Abstract
We provide a usage-based approach to the construction [locative deictic + accusative clitic + intransitive verb] found in Galician/Galego. In this construction, the intransitive verb and the accusative clitic agree in person and number and, in the case of the clitic, also in gender with the referent of the clitic, as in, for example, aí a está (lit.: ‘there her is/there she is’)/aí as están (lit.: ‘there them are/there they are’). A corpus-based analysis of this construction shows that it presents skewed grammatical patterns in terms of frequency of occurrence. This grammatical skewing reveals that the construction emerges from an interactional usage pattern in which speakers shift from a displaced to an immediate mode of speaking to present a counter-expected situation. The construction is also exploited in narratives in order to create a quality of immediacy for displaced events. Our usage-based analysis also reveals a family of constructions — some more schematic, others more specific; some more entrenched, others more novel — that emerge from the repetition of local usage patterns through which speakers/narrators express immediacy and counter-expectation.
Acknowledgements
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at (Re)mapping Galician Studies in North America and at Instituto da Lingua Galega. I would like to thank the audiences of both presentations for their helpful feedback. I am also very grateful to Rosario Álvarez, Juan Herrero-Senés, Molly Monroe, Henrique Monteagudo, Ivo Sánchez-Ayala and two anonymous reviewers for their comments to earlier versions of this paper. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Teresa Moure, who introduced me to this fascinating construction and supervised my first approach to it.
Appendix
The examples are taken from the following written sources:
21 novels:
Aleixandre, Marilar: A compañía clandestina de contrapublicidade
Alonso, Francisco: Trailer
Álvarez Cáccamo, Alfonso: O esprito de Broustenac
Borrazás, Xurxo: Costa norte/ZFK and Na maleta
Grañas, Bernardino: Protoevanxeo do neto de Herodes
Jaureguizar, Santiago: A rutina corsaria
Lourenzo González, Manuel: Arqueofaxia
Malvar, Aníbal C: Unha noite con Carla
Manteiga, Xabier: Morrer na herba
Méndez Ferrín, Xosé Luís: Antón e os inocentes
Moure, Teresa: Herba moura
Neira Cruz, Xosé A.: As cousas claras
Queizán, María Xosé: Amantia
Rivas, Manuel: O lapis do carpinteiro
Seixas, Manuel: A velocidade do frío
de Toro, Suso: Calzados Lola (O dano e a absolución)
Vázquez Pintor, Xosé: A memoria do boi
Vázquez Xil, Lalo: A da alba sería
Vidal, Francisco A.: Os pecados capitais
Vila Sexto, Carlos: Cara a fin da luz
6 short stories:
Alonso, Francisco: Cemiterio de elefantes
Álvarez Cáccamo, Alfonso: Catapulta
Cid Cabido, Xosé: Días contados. Estafetas con carne
Franco González, Xesús: Matalote. As novas de Madrid
González, Manuel Lourenzo: Noites de papel. De causas e cousas
Méndez Ferrín, Xosé Luís: Arraianos
11 plays:
Cadaval, Quico and Xavier Lama: Memoria de Antígona
Dans, Raúl: Lugar
Moure, Teresa: Unha primavera para Aldara
Ollomoltranvía: Commedia. Un xoguete para Goldoni
Pazó, Cándido: Raíñas de pedra
Pernas Cora, Gustavo: Comedias paranoicas. Anatomía dun hipocondríaco. Comedia médica
de Toro, Suso: Unha rosa é unha rosa (unha comedia de medo)
Vidal Bolaño, Roberto: A burla do galo ou vida e amores de Don Esmeraldino da Cámara Mello de Lima Vizconde de Ribeirinha e Galo de Portugal, Cochos. Relatorio valeroso en dous tempos, un prólogo e un epílogo, para porca e actor en cativerio, Días sen gloria and Touporroutou da Lúa e dol Sol (Farsada choqueira para actores e bonecos, ou viceversa)
2 non-fictional texts:
Editorial of the newspaper O Correo Galego
de Toro, Suso: O país da brétema. Unha viaxe no tempo pola cultura celta
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© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Pronominal resumption in Spanish direct object relative clauses
- Subject pronoun expression and language mode in bilingual Spanish
- The politeness of você in European Portuguese
- Immediacy, counter-expectation, and grammatical marking: Intransitive constructions with an accusative clitic in Galician/Galego
- Syllable weight in monolingual and heritage Spanish
- Conditional morphology in New York heritage Spanish: General and variable usage patterns
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Pronominal resumption in Spanish direct object relative clauses
- Subject pronoun expression and language mode in bilingual Spanish
- The politeness of você in European Portuguese
- Immediacy, counter-expectation, and grammatical marking: Intransitive constructions with an accusative clitic in Galician/Galego
- Syllable weight in monolingual and heritage Spanish
- Conditional morphology in New York heritage Spanish: General and variable usage patterns