A Formal Approach to Spanish 'Genitive' Pronouns in Non-Nominal Domains

Bibliographic Data

ID5901330
AuthorsM Mare (0000-0002-9250-2467, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume8
Issue4
Pages233
Publication date2023-10-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8040233
OpenAlexW4387603191
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

This paper examines the distribution of 'genitive' pronouns in non-nominal domains in Spanish. These pronouns can alternate with constructions headed by the item de 'of' and a pronoun or other Determiner Phrases (DPs). In general Spanish, this alternation between a synthetic (nuestro 'our') and an analytic (de nosotros 'of us') option is found in the nominal domain. However, when looking at variation, this alternation appears in adverbial, verbal, and adjectival domains too. We discuss this phenomenon from a neo-constructionist approach, which assumes the late insertion of phonological exponents. We propose that the analytic and the synthetic options have almost the same syntactic structure, the only difference being the nature of the nominalizer's φ-features. When the nominalizer values its φ-features, it can be lexicalized alone, and the 'genitive' pronoun lexicalizes the rest of the structure, including the introducer p/Place. Otherwise, when the nominalizer cannot (or needs not to) value its features, a 'non-genitive' pronoun lexicalizes the pronominal structure, and the head p/Place is lexicalized by the item de. Our proposal explains the complementary distribution between agreement/nominal morphology and the item de observed in many Spanish constructions. Different consequences are advantageously deduced

Adverbial · Determiner · Genitive case · Linguistics · Noun · Pronoun · Subject pronoun · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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