SE -verbs, SE -forms or SE -constructions? SE and its transitional stages between morphology and syntax
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Katrin Mutz
Abstract
The article treats a problem that has, until now, received only a minor focus in the literature on Romance SE (but see Fagan 1992): the question being wether or not the formation with SE plus verb should be analyzed as a lexical SE-verb generated via a word-formational device, as an inflectional verbal SE-form or as a syntactic SE-construction, or if none of these traditional analyses is preferred. A closer look at the characteristics of SE and the SE+verb constructions shows that SE (+verb) behaves differently and therefore must be categorized differently depending on the function the whole SE+verb construction has. Some SE+verb formations are more derivation-like (antiagentive, reflexive, reciprocal), some more inflectional (medio-passive), and some behave more like syntactic constructions (indefinite). This variable synchronic behaviour can be explained by looking at the history of the Romance SE-construction(s): one can detect a process of grammaticalization (see Mutz 2005; Russi 2008) reaching from a phase when SE was a referential object pronoun (reflexive) to a phase in which it has developed into a mere (inflectional) marker indicating a diathetic process (medio-passive), by passing through other different functional “stages” with their own structural characteristics. The different structural and distributional behaviour of SE depending on its function, thus speaks in favour of the Autonomy of Morphology.
Abstract
The article treats a problem that has, until now, received only a minor focus in the literature on Romance SE (but see Fagan 1992): the question being wether or not the formation with SE plus verb should be analyzed as a lexical SE-verb generated via a word-formational device, as an inflectional verbal SE-form or as a syntactic SE-construction, or if none of these traditional analyses is preferred. A closer look at the characteristics of SE and the SE+verb constructions shows that SE (+verb) behaves differently and therefore must be categorized differently depending on the function the whole SE+verb construction has. Some SE+verb formations are more derivation-like (antiagentive, reflexive, reciprocal), some more inflectional (medio-passive), and some behave more like syntactic constructions (indefinite). This variable synchronic behaviour can be explained by looking at the history of the Romance SE-construction(s): one can detect a process of grammaticalization (see Mutz 2005; Russi 2008) reaching from a phase when SE was a referential object pronoun (reflexive) to a phase in which it has developed into a mere (inflectional) marker indicating a diathetic process (medio-passive), by passing through other different functional “stages” with their own structural characteristics. The different structural and distributional behaviour of SE depending on its function, thus speaks in favour of the Autonomy of Morphology.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Morphological theories, the Autonomy of Morphology, and Romance data 1
- A paradox? 27
- Verb morphology gone astray 55
- The Friulian subject clitics 83
- Romance clitic pronouns in lexical paradigms 119
- Hiatus resolution between function and lexical words in French and Italian 141
- Occitan plurals 179
- Partial or complete lack of plural agreement 201
- Noun inflectional classes in Maceratese 231
- Participles and nominal aspect 271
- Modifying suffixes in Italian and the Autonomy of Morphology 295
- SE -verbs, SE -forms or SE -constructions? SE and its transitional stages between morphology and syntax 319
- The lexicalist hypothesis and the semantics of event nominalization suffixes 347
- Italian brand names – morphological categorisation and the Autonomy of Morphology 369
- Author index 385
- Index of subjects and languages 389
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Morphological theories, the Autonomy of Morphology, and Romance data 1
- A paradox? 27
- Verb morphology gone astray 55
- The Friulian subject clitics 83
- Romance clitic pronouns in lexical paradigms 119
- Hiatus resolution between function and lexical words in French and Italian 141
- Occitan plurals 179
- Partial or complete lack of plural agreement 201
- Noun inflectional classes in Maceratese 231
- Participles and nominal aspect 271
- Modifying suffixes in Italian and the Autonomy of Morphology 295
- SE -verbs, SE -forms or SE -constructions? SE and its transitional stages between morphology and syntax 319
- The lexicalist hypothesis and the semantics of event nominalization suffixes 347
- Italian brand names – morphological categorisation and the Autonomy of Morphology 369
- Author index 385
- Index of subjects and languages 389
