Expressing possession with HAVE and BE: affected possession structures in Flemish

This paper concerns a cartographic account of Flemish Event Possessives (FEVPs) which alternate between a variety with HAVE and one with BE. The FEVP matrix subjects have the interpretation of both being the Possessor (in its broadest meaning) of the event expressed in the embedded clause and being affected by it, the latter shown by among others the ‘ban on dead arguments’ diagnostic (Hole 2006, 387-388). Cross-linguistically the alternation between possessive HAVE and BE appears with a nominative subject in the HAVE-variety, but a dative subject in the BE-variety. In line with the analysis of HAVE as the spell-out of BE with a preposition or a case (cf. Benveniste 1966; Freeze 1992; Kayne 1993; Hoekstra 1994, 1995; Belvin and den Dikken 1997; den Dikken 1997), Broekhuis and Cornips (1994) argue that HAVE and BE respectively assign accusative and dative case to their complements in Heerlen Dutch possessives. As expected, the matrix subject in the Flemish HAVE-FEVP is nominative. The availability of a pronominal direct object het (‘it’) in HAVE-FEVPs, but not in BE-FEVPs, follows from the above mentioned traditional analyses of possessive HAVE and BE as well. What is unexpected, however, is that the matrix subject of the Flemish BE-FEVP does not surface with dative case but instead with nominative. I argue that the nominative matrix subject of the FEVP in both its varieties occupies a similar (applicative) relation to the clausal domain as that observed for the Possessor of the subject-related Flemish External Possessor pattern (FEP) (Haegeman 2011; Haegeman and van Koppen 2012; Haegeman and Danckaert 2013; Buelens and D’Hulster 2014). For the subject-related FEP-pattern, Haegeman and Danckaert (2013) argue that the Possessor occupies a position higher in the clause than its unmarked DP-internal position (cf. Landau 1999; Payne and Barshi 1999; Hole 2004, 2006; Lee-Schoenfeld 2006; Deal 2010, 2013, forthc.). Along those lines, I argue that in the FEVP an Affectee feature [+AFF] on an applicative light verb attracts the Possessor subject to its specifier (for Affectee and applicative structures cf. Marantz 1993; Pylkkänen 2000, 2002, 2008; McFadden 2004; Hole 2004, 2006; Rivero 2009; Kim 2011, 2012; Rivero and Arregui 2010, 2012). It is in this high applicative position that it receives the (default) nominative case. Specifically, the FEVP is analyzed, following Belvin and den Dikken’s (1997) analysis of possessive HAVE and BE in Dutch, as a small clause headed by Agr. I take the event being encoded by the full clause CP to be in the specifier of Agr and the Possessor as the complement of Agr: (a) BE-FEVP: [vP wej [v' v [IP tj [I' I+Agri] [AgrP [CP dat...] [Agr' ti tj]]]] (b) HAVE-FEVP: [vP wej [v' v [IP tj [I' I+Agri+Pe [hetk]] [AgrP [CP dat...k] [Agr' ti tj]]]]] The verb BE, then, in Flemish alternates freely with HAVE in the FEVP and can be said to be a dummy verb used not only to encode possessive structures, but also affected possessive structures

'Confounding closed systems': transforming the boundaries of jewish identity in Rebecca Goldstein's novel mazel

In contemporary Jewish American fiction, the themes of immigration and resettlement take on a renewed significance. In various short stories and novels, a threefold composition – (prewar) life in Europe, the transatlantic journey and settlement in America – serves as a starting point for the contemplation of postwar Jewish American identity. Rebecca Goldstein’s novel Mazel is an excellent example of this. The novel reconstructs the lives of three generations of women in a setting that covers both prewar Europe and postwar suburban America. It portrays the complex mother-daughter relationships and depicts the different worlds that each woman inhabits – worlds that are unknown to the others. But this novel also deals with the notions of origin, belonging and not belonging, the possible continuity of tradition, and different definitions of Jewish identity. This essay suggests that Goldstein portrays a constant struggle with ethnic or communal identity – a struggle structured around inclusiveness and exclusiveness – that results in a broadening of the concept of Jewish identity. The novel attains this by challenging and undermining fixed or predetermined ideas and dichotomies (man/woman, shtetl/outside world, tradition/modernity, Europe/America, past/present, descent/consent). Instead, Mazel eventually offers the idea of a more hybrid and flexible definition of Jewish identity that favors the fusion of a strong communal identity with the possibility of multiple affiliations. These ideas are specifically rendered through the character of Fraydel, the sister of one of the main protagonists

Authorship as cultural performance: new perspectives in authorship studies

This article proposes a performative model of authorship, based on the historical alternation between predominantly 'weak' and 'strong' author concepts and related practices of writing, publication and reading. Based on this model, we give a brief overview of the historical development of such author concepts in English literature from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. We argue for a more holistic approach to authorship within a cultural topography, comprising social contexts, technological and media factors, and other cultural developments, such as the distinction between privacy and the public sphere