Deconstructing SE-Constructions

Number Agreement and Postsyntactic Variation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7913150
AutoresJavier Ormazabal (0000-0002-9774-8247, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Basque Group of Theoretical Linguistics (HiTT), Department of Linguistics & Basque Studies (HEIS), [email protected], autor de correspondencia), Juan Romero (0000-0002-2974-9010, University of Extremadura (UNEX), Basque Group of Theoretical Linguistics (HiTT), Department of Hispanic Philology, [email protected], autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen55
Número3
Páginas445-488
Fecha de publicación2024-07-11
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLinguistic Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0024-3892 • E-ISSN: 1530-9150
EditorialMIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/ling_a_00476
OpenAlexW4281684816
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas60

Most analyses of nonparadigmatic SE sentences derive their agreement patterns structurally, forcing a passive/impersonal distinction against all evidence. Instead, we uniformly analyze them as regular sentences where the T-agreeing subject is se itself, an argumental clitic pronoun, with [person] but no number φ-features, and show that the overt argument, which has object properties, does not genuinely agree in syntax. We reveal a new asymmetry between postverbal and preverbal/null arguments, which conceals two postsyntactic processes with very distinctive properties: morphological Clitic Mutation into number agreement, and T’s Number Harmony with a close DP, not ruled by syntax or morphology

Agreement · Argument (complex analysis · Clitic · Linguistics · Object (grammar · Physics · Subject (documents · Syntax · Variation (astronomy · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation