Basque impersonals in comparison
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5019990 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Beatriz Fernández (0000-0002-7632-7777, Letren Fakultatea , University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) , Vitoria-Gasteiz , Spain), Ane Berro (0000-0002-6818-506X, Giza eta Gizarte Zientzien Fakultatea , University of Deusto (UD) , Unibertsitate Etorb., 24, 48007 , Bilbao , Spain, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1039-1101 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-26 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Linguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/ling-2020-0057 |
| OpenAlex | W3188565726 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 51 |
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 isizan'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
Agreement · Combinatorics · Dative case · Ergative case · Linguistics · Object (grammar) · Predicate (mathematical logic) · Subject (documents) · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
The passive voice
Passive in the world's languages
External Arguments in Transitivity Alternations
Grammatical Voice
More on the typology of inchoative/causative verb alternations
In Defense of Spontaneous Demotion
Ergativity
Hybrid intransitives in Basque
Datives with psych nouns and adjectives in Basque
Is Basque morphologically ergative
The Grammaticization of Passive Morphology
Unergatives as Copular Verbs; Locational and Existential Predication
The emergence of middle voice structures with and without agents
Parameters in the grammar of Basque
English Verb Classes and Alternations
Passives and impersonals
Middles and Reflexivity
Differential Object Marking and the nature of dative Case in Basque varieties
The Explicit Syntax of Implicit Arguments
Person matters in impersonality
A smuggling approach to the passive in english
The middle construction and the syntax-semantics interface
P-lability and radical P-alignment
Ergativity
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |