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Immediacy, counter-expectation, and grammatical marking: Intransitive constructions with an accusative clitic in Galician/Galego

  • Javier Rivas EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 4, 2018

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:

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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)

  4. 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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Published Online: 2018-09-04
Published in Print: 2018-09-25

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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