Chapter published in:
Historical Linguistics 2017: Selected papers from the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, San Antonio, Texas, 31 July – 4 August 2017
Edited by Bridget Drinka
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 350] 2020
► pp. 82–106

‘Liking’ constructions in Spanish

The role of frequency and syntactic stimulus in constructional change

This study examines the diachronic change in argument structure in Spanish psych-verbs of ‘liking’, with emphasis on the change from nominative-experiencer gustar ‘to like’ to dative-experiencer gustar. While previous studies have looked at factors pertaining to frequency and semantics, this change must also be studied taking into account certain syntactic factors, and especially the evolution of prepositional finite clauses introduced by functional prepositions. Results suggest that the subcategorization properties of the preposition are grammatically relevant in determining the linguistic encoding of the arguments of Spanish ‘liking’ constructions. This study offers an extensive corpus study of ‘liking’ verbs, spanning the 13th to the 17th centuries, and adopts a constructionist usage-based view of syntactic productivity.
Keywords: argument structure, complementizers, morpho-syntax, psych-verbs, construction grammar, Spanish language
Published online: 09 July 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.350.05moj
References

References

Allen, C.
(1995) Case marking and reanalysis: Grammatical relations from Old to Early Modern English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Amaral, P. & Delicado Cantero, M.
(2018) Subcategorization and change: A diachronic analysis of sin embargo (de que). In J. E. Macdonald (Ed.), Contemporary trends in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics. Selected papers from the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 15. (pp. 31–48). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Barðdal, J.
(2008) Productivity: Evidence from case and argument structure in Icelandic. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2009) The development of case in Germanic. In J. Bardðal & S. Chelliah (Eds.), The role of semantic, pragmatic, and discourse factors in the development of case (pp. 123–159). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Barra Jover, M.
(2002) Propiedades léxicas y evolución sintáctica. El desarrollo de los mecanismos de subordinación en español. La Coruña: Toxosoutos.Google Scholar
Batllori, M.
(2012) Diacronía de los verbos psicológicos: una propuesta de entrada léxica. In G. Clavería, M. Freixas, M. Prat, & J. Torruella (Eds.), Historia del léxico: perspectivas de investigación (Vol. 47, pp. 341–374). Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, B.
(2000) Archaic syntax in Indo-European. The spread of transitivity in Latin and French. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Beardsley, W.
(1921) Infinitive constructions in Old Spanish. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Bencini, G. & Goldberg, A.
(2000) The contribution of argument structure constructions to sentence meaning. Journal of Memory and Language, 43(4), 640–651. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bogard, S. & Company Company, C.
(1989) Estructura y evolución de las oraciones completivas de sustantivo en el español. Romance Philology, 43(2), 258–274.Google Scholar
Bybee, J.
(1995) Regular morphology and the lexicon. Language and Cognitive Processes, 10(5), 425–455. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N.
(1981) Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa lectures. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Corominas, J.
(1954) Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Delicado Cantero, M.
(2013) Prepositional clauses in Spanish. A diachronic and comparative syntactic study. Berlin: De Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Du Cange, C., Henschel, G., Carpentier, P., Adelung, J. & Favre, L.
(1610–1688 [1937]) Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis. Paris: Librairie des sciences et des arts.Google Scholar
Elvira, J.
(2006) El desarrollo de la construcción biactancial estativa en español. Revista de Historia de la Lengua Española, 1, 45–66.Google Scholar
Fedriani, C.
(2014) Experiential constructions in Latin. Leiden: Brill. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, A.
(1995) Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
(2003) Constructions: A new theoretical approach to language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(5), 219–224. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, M.
(2001) Non-canonical marking of core arguments in European languages. In A. Aikhenvald, R. Dixon & M. Onishi (Eds.), Non-canonical marking of subjects and objects [Typological Studies in Language, 46] (pp. 53–84). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Melis, C.
(1997) Las emociones, la transitividad y el aspecto. Anuario de Letras. Lingüística y Filología, 35, 383–415.Google Scholar
(1998) Sobre la historia sintáctica de gustar. In C. García, F. González, & J. Mangado (Eds.), Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española: La Rioja, 1–5 de abril de 1997 (pp. 295–306).Google Scholar
Melis, C. & Flores, M.
(2013) On the historical expansion of non-canonically marked ‘subjects’ in Spanish. The Diachronic Typology of Non-canonical Subjects. SLCS, 140, 163–184. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
forthcoming). The dative experiencer of Spanish gustar. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Serradilla Castaño, A.
(1995) Sobre las primeras apariciones de construcciones preposicionales ante que completivo en español medieval. Factores determinantes. EPOS, XI, 147–163. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Serradillla Castaño, A.
(1996) Diccionario sintáctico del español medieval. Verbos de entendimiento y lengua. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Serradilla Castaño, A.
(1997) El régimen de los verbos de entendimiento y lengua en español medieval. Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.Google Scholar
Tarr, F. C.
(1922) Prepositional complementary clauses in Spanish with special reference to the works of Pérez Galdós. Revue Hispanique, 56, 1–264.Google Scholar
Schulte, K.
(2004) Pragmatic causation in the rise of the Romance prepositional infinitive: a statistically-based study with special reference to Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
(2007a) Prepositional Infinitives in Romance: A Usage-Based Approach to Syntactic Change. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
(2007b) What causes adverbial infinitives to spread? Evidence from Romance. Language Sciences, 29, 512–537. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vázquez Rozas, V. & Rivas, E.
(2007) Un análisis construccionista de la diacronía de gustar . In I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano, C. Inchaurralde & J. Sánchez-García (eds.), Language, mind, and the lexicon (pp. 143–164). Frankfurt, Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Williams, E.
(1981) Argument structure and morphology. Linguistic Review 1, 81–114.Google Scholar