Cover not available
Part of
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16: Selected papers from the 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Newark, Delaware
Edited by Irene Vogel
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16] 2020
► pp. 219–240

Split auxiliary selection with affected subjects in Old Majorcan Catalan

| Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
We aim to shed light on the split auxiliary selection found in Old Majorcan Catalan, in constructions where, instead of haver (‘have’), esser (‘be’) is used as the auxiliary verb for compound tenses, although just with persons 1 & 2; not only with unaccusative verbs, but also with transitive and unergative verbs. We claim that, in fact, these constructions have affected or undergoer subjects, derived from a lower position: at least, [Spec, ProcessP]. Hence, this system for auxiliary selection is mixed: both person-driven and event-driven. The Majorcan data provide evidence in favour of Ramchand’s (2008; 2018) decomposition of the vP, and for a nanosyntactic lexicalization of the auxiliaries: haver lexicalizes a chunk such as [Aux, i*], while esser lexicalizes only [Aux], in case a Person[+participant] head intervenes.
Keywords: split auxiliary selection, person-driven auxiliary selection, affected subject, undergoer, unaccusativity, possessive/interest relationship, subject of result construction, nanosyntactic lexicalization, Majorcan Catalan, Northern Catalan
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous accounts
  • 3.Our provisional analysis: The initiator-undergoer chain
  • 4.Fulfilled predictions
  • 5.A mixed system of auxiliary selection: person-driven and event-driven
  • 6.Final remarks
    • 6.1A resultative construction?
    • 6.2A nanosyntactic approach
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.16.14sal
References (52)
References
Alcover, Antoni M. 1903. “Questions de llengua y literatura catalana.” Bolletí del Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana 1:15.Google Scholar
Badia i Margarit, Antoni M. 1981. Gramàtica històrica catalana. València: Tres i Quatre (Biblioteca d’Estudis i Investigacions).Google Scholar
1994. Gramàtica de la llengua catalana: Descriptiva, normativa, diatòpica i diastràtica. Barcelona: Proa.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile. 1966. Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Bentley, Delia. 2016. “Split intransitivity.” In The Oxford Guide to Romance Languages, ed. by Adam Ledgeway, and Martin Maiden, Chapter 50. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bonet, Eulàlia, and Joan Mascaró. 2016. “Phase Theory and Prosodic Domains.” Bellaterra: CLT seminar (handout).Google Scholar
Bonet, Eulàlia, Lisa L. S. Cheng, Laura Downing, and Joan Mascaró. 2019. "(In)direct Reference in the Phonology-Syntax Interface under Phase Theory: A Response to “Modular PIC” (D’Alessandro and Scheer 2015)". Linguistic Inquiry 50(4): 751-777. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caha, Pavel. 2009. “The Nanosyntax of Case”. Ph.D. thesis, University of Tromsø.
Cuervo, M.ª Cristina. 2008. “La alternancia causativa y su interacción con argumentos dativos.” Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada 46: 1.Google Scholar
D’Alessandro, Roberta, and Ian Roberts. 2010. “Past Participle Agreement in Abruzzese: Split Auxiliary Selection and the Null-Subject Parameter.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 28.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fabra, Pompeu. 1922. Converses filològiques (17-12-1922).Google Scholar
Fábregas, Antonio. 2007. “The Exhaustive Lexicalization Principle.” Nordlyd 34. University of Tromsø, 165–199.Google Scholar
. 2009. “An Argument for Phrasal Spell-Out: Indefinites and Interrogatives in Spanish.” Nordlyd 36 (1). University of Tromsø, 129–168.Google Scholar
Freeze, Ray. 1992. “Existentials and other Locatives.” Language 68: 553–595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hale, Ken, and Samuel J. Keyser. 2002. Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harley, Heidi, and Elizabeth Ritter. 2002. “Person and Number in Pronouns: A Feature-Geometric Analysis.” Language 78: 484–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaque, Matías. 2014. “La expresión de la estatividad en español: Niveles de representación y grados de dinamicidad.” Ph.D. thesis, UAM, Madrid.
Kayne, Richard S. 1993. “Toward a Modular Theory of Auxliary Selection.” Studia Linguistica 47: 3–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keller, Frank, and Antonella Sorace. 2003. “Gradient Auxiliary Selection and Impersonal Passivization in German: An Experimental Investigation.” Journal of Linguistics 39, 57–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. 1998. “Partitive Case and Aspect.” In The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors, ed. by Miriam Butt, and Wilhelm Geuder. Stanford (California): CSLI.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. “Severing the External Argument from the Verb.” In Phrase Structure and the Lexicon, ed. by J. Rooryck, and L. Zaring, 109–138. Dordrecht: Kluver. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Larsson, Ida. 2015. “The have/be Alternation in Scandinavian – Perfects, Resultatives and Unaccusative Structure.” In , Auxiliary Selection Revisited. Gradience and Gradualness, ed. by R. Kailuweit, and M. Rosemeyer, 145–182. Berlín: Deruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Legendre, Geraldine. 2010. “A Formal Typology of Person-Based Auxiliary Selection in Italo-Romance.” In Syntactic Variation: The Dialects of Italy, ed. by Roberta D’Alessandro, Adam Ledgeway, and Ian Roberts, 86–101. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Loporcaro, Michele. 1998. Sintassi comparata dell’accordo participiale romanzo. Torino: Rosemberg & Sellier.Google Scholar
. 2007. “On Triple Auxiliation in Romance.” Linguistics 45: 173–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manzini, M. Rita, and Leonardo M. Savoia. 2007. A Unification of Morphology and Syntax: Studies in Romance and Albanian Dialects. Londres: Routedge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. Grammatical Categories: Variation in Romance Languages. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Massanell, Mar .2017. Los atlas lingüísticos como fuente para estudios de sintaxis dialectal: El caso del Atles lingüístic del domini català (ALDC).” Verba 44: 271–315. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mateu, Jaume. 2002. “Argument Structure. Relational Construal at She Syntax-Semantics Interface.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
. 2009. “Gradience and Auxiliary Selection in Old Catalan and Old Spanish.” In Historical syntax and linguistic theory, ed. by P. Crisma, and G. Longobardi, 176–193. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moll, Francesc de Borja. 1952 (2006). Gramàtica històrica catalana. València: Universitat de València.Google Scholar
. 1975. Gramàtica catalana referida especialment a les Illes Balears. Palma: Editorial Moll.Google Scholar
Obrador, Bernat. 1906a. “Del ús dels verbs auxiliars catalans.” Actes del I Congrés Internacional de la Llengua Catalana, tema VII. Barcelona: Estampa d’En Joaquim Horta.Google Scholar
. 1906b. “Resposta a l’esmena addicional de [Puig i Sais (1906)].” Actes del I Congrés Internacional de la Llengua Catalana . Barcelona: Estampa d’En Joaquim Horta.
Puig i Sais, Armengol. 1906. “Esmena addicional (no acceptada pel ponent) a la conclusió III [de la ponència de B. Obrador].” Actes del I Congrés Internacional de la Llengua Catalana . Barcelona: Estampa d’En Joaquim Horta.
Pylkkänen, Liina. 2008. Introducing Arguments. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian. 2008. Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First-Phase Syntax. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. Situations and Syntactic Structures: Rethinking Auxiliaries and Order in English [Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 77]. MIT Press, 2018. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ramos, J. Rafel. 2005. “Els auxiliars dels temps compostos en català medieval.” Caplletra 38: 179–209.Google Scholar
Rigau, Gemma. 1998. “La variació sintàctica: Uniformitat en la diversitat.” Caplletra 25.Google Scholar
Rosselló, Joana. 2002. “El SV (I): El Verb i Arguments Verbals.” In Gramàtica del català contemporani, Vol. 2, ed. by Joan Solà, M. Rosa Lloret, Joan Mascaró, and Manuel Pérez Saldanya, 1853–1949. Barcelona: Empúries.Google Scholar
Salvà, Sebastià. 2015. “Concordança del participi i aspecte intern en el català de Mallorca”. final master thesis, màster interuniversitari de Ciència Cognitiva i Llenguatge (CCiL), Barcelona.
. 2017. “Past Participle Agreement in Majorcan Catalan: The Relevance of Inner Aspect.” Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 6:1, 53–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. “La concordance del participi en el català de Mallorca.” Llengua & Literatura 28: 53–79.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael. 1976. “Hierarchy of Features and Ergativity.” In Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages, ed. by Robert M. W. Dixon, 112–171. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 2000. “Gradients in Auxiliary Selection with Intransitive Verbs.” Language 76: 859–890. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2004. “Gradience and Implications for Unaccusativity.” In The Unaccusativity Puzzle. Explorations of the Syntax-Lexicon Interface, ed. by A. Alexiadou, E. Anagnostopoulou, and M. Everaert. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Starke, Michal. 2005. “Nanosyntax.” Seminar taught at CASTL , University of Tromsø.
. 2009. “Nanosyntax: A Short Prime to a New Approach to Language.” Norlyd 36 (1): University of Tromsø, 1–6.Google Scholar
Veny, Joan, and Mar Massanell. 2015. Dialectologia catalana: Aproximació als parlars catalans. Barcelona, Alacant, València: Publicacions i Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, Publicacions de la Universitat d’Alacant, Publicacions de la Universitat de València.Google Scholar
Wood, Jim, and Alec Marantz. 2017. “The Interpretation of External Arguments.” In The Verbal Domain, ed. by R. D’alessandro, I. Franco, and Á. J. Gallego, 255–278. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar