state closer to a permanent situation (see Table 2): Table 2.  Reinforcement durative stativity constructions303132 Constructions32

doler

picar

hormiguear

siempre hacía largo tiempo luengo tiempo havia luengo tiempo desde hacía algún tiempo permanentemente Relative frequency34

XV, XVI, XIX; XX33

XIX

XVII XIX

XV XVI XV XIX

1.6%

0.1%

0.4%

The search in the corpora makes it clear that three verbs have combined in their diachrony with a structure that indicates durative stativity: doler since the 15th century (1.6%), picar since the 19th century (0.1%), and hormiguear since the 17th century (0.4%) – instead, arder and escocer never do so. The adverbial modifier siempre [always] is the one which presents the highest frequency and has been attested from

30. Tables 2, 3, 6 and 7 specify the constructions which appear in the corpora. Other similar constructions with graphic, lexical and syntactic variations were fruitlessly looked for. 31. Centuries in which constructions appear in the corpora. 32. The frequencies offered in all the tables refer to the total appearances of the five verbs under analysis with the structures of (4a) and (4b): 682, to which must be added the 110 cases where they form part of verbal periphrases.

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the 15th to the 20th century with doler. The following examples are illustrative of what has just been stated – see also (14a): (17) a. Los dolores humanos nos duelen, nos han dolido siempre mucho… [Human aches cause us pain; they have always caused us a lot of pain].  (1856, CE)33 b. Le picaba siempre el cuerpo en estas camas… [In these beds, his body always itched].  (1890, CE) c.  Con todo quedé por más de dos años casi tullido de los dedos de l os pies y manos, que siempre me hormigueaban… [For almost two years I was crippled of my toes and fingers, which always tingled…].  (1612, CE)

4.1.3 Progressive stativity In the context of our reference to the non-dynamic condition of states in (§ 3.1), it became clear that transitory states can progress in their duration and, therefore, have a progressive reading. As such, they do not imply a progression entailing a change of state,34 but they do entail a change with regard to another previous state (Leborans 1995: 268–270) – which could be defined as “estar sano [to be healthy]”. Nevertheless, it is worth highlighting that they do not result from that other previous state,35 which is why they may exist or cease to exist. According to this conception, it could be argued that they have the sub-interval property (Bennet and Partee 1972; Smith 1997) where the pain, the tingling, etc. are supposed to stay in each one of their sub-intervals. Along these lines, Morimoto (2011: 123) considers that “states keep their nature even if they are subject to a temporal division into shorter-lasting parts”. This last statement, added to the relatively durative nature of states, makes it possible for these states to combine with phase periphrases, which focus on: (a) the ‘entry’ into the state – ingressive: ; (b) the development, course or duration – continuative, durative: ; and (c) the interruption and ending – disruptive and terminative: . Such periphrases can be reinforced, for example, with time adverbs: .

33. This example contains a metonymic process. 34. As it does occur with the denominal verbs acalorar, acatarrar, fracturar, abrasar, sonrojar, etc. which really imply a change of state (Lavale Ortiz 2013). 35. In examples such as: “Comió espárragos, y después le dolió la cabeza: luego los espárragos le hicieron daño” (1742, Feijoo, Cartas eruditas y curiosas, CE), the state “his head hurt” must not be interpreted like the ending reached by the activity “comer espárragos [to eat asparaguses/ asparagi]”, even though the example suggests that. See Arche García-Valdecasas (2004) to establish the link between “después [afterwards]” and the concept of interval.



Chapter 17.  Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 397

(18) a.  … le va hormigueando entre cuero y carne… [… he gradually feels a tingling between the skin and the flesh…].  (1589, CORDE)36 b.  … los pies se me han adormecido, y las puntas de los dedos me están hormigueando, rato ha que lo siento, y me aflige. [… my feet have become numb, and the tips of my toes have been tingling for a while].  (1657, CORDE) Another feature that must be added to transitory state predicates – introduced in (§ 3.1) – is the one which provides them with the progressive and gradual meaning of the periphrases , which confer a dynamic reading on them. In both cases, that value can be consolidated through the use of expressions such as: he is probably hidden) B: *Se estará escondido (controlled state) [He will be / remain hidden] (18) *Juan iba estándose quieto [Juan was gradually still] (19) *Juan se estuvo quieto poco a poco [Juan was / became still little by little] Therefore, it is seemingly the subject’s role that moves controlled states away from the ‘states’ category.

2.3

Emotional states

Despite being a less productive pattern, estar may also appear in the imperative when it is followed by certain adjectives denoting bounded emotional states. (20) Te prometo que no lo sabrá; y ahora estate contenta, porque esto fue solo una pequeñita lección […] [I promise you (that) he will not know (about) it; and now be glad, because this was only a very little lesson]  (P. Millán Astray, El millonario y la bailarina, 1930: 74)

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Apparently, these structures are similar to the cases discussed in Section 2.2. Because they are in the imperative mood, estar has to occur in its pronominal version. However, the pronoun is not only unnecessary but it also remains excluded in the rest of modal forms and in negative imperative contexts, as will be explained in Section 4. (21) *María se estuvo contenta [María was / remained glad] Unlike what happened in the predicates described above, the subject of these structures neither performs an action nor controls the state of affairs denoted by the verb. Instead, there is an individual emotionally affected by some circumstance, and this state of mind does not depend on him (Fogsgaard 2000: 110). In short, behavior predicates as well as controlled states and emotional states can all appear in the imperative mood. The imperative meaning is thus likely to reveal interesting data about these three predicates and about their position within the ‘states’ class. More specifically, the negative imperative version is particularly rich, since it permits to contemplate the aforesaid predicates from a different point of view; i.e. from the information structure in which they are inserted.

3. Imperative: Far away, so close Up close, or from a morphological point of view, the imperative in Spanish is a verbal mood, although a special one; more precisely, it is a defective mood (Alarcos 1980; González Calvo [1980, 1983] 1988; Garrido 1999; RAE 2009: 3129–3138): – It is only conjugated in two forms: second person singular (22) and second person plural (23); any other form, such as the first person plural with an inclusive value (24), or the second person conjugated in third person due to social deixis (25), is borrowed from the subjunctive. (22) CaminaImp. 2nd. sg. [Walk!] (23) CaminadImp. 2nd. pl [Walk!] (24) CaminemosSubj. 1st. pl [Let’s walk] (25) CamineSubj. 3rd. sg. (usted) / CaminenSubj. 3rd. pl. (ustedes) [Walk!] – It does not show tense features; in other words, there is not such a thing as a past or a present imperative. The orientation is always towards posteriority, though, even when the imperative occurs with prototypical simultaneity adverbs, such as ahora [now].6 6. In Spanish, perfect infinitive may play a role associated with the imperative; i.e. retrospective imperative: haber venido. Although this is not an imperative morphologically speaking, a semantic connection exists with an action upon the addressee, since it is interpreted as a recrimination to the interlocutor for a past situation. The aim thus consists in providing an alternative situation, which is subsequently contemplated as counterfactual (González Calvo [1980, 1983] 1988; Bosque 1980a; Garrido 1999; RAE 2009).



Chapter 18.  Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser and estar 425

(26) Camina ahora (forward orientation) [Walk now = Start to walk] – Contrary to what happens with the indicative and the subjunctive, pronouns always follow the verb in the imperative mood: (27) Lo leyóverb (indicative) [He read it] (28) Puede que lo leaverb (subjuntive) [He may read it] (29) Léeverblo (imperative) [Read it] – The imperative cannot be used in subordinate clauses; therefore, it automatically becomes a subjunctive when involved in a hierarchy relationship: (30) Cómetelo > Te ordeno que te lo comas [Eat it > I order you to eat it] – Neither can it be preceded by negation; when a negative form appears, the imperative is once again transformed into the subjunctive – or, in undetermined contexts, into an infinitive. (31) EntraImp. / No entresSubj. / No entrarInfin. [Enter] / [Don’t enter] / [Do not enter] From further away, or from a broader perspective, the imperative is associated with a specific type of clause, and with a specific illocutionary force – i.e. a directive force. However, no consensus has been reached so far on how to describe the relationship between the imperative and the directive value, since not all imperatives always convey orders, and not all orders are exclusively expressed in the imperative mood. A number of scholars argue that the imperative codes the directive illocutionary force; that is, it always gives an instruction for the addressee to carry out one particular action (Leszek 1995: 22–25; Garrido 1999; Han 2000: 9; Del Campo 2013: 95). Depending on the context as well as on the authority and obligation relationships existing between participants, the directive value may materialize in an order, a request or a suggestion.7 From this perspective, when the imperative performs a directive act, it represents a direct speech act (32); instead, when it does not perform a directive act, the imperative must be inferentially interpreted as an indirect speech act: in (33), the clue to reinterpret the imperative is provided by the lack of control on the part of the addressee over the state of affairs described through the verb (Garrido 1999: 3918–3924).

7. Del Campo (2013) starts from the delimitation of a situational cognitive model that defines the illocutionary force, from which she subsequently specifies the linguistic construction where this model materializes. According to her, the imperative makes orders explicit in a direct way.

426 Susana Rodríguez Rosique

(32) Cállate = Te ordeno que te calles [Shut up = I order you to shut up] (33) Mejórate = Deseo / Espero que te mejores [Get better = I hope / desire that you get better] According to other linguists, precisely because the imperative does not always carry out a directive act, it is preferable to suggest an unspecific semantic definition of the imperative mood and to derive any other value – including the directive one – through a contextual process of inferences (Wilson and Sperber [1988] 1998; Escandell 2012).8 For Wilson and Sperber, the imperative only presents a situation as potential and desirable: if it is solved in favor of the speaker, the utterance may be interpreted as a request, a command or an order; and if it is solved in favor of the addressee, it may be interpreted as advice or permission. As for the desiderative expressive value (‘good wishes’), it has the interlocutor as its beneficiary – but nobody is responsible for it. The problem with this approach lies in the fact that it is based on an excessively general semantic characterization of the imperative, which additionally loses the special or preferential correlation between this mood and the directive force. Jary and Kissine (2014: 51) have recently insisted on the need to draw a distinction between form and meaning. In their view, the imperative is a type of clause; expressed differently, it is a morphosyntatic configuration which may be reflected on verb morphology, on syntactic structure, or on both; and which is semantically characterized by having a potential as well as agentive content. In this sense, even if the illocutionary force has not been coded, the directive value is considered the prototypical imperative function. With regard to the aforementioned desiderative expressive – or ‘good wishes’ – value, Jary and Kissine argue that these cases cross-linguistically represent marginal examples, and they are (semi)lexicalized on most occasions.

3.1

Negative imperative: Negation, subjunctive and information structure

Spanish is one of the languages where the imperative mood cannot be preceded by negation (Leszek 1995: 13; Han 2000: 2; Iatridou 2008: 23). When a negative form is present, the imperative becomes a subjunctive or, in undetermined circumstances, an infinitive. (34) LlamadImperative 2nd person plural [Call]: Instruction to the addressee (35) *No llamadImperative 2nd person plural [Don’t call]: Excluded (36) No llaméisSubjunctive 2nd person plural [Don’t call]: Instruction to the addressee (37) No llamarInfinitive [Do not call]: Non-anchored communicative situation 8. From a conversational interaction perspective, the definition of illocutionary force moves away from the speaker’s intention and towards an interpretation of the speech act based on the addressee’s response (Sbisà 1992, 2013; Portolés 2004; Walker 2013).



Chapter 18.  Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser and estar 427

From a formal point of view, the impossibility of co-occurrence between imperative and negation is justified in terms of scope (Rivero and Terzi 1995; Han 2000: 40–41; Bosque and Gutiérrez Rexach 2009: 722): negation can have no scope over the imperative because – as an illocutionary force operator – this mood must have scope over the whole sentence; in other words, negation and imperative cannot possibly coexist because they both compete for the same syntactic position. As a semantic and pragmatic consequence of this scope-related competition, it is impossible for that illocutionary force to be negated. Thus, whereas (38) counts as a promise, (39) is not seen as its negative counterpart in illocutionary terms (Han 2000; RAE 2009: 3138). (38) Te prometo que iré [I promise you (that) I will go] (39) No te prometo que vaya [I don’t promise you (that) I will go] According to Han, the subjunctive and infinitive forms are used to replace the imperative in negative contexts because they do not code the directive force; instead, they obtain it in an indirect manner. More specifically, while the imperative codes the features [+directive] and [+irrealis], subjunctive and infinitive only code the feature [+irrealis]. Nevertheless, the subjunctive does not code unreality in Spanish, since it can be cancelled in a number of contexts. Therefore, B’s proposal in (40) is not interpreted as irrealis, but as a factual one. (40) A: Llueve [It rains] B: Aunque llueva, saldremos [Even if it rains, we will go out] The widest definition of subjunctive is that which defines it in terms of discursive non-assertion (Lavandera [1983] 1990; Horn 1986). For Lunn (1989), there exists a prototype of assertability governing which information can occur on a first level of discourse: factual information and new information; by contrast, irrealis information and given information tend to be non-asserted. One can go further and relate the subjunctive to information that has just been activated, as it happens in (40).9 The association of subjunctive with information structure permits to establish a correlation between subjunctive and negative imperative contexts which are anchored to a communicative situation, on the one hand; and between infinitive and the cases which are not related to a specific referential situation, on the other. The same as subjunctive, negation is also associated to the information structure (Givón 1978, 2001; Bosque 1980b; Horn [1989] 2001; Sánchez López 1999). Specifically, negation is usually related to contexts where the affirmative counterpart has been previously considered. In this way, as opposed to the response in B, the one

9. Due to its non-assertion meaning, the subjunctive represents the weak member on a scale where the indicative acts as the strong member; the irrealis flavor of the former would then arise as a clausal scalar implicature (cf. Rodríguez Rosique 2008: 379–389).

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in B’ seems anomalous because its affirmative counterpart does not form part of the addressee’s expectations:10 (41) A: What’s new? B: My wife is pregnant / B′: My wife isn’t pregnant A: Congratulations / A′: Gee, was she supposed to be?

(Givón 2001: 370)

4. Negative imperatives with ser and estar Due both to the characteristics of the subjunctive and to the peculiarities of negation, it seems justified to relate negative imperatives to the information structure: at least, the situation which is being rejected must be part of the addressee’s expectations (Bosque 1980b: 12–13). From here, the particular analysis about the discursive features of these predicates is likely to shed light on their nature and on their relationship with the ‘states’ category as well as on its limits.

4.1

Behavior predicates

The construction ‘ser + evaluative adjectives denoting mental properties or human attitudes’ invokes a culturally-defined semantic frame; i.e. all of them are associated with human behaviors and with the assessment that the speaker makes of them. Thus, they may have two interpretations: they may outline the whole frame in absolute terms, in which case the predicate is unanimously understood as a state; or they may point to (some of) the actions related to this semantic frame. The role of the construction is decisive when it comes to drawing a distinction between one reading and the other; due to its mainly agentive nature, the imperative tends to urge a search for the action triggering the assessment. The examination of the information structure can prove useful when analyzing the connection between action and assessment in behavior predicates. The main opposition organizing information structure has been related to the distinction between new information and given information, the latter being usually understood as shared knowledge. Seeking to restrict the concept of given information, several dichotomies have been traditionally suggested. For instance, Dik (1997: 309– 326) makes a difference between the information that the speaker and the addressee

10. According to Givón (1978, 2001: 372) or Horn ([1989] 2001: 203), the prototypical function of negation is therefore the denial of a previous proposition. Some linguists have recently argued that this role actually characterizes the non-prototypical forms of negation, such as double or reinforced negation (Schwenter 2006). In any case, what seems uncontroversial is that an intricate relation exists between information structure and negative forms.



Chapter 18.  Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser and estar 429

share before starting their interaction and what happens in the actual discourse development. In his view, the discourse is an empty container progressively filled with entities or discourse topics. When a topic enters the discourse, it is considered a d-topic. Similarly, a topic can lead us to treat a new topic related to it as already-given information; this is known as a ‘subtopic’ (42). (42) Juan hosted a party[d-topic], but the music[subtopic] was horrible Among the relationships which favor the transformation of one entity into a subtopic of another stand out: that one is part of the other; that one is a subset or a member of the other; that one is an example or an aspect of the other; that one is the opposite of the other, and so on and so forth. Prince (1981) also tries to restrict the distinction between new and given information by establishing three kinds of entities: new, evoked, and inferrables. New entities may in turn be brand new (43), when the addressee has to create a new entity in the discourse; or unused, when he just needs to adapt an entity to the new discourse model (44). Likewise, evoked entities are already present in the discourse model and may be textually (45) or situationally (46) evoked. Finally, inferrable entities are the ones which the addressee can deduce from any other entity that is present in the discourse (47). (43) A guy I work with says he knows you sister (44) Noam Chomsky went to Penn (45) One of these eggs is broken (46) Would you have change of a quarter? (47) Yesterday I got on a bus and the driver was drunk

(Prince 1981: 233–237)

Prince (1992) subsequently claimed that entities may be given or new from the addressee’s point of view (48) or from that of the discourse (49). Concerning the status of inferrables, they are considered hybrid entities, insofar as they can be new from the discourse perspective but are given for the addressee, who must establish the inference through his knowledge of the world. (48) I’m waiting for it to be noon so I can call Sandy Thompson (49) I’m waiting for it to be noon so I can call someone in California  (Prince 1992: 301) The opposition between activated and non-activated information arises orthogonally to this distinction between new and given information. Activated or salient information (Chafe 1987; Lambrecht 1994; Dryer 1996) is the one which the speaker thinks to be highlighted in the addressee’s mind; instead, non-activated information is the one which has not been outlined in the addressee’s mind. The status of activated information has to do with short-term memory (Lambrecht 1994: 94) and permits to draw an activation continuum (Dryer 1996: 481): the focus of attention is that information on

430 Susana Rodríguez Rosique

which our attention is especially centered; semi-deactivated entities are those which were activated but have progressively lost their activation; accessible entities are the ones which have not been activated but belong to a semantic schema that has indeed been outlined; non-activated information stands as opposed to all of the above, and can be found at the opposite end of the continuum. One of the most attractive aspects of activation lies in the fact that it does not only take into account entities, but also incorporates propositions into the description of information structure. Thus, propositions may be activated, semi-deactivated, accessible or non-activated. Similarly, the activation status does not epistemically qualify the proposition (Dryer 1996: 483–485). Therefore, a proposition may be activated due to its énonciation, and epistemically factual or believed, as it happens in Helsinki is the capital of Finland. However, in the utterance Earth is plane, the proposition has just been activated, but it is false and does not form part of the shared knowledge. In this sense, a proposition may be activated despite being epistemically characterized as uncertain. This is the case of Berta ha venido [Berta has come] in the following exchange. (50) A: ¿Ha venido Berta? [Has Berta come?] B: No lo sé [I don’t know] The relationship maintained by the behavior predicate with the action of which the subject is an agent is one of subtopic (Dik), inferrable (Prince), or accessible (Dryer). It forms part of the actions culturally attributed to human behaviors and to the evaluation that speakers make of them; discursively, it has an inferential connection with respect to the assessment, which is generated through a semantic frame. In the case of negative imperatives, it is usual for the action or the agentive behavior to be activated first – whether discursively or situationally –, the evaluation occurring subsequently as an inferrable. Note that what Concha has just done in (51) is to avoid answers or not to reveal intimacies, an action easily linked to being enigmatic: (51) –¿Qué te pasa, Concha? ¿Te ha dado un flash o qué? No parece que Antonio (el profe de Lengua de la clase anterior) se haya mostrado contigo más simpático de lo que suele hacerlo normalmente como para que estés así, tan alucinando… [What’s wrong with you, Concha? Did you suffer a flash, or what? It doesn’t seem that Antonio (the Spanish [Language] teacher from the previous class) was nicer to you than he usually is for you to be this way, so amazed] –¡Qué va! ¡Qué sabréis vosotros lo que es bueno… [No way! You have no idea what good means…] –Venga, no seas tan enigmática y cuéntanos [Come on, don’t be so enigmatic and tell us] (RAE, CREA, VV.AA. Tecnología, 1995)

Chapter 18.  Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser and estar 431



4.2

Controlled states

As mentioned above, the structure estar + adjective can only be interpreted as a controlled state if it is accompanied by a pronominal mark. The pronoun is usually linked to a specific aspectual value as well as to an increase in the degree of control that the subject has over the denoted situation. The first striking thing when negative imperatives host controlled states with estar + adjective is the possibility for them to occur with the pronoun (52, 53) or without it (54, 55), although with differences in interpretation – which are precisely related to a tempo-aspectual value and to the degree of implication on the part of the subject. (52) ¿Qué haces ahí hablando sola? Vamos, date prisa, no te estés quieta [What are you doing there, talking to yourself? Come on, hurry up, don’t (V. Navarro, El ideal no realizado, 1960: 150) bePron. / stand still]  (53) ¡Di algo! ¡Habla! ¡Abre la boca! ¡No te estés callado como un muerto! [Say something! Talk! Open your mouth! Don’t bePron. quiet like a dead man]  (J. Cocteau, Cuatro monólogos, 37, 1962, trad. A. de Cabo y J. L. Alonso) (54) Haz cosas, no estés quieta. Si quieres volver a casa vuelve, pero creo que has de saber superarlo [Do things, don’t be / stand still. If you want to go back home, do so, but I think you should learn to get over it]  (M. Sheedy, Hijos, padres y luchas de poder, 2001: 287, trad. D. Vázquez) (55) Tanto se le había obligado a exteriorizar sus sentimientos a Javier (“Sí, habla”, “No estés callado” […]) [Javier had been so often forced to express his feelings outwardly (“Yes, speak,” “Don’t be quiet”)] (J. Rumazo, Andariegos, 1956: 284) When the pronoun appears, the relationship maintained by the state with another action that is present in the discourse shows precisely a tempo-aspectual schema which is the opposite of the one described by Morimoto for the affirmative counterpart: the speaker urges the addressee to abandon a state that the latter controls; this abandonment results directly – and without a break – in an event. The focalization of the final stage implied in the pronominal construction – in Maldonado’s words – may favor this continuity link, as can be observed in Figure 3.

Abandonment of state

Event

Figure 3.  Continuity link between the abandonment of a state and the onset of a new event

Likewise, the pronominal version is addressed to an interlocutor who shows a higher degree of control, or, more specifically, a higher level of resistance to abandon the state. The process of pragmatization attributed by Maldonado to the se construction

432 Susana Rodríguez Rosique

advances in this direction: with the pronominal structure, the construction is addressed to a specific interlocutor identified in the discourse whose relationship with the speaker takes place through interaction – the structure thus increases its affective proximity. By contrast, the transition from the abandonment of the state to the onset of a subsequent event is not so transparent in the non-pronominal version; instead, what this structure reflects in absolute terms can be described as a process through which a state is replaced by an event, as illustrated in Figure 4. Event   State

Figure 4.  Relationship between state and event where the former is replaced by the latter

Similarly, the level of implication by the subject-addressee decreases in the non-­ pronominal structure; more precisely, it does not seem characteristic of a vis-à-vis interaction but rather seems to reflect a set of instructions targeted to any given addressee. In this sense, it is related to a discursively anchored situation – unlike what happens with the construction no + infinitive –, but less anchored than the pronominal structure: it need not be oriented towards a specific addressee.

4.3

Emotional states

Negative imperatives may also host emotional states represented by estar + adjectives. (56) Tomasa comenzó a temblar en el momento en el que empezó a recoger sus cosas. Y continuó temblando durante toda la mañana, mientras esperaba a la funcionaria que debía conducirla hasta la puerta. Josefina intentaba calmarla [Tomasa began to tremble at the moment when she started to collect her things. And she kept trembling all morning, while she was waiting for the official who had to lead her to the door. Josefina was trying to calm her down] −Mujer, no estés tan nerviosa  [Girl, don’t be so nervous] (D. Chacón, La voz dormida, 2002: 70) (57) Cuando espera el metro o el autobús observa a las personas que están con el rostro triste. Se les acerca y sin pudor comienza a hablar: “pero no estés triste, mira qué palabra tiene Dios para ti” [When he is waiting for the subway or the bus, he observes the people who have a sad face (look sad). He comes up to them and shamelessly begins to talk: “but (come on,) don’t be sad, look which word God has for you”] (RAE, CREA, Fe y Razón. Suplemento de La Razón Digital, 2004)



Chapter 18.  Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser and estar 433

In these cases, the emotional state has usually been activated by means of certain ‘symptoms’. With the imperative, the speaker does not encourage the addressee (not) to do something, but cheers him up or comforts him. The flavor resembles that of an expressive value, insofar as it is quite close to the expression of a good wish. This reinterpretation of the imperative is due to the limited control that the subject has over the state; these are in fact – and forgive the redundancy – uncontrolled states. Contrary to what happens with their affirmative counterparts, where estar in the imperative mood requires the presence of a pronoun, negative imperatives with emotional states highlight the lack of control that the subject has over the state; more specifically, they cannot appear in the pronominal version: (58) *Mujer, no te estés tan nerviosa [Girl, don’t bePron. so nervous] (59) *Pero no te estés triste [But/Come on, don’t bePron. sad] While it is true that negative imperatives with emotional states are less productive than other patterns, they need not always be considered cases of (semi)lexicalization, as Jary and Kissine (2014) argue for ‘good wishes.’

5. Conclusion Whether it is considered part of its coded meaning or it is understood as its prototypical function, the imperative is strongly connected to a directive value. The imperative is additionally related to an expressive function, either as an inferential reinterpretation due to lack of control by the subject over the situation described, or as a less representative function. The present chapter has approached the analysis about the imperative from a new angle; namely, its negative counterpart, which in Spanish is formed by the negative adverb plus the subjunctive mood in anchored – determined – communicative contexts. Both the subsidiary nature of negation in informative terms and the definition of subjunctive in terms of non-assertion justify the attention paid to the information structure. In fact, the information structure reveals interesting data about the ser and estar predicates occurring in the imperative mood: in ser + adjective predicates denoting behavior, the subject carries out a discursively inferrable action; in estar + se + adjective predicates, the subject controls the alluded state, which is preceded by a background event in the affirmative version – and results in an event in its negative counterpart. Finally, in estar + adjective predicates denoting emotional states, the imperative is (re)interpreted as a kind of expressive sense, since the predicate does include an uncontrolled situation. From a broader perspective, this chapter has contributed to shed light on the variety existing within the ‘states’ class as well as on its limits. Thus, whereas predicates denoting behavior as well as predicates denoting controlled states flirt with the concept of agentivity, predicates denoting emotional states – despite being prototypically

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regarded as states – are bounded states, which indirectly relates them to the possibility of change. Furthermore, our research has sketched an alternative treatment for the analysis of subjunctive in negative imperatives which goes beyond irrealis. This new challenge points to the inescapable need of taking into consideration both the information structure and the role of negation.

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Index A accidental generalization  259 accomplishment  xiv, 14, 19, 55, 92, 132–133, 135–137, 142, 145, 147, 150, 169, 177, 185–187, 190, 192–193, 195, 197–199, 205, 212, 214, 266, 268, 314, 317, 321, 331, 343, 345, 354–355, 374–375 achievements  ix, 42, 44, 58, 113–115, 132, 191, 211–212, 216, 269, 272, 314–315, 317–318, 321–322, 331, 334, 342–343, 345, 347, 349–350, 354–356, 368, 373, 375–377, 386–389, 412–413, 435–436 action mode  334–335, 342, 347, 379–380, 386 actionality  21, 182, 263, 378, 386 activity  x, 6, 14, 16–19, 53, 92, 102, 122, 132–133, 135–136, 139, 150, 167, 169, 174–175, 192, 194, 197–198, 202, 214, 232, 266, 275, 279, 288–289, 311–314, 316, 325–332, 396, 413, 420 see also activities  ix, 14, 17– 19, 30, 53–54, 122, 132, 175, 211, 279, 314–316, 319, 331, 334, 342–343, 354, 373–374, 376, 386–392, 412–413, 418, 420–421, 423 Activity Hierarchy  x, 312–313, 328–329, 331 adjunct(s)  xiv, 28, 37, 43, 50, 55–56, 62, 91–92, 102–104, 106, 109, 131–132, 134–135, 137, 139–140, 144–145, 150–151, 164, 221–222 adposition(s)  96, 163, 167–170, 181 adverbial  13, 25, 27, 42, 44, 138, 142–143, 145, 153, 162, 175, 178, 192–193, 195, 197, 200, 203,

318, 346–347, 349–350, 354– 355, 369, 371–372, 374–375, 387, 389, 395, 400, 409 adverbial modifier(s)  13, 42, 138, 153, 162, 175, 346–347, 349, 354–355, 387, 395 frequency adverb  207, 247 gradual adverbial  42, 44 affected  ix, 9–12, 15–16, 21–22, 28, 31, 33, 35, 37, 45–51, 56, 117–118, 120, 122–126, 157, 218, 231, 274, 290, 312, 323–328, 331, 338–342, 350, 354–355, 359, 367, 369, 379, 383–385, 411, 414, 424 affected/experiencer quasiconverted entity 340–341 affectedness  22, 50, 56, 289–290, 299, 302, 308 affected entity  9, 15–16, 339 affected object  10, 22, 45–50, 56, 118, 120, 274, 367 affirmation 289 agent  xii, xiv–xv, 5, 13, 16–17, 33, 46–48, 50, 52–56, 98–105, 107, 115–118, 120–122, 125–128, 147, 154, 185, 187–188, 191–192, 200–203, 208–212, 214, 258–259, 272, 274–275, 277–278, 285, 288–290, 293, 312, 314, 321, 323, 326, 333, 388, 403–404, 418, 422, 430 agency  201, 213, 259, 286, 289 agent vs. causer subjects  185 agentivity  x, xii, 101–106, 108, 111–114, 116–117, 122, 128, 185, 190, 211–212, 215, 264, 304, 313–314, 322, 326–327, 388, 416–417, 433 agent-patient  107, 289–290 co-agents  xii, 105, 108

agreement processes  xiv, 131–132, 143, 145–146, 150 alternation  x, xii, 71, 86–88, 107–108, 110–114, 116, 118, 121, 123, 126, 128, 167, 213–215, 230, 282, 284, 291, 323–324 see also diathesis  11, 277, 280, 285, 291 inchoative alternation  114, 213, 291 intransitive alternation  x, 110–111, 113, 128 transitive alternation  111 amalgam  1, 6, 276 argument  vii–x, xii–xiv, 1–5, 9, 12, 16, 18–19, 22, 24, 28, 30, 32–33, 36–39, 43–48, 50, 52, 56–57, 59, 75, 77, 95–99, 101–105, 108–111, 118–119, 121–124, 126, 129–131, 136–137, 141–145, 162, 164, 190–191, 193, 199–201, 211, 213, 215–216, 240–241, 244, 247, 251, 253, 260, 263, 269–271, 275–277, 280, 285–286, 291, 293–294, 296–299, 301, 304, 309, 312–314, 316, 321–325, 328–330, 332, 359–360, 369, 377, 384–385, 392, 394, 406, 409–410 argument scheme  1, 16 argument structure  vii–ix, xii, 1–2, 4–5, 9, 18–19, 24, 32, 59, 75, 95–97, 109, 111, 119, 121, 123–124, 129, 142, 162, 215–216, 329–330, 332, 385, 409 argumental structure  60–62, 66, 74, 265, 376 Davidsonian argument  253 measure argument  52 aspect  vii–viii, xi, xiii–xiv, xviii, 9, 21, 24–26, 33, 57–59,

440 Verb Classes and Aspect

92, 94–95, 97, 105–106, 120, 124, 130–136, 138–139, 150–151, 153, 155, 162, 171, 182–183, 185, 191–192, 198, 213–217, 224, 227, 229, 235, 238, 243, 249, 261–263, 275, 286, 288–289, 308–309, 332, 334, 336, 341– 342, 357–358, 362, 367, 373, 375–377, 379–380, 386, 400, 410–411, 429, 436–437 see also aspectual  vii–xiv, 1–2, 9–11, 13–14, 16–17, 19–21, 24, 33–34, 57, 59, 83, 92, 95–96, 110–113, 115, 124, 128, 130–140, 144, 146, 148, 150, 152–153, 155, 158, 162, 170, 174–175, 180–181, 190–192, 195, 210–214, 216, 218–219, 223, 228, 234, 238, 240–241, 249, 251, 256, 258, 260–261, 264–266, 268, 272, 275, 280, 284, 286–287, 290–291, 295, 333–336, 342–344, 347, 350, 354–355, 357–358, 367, 372–373, 375–380, 385–387, 390, 392–394, 400, 403, 406–410, 412–415, 420–422, 431, 434–436 aspectual classes  57, 132, 135–136, 150, 238, 290–291, 333–336, 343, 373, 379, 386–387, 392, 412 aspectual meaning  34, 131–132, 136, 138, 150, 336, 387 aspectual tests  342–343, 347, 354, 393–394 aspectuality  1, 19, 153, 162–163, 217, 290, 343, 354, 380, 386–387, 392, 403 aspectuality continuum  343 inner aspect  132 Aktionsart  x, 109, 132, 190, 312–317, 320, 322, 331, 386, 410, 412 lexical aspect  xiv, 57, 92, 94, 131–133, 135–136, 138–139, 162, 275, 332, 334, 377, 379–380, 386, 400

verbal aspect  vii–viii, 24, 59, 131–134, 139, 183, 235, 336, 358, 367 attribution  viii–ix, 5, 9, 11–12, 14, 18–19, 123–124, 218–220, 227–229, 235, 414 see also attribute  5, 24, 27, 29, 37, 101, 154, 191, 193, 218, 222–224, 227–228, 230–231, 233–234, 239, 244, 253, 292, 316 attributive schema  124 B behavior predicates  xiii, 412, 418–421, 424, 428 blend(s)  xi, 83, 153, 158, 160– 162, 164, 166, 171, 177, 180–181 see also blended  156, 160, 169–170 blending  153, 155–156, 160, 182 C capacitative  xii, 238, 244, 259 case frames  290, 302 cause  x, 3–6, 9, 11–13, 110–111, 113–123, 125–128, 141, 147, 274, 283, 290, 323, 326, 332, 337–339, 341–342, 347, 360, 382, 396 causation  5–6, 9, 11, 115–117, 119, 123–124, 126, 185, 195, 198–199, 215, 292, 322–323, 328, 331, 333–334, 337 causative  ix–x, xiv, 3–4, 6, 8–9, 11, 19–20, 32, 110, 113, 117–128, 185–187, 189, 191, 211, 213, 215–216, 245, 284, 291, 299, 307, 312–316, 322– 324, 326, 328–331, 334–339, 341–344, 346–348, 350–351, 353, 355–356, 360 causative scheme  9 causativity  x, 5–6, 110, 113, 117–119, 121–122, 312–315, 322–323, 331–332, 337, 339 causer  xiv, 185, 187, 201– 203, 206, 209–212, 312, 321, 323, 325, 328–329, 331

external cause  3, 11, 118, 326, 338–339, 341, 360, 382 non-culminating causation  185, 215 change  viii–xiv, 1, 3–6, 9–17, 19, 21–25, 28–34, 36–41, 43, 45–51, 55–59, 89–90, 92, 104, 110, 113–119, 122–126, 128–130, 132, 134–135, 144, 153–154, 157, 159, 161–163, 165, 168, 174, 176, 180–181, 185–186, 189–191, 193–196, 198–199, 201–208, 210–212, 214, 216, 218–221, 228, 231–232, 234–236, 242, 254, 271–273, 280, 285, 290–291, 299, 305, 310, 312, 321–323, 325–326, 328–329, 331–332, 337–343, 347, 355, 357, 359–373, 375, 377, 380, 384, 389–390, 396, 412–413, 415, 421, 423, 429, 434, 437 directed change  29, 41, 45, 49–50, 55, 305 non-directed change  29, 50, 55 random change  29 change function  xiii, 21, 24–25, 32, 36, 56–57 change of state  viii, x–xii, 1, 3–6, 9–12, 14–17, 19, 48, 89–90, 110, 113–119, 122–126, 128–130, 134, 154, 157, 185–186, 189–191, 193–196, 198–199, 201–208, 210–212, 218–220, 228, 234–235, 272, 280, 285, 312, 323, 325–326, 328–329, 331, 337–342, 357, 359–363, 365, 367–373, 375, 377, 396, 413, 421 partial change of state  193–196, 198–199, 201–207, 210–212 zero change of state  194, 201–202, 204–207, 211 characterizing  172, 239–240, 247–249, 251, 256, 263, 338– 339, 405, 414, 417 clitic increase  264–266, 270, 278, 280–281, 283–285 clitic se  133–134, 137, 275

Index 441

see also pronoun se  xii, 11, 101, 104, 106–108, 221–222, 360, 421 co-composition  33, 47–48 coercion  46, 131, 138–140, 144, 149, 153, 163, 256, 414–415, 419–420, 435 comitative  xii, 98–109 see also obligatory prepositional object  xii, 98–99, 102, 108 compositional mechanism  33 conceived time  159, 161, 167, 170 conceptual classes  291 conceptual integration  160 configuration  xi, 60–61, 66, 69–72, 124, 156–157, 159–160, 163–165, 180–181, 221, 255, 292, 337, 363, 370, 376, 418, 426 see also configurational  258 conflation  x, 6, 77, 83, 94, 96, 110–111, 117–118, 122–126, 184 consumption  22, 35, 50, 56, 199, 266, 310 control  xi, xiv, 9, 14, 111, 113, 115, 118, 180, 185, 187–188, 191–192, 200–201, 203–204, 207, 211–214, 216, 244, 246, 253, 299, 311, 316, 328, 349, 374–375, 383–384, 388, 394, 406, 410, 422–423, 425, 431, 433, 436 conversion  ix, 119–120, 229, 338–339, 342, 355, 361 converted affected entity 339 copula  171, 219, 222, 224–225, 227–230, 232, 234, 241, 244, 252, 263, 436 ser  xii–xiii, 3, 5, 7, 12, 16–17, 20, 124–127, 151, 171, 182, 218, 220, 226–228, 233–234, 236, 238, 242–245, 248, 251–262, 285, 296, 298, 387, 391, 394, 409, 412–421, 428, 433–436 estar  xiii, 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, 88, 124–125, 127, 171, 182, 218, 220, 227, 236, 244, 252–253,

256, 258, 261–262, 296, 298, 372, 375, 382, 387, 389–391, 393, 396–397, 409, 412–424, 428, 431–436 creation  3, 19, 22, 31, 33, 47–49, 52, 121–122, 129, 132, 143, 190, 299, 310–311, 369, 376, 385 culmination  xiv, 177, 185–192, 196, 200, 204, 211–213, 216, 345 non-culmination 185, 189–190, 192, 200, 211–213, 216 D dative  x, 24, 110–119, 122–126, 128, 214–215, 292, 299, 313, 323–328, 330–332, 383–384, 393–394, 406, 411 decomposition  140, 213 degree  viii–xi, 5, 14, 22, 25, 38–40, 42–43, 49, 55, 57–58, 62, 64, 94, 99–100, 108, 112, 117, 126, 128, 153, 175–177, 181, 185, 190–191, 193–196, 198–200, 203, 211, 214, 219, 234, 241, 246–249, 273, 289, 291, 297, 307, 314, 325–326, 328–332, 334, 355, 368–370, 373, 375–378, 431, 435 degree of change  25, 38–40 degree achievements  ix, 42, 58, 211, 368, 375–377, 435 deictic(s)  167, 171, 173, 178, 242–243 see also deixis  163, 182, 409, 424 derivation  2, 5–7, 9, 33, 95, 119, 121, 126, 191, 251, 260, 336–337, 356, 358 derivative schemes  358 diachrony  220, 378–380, 384, 394–395, 398, 401–407 direct object  1, 3, 5, 9, 22, 24, 65, 110–111, 114, 116, 119, 133, 192, 221, 266–268, 270–271, 278, 289–290, 294–297, 299, 301, 323–324, 329, 342, 384 dispositional  xii–xiii, 238–241, 244, 249–252, 256–261, 418

dot object  48, 53 durativity  367, 372–373, 375, 415 durative event  132–134, 136, 143, 145 dynamicity  xi, 153, 155–156, 158, 162–166, 168–172, 174–177, 179, 181, 307, 316, 392, 422 see also dynamic  viii–ix, xiv, 14, 16–17, 19, 21, 23–24, 26–28, 31, 41, 50, 57, 59, 79, 112–114, 135–137, 139, 144, 150–151, 154, 158–159, 162, 165–168, 172–176, 178, 180, 220, 254, 258, 265, 281, 285, 344, 354–355, 360, 367, 372, 375–376, 378–379, 385–389, 395–397, 400, 402, 404–406, 416, 420, 422 dynamics  59, 161, 163, 174, 337, 423, 437 dynamizer(s) 162 E effected object  33, 47–48, 56, 350 etymology  126–128, 227 evaluative adjectives  420, 428, 435 event  vii, ix–xi, xiii–xiv, 6, 9–11, 14, 16, 21–28, 30–33, 36–44, 46–50, 52–59, 61–62, 75, 92, 96, 102, 115, 129, 131– 143, 145–150, 154–155, 157, 162, 167, 169, 171, 174–180, 184–187, 190–193, 195, 199–200, 203–205, 207–208, 211–217, 219, 228, 238–239, 242–243, 249–250, 258–260, 266–268, 271–272, 274, 277–279, 284– 286, 289–291, 309, 313–314, 317, 320–322, 329, 331, 334, 344–352, 354–355, 359–360, 367–377, 379–380, 384, 386, 388, 390–391, 400, 409–410, 413, 419, 421–423, 431–433, 436–437 artifactual event  53 delimited event  16, 243, 350, 384 dynamic event  ix, xiv, 19, 135–136, 150, 168, 220, 344,

442 Verb Classes and Aspect

354–355, 372, 379, 387–389, 402–406 dynamic event structure xiv, 21, 24, 26–28, 41, 57, 59 event duration  10, 145, 347, 355 event limit  350–351, 354 event structure  x, xiv, 21, 23–24, 26–28, 32, 41, 44, 57–59, 75, 129, 131, 139–140, 142, 154, 162, 199, 211, 213, 215–216, 309, 313–314, 320–322, 331, 377, 410, 436–437 event Frame structure  27–28, 42, 44 event type  26, 138, 142, 190–191, 195, 205, 208 natural event  53 stative event  51, 135, 138, 395, 400 experiencer  x, 110–114, 116, 118–126, 175, 273, 275, 277–278, 285, 297, 299, 307, 312–314, 316, 321–332, 338, 341–342, 353, 359, 364, 368, 372, 384, 393–394, 406, 419, 422 F factitive value  3 Force Dynamics  337, 423, 437 French  vii, 1, 6–8, 11–13, 15–16, 74, 80, 83, 87–88, 117, 186–190, 196–203, 206–207, 210, 212, 219, 235, 239–240, 256, 258– 259, 267, 324 G gating function  32 Generative lexicon  xiv, 21, 24, 26, 59, 76, 130–131, 139–140, 151–152, 216, 410 generic  xii, 31, 160, 238–242, 245, 250–251, 259, 262–263, 388, 409 generic operator  240, 250 genericity 263 Germanic  xiv, 38, 185–186, 190, 201, 209–211

grammatical relations  62, 75, 293, 309 grammaticalization  viii, 34, 218, 220–221, 225, 227, 229, 234–236, 380 H habitual  xii–xiii, 16, 19, 33, 147, 238–244, 247–261, 263, 272, 318, 394, 402, 404, 406– 407, 416, 421 see also habituality  3, 17, 243, 249, 255, 261, 263, 402, 404, 406 habitus 249 I imperative mood  xiii, 412, 418, 421, 423–426, 433 negative imperatives  xiii, 412, 418, 428, 430–434 imperfective  19, 33, 41, 45, 112, 124, 178, 191–192, 213, 222, 238, 240, 260, 262, 317, 321, 343, 374–375, 386, 391, 400– 401, 404–405, 407, 413–414 imperfective gnomics  238, 260 inchoativity  ix, xii, 74, 119, 122, 130, 357–359, 361–362, 365, 376–377 see also inchoative meaning 357–358, 361, 363, 366 incremental  xi, xiii–xiv, 22–23, 30, 33, 36, 42–48, 50, 52, 57–58, 90, 157, 199–200, 206, 214, 261, 265–266, 271, 278, 280, 285, 290, 369 incremental object  30, 33, 47, 50, 52 incremental predicate  22, 42 incremental theme  xi, 22–23, 57, 90, 199–200, 206, 265–266, 271, 278, 280, 285, 290, 369 Individual-Level predicate  239, 413 see also ILP  413–415, 417, 419–420 individuation 289

infinitive  xii–xiii, 65, 68–70, 111–114, 174, 199, 233, 238, 241–257, 259–262, 267, 337, 343–345, 354, 374, 396–397, 402–403, 416, 424–427, 432 information structure  xiii, 412, 418, 424, 426–428, 430, 433–434, 436 inferrable  429–430, 433 accessible  47, 167, 430 activation  xii, 60, 156, 163, 225, 429–430 initiation function  33 intransitive  x–xii, 3, 5, 11, 16– 17, 19, 50, 66, 69, 71, 80, 92, 94, 101, 110–115, 117, 122–126, 128, 198, 264–266, 270, 274, 280–282, 286, 288, 290–298, 300–301, 308, 323–324, 329, 359–360, 381, 384, 421–422 intransitive clauses  294, 296 intransitive construction  5, 69, 112–114, 117, 123–126, 288, 293, 295–296, 323–324 iterative interpretation  351–352 K kinesis  155, 289–290 see also kinetic  155, 163–164, 168, 181 L lexical features  xiv, 131, 135– 136, 139–141, 143, 146, 150 lexical structure  x, 77–80, 82–83, 94, 140, 142 localization  155–156, 161, 171 M major biactant construction 293–294 see also major biactant pattern 301 Mandarin  xiv, 185–190, 194, 196, 201, 205–208, 211, 214 meaning compositionality  140 measure function  22, 25 measure-of-change function 25 metaphor  154–156, 160, 183, 223, 225–226, 236, 288

Index 443

cognitive metaphor  223, 226 modal  xiii, 31, 53, 162, 175, 191–192, 211–212, 218–219, 234, 238, 241, 249–251, 257–261, 424 modal operator  257, 260 mode of behavior  3 modification function  46, 48, 50 morphology  20, 24, 83, 162, 191, 214, 275, 277, 294, 308, 323, 356–358, 400, 426 parasynthesis  ix, 2, 4, 336, 357–358, 361, 376 prefix  xiii, 4, 21, 24, 33–34, 36–40, 43, 45–46, 50, 52, 83, 90, 105, 107–108, 119, 267, 337, 358 pro  xiii, 21, 24, 34–52, 54–59 word formation  vii, 19, 129, 357–358, 376 motion  x–xii, 22, 24, 28–29, 35, 41, 43–44, 50, 56, 58–59, 76–77, 94–97, 134, 137, 148, 153–166, 168–181, 183–184, 220, 264–265, 268, 270–271, 275–278, 281, 285, 299, 305, 307, 309–311 directed motion  35, 41, 43–44, 50, 56, 163 fictive motion  xi, 153, 155–156, 158–166, 168–171, 173–176, 178, 180–181, 183–184 manner-of-motion  xi, 29, 41, 153, 156, 158–159, 162–164, 169, 179 non-directed motion  50 oriented motion  156, 158–159, 163–164, 169 movement  xi, 46, 77, 79–83, 85–91, 93–94, 117, 119, 127, 157–158, 163, 165–166, 177, 179, 264, 273–274, 390, 437 N negation  xiii, 185, 196–197, 199, 210, 285, 387, 412, 425–428, 433–435

O ordering relation  24, 26, 29, 37, 39, 41, 45–47, 49, 51 P partial transformation  338, 341–343, 349, 351, 353 see also partial change  9, 193–196, 198–199, 201–207, 210–212 limited change  9, 15 participants  xii, xv, 60, 62–64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 99–102, 105, 108, 162, 185, 288–289, 291– 292, 296, 326, 387, 425 path  vii, xi, 22, 29, 34–35, 39, 41–46, 52, 77, 81–82, 84, 86–88, 90–97, 155–159, 161, 163–169, 173, 177–181, 184, 280 patient  xi–xii, 6, 99–101, 105, 107, 116, 118, 124, 195, 273–275, 277, 279–280, 285, 288–290, 293, 326 co-patients  xii, 105, 108 perfective  xiv, 16, 19, 33, 38, 112, 120, 124, 126, 185–186, 191–193, 198–200, 205, 212, 216, 222, 228, 234, 243, 342–343, 386, 391, 400–401, 413–414 periphrasis  10, 174, 243–245, 249, 252, 281, 345–346, 372, 374–375, 387, 389 habitual periphrasis  243, 252 see also periphrases  2, 174, 181, 242, 380, 389, 395–397, 400, 403, 407 periphrastic  117, 162, 171, 175, 179, 337, 375, 385 progressive periphrasis  10, 245, 281, 372, 374, 387 permanent quality  9 persistence function  46, 48, 50 perspective  viii, 22, 58, 76, 79, 83, 85, 89, 148, 153, 155, 157, 159, 162, 167, 169–170, 175, 178–180, 215, 234, 262, 291, 309, 320, 332, 361, 367, 371, 376, 407, 414–415, 419–421, 425–426, 429, 433

see also perspectival  153, 158, 180–181 phases  21, 26, 50, 131, 142, 150, 172, 177, 213, 372, 376 pluriactionality  259, 261 predicate  xi, xiii–xiv, 6, 9–10, 14, 22–23, 25, 32, 36–39, 41, 43, 45–48, 50, 54–55, 57, 63, 65–66, 74, 84–85, 92, 102, 110, 117–118, 126, 131, 136–139, 142–145, 147–150, 170, 174, 185, 188–190, 192–195, 197, 199–201, 204, 209, 214, 222–224, 228, 238–242, 244, 246–250, 252–261, 266, 268, 271–274, 276, 279–280, 285, 314, 324, 328–330, 360, 367, 371, 378–379, 387, 406–407, 413, 416–417, 419, 428, 430, 433 stative predicate  239–241, 251–252, 255, 406, 419 predicative complement  5 preposition  x–xii, 34–35, 47, 68–70, 77, 80, 82, 84, 87, 89–91, 93–94, 98, 100, 102, 104–108, 242, 260, 371, 380 preposition con  xii, 98, 105–108 process  viii–ix, xv, 1–2, 4–7, 9, 11–12, 14, 16, 19, 24, 27–28, 30, 33–36, 42, 44, 47–50, 52–54, 63–64, 66, 71, 82–83, 91–92, 110–111, 118–119, 122–124, 132, 135, 139–140, 142, 145, 148, 150, 160, 167, 174, 184, 193, 216, 218, 220–221, 224–225, 227–230, 233, 256–257, 274, 282, 285, 288, 291–292, 295–298, 300–303, 307, 310, 339, 342, 347, 349, 357, 360–361, 366, 369–372, 375–376, 379–381, 384, 396, 414, 419, 422, 426, 431–432 behavioral processes  292, 295 existential processes  292, 297 material processes  292, 295, 297, 299–301, 307 mental process(es)  167, 291–292, 297–301, 307

444 Verb Classes and Aspect

process types  291–292, 295–297, 301, 310 relational processes  292, 297, 299–300 processing time  159–160, 162, 165, 180 pronominal variant  3, 14, 229 prototype  290, 305, 378–379, 392–393, 403, 406–407, 427, 436 punctuality  289–290, 317–318, 321 punctual event  133–134, 146–148, 150, 345, 349 Q Qualia  xiv, 21, 23–24, 30–33, 47–48, 57, 140, 142–143, 151 Qualia role  30–31, 143 Qualia structure  xiv, 21, 24, 30, 32, 142 Qualia Selection Thesis  31 Quantification  58, 176, 179, 215, 263, 286 R re-categorization process  2 reciprocity  63, 98–101, 104–108 mutual 100–101 mutuamente  xii, 100, 106–108 recordar-acordar(se) 66 result  ix–x, 6, 17, 33, 38, 45–46, 59, 64, 81, 83–84, 90, 110–111, 114, 118, 122, 124–126, 128, 131, 135, 138, 147, 171, 174, 187, 189, 191–194, 196–201, 206–207, 209–210, 212, 228, 240, 254– 258, 260–261, 273–274, 301, 334, 337–339, 346–347, 354, 368, 375, 377, 379–380, 396 see also resultative  ix, 3, 10, 12, 45–46, 82, 84, 89, 120, 138, 209–210, 328, 334–336, 338–339, 341–344, 346–348, 350–351, 353–355, 373 resultative state  10 resultant state  25, 27, 30, 32, 39, 42, 53, 55, 89, 138, 142, 271, 318

Russian  xiii, 21, 24, 33, 39, 41–42, 53, 57–59, 187–188, 192, 202, 211, 213 S Salish  xiv, 185–186, 188–191, 196–198, 200–201, 203–205, 207, 211–214, 216–217 scalar  ix, xiii–xiv, 21–25, 29, 36–41, 43, 45–46, 49–51, 55–58, 208, 367–370, 372–373, 376–377, 413, 427, 435 scalar attribute  24, 36–38 scalar dimension  xiv, 37, 39, 45–46, 49, 51, 57, 368 scalar property  25, 36, 39, 51, 57 scalar structure  ix, 25, 37–38, 50, 58, 367, 370, 372–373, 376–377, 435 scalarity  21, 40, 58–59, 213–214, 413 scale  viii, 16, 22, 24–26, 30, 32, 36–40, 43, 46–47, 51, 55, 58, 123, 146, 156, 162–164, 170–171, 176, 193, 196, 199– 200, 203, 214, 246, 289–290, 302, 304–305, 365, 367–371, 373, 375, 377–379, 394, 405, 407, 427 closed scale  24–26, 38, 193, 203, 368, 370, 373 interval scale  26 multi-valued scale  24–25, 30 nominal scale  24, 26, 30, 47 open scale  24, 368 ordinal scale  26, 47 property scale  22, 368, 370–371 ratio scale  26, 55 scale hierarchy  55 Scale Hypothesis  39–40, 43 spatial scale  22, 38–39, 43 two-valued scale  24–25 semantics  vii–viii, x–xi, xiii, 1–2, 20–21, 24, 36, 38, 40, 43, 45, 53, 56–59, 62–63, 72, 74–77, 95–97, 104–105, 107–109, 129–130, 153, 158, 165, 181–182, 184, 213–220,

223, 227, 229, 240, 261–263, 286, 289, 309, 324, 331–336, 356–357, 377, 393, 435–437 semantic classes of verbs 291 semantic content  102, 107, 339, 342, 358, 390 sequential  157, 159, 168–169, 171, 173, 176, 181, 233 see also sequentiality  162 Slavic  24, 37–38, 57–59, 214 source-path-goal schema  161, 164 space  41, 50, 52, 79, 90–91, 95–97, 134, 154–156, 160–164, 166–171, 177, 179–180, 183– 184, 199, 201, 213, 224, 253, 264–265, 268–269, 273–274, 338, 390, 392, 406 see also spatial  22, 38–39, 41, 43–46, 52, 58–59, 79, 95–96, 102, 104, 106, 118, 137–138, 153–156, 160–162, 167, 169–171, 174, 177–179, 181, 184, 225, 227, 253, 359, 387, 401, 407, 414 Spanish  vii–viii, x–xv, xvii– xviii, 1, 5–6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 60–61, 64, 71, 74–80, 82–83, 85–95, 98–101, 103–106, 108, 110, 113, 117, 124–131, 133, 141–144, 151–153, 158–159, 162, 164, 173, 179, 182–184, 199, 218–220, 223, 228, 233–235, 238, 241, 243–244, 252, 262– 264, 266–267, 277, 279–280, 284, 286–288, 291, 294–295, 299–302, 307, 309–310, 313, 316–317, 319, 323–328, 330–332, 334–337, 342, 353, 357–359, 361, 376–380, 382, 384–385, 394, 406, 409, 412–419, 424, 426–427, 430, 433–436 Spanish verbs  viii, xiii, 60, 77, 98–99, 130, 267, 301, 307, 415 specific  xii–xiii, xv, 6–7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 23, 25, 28–29, 31, 33, 40, 50, 53, 60–63, 69, 71, 74, 79, 81, 90–91, 94, 104, 106, 112, 121, 139–140, 142, 145, 156, 160, 167–168, 171, 218–219,

Index 445

227, 229, 232, 234, 240–241, 245, 264–265, 272, 288, 293, 300, 303, 305, 320, 325–326, 336, 347, 355, 357, 365, 369, 371–372, 375–376, 387, 390, 393, 400, 412, 414, 421, 425, 427, 431–432 Stage-Level Predicate  413 see also SLP  413–415, 417, 419–420 standard of comparison  39–40, 43 Stasis  xi, 155, 160, 167, 180 see also static  153–156, 158–160, 162, 165, 168–169, 171, 174, 176–177, 180, 184, 233, 307, 386, 404 stativity  viii, xi, 153–155, 157–158, 162, 172, 235, 333, 378, 392, 394–396, 398, 400, 402, 404, 416 stabilizer(s) 162 state  viii–xiii, 1, 3–6, 8–12, 14–19, 21–22, 24–25, 27–30, 32, 36–37, 39, 42, 44, 46, 48–49, 53, 55, 57–58, 89–90, 93, 110–111, 113–119, 122–126, 128–130, 132, 134–135, 138, 142, 144, 152–154, 157, 159, 162, 165, 167–168, 170–172, 174, 176, 185–186, 189–191, 193–196, 198–208, 210–212, 214–216, 218–222, 227–228, 230–235, 252–254, 265, 269, 271–272, 274, 280, 285, 289, 291, 312, 314, 317–326, 328–329, 331, 337–342, 355, 357, 359–373, 375, 377–380, 384, 388–392, 394–401, 404–407, 409, 413–415, 417–419, 421–425, 428, 431–433, 437 bounded state  113, 414, 434 controlled state  viii, xiii, 412, 418, 421, 423–424, 431, 433 D-state 421 emotional state  xiii, 113, 230, 235, 321–324, 326, 328–329, 331, 361–365, 367, 412, 423–424, 432–433 endoactional state  419

Kimian state  263 physical state  338–339, 361–362, 367 transitory state  7, 378–379, 391–394, 396–398, 400–402, 404–407, 420 unbounded state  112–113, 391, 414 subevent  23, 27, 30, 32, 44, 142, 285, 329, 414 subeventive structure  280, 285 subeventual structure  26 subject  viii–xiv, 1, 3, 5, 8–9, 11–17, 19, 22, 46–47, 50, 53, 63, 65–66, 68–70, 72–73, 77, 82, 107–108, 110–119, 121–128, 133–135, 137, 147, 154, 157, 159, 162, 172, 176, 185, 187, 192, 199, 201–203, 206–212, 218, 221– 222, 224–225, 227–235, 239, 241–244, 246–250, 253, 256, 259–261, 265, 268, 271–281, 283, 285, 289–290, 293–296, 299, 301, 307, 312–313, 316, 324, 329, 357, 359–361, 363– 367, 369–370, 372–373, 379, 383–384, 387–388, 394, 396, 399, 403–406, 415, 418–424, 430–433 subject-object  289, 294 subjunctive  xiii, 412, 424–428, 433–434 symmetry  xii, 99–100, 102–109 synonyms  xii, 60–61, 266, 279, 373 synoptic 157 syntactic  vii–viii, x–xii, xiv–xv, 1–2, 6, 19–20, 34, 36, 46, 60–75, 77, 79–82, 84–85, 94–100, 103–104, 106, 108– 115, 118, 129, 132–133, 136, 140, 144, 147, 150–151, 162, 182, 210, 215–216, 221–222, 228–229, 233, 249–251, 264, 272, 275, 288–291, 293–297, 299–302, 307–309, 312–313, 322, 329– 330, 334–338, 355, 358–360, 367, 371, 375–376, 378–381, 383, 386–387, 393, 395, 400, 402, 404, 412, 426–427

syntactic functions  62, 65, 71–72, 293, 329 syntactic processes  82, 290, 302 T telicity  xii, 36, 57–58, 83, 92, 129–130, 171, 193, 214–217, 269, 273, 280, 285, 290, 316, 346, 367, 370, 373–375, 377, 412–413, 435, 437 see also telic  ix, xi, 16, 22, 24–25, 30–32, 36–38, 41, 43, 45, 53–55, 83, 92, 114, 138, 143, 149, 154, 176, 192, 197, 200, 211, 215, 279–281, 285, 289, 342, 346–347, 354, 370–377, 386, 413 telic introduction  53 telos  xiv, 28, 43, 94, 185, 191, 193, 199, 204 temporal  ix, 6, 10, 14–15, 17, 21–22, 24, 27–28, 31, 37, 39, 52, 54, 58, 92, 96, 142, 152–155, 160, 162, 168, 170, 172–173, 175–179, 181–182, 184, 213, 215–217, 242–243, 253, 258, 261, 263, 286–287, 321–322, 334, 386–387, 396, 400–401, 413–414, 419, 437 see also a-temporal  162, 168, 172 temporality  159, 174, 178 tense  10, 18, 21, 155, 157, 162, 171–174, 181, 216, 261, 309, 332, 336, 342, 345, 408, 416, 421, 423–424 termination function  54 topological  xi, 161, 163–164, 169, 177, 180–181 see also non-topological  163 total change  9, 14–15, 17 see also total transformation 339, 343, 348, 350 transitivity  xiv–xv, 63, 213, 288–293, 295–310, 333, 422 semantic transitivity  289, 292–293, 299, 307–308 syntactic transitivity  xv, 288–289, 293, 295, 297, 299, 301, 307–308

446 Verb Classes and Aspect

transitive clauses  288, 296–298, 300 transitive construction  111–114, 116, 126, 291, 293–295, 323–324, 329 transitive patterns  121, 300–301 transitive variant  x, 3, 11, 14, 110–111, 113–115, 128 transitive verb  127, 223, 266, 270–271, 295 transitivity scale  289–290, 302, 304 transition  27–30, 44, 48, 142, 219, 317, 368–369, 432 extended transition  27, 29, 48 two-state  27, 44 two-place predicates  290, 302, 304 type coercion  144, 149 type matching  23, 143 U unaccusativity  x, 20, 76, 312–313, 377 see also unaccusative  x, 11, 13, 22, 88, 111, 312–313, 325–326, 328, 331, 359–360, 383 underspecification 140 unergative  77, 83, 88, 92, 270–272, 275, 278, 325–326, 328, 330–331 V valency patterns  xv, 288, 296, 301, 308 verb  vii–xv, xviii, 1–10, 12–14, 16–24, 28, 30, 33, 35–39, 41, 43, 45–66, 69, 71, 74, 76–79, 83, 85, 88–96, 99–100, 102–104, 107–110, 112, 114,

117–120, 122, 124–128, 131–140, 143–146, 148, 150–151, 153, 157–159, 162–164, 168–171, 175, 179, 181, 184–187, 190–191, 193, 195, 198–201, 210, 212–213, 215–216, 218–223, 225, 228– 230, 232–233, 235, 241, 245, 247–248, 252, 255, 262–263, 266, 270–272, 275–277, 279– 281, 284–289, 291, 294–297, 300–310, 312–313, 316–317, 321–322, 324–326, 336–341, 343–344, 346–349, 354–355, 357–366, 369, 371–376, 378– 379, 382–387, 393, 399–402, 404–405, 407, 410, 415, 418– 419, 421–422, 424–426 (dis)appearance 254 acquisition  12, 14, 295–296, 310–311, 346, 353 attributive verb  228–229, 296 causative-resultative denominal verb  ix, 334–336, 338–339, 341–344, 346–348, 350–351, 353, 355 cognition verb  xii, 60, 64 cognitive verb  60–61, 63–64, 76 copular verb  xiii, 412–414 copulative verb  viii, 3, 218–220, 223, 228–230 deadjectival verb  viii, 5, 28, 122–124, 129, 338, 376–377 emotion verb  299, 307 existential verb  296, 298 inchoative denominal verb ix, 119, 122, 361, 367, 369–373, 375–376 manner verb  45, 193 meteorological verb  296, 362

motion verb  x–xii, 22, 24, 28–29, 41, 77, 94, 134, 153, 158–159, 162–165, 169, 171, 175, 177, 179, 184 movement verb  xi, 77, 79, 163, 264 physical verb  x, 128 pseudo-copulative verb viii, 218–220, 223, 228–230 psychological verb  x, 110, 112–114, 117–118, 128, 130, 255, 332–333, 377, 384 resultative verb  45, 210, 339, 354 unaccusative verb  13, 325, 383 inaccusative verb  270–272, 275 verb of perception  229 verb of possession  255 volition verb  308 verb class  vii, 112, 288, 357 see also verb classes  vii, xiv, xviii, 21, 58, 76–77, 109, 162–163, 185, 288, 291, 295, 297, 301, 309, 410 classification of verbs  295, 362, 367 verb types  xv, 288–289, 291, 304, 306–307, 309, 361 verb-type hierarchy  304–305 verb valency  60, 62 verbal semantics  334 verbalization process  2, 7 voice  68–71, 109, 215, 267, 277, 318, 359 volitionality 289 W well-defined time limit  346