Article published in:
Impersonal Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspectiveEdited by Andrej L. Malchukov and Anna Siewierska
[Studies in Language Companion Series 124] 2011
► pp. 307–322
Impersonal configurations and theticity
The case of meteorological predications in Afroasiatic
Amina Mettouchi | EPHE, Paris
Mauro Tosco | University of Turin
Impersonal predications are often viewed as structures expressing either agent defocusing, or lack of canonical subject properties. The study of one type of prototypical impersonal predication, meteorological predicates, in various Afroasiatic branches suggests that the subject or agent may not be centrally associated to the notion of impersonal. Rather, defocussing or backgrounding can concern either the entity or the event, resulting not only in subjectless structures and non-canonical subjects, but also in verbless structures and non-canonical predicates. What unifies those structures, rather than lack of canonical subjecthood or agent defocusing, is theticity, which may also be at play in other impersonal types than meteorological predicates.
Keywords: impersonal; Afroasiatic; theticity; meteorological predications; weather verbs
Published online: 20 July 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.124.11met
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.124.11met
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