The Lack of Spanish Non-Argumental Clitic Doubling

udg.edu

This talk focuses on Spanish non-argumental reflexive clitic pronouns (non-argumental reflexives).

COSTA, João, ed. lit. – “Essay in portuguese comparative syntax.” New York : Oxford Press, 2000., 2000

In this paper we will address the different values of se, one of the classic problems in Spanish grammar. Specifically, we will talk about the clitic which in the usual descriptions has no argumental value and is non-referential: the clitic sometimes called the reflexive-intensive and more recently the aspectual. We will also examine the clitic which appears with a number of verbs of motion and has also been termed aspectual. As we are dealing with a paradigmatic use of se, we will use the term “clitic increase” in order not to give the impression that we are dealing with a specific problem of the form se. This study is set out as follows: in 1. we introduce the two structures to be analysed. The first, is the use with transitive verbs, what we might call prototypical (comerse la paella (‘to eat up the paella’)) and the second deals with intransitive verbs. In 2., verbs of motion with clitic increase are analysed, the more relevant grammatical properties are described and a constant meaning is assigned to the appearance of the clitic. This leads us to a proposal for syntactic analysis in which the clitic is the head of the VoiceP. Then, in 3., we review the main properties of the first structure type and we show that our analysis also takes these into consideration. In 4, we consider the question of whether the differences introduced by the appearance of the clitic should be explained by lexicon or grammar. We end with conclusions and bibliography.

Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 2002

Recent work on the acquisition of the binding conditions suggests that pronominal clitics (PCs) encode the presence of an unsaturated argument position. In other words, PC-constructions encode functional abstraction: the argument position related to the PC is re-opened. This interpretation represents a radical departure from traditional analyses (in virtually every syntactic framework, including HPSG and Principles&Parameters), which take PCs to reduce the valence of the predicate to which they are linked, either in the lexicon (HPSG) or in syntax (P&P). In this contribution, I will provide conceptual and empirical motivation for this radical reinterpretation of PC-constructions, by claiming that it considerably enhances the prospects of explanatory adequacy in (at least) the following domains: (a) the acquisition data relative to Principle B Effects in Romance languages; (b) the familiar vs. bound-variable interpretation of PCs; (c) the diachronic relationship between clitic left-dislocation constructions (CLLD) and PC-constructions; (d) the properties of Romance CLLD which are still in need of a deep conceptual account, like the (optional) presence of a resumptive clitic and the recursive nature of the topic projections in the left-periphery.

2007

ReVEL 12 (22) March, 2014. , 2014

In this paper we address the nature, syntax and semantics of clitics. Our focus is on the syntax-semantics interface, since we will attempt to provide a model for interpretation of clitics and their associate constituents. We will address the problem of so-called “clitic doubling”, to see the semantic consequences that different syntactic configurations have, and investigate on how syntactic operations are triggered by the need to generate interface effects. We will put forth the thesis that clitics are procedural elements whose function is to license the presence of their associates and provide the semantic interface with instructions as to how to manipulate those sortal associates. Our argumentation will take elements from formal syntax (Radical Minimalism) and semantics-pragmatics (Relevance Theory) to configure an interface-based approach in which no phenomenon is studied in substantive isolation, but taking into account the interaction between different components of the system. Our aim is to provide prospects for a unified theory of the syntax-semantics of clitics, drawing on data from Spanish to support our theoretical claims. Keywords: Radical Minimalism; Relevance Theory; Clitic Doubling; Spanish; Case Marking

Anuario Del Seminario De Filologia Vasca Julio De Urquijo, 2013

Selected Proceedings of the 10th Hispanic …, 2008