Search

The Basque impersonal is a detransitivized construction that resembles middles, passives and impersonals. In this construction, the thematic object is the grammatical subject, which bears absolutive case and triggers absolutive agreement, and the auxiliary selected is izan ‘be’. At the same time, there is an implicit agent that is syntactically active even though it is not realized as an ergative argument with corresponding ergative agreement. In this article, we compare the Basque impersonal with the middle, the passive of languages like English, and subject-suppressing impersonals (as in Polish), and we show that it is more similar to the passive and subject-suppressing impersonals, given that (i) in the Basque impersonal, the event is instantiated, (ii) it can be used with more predicate classes, and (iii) it allows dative-marked second objects, among other properties. Similarly, like in English-type passives and subject-suppressing impersonals, the implicit agent of the Basque impersonal is syntactically active, as it can license agent-oriented modifiers and control adjunct purpose clauses. Nevertheless, there are other properties in which these constructions differ; for instance, the implicit agent must be interpreted as human, unlike in passives, and the grammatical subject cannot be other than 3rd person, something attested neither in passives nor in subject-suppressing impersonals. In light of this distribution, we consider the Basque impersonal to be located somewhere in between middles, passives and subject-suppressing impersonals as far as its syntactic properties are concerned.

Copyright of Estudios Románicos is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudis Romànics is the property of Institut d'Estudis Catalans and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper we have analyzed subject-suppressing impersonals, namely, structures with an implicit and indefinite subject. In Basque and Catalan, these structures have been considered detransitivized, given that, in transitive structures, a single argument is overtly realized instead of two. In Basque izan 'be' auxiliary is selected over *edun 'have' and in Catalan the ES clitic is introduced. In this paper we demonstrate that in these structures the subject is syntactically present and, therefore, these structures should be considered subject-suppressing impersonals as characterized by Blevins (2003). Nonetheless, morphology leads us to think differently in some cases: both in Catalan and in Spanish the theme argument of ES/SE-structures sometimes behaves like a subject, as it agrees with the auxiliary verb and does not accept a clitic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basque impersonal is a detransitivized construction where the internal argument is the only overt argument and the external argument, although semantically present, does not have any morphological reflex. This article argues that, despite its intransitive shape, the impersonal involves a particular kind of Voice projection that we term defective. For case and agreement, being defective means having no uninterpretable ϕ features and no Case to assign. However, a silent person pronoun is introduced in its specifier position, and thus, there are two arguments within VoiceP. The two arguments compete to value the ϕ features of the next functional head, namely T. With this analysis we account for the main properties of the impersonal, such as the syntactic activeness of the implicit external argument and the person constraint on the internal argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the formal expression of two Basque dative argument types in combination with psych nouns and adjectives, in intransitive and transitive clauses: (i) those that express the experiencer, and (ii) those that express the stimulus of the psychological state denoted by the psych noun and adjective. In the intransitive structure involving a dative experiencer (DatExpIS), the stimulus is in the absolutive case, and the intransitive copula izan 'be' shows both dative and absolutive agreement. This construction basically corresponds to those built upon the piacere type of psychological verbs typified in (Belletti, Adriana & Luigi Rizzi. 1988. Psych-verbs and θ-theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6. 291–352) three-way classification of Italian psych verbs. In the intransitive structure involving a dative stimulus (DatStimIS), the experiencer is marked by absolutive case, and the same intransitive copula shows both absolutive and dative agreement (with the latter corresponding to the dative stimulus and not to the experiencer). We show that the behavior of the dative argument in the two constructions is just the opposite of each other regarding a number of morphosyntactic tests, including agreement, constituency, hierarchy and selection. Additionally, we explore two parallel transitive constructions that involve either a dative experiencer and an ergative stimulus (DatExpTS) or a dative stimulus and an ergative experiencer (DatStimTS), which employ the transitive copula *edun 'have'. Considering these configurations, we propose an extended and more fine-grained typology of psych predicates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the Euskara Bariazioan/Basque in Variation (BiV) database, a project launched by the Basque and Beyond (Bas&Be) research group. This open-access online database, available in both Basque and English versions, is intended to facilitate research on Basque morphosyntactic features that show cross-dialectal variation. Based on data obtained from questionnaires, the BiV provides the user with a description of each feature together with illustrative examples, and accompanies each entry with a map graphically depicting the distribution of variation. The resulting fine-grained picture of the distribution of morphosyntactic phenomena across Basque varieties has the ultimate goal of improving our understanding of the systematicities and connections that underlie variation. Thanks to its user-friendly format, the database can be used easily by anyone who is interested in Basque morphosyntax in particular and cross-linguistic variation in general. The results obtained thus far show that while some features have the same distribution across Basque varieties as that previously reported, others are spreading and thus have a wider geographical presence than has been described in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intransitive verbs in Basque vary depending on their subject case and auxiliary selection: (i) some of them (considered unaccusatives and inchoatives) always have an absolutive subject and an intransitive auxiliary; (ii) others (prototypical unergatives) show diachronic and dialectal variation (absolutive subject and intransitive auxiliary vs. ergative subject and transitive auxiliary); and (iii) other unergative verbs with which an ergative subject and a transitive auxiliary prevail cross-dialectally. We propose a sublexical structure (Ramchand 2004, 2008) where verbs can be decomposed in three subevents. Unaccusative verbs in Basque are Path predicates, selecting a V of process (VPROCP) that, in the case of telic verbs, takes an adpositional phrase (PP) as complement. Atelic unaccusative verbs and unergative verbs having intransitive morphology are similarly Path predicates, but instead of a result PP, they can select a Rheme of process. In unergative verbs with transitive morphology no V of process is projected, but a little v of initiation (vINIT or vDO). Verbal roots may be inserted at three levels in Basque: vP, VP or PP. The last two are below an AspectualP involved in absolutive case assignment and intransitive auxiliary selection. Thus, depending on where the root is inserted has an effect on the alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]