{"title":"Introduction : current trends in analyzing syntactic variation","authors":"L. D. Cuypere, G. Sutter","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00013.DEC","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00013.DEC","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42401334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Our contribution is dedicated to the empirical testing of alleged regional variants of object clitic clusters in modern French in France, Belgium and Switzerland. We provide some intriguing new insights into the regional distribution of non-standard variants and discuss one hypothesis on their nature and two hypotheses to explain their coming into being: language-contact (with Francoprovencal, Occitan and Oil dialects, H1) and/or analogical leveling (H2), on the one hand, and their postsyntactic, rather than syntactic, nature, on the other (H3). Our main results reveal that the three non-standard variants where order in object clitic clusters is concerned are not regionally well-distributed, i.e. the observed distribution does not correspond to any cohesive area. In contrast, only one variant where the selection of the form (me vs. moi) is at issue seems to be regionally confined: it is found in French-speaking Switzerland, in Gascony, plus some rare attestations of it in the North of France. All in all, variation in object clitic clusters indicates a genuinely new geographical articulation of regional French that does not coincide with traditional dialectal areas.
我们的贡献是致力于对法国、比利时和瑞士现代法语中所谓的对象clitic集群的区域变体进行实证测试。我们对非标准变体的区域分布提供了一些有趣的新见解，并讨论了一个关于其性质的假设和两个解释其产生的假设:一方面是语言接触(与法语普罗旺斯语，奥西坦语和石油语方言，H1)和/或类比水平(H2)，另一方面是它们的后句法性质，而不是句法性质(H3)。我们的主要研究结果表明，三种非标准变量在对象黏结簇的顺序上不是区域均匀分布的，即观察到的分布不对应于任何黏结区域。相比之下，只有一种变体的形式选择(me vs. moi)似乎受到地域限制:它在瑞士法语区加斯科尼发现，加上法国北部一些罕见的证明。总而言之，对象clitic集群的变化表明法语区域的真正新的地理发音，与传统的方言区域不一致。
{"title":"A crowdsourcing approach to the description of regional variation in French object clitic clusters","authors":"M. Avanzi, E. Stark","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00004.AVA","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00004.AVA","url":null,"abstract":"Our contribution is dedicated to the empirical testing of alleged regional variants of object clitic clusters in modern French in France, Belgium and Switzerland. We provide some intriguing new insights into the regional distribution of non-standard variants and discuss one hypothesis on their nature and two hypotheses to explain their coming into being: language-contact (with Francoprovencal, Occitan and Oil dialects, H1) and/or analogical leveling (H2), on the one hand, and their postsyntactic, rather than syntactic, nature, on the other (H3). Our main results reveal that the three non-standard variants where order in object clitic clusters is concerned are not regionally well-distributed, i.e. the observed distribution does not correspond to any cohesive area. In contrast, only one variant where the selection of the form (me vs. moi) is at issue seems to be regionally confined: it is found in French-speaking Switzerland, in Gascony, plus some rare attestations of it in the North of France. All in all, variation in object clitic clusters indicates a genuinely new geographical articulation of regional French that does not coincide with traditional dialectal areas.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"2017 1","pages":"76-103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper addresses the early variation in what has been called the [prep_ que ] variable in Spanish nominal complement clauses, i.e. the alternation between de que and que in examples such as en senal (de) que lo estimo, Zulema, este anillo ofrezco (CORDE) ‘as a sign that I appreciate You, Zulema, I offer this ring’. By applying several subsequent quantitative analyses on corpus instances of the sequences N de que and N que , the locus of variation is restricted to such an extent that the variation can largely be accounted for. A collostructional analysis identifies 31 central nouns of the N de que complement clause construction. A diachronic cluster analysis delimits the temporal dimension of the variation to the 16th and 17th centuries. A distinctive collexeme analysis identifies nine nouns which are used in both constructional formats to a comparable degree: causa ‘cause’, duda ‘doubt’, esperanza ‘hope’, fe ‘faith’, opinion ‘opinion’, recelo ‘fear’, senal ‘sign(al)’, sospecha ‘suspicion’, and temor ‘fear’. Detailed contextual analysis of the use of these nine nouns by means of a mixed-effects logistic regression reveals that the use of the nouns with a determiner is correlated with the de que variant, and the use of the nouns as part of complex predicates, as in tener sospecha ‘have suspicion’, is associated with the que variant of the complement clause.
本文讨论了西班牙语名义补语从句中所谓的[prep_ que]变量的早期变化，即在en senal (de) que loestimo, Zulema, este anillo ofrezco (CORDE)中de que和que之间的交替，“作为我感谢你，Zulema，我提供这个戒指的标志”。通过对序列N de que和N que的语料库实例进行随后的定量分析，变异位点被限制到这样的程度，以至于变异可以在很大程度上被解释。对补语从句结构的31个中心名词进行了结构分析。历时聚类分析将这种变化的时间维度划分为16世纪和17世纪。一项独特的大学语素分析确定了9个在两种结构格式中使用程度相当的名词:causa(原因)、duda(怀疑)、esperanza(希望)、fe(信仰)、opinion(意见)、recelo(恐惧)、senal(标志)、sospecha(怀疑)和temor(恐惧)。通过混合效应逻辑回归对这九个名词的使用进行了详细的语境分析，结果表明，名词与限定词的使用与de que变体有关，名词作为复杂谓词的一部分的使用，如在tenersospecha“have suspicion”中，与补语从句的que变体有关。
{"title":"Accounting for syntactic variation in diachrony: The presence vs. absence of de in finite nominalcomplement clauses in 16th and 17th century Spanish","authors":"Anton Granvik","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00010.GRA","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00010.GRA","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the early variation in what has been called the [prep_ que ] variable in Spanish nominal complement clauses, i.e. the alternation between de que and que in examples such as en senal (de) que lo estimo, Zulema, este anillo ofrezco (CORDE) ‘as a sign that I appreciate You, Zulema, I offer this ring’. By applying several subsequent quantitative analyses on corpus instances of the sequences N de que and N que , the locus of variation is restricted to such an extent that the variation can largely be accounted for. A collostructional analysis identifies 31 central nouns of the N de que complement clause construction. A diachronic cluster analysis delimits the temporal dimension of the variation to the 16th and 17th centuries. A distinctive collexeme analysis identifies nine nouns which are used in both constructional formats to a comparable degree: causa ‘cause’, duda ‘doubt’, esperanza ‘hope’, fe ‘faith’, opinion ‘opinion’, recelo ‘fear’, senal ‘sign(al)’, sospecha ‘suspicion’, and temor ‘fear’. Detailed contextual analysis of the use of these nine nouns by means of a mixed-effects logistic regression reveals that the use of the nouns with a determiner is correlated with the de que variant, and the use of the nouns as part of complex predicates, as in tener sospecha ‘have suspicion’, is associated with the que variant of the complement clause.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"242-271"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The causative-inchoative alternation has been a subject of much debate. It might also be a case where variation patterns that escape existing typological descriptions provide a new perspective on the problem. We analyze the variability and systematicity of alternative argument structure realizations, together with corresponding aspectual/event properties, by considering three different ways in which change-of-state verbs can be semantically and syntactically construed in Romance. Under the general assumption that the syntactic projection of arguments correlates non-trivially with event structure, we apply a novel theoretical approach to the semantics and syntax of the causative-inchoative alternation. We argue that different verbal heads can be independently combined to yield contrasting verbal configurations, with corresponding event/argument structure properties quite freely. Alongside standard cases such as causative and inchoative frames, we discuss what we call ‘stative-causative constructions’ [SCC], where the initiator appears as the sole argument. The general properties of this additional (third) variant suggest the availability of a null causative (external-argument-selecting) v 0 producing original monoargumental structures with corresponding (simpler) event structure. These little-known Spanish data challenge current argument structure theories assuming that the causative v 0 necessarily implicates the eventive (BECOME) component, or that the latter figures in the verb’s permanent lexical entry. SCCs provide empirical evidence suggesting that what is commonly described as a basic unaccusative/transitive verb may have unergative uses.
{"title":"Expanding the causative alternation: What about a third variant?","authors":"Eugenia Mangialavori Rasia","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00005.MAN","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00005.MAN","url":null,"abstract":"The causative-inchoative alternation has been a subject of much debate. It might also be a case where variation patterns that escape existing typological descriptions provide a new perspective on the problem. We analyze the variability and systematicity of alternative argument structure realizations, together with corresponding aspectual/event properties, by considering three different ways in which change-of-state verbs can be semantically and syntactically construed in Romance. Under the general assumption that the syntactic projection of arguments correlates non-trivially with event structure, we apply a novel theoretical approach to the semantics and syntax of the causative-inchoative alternation. We argue that different verbal heads can be independently combined to yield contrasting verbal configurations, with corresponding event/argument structure properties quite freely. Alongside standard cases such as causative and inchoative frames, we discuss what we call ‘stative-causative constructions’ [SCC], where the initiator appears as the sole argument. The general properties of this additional (third) variant suggest the availability of a null causative (external-argument-selecting) v 0 producing original monoargumental structures with corresponding (simpler) event structure. These little-known Spanish data challenge current argument structure theories assuming that the causative v 0 necessarily implicates the eventive (BECOME) component, or that the latter figures in the verb’s permanent lexical entry. SCCs provide empirical evidence suggesting that what is commonly described as a basic unaccusative/transitive verb may have unergative uses.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"104-135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Several syntactic properties of verbal heads are accounted for through their semantic properties. Verbal features such as agentivity, volitionality, stativity etc. have been proven a useful tool for predicting several aspects of their syntactic behavior such as passivization, auxiliary selection etc. In the context of the empirical turn in current linguistics, the assumption of discrete features is questioned by studies based on corpora or speakers’ intuitions showing that the diagnostics of semantic features involve gradience. These findings are challenging for grammatical theory: are we justified to assume the existence of discrete verb classes or do the established properties indicate scalar dimensions of meaning? Based on two empirical studies – an acceptability study and a corpus study – the present article examines the role of agentivity in distinguishing verb classes and in predicting the syntactic behavior of verbs in German. Acceptability data show that the diagnostics of agentivity involve gradience, which cannot be reduced to random sources of variation. However, a comparison of scalar vs. categorical models of agentivity based on these diagnostics reveals that the syntactic variation in word order found in written corpus data is best accounted for through a model that assumes a binary division into a ±agentive and a non-agentive verb class.
{"title":"Scales or features in verb meaning?: Verb classes as predictors of syntactic behavior","authors":"Elisabeth Verhoeven","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00007.VER","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00007.VER","url":null,"abstract":"Several syntactic properties of verbal heads are accounted for through their semantic properties. Verbal features such as agentivity, volitionality, stativity etc. have been proven a useful tool for predicting several aspects of their syntactic behavior such as passivization, auxiliary selection etc. In the context of the empirical turn in current linguistics, the assumption of discrete features is questioned by studies based on corpora or speakers’ intuitions showing that the diagnostics of semantic features involve gradience. These findings are challenging for grammatical theory: are we justified to assume the existence of discrete verb classes or do the established properties indicate scalar dimensions of meaning? Based on two empirical studies – an acceptability study and a corpus study – the present article examines the role of agentivity in distinguishing verb classes and in predicting the syntactic behavior of verbs in German. Acceptability data show that the diagnostics of agentivity involve gradience, which cannot be reduced to random sources of variation. However, a comparison of scalar vs. categorical models of agentivity based on these diagnostics reveals that the syntactic variation in word order found in written corpus data is best accounted for through a model that assumes a binary division into a ±agentive and a non-agentive verb class.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"164-193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study deals with the complexity of left-dislocated [LDed] noun phrases in the Modern English period (1500–1914). The purpose is twofold: to estimate the effects of a number of theoretically relevant predictors on complexity, operationalized as word-length, and to explore whether shorter LDed NPs, which are characteristic of contemporary spoken English, symbolize the claimed ‘orality’ of earlier speech-related texts. Multiple linear regression is employed in order to assess the correlation between complexity and factors relating to both the context (e.g. genre) and the inner configuration (e.g. augmentation of the LDed constituent) of the tokens extracted from the Penn-Helsinki suite of corpora. The results confirm that shorter LDed items more closely match the characterization previously offered for contemporary spoken Left Dislocation. The results also provide preliminary insight into the accommodation strategies that might facilitate the resumption of heavier LDed NPs. As regards genre, speech-purposed and mixed texts feature a higher relative rate of shorter LDed elements. Thus, if shorter LDed NPs are more closely connected with the spoken variant, it is in speech-purposed and mixed genres where they might be claimed to constitute a trait of orality that is deliberately employed by writers in order to reproduce conversation. Surprisingly, speech-like genres do not include LDed items as often, and these are just as complex as those attested in writing-related texts.
{"title":"Exploring the Left Dislocation construction by means of multiple linear regression: Complexity and orality of Modern English left-dislocated NPs","authors":"David Tizón-Couto","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00012.TIZ","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00012.TIZ","url":null,"abstract":"This study deals with the complexity of left-dislocated [LDed] noun phrases in the Modern English period (1500–1914). The purpose is twofold: to estimate the effects of a number of theoretically relevant predictors on complexity, operationalized as word-length, and to explore whether shorter LDed NPs, which are characteristic of contemporary spoken English, symbolize the claimed ‘orality’ of earlier speech-related texts. Multiple linear regression is employed in order to assess the correlation between complexity and factors relating to both the context (e.g. genre) and the inner configuration (e.g. augmentation of the LDed constituent) of the tokens extracted from the Penn-Helsinki suite of corpora. The results confirm that shorter LDed items more closely match the characterization previously offered for contemporary spoken Left Dislocation. The results also provide preliminary insight into the accommodation strategies that might facilitate the resumption of heavier LDed NPs. As regards genre, speech-purposed and mixed texts feature a higher relative rate of shorter LDed elements. Thus, if shorter LDed NPs are more closely connected with the spoken variant, it is in speech-purposed and mixed genres where they might be claimed to constitute a trait of orality that is deliberately employed by writers in order to reproduce conversation. Surprisingly, speech-like genres do not include LDed items as often, and these are just as complex as those attested in writing-related texts.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"299-325"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Language variation and change","authors":"A. Alexiadou","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00003.ALE","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00003.ALE","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"56-75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1075/BJL.00003.ALE","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper investigates the conditions that govern the choice between the German neuter singular relative pronouns das ‘that’ and was ‘what’. We show that das requires a lexical head noun, while in all other cases was is usually the preferred option; therefore, the distribution of das and was is most successfully captured by an approach that does not treat was as an exception but analyzes it as the elsewhere case that applies when the relativizer fails to pick up a lexical gender feature from the head noun. We furthermore show how the non-uniform behavior of different types of nominalized adjectives (positives allow both options, while superlatives trigger was) can be attributed to semantic differences rooted in syntactic structure. In particular, we argue that superlatives select was due to the presence of a silent counterpart of the quantifier alles ‘all’ that is part of the superlative structure.
本文考察了德语中性单数关系代词das“that”和was“what”的选择条件。我们发现das需要一个词头名词，而在所有其他情况下，通常是首选的选项;因此，das和was的分布最成功地通过一种方法捕获，这种方法不将was视为例外，而是将其分析为适用于相对化器未能从头名词中获取词汇性别特征时的其他情况。我们进一步展示了不同类型的名词化形容词的不一致行为(积极允许两种选择，而最高级触发是)可以归因于植根于句法结构的语义差异。特别是，我们认为最高级的选择是由于存在一个无声对应物的量词alles ' all '，这是最高级结构的一部分。
{"title":"A corpus-based analysis of pronoun choice in German relative clauses","authors":"Patrick T. Brandt, Eric Fuss","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00008.BRA","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00008.BRA","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the conditions that govern the choice between the German neuter singular relative pronouns das ‘that’ and was ‘what’. We show that das requires a lexical head noun, while in all other cases was is usually the preferred option; therefore, the distribution of das and was is most successfully captured by an approach that does not treat was as an exception but analyzes it as the elsewhere case that applies when the relativizer fails to pick up a lexical gender feature from the head noun. We furthermore show how the non-uniform behavior of different types of nominalized adjectives (positives allow both options, while superlatives trigger was) can be attributed to semantic differences rooted in syntactic structure. In particular, we argue that superlatives select was due to the presence of a silent counterpart of the quantifier alles ‘all’ that is part of the superlative structure.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"9 1","pages":"194-217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper presents a method for quantitative and qualitative analyses of the causative alternation in English, where verbs may alternate between a transitive (causative) construction (S anta crinkled his eyes ) and an intransitive (non-causative) construction ( His eyes crinkled ). 1 The aim of this paper is to present a method designed to measure the alternation strength of causative verbs, i.e. the extent to which they alternate between the two constructions. One of the central elements this paper investigates is the Theme, i.e. the participant that is in subject position in the intransitive construction and object position in the transitive construction. A distinctive collostructional analysis ( Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004 ) shows that certain verbs are significantly attracted to one of either two constructions while others are equivalently distributed in the two constructions. However, after careful analysis it appears that very few Themes actually overlap between the two constructions ( Lemmens forthcoming ) which indicates that each construction seems to be rather restrictive regarding which Themes they recruit. The low degree of alternation of the Themes leads us to ask ourselves the extent to which the alternation is part of a speaker’s knowledge of their language.
本文介绍了一种定量和定性分析英语中使役变化的方法，其中动词可以在及物(使役)结构(S anta cr褶皱他的眼睛)和非使役结构(his eyes cr褶皱)之间交替。本文的目的是提出一种测量使役动词交替强度的方法，即它们在两个结构之间交替的程度。本文研究的中心要素之一是主题，即。在不及物结构中处于主语位置和在及物结构中处于宾语位置的参与者。一项独特的生态结构分析(Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004)表明，某些动词明显被两种结构中的一种所吸引，而另一些动词则在两种结构中均匀分布。然而，经过仔细分析，似乎很少有两个结构之间的主题重叠(lemmens即将到来)，这表明每个结构似乎对它们所招募的主题都有相当的限制。主题的低程度交替让我们问自己，这种交替在多大程度上是说话者对其语言知识的一部分。
{"title":"Measuring the alternation strength of causative verbs: A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the interaction between verb,theme and construction","authors":"Laurence Romain","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00009.ROM","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00009.ROM","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a method for quantitative and qualitative analyses of the causative alternation in English, where verbs may alternate between a transitive (causative) construction (S anta crinkled his eyes ) and an intransitive (non-causative) construction ( His eyes crinkled ). 1 The aim of this paper is to present a method designed to measure the alternation strength of causative verbs, i.e. the extent to which they alternate between the two constructions. One of the central elements this paper investigates is the Theme, i.e. the participant that is in subject position in the intransitive construction and object position in the transitive construction. A distinctive collostructional analysis ( Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004 ) shows that certain verbs are significantly attracted to one of either two constructions while others are equivalently distributed in the two constructions. However, after careful analysis it appears that very few Themes actually overlap between the two constructions ( Lemmens forthcoming ) which indicates that each construction seems to be rather restrictive regarding which Themes they recruit. The low degree of alternation of the Themes leads us to ask ourselves the extent to which the alternation is part of a speaker’s knowledge of their language.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"218-241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The present work studies the grammatical properties of Spanish time constructions involving hacer ‘to make’ from an empirical, quantitative perspective with insights from both competence and language use. The results show a big difference between the properties of the so-called clausal and adverbial constructions, something unnoticed until now. Whereas hacer, in the former, has properties not significantly different from other verbs, in the latter, it shows a strong erosion of its verbal and clausal properties like TAM morphology, negation, time adjunction or word order freedom. This contradicts earlier contributions to the topic and argues against those formal proposals positing a synchronic derivational relation between the two constructions.
{"title":"Spanish time constructions with hacer: Gradient judgments and corpus data to solve a syntactic conundrum","authors":"Borja Herce","doi":"10.1075/BJL.00011.HER","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/BJL.00011.HER","url":null,"abstract":"The present work studies the grammatical properties of Spanish time constructions involving hacer ‘to make’ from an empirical, quantitative perspective with insights from both competence and language use. The results show a big difference between the properties of the so-called clausal and adverbial constructions, something unnoticed until now. Whereas hacer, in the former, has properties not significantly different from other verbs, in the latter, it shows a strong erosion of its verbal and clausal properties like TAM morphology, negation, time adjunction or word order freedom. This contradicts earlier contributions to the topic and argues against those formal proposals positing a synchronic derivational relation between the two constructions.","PeriodicalId":35124,"journal":{"name":"Belgian Journal of Linguistics","volume":"31 1","pages":"272-298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59365989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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