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Chapter 1. se -marked directed motion constructions

Anticausatives and figure reflexives

Abstract

This paper discusses the descriptive properties of se-marked directed motion constructions typically instantiated by verbs such as caer-se (fall-se), ir-se (go-se) or subir-se (go up-se). I argue that such constructions are surface representations of two distinct underlying syntactic configurations: an anticausative (Schäfer, 2008) and a figure reflexive (Wood, 2014). The anticausative analysis corroborates work on the same topic by Cuervo (2014), Jiménez-Fernández & Tubino (2014) and Pineda (2016) while the figure reflexive analysis is a novel contribution.

Abstract

This paper discusses the descriptive properties of se-marked directed motion constructions typically instantiated by verbs such as caer-se (fall-se), ir-se (go-se) or subir-se (go up-se). I argue that such constructions are surface representations of two distinct underlying syntactic configurations: an anticausative (Schäfer, 2008) and a figure reflexive (Wood, 2014). The anticausative analysis corroborates work on the same topic by Cuervo (2014), Jiménez-Fernández & Tubino (2014) and Pineda (2016) while the figure reflexive analysis is a novel contribution.

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