The seem-class verb paradigm and restructuring in Romance
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Abel Cruz Flores
Abstract
This paper examines clitic climbing in contexts featuring Spanish parecer ‘seem’, a verb that has been claimed to lack restructuring altogether in Spanish (Gallego, 2009; Torrego, 1996; Zagona, 1982). The paper identifies several contexts favoring clitic climbing with parecer. In particular, 3rd person clitic climbing is favored with psychological predicates and functional elements such as negation, temporal priority adverbs, and left dislocated elements. It is argued that Spanish parecer is a bona fide example of restructuring (R-parecer). This paper offers an account of R-parecer in terms of Cinque’s (2004, 2006) approach to restructuring. Moreover, this paper also investigates whether R-parecer is subject to Cinque’s (2004, 2006) rigidly ordered functional hierarchy of the clause. It is shown that Spanish parecer and French sembler ‘seem’ deviate from Cinque’s functional hierarchy. The paper concludes that we must leave open the possibility that lexical verbs may also give rise to restructuring in Romance.
Abstract
This paper examines clitic climbing in contexts featuring Spanish parecer ‘seem’, a verb that has been claimed to lack restructuring altogether in Spanish (Gallego, 2009; Torrego, 1996; Zagona, 1982). The paper identifies several contexts favoring clitic climbing with parecer. In particular, 3rd person clitic climbing is favored with psychological predicates and functional elements such as negation, temporal priority adverbs, and left dislocated elements. It is argued that Spanish parecer is a bona fide example of restructuring (R-parecer). This paper offers an account of R-parecer in terms of Cinque’s (2004, 2006) approach to restructuring. Moreover, this paper also investigates whether R-parecer is subject to Cinque’s (2004, 2006) rigidly ordered functional hierarchy of the clause. It is shown that Spanish parecer and French sembler ‘seem’ deviate from Cinque’s functional hierarchy. The paper concludes that we must leave open the possibility that lexical verbs may also give rise to restructuring in Romance.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Language acquisition
- The development of intonation in L2 Spanish 11
- Insights into the cognition of mood selection in L2 learners of Spanish 33
- The licensing of wh-in-situ questions 53
- What derivational suffixes should we teach in Spanish as a Second Language courses? 75
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Part II. Theoretical and descriptive approaches
- The seem-class verb paradigm and restructuring in Romance 97
- The Progressive-to-Imperfective shift 119
- The aspectual structure of the adjective 137
- Mood in future-framed adverbials 161
- Syntactic and prosodic marking of subject focus in American English and Peninsular Spanish 183
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Part III. Language contact and variation
- Demystifying Salvadoran [s θ ] 207
- Afro-Peruvian Spanish declarative intonation 229
- Subject-predicate code-switching 249
- The differing behavior of loanwords in the Spanish of technology and of fashion and beauty 265
- Futurity and probability in Spanish as a heritage language 285
- Examining the (mini-) variable swarm in the Spanish of the Southeast 303
- Casting light on the Spanish creole debate 327
- Index 343
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Language acquisition
- The development of intonation in L2 Spanish 11
- Insights into the cognition of mood selection in L2 learners of Spanish 33
- The licensing of wh-in-situ questions 53
- What derivational suffixes should we teach in Spanish as a Second Language courses? 75
-
Part II. Theoretical and descriptive approaches
- The seem-class verb paradigm and restructuring in Romance 97
- The Progressive-to-Imperfective shift 119
- The aspectual structure of the adjective 137
- Mood in future-framed adverbials 161
- Syntactic and prosodic marking of subject focus in American English and Peninsular Spanish 183
-
Part III. Language contact and variation
- Demystifying Salvadoran [s θ ] 207
- Afro-Peruvian Spanish declarative intonation 229
- Subject-predicate code-switching 249
- The differing behavior of loanwords in the Spanish of technology and of fashion and beauty 265
- Futurity and probability in Spanish as a heritage language 285
- Examining the (mini-) variable swarm in the Spanish of the Southeast 303
- Casting light on the Spanish creole debate 327
- Index 343
