What information structure tells us about individual/stage-level predicates

The goal of this paper is to explore the lexical-syntactic structure of copulative constructions and argument small clauses within the framework proposed by Gallego & Uriagereka (2011) for the Individual-Level/Stage-Level distinction (Carlson 1988, Kratzer 1995) and implement their theory by claiming that there is a crucial correlation between IL/SL constructions and their information structure. I argue that IL subjects are topics (and hence this is a categorical construction, following Kuroda 1972, Milsark 1977 and Raposo & Uriagereka 1995), whereas in SL constructions the topic may either be the subject or a silent spatiotemporal argument (their construction being thetic). I show the topic nature of IL subjects in contexts of specificity and subextraction. I ultimately derive the IS of IL/SL constructions from their lexical-syntactic structure and identify the type of topic here as an Aboutness-Topic (in the sense of Frascarelli & Hinterhölzl 2007, Lambrecht 1994, Erteschik-Shir 1997). Keywords: individual-level/stage-level predicates, copulas, small clause, central-coincidence/terminal coincidence prepositions, topic, specificity, subextractio

When discourse met null subjects

In this paper a novel view of the distribution of null subjects in Spanish is explored in which the discourse category of the antecedent of pro is crucially paid attention to. Implementing Frascarelli’s (2007) work, I propose that the relevant interpretative condition to meet is for the null subject to be coreferential with an Aboutness-Shift Topic, which must be either an explicit one or a null (i.e. silent) double in the local domain where pro occurs. When silent, this antecedent can refer back to any type of discourse category in a previous clause. This implies an update of the information provided in the sentence containing pro. The analysis is supported by an experiment run among native speakers of Spanish.En este artículo se explora un novedoso modo de ver la distribución de sujetos nulos en español, basado en la categoría discursiva que tiene el antecedente de pro. Implementando el trabajo de Frascarelli (2007), propongo que la condición interpretativa que indispensablemente debe cumplir un sujeto nulo es el que sea correferente con un Tópico Oracional, el cual debe aparecer explícitamente o tener un doble nulo (o mudo) en el dominio local donde se encuentra pro. Cuando este antecedente es mudo, puede éste referirse cualquier tipo de categoría discursiva en la ración precedente. Esto implica una actualización de la información que se da en la oración donde aparece pro. El análisis presentado se apoya en un experimento llevado a cabo entre hablantes nativos de español

Towards a typology of focus: Subject position and microvariation at the discourse-syntax interface

In this work I explore the different discourse-syntax interface properties of focus fronting in Standard Spanish (SS) and Southern Peninsular Spanish (SPS) including Andalusian and Extremaduran varieties. In SS it is taken for granted that in focus fronting the verb is obligatorily adjacent to the preposed constituent. I show that this is not the case in SPS, where this condition is optional. I carry out an analysis of three types of foci which involve movement to the left periphery (contrastive focus, mirative focus and quantifier fronting) and one type of topic (resumptive preposing). Discourse, syntactic, and semantic properties are taken into account to illustrate this typology. Crucially, only contrastive and mirative focus contexts allow for preverbal subjects in SPS, which are proposed to be Given Topics in this variety. On the other hand, resumptive preposing is shown to entail a case of topic fronting. I use different experiments with empirical data and judgements by native speakers to test my proposal that focus-verb (or topic-verb) adjacency is subject to microparametric variation in Spanish

Prepositions and Islands: Extraction from Dative and Accusative DPs in Psych Verbs

In current research on the structure of DPs in Differential Object Marking and Dative Clitic Constructions, there has been an explosion of proposals suggesting that the preposition a present in both accusative and dative objects is not a true P in Spanish, but a morphological marker (Demonte 1995; Cuervo 2003; Ormazabal and Romero 2013a, b; among others). In this paper I analyse subextraction in the form of wh-movement out of both accusative and dative DP objects in psych constructions in Spanish. Experiencers have been held to be lower on the scale of resistance to different phenomena. Subextraction from experiencers introduced by a is a case at issue. Assuming van Riemsdijk’s distinction between lexical and functional prepositions, I claim that a does not project into a PP but rather occupies a Kase position above DP, endowed with an Edge Feature which allows subextraction if other conditions are satisfied

Extraction out of adjectival secondary predicates in English and Spanish: A nanosyntactic account

In this article, we explore the conditions under which prima facie adjectival adjuncts projected as depictive modifiers inside verbal phrases allow extraction. Building on the analysis of gerund clauses proposed in Fábregas and Jiménez-Fernández (in press), we argue that their empirical behaviour shows that, whenever these adjectival constituents license extraction, they are projections of PathP that form a verbal complex with the verb inside a single syntactic domain. This forces the conclusion that adjunct adjectives must be projected as PathPs, and in the last part of the paper we show that this proposal in fact explains two properties of these elements without further stipulations: they always receive a stage level interpretation, and cannot combine with pure stative verbs

A feature-inheritance approach to root phenomena and 2 parametric variation

This work concerns itself with Root Transformations (RT), specifically discussing the RT/non-RT nature of topic fronting in English, Japanese, and Spanish. We claim that this fronting is in principle compatible with all types of embedded clauses regardless of whether the selecting predicate is factive/non-factive, or whether the selected proposition is asserted/non-asserted. Languages vary on how freely they allow topic preposing in various types of complements. Adapting an intervention account of RTs in which an event operator moving to Spec,CP intervenes with other types of operations, we claim that two A0-movements compete for the same syntactic position in certain types of clauses. We account for the variation in the distribution of RTs and non-RTs across languages by the options made possible by inheritance of discourse features. In Japanese and Spanish, the topic feature may be inherited by T from C, so that some instances of topic fronting are to Spec,TP. This movement does not compete with the operator that has moved to Spec,CP, so no competition arises. In contrast, the topic feature stays in C in English, so that topic fronting and the operator movement to CP vie for the same position. This then triggers a competition effect in many constructions such as factives where operator movement has occurred

Variación sintáctica en la causativización léxica

La investigación de los patrones de causativización léxica (directa) de intransitivos es un tema fundamental en el campo léxico-semántico, puesto que las posibilidades y restricciones en la causativización de estos verbos siempre han provocado divisiones en la clasificación de intransitivos (Levin y Rappaport Hovav 1995) más allá de la ya clásica distinción entre inergativos e inacusativos propuesta por Perlmutter 1978. El español es una lengua interesante para la exploración de los límites existentes entre estas posibilidades y restricciones, debido a la variación sintáctica existente entre sus dialectos. Así, predicados intransitivos que en español estándar rechazan la causativización léxica, como caer o entrar, la permiten en variedades no estándar, como es el caso de la variedad andaluza. En este artículo contrastamos los patrones de causativización entre las variedades estándar y la andaluza y exploramos la relación existente entre dichos patrones y otros fenómenos como la estructura eventiva de los verbos estudiados en composición con otros elementos sintácticos como el reflexivo se.The different patterns on lexical (direct) causativization exhibited by intransitive verbs are a fundamental topic in the lexical semantics area. The possibilities and restrictions observed in the causativization of intransitives have always triggered divisions in their classification (Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1995) beyond the classical inergative-unaccusative distinction proposed by Perlmutter 1978. Spanish is an interesting language to explore the limits between possibilities and restrictions regarding causativization of intransitives, given the syntactic variation exhibited by its different dialects. For example, intransitive predicates that resist lexical causativization in Standard Spanish, such as caer ‘fall’ and entrar ‘go in’, allow it in other dialects such as Andalusian Spanish. In this article we contrast the causativization patterns between the Standard and Andalusian dialects, exploring the relationship between such patterns and other phenomena such as the eventive structure obtained as a consequence of the omposition of the verbs under study and other syntactic elements such as reflexive se

Inferential Interrogatives with qué in Spanish

In this paper, we discuss the evidential properties of inferential interrogative sentences with qué in Spanish. This interrogative type exhibits the shape of a wh-question but the interpretation of a polar question. These sentences have the additional particularity that they are interrogatives with evidential material, which are attested but not frequent crosslinguistically, if compared with declarative evidentials. An interesting consequence of their double interrogative and evidential nature is the fact that both discourse participants have a prominent role in the interpretation of these sentences, as the Speaker makes the inference but the Addressee is requested for confirmation. To account for the construction, we assume a multiple-layered system that includes both Speech Act projection and Finiteness projection. In these two areas we simultaneously find evidential material housing the Speaker’s inference, and a raised Addressee in its prominent interrogative position as the participant with the knowledge to provide the requested confirmation of the interrogative’s truth value.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PID2022-137233NB-I0