Non-lexical core-arguments in Basque, Romance and German: How (and why) Spanish syntax is shifting towards clausal headmarking and morphological cross-reference
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Hans-Ingo Radatz
Abstract
This article deals with the ways in which non-lexical core arguments can be expressed in various languages. It tries to devise a typological hierarchy for the different types and endeavours to place Romance within this hierarchy. An analysis of Basque verbal markers as cross-reference morphemes introduces the subject with a language radically different from central IE. Using Nichols’ (1986 & 1992) typological differentiation between head-marking and dependent-marking languages as its basis, a typological sub-parameter of “clausal head-marking vs. clausal dependent-marking” is suggested which is shown to correspond to two radically different types of clausal co-reference: (1) agreement (concord) and (2) cross-reference. This terminology is then used to describe and explain an ongoing syntactic change in which Spanish object clitics have evolved into obligatory verbal markers closely resembling those of Basque. Their conventional analysis as “agreement markers” is questioned and Spanish is shown to be moving towards a clausal head-marking language in which all core-arguments of the sentence have to be expressed by verbal affixes, while nominal and pronominal argument realisations become mere appositions outside the sentence core. The traditional concept of an emerging new paradigm of “object conjugation” is rejected.
Abstract
This article deals with the ways in which non-lexical core arguments can be expressed in various languages. It tries to devise a typological hierarchy for the different types and endeavours to place Romance within this hierarchy. An analysis of Basque verbal markers as cross-reference morphemes introduces the subject with a language radically different from central IE. Using Nichols’ (1986 & 1992) typological differentiation between head-marking and dependent-marking languages as its basis, a typological sub-parameter of “clausal head-marking vs. clausal dependent-marking” is suggested which is shown to correspond to two radically different types of clausal co-reference: (1) agreement (concord) and (2) cross-reference. This terminology is then used to describe and explain an ongoing syntactic change in which Spanish object clitics have evolved into obligatory verbal markers closely resembling those of Basque. Their conventional analysis as “agreement markers” is questioned and Spanish is shown to be moving towards a clausal head-marking language in which all core-arguments of the sentence have to be expressed by verbal affixes, while nominal and pronominal argument realisations become mere appositions outside the sentence core. The traditional concept of an emerging new paradigm of “object conjugation” is rejected.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Syntactic change from within and from without syntax: A usage-based analysis 13
- On explaining the rise of c'est -clefts in French 31
- The role of the plural system in Romance 57
- Morphological developments affecting syntactic change 85
- Grammaticalisation within the IP-domain 107
- Imperfect systems and diachronic change 127
- From temporal to modal: Divergent fates of the Latin synthetic pluperfect in Spanish and Portuguese 147
- Non-lexical core-arguments in Basque, Romance and German: How (and why) Spanish syntax is shifting towards clausal headmarking and morphological cross-reference 181
- Towards a comprehensive view of language change: Three recent evolutionary approaches 215
- Subject Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Syntactic change from within and from without syntax: A usage-based analysis 13
- On explaining the rise of c'est -clefts in French 31
- The role of the plural system in Romance 57
- Morphological developments affecting syntactic change 85
- Grammaticalisation within the IP-domain 107
- Imperfect systems and diachronic change 127
- From temporal to modal: Divergent fates of the Latin synthetic pluperfect in Spanish and Portuguese 147
- Non-lexical core-arguments in Basque, Romance and German: How (and why) Spanish syntax is shifting towards clausal headmarking and morphological cross-reference 181
- Towards a comprehensive view of language change: Three recent evolutionary approaches 215
- Subject Index 251
