Part of
Hispanic Linguistics at the Crossroads: Theoretical linguistics, language acquisition and language contactEdited by Rachel Klassen, Juana M. Liceras and Elena Valenzuela
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 4] 2015
► pp. 89–112
Edited by Rachel Klassen, Juana M. Liceras and Elena Valenzuela
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 4] 2015
► pp. 89–112
Fue muerto
Suppletion in Spanish analytic passives
While allomorphy is a widespread phenomenon in the functional vocabulary of the world’s languages (i.e. English past tense -d, -t and -Ø), its status in the domain of roots is still an open question. Does root allomorphy, or suppletion, exist? In this paper we review the recent controversy attached to this question within the framework of Distributed Morphology (DM) and then provide an argument in favor of the existence of suppletion from the distribution of vocabulary items mat- (kill) and mor- (die). Using a model for analyzing suppletion outlined in Harley (2013), we propose that these two vocabulary items are members of the same set of lists that are accessed by a single syntactically-active root node. Mat- is specified to appear in agentive verbal environments while mor- is an elsewhere morpheme.
Keywords: Distributed Morphology, participles, passives, suppletion
References
Acquaviva, P
(2009) Roots and lexicality in distributed morphology. In A. Galani, D. Redinger, & N. Yeo (Eds.), York-Essex Morphology Meeting 2, 1–21. York: University of York.
Acquaviva, P., & Panagiatis, P
Arad, M
(2003) Locality constraints on the interpretation of roots: The case of Hebrew denominal verbs. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 21, 737–778. 
Bobaljik, J
(2000) The ins and outs of contextual allomorphy. In K. Grohmann & C. Struijke (Eds.), Proceedings of the Maryland Mayfest on Morphology 1999 (University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics 10; pp. 35–71). College Park, MD: University of Maryland, Department of Linguistics.
(2012) Universals in comparative morphology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Bobaljik, J., & Harley, H
Borer, H
(2013) Structuring sense, volume III: Taking form. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2014) Derived nominals and the domain of content. Lingua, 141, 71–96.
Caha, P
(2009) The nanosyntax of case. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Tromso, Norway.
Chomsky, N
(2001) Derivation by phase. In M. Kenstowicz (Ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Corominas, J., & Pascual, J
(1980–91) Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico. Madrid: Gredos.
Cuervo, M.C
(2014) Alternating unaccusatives and the distribution of roots. Lingua, 141, 48–70.
De Miguel, E., & Fernández Lagunilla, M
(2000) El operador aspectual se. Revista Española de Lingüística, 30, 13–41.
Embick, D
(2000) Features, syntax and categories in the Latin perfect. Linguistic Inquiry, 31, 185–230.
(2003) Locality, listedness, and morphological identity. Studia Linguistica, 57, 143–169.
(2004) On the structure of resultative participles in English. Linguistic Inquiry, 35, 355–392.
(2010) Localism versus globalism in morphology and phonology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Embick, D., & Noyer, R
(2007) Distributed Morphology and the syntax/morphology interface. In G. Ramchand & C. Reiss (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic interfaces, 289–325, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fábregas, A
(2014) Argument structure and morphologically underived nouns in Spanish and English. Lingua, 141, 97–120.
Fodor, J
(1970) Three reasons for not deriving ‘kill’ from ‘cause to die’. Linguistic Inquiry, 1, 429–438.
Halle, M
(1997) Distributed Morphology: Impoverishment and fission. In B. Bruening, Y. Kang, & M. McGinnis (Eds.), MITWPL 30: Papers at the Interface (pp. 425–449). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
Halle, M., & Marantz, A
(1993) Distributed Morphology and the pieces of inflection. In K. Hale & S.J. Keyser (Eds.), The view from Building 20: Essays in linguistics in honor of Sylvain Bromberger (pp. 111–176). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
(1994) Some key features of Distributed Morphology. In A. Carnie, H. Harley, & T. Bures (Eds.), Papers on phonology and morphology (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 21; pp. 275–288). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
Harley, H
(2014) On the identity of roots. Theoretical Linguistics, 40, 225–276.
Harley, H., & Noyer, R
(1999) State of the article: Distributed Morphology. GLOT, 4, 3–9.
Haugen, J., & Siddiqi, D
(2013) Roots and the derivation. Linguistic Inquiry, 44, 493–517.
Levin, B., & Rappaport-Hovav, M
(1995) Unaccusativity: At the syntax lexical semantics interface. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Marantz, A
(1995) A late note on late insertion. In Y–S. Kim, et al. (Eds.), Explorations in generative grammar (pp. 357–368). Seoul: Hankuk.
(1997) No escape from syntax: Don’t try morphological analysis in the privacy of your own lexicon. In A. Dimitriadis, L. Siegal, C. Surek-Clark, & A. Williams (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st Penn Linguistics Colloquium (pp. 201–225). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, UPenn Working Papers in Linguistics.
McCawley, J
(1968) Lexical insertion in a transformational grammar without Deep Structure. In B. Darden et al. (Eds.), Fourth regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (pp. 71–80). Chicago, IL: BLS.
Mendikoetxea, A
(1999) Construcciones inacusativas y pasivas. In I. Bosque & V. Demonte, Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Volumen 2, 1575–1629. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
Oltra-Massuet, I
(2013) Deverbal adjectives at the interface: A crosslinguistic study into the morphology, syntax and semantics of -ble. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Pfau, R
(2009) Grammar as processor: A Distributed Morphology account of spontaneous speech errors. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ramchand, G
(2008) Verb meaning and the lexicon: A first phase syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Real Academia Española
(2009) Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.
Real Academia Española: Banco de datos (CREA) [en línea]
Corpus de referencia del español actual. [URL] (Consulted 20 April 2013, 13 October 2013).
Schäfer, F
Siddiqi, D
(2009) Syntax within the word: Economy, allomorphy and argument selection in Distributed Morphology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Starke, M
(2009) Nanosyntax: A short primer to a new approach to language. In P. Svenonius et al. (Eds.), Nordlyn 36(1), Special issue on nanosyntax. Septentrio: Tromso.
Tubino Blanco, M
Veselinova, L