1887
Volume 15, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1571-0718
  • E-ISSN: 1571-0726
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Studies of unaccusativity and word order in Spanish have yielded conflicting results. This study further investigates unaccusativity by testing the ability of the ‘Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy’ ( Sorace 2000 ) to account for word orders with intransitive predicates in Mexican Spanish. The results of an oral production task show significant word order differences between verb categories and locate an unergative/unaccusative cutoff point midway along the hierarchy, situating unaccusativity in Spanish as being similar to Italian but trending in the direction of Dutch or French. Other variables affecting the word order are identified and ranked, including subject heaviness, definiteness, and the location of adverbial phrases. Greater inter-speaker variation at the syntax-discourse interface when compared with the syntax-lexicon interface shows that the Interface Hypothesis has application to native speakers of Spanish. The results of this study are important for current research on unaccusativity and syntactic interfaces.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sic.00004.rog
2018-05-31
2025-02-08
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aranovich, Raúl
    2003 “The Semantics of Auxiliary Selection in Old Spanish.” Studies in Language27 (1): 1–37. doi: 10.1075/sl.27.1.02ara
    https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.27.1.02ara [Google Scholar]
  2. 2013 “Mismatched Spanish Unaccusativity Tests.” InFrom Quirky Case to Representing Space: Papers in Honor of Annie Zaenened. by Tracy Holloway King and Valeria de Paiva , 33–45. CSLI Publications.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Belletti, Adriana , Elisa Bennati , and Antonella Sorace
    2007 “Theoretical and Developmental Issues in the Syntax of Subjects: Evidence from Near-Native Italian.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory25: 657–689. doi: 10.1007/s11049‑007‑9026‑9
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-007-9026-9 [Google Scholar]
  4. Bolinger, Dwight L. M.
    1991 “Meaningful Word Order in Spanish.” InEssays on Spanish: Words and Grammared. by Joseph H. Silverman , 218–230. Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Boyd-Bowman, Peter
    1960El Habla de Guanajuato. Mexico: Imprenta Universitaria UNAM.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Burzio, Luigi
    1986Italian Syntax: A Government-Binding Approach. Dordrecht: Reidel. doi: 10.1007/978‑94‑009‑4522‑7
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4522-7 [Google Scholar]
  7. Cennamo, Michela
    1999 “Late Latin Pleonastic Reflexives and the Unaccusative Hypothesis.” Transactions of the Philological Society97 (1): 103–150. doi: 10.1111/1467‑968X.00046
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.00046 [Google Scholar]
  8. Cennamo, Michela , and Antonella Sorace
    2007 “Auxiliary Selection and Split Intransitivity in Paduan: Variation and Lexical-Aspectual Contraints.” InSplit Auxiliary Systemsed. by Raúl Aranovich , 65–100. doi: 10.1075/tsl.69.05cen
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.69.05cen [Google Scholar]
  9. De Miguel Aparicio, Elena
    1993 “Construcciones ergativas e inversión en la lengua y la interlengua española.” InLa Lingüística y el análisis de los sistemas no nativosed. by J. M. Liceras , 178–195. Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. De Miguel Aparicio, Elena , and Marina Fernández Lagunilla
    2004 “Un enfoque subeventivo de la relación entre predicados secundarios y adverbios de manera.” Revue Romane39 (1): 24–44. doi: 10.1111/j.1600‑0811.2004.00002.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0811.2004.00002.x [Google Scholar]
  11. Delbecque, Nicole
    1988 “On the Subject Position in Spanish: A Variable Rule Analysis of Constraints at the Level of the Subject NP and of the VP.” Literary and Linguistic Computing3 (3): 185–200. doi: 10.1093/llc/3.3.185
    https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/3.3.185 [Google Scholar]
  12. Harves, Stephanie
    2002 “Unaccusative Syntax in Russian.” Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University.
  13. Hertel, Tammy Jandrey
    2003 “Lexical and Discourse Factors in the Second Language Acquisition of Spanish Word Order.” Second Language Research19 (4): 273–304. doi: 10.1191/0267658303sr224oa
    https://doi.org/10.1191/0267658303sr224oa [Google Scholar]
  14. Hinch Nava, Emily
    2007 “Word Order in Bilingual Spanish: Convergence and Intonation Strategy.” InSelected Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguisticsed. by Jonathan Holmquist , Augusto Lorenzino and Lotfi Sayahi , 129–139. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Keller, Frank , and Antonella Sorace
    2003 “Gradient Auxiliary Selection and Impersonal Passivization in German: An Experimental Investigation.” Journal of Linguistics39 (1): 57–108. doi: 10.1017/S0022226702001676
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226702001676 [Google Scholar]
  16. Kiss, Katalin É.
    1998 “Identificational Focus versus Information Focus.” Language74 (2): 245–273. doi: 10.1353/lan.1998.0211
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1998.0211 [Google Scholar]
  17. Legendre, Géraldine
    1989 “Unaccusativity in French.” Lingua79: 95–164. doi: 10.1016/0024‑3841(89)90067‑3
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3841(89)90067-3 [Google Scholar]
  18. 2007a “On the Typology of Auxiliary Selection.” Lingua117 (9): 1522–1540. doi: 10.1016/j.lingua.2006.06.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2006.06.005 [Google Scholar]
  19. 2007b “Optimizing Auxiliary Selection in Romance” InSplit Auxiliary Systems: A Cross-Linguistic Perspectiveed. by Raúl Aranovich , 145–180. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.69.08leg
    https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.69.08leg [Google Scholar]
  20. Llompart, Miquel
    2016 “Subject-Verb Order Variation with Unaccusative Verbs of Change of Location in Mexico and Southern Arizona.” Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics9 (1): 143–173.10.1515/shll‑2016‑0006
    https://doi.org/10.1515/shll-2016-0006 [Google Scholar]
  21. Lope Blanch, Juan M.
    2004Cuestiones de Filología Mexicana. México, D.F.: Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, UNAM.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. López Meirama, Belén
    1997La posición del sujeto en la cláusula monoactancial en español. Santiago de Compostela: Servicio de Publicacións da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Lozano, Cristóbal
    2006 “Focus and Split-Intransitivity: The Acquisition of Word Order Alternations in Non-Native Spanish.” Second Language Research22 (2): 1–43. doi: 10.1191/0267658306sr264oa
    https://doi.org/10.1191/0267658306sr264oa [Google Scholar]
  24. 2013 “Word Order in Second Language Spanish.” InThe Handbook of Spanish Second Language Acquisitioned. by Kimberly L. Geeslin , 287–310. West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118584347.ch17
    https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584347.ch17 [Google Scholar]
  25. Lozano, Cristóbal , and Amaya Mendikoetxea
    2006 “Postverbal Subjects at the Interfaces in Spanish and Italian Learners of L2 English: a Corpus Analysis.” InLinking up Contrastive and Corpus Learner Researched. by G. Gilquin , S. Papp and M. B. Díez-Bedmar , 85–125. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Mateu, Jaume
    2009 “Gradience and Auxiliary Selection in Old Catalan and Old Spanish.” InHistorical Syntax and Linguistic Theoryed. by Paola Crisma and Giuseppe Longobardi , 176–193. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560547.003.0011
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560547.003.0011 [Google Scholar]
  27. Mayoral Hernández, Roberto
    2004 “On the Position of Frequency Adverbs in Spanish.” USC Working Papers in Linguistics2: 1–15.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Mithun, Marianne
    1991 “Active/agentive Case Marking and Its Motivations.” Language67 (3): 510–546. doi: 10.1353/lan.1991.0015
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1991.0015 [Google Scholar]
  29. Montrul, Silvina
    2005 “Second Language Acquisition and First Language Loss in Adult Early Bilinguals: Exploring some Differences and Similarities.” Second Language Research21 (3): 199–249. doi: 10.1191/0267658305sr247oa
    https://doi.org/10.1191/0267658305sr247oa [Google Scholar]
  30. 2006 “On the Bilingual Competence of Spanish Heritage Speakers: Syntax, Lexical-Semantics and Processing.” International Journal of Bilingualism10 (1): 37–69. doi: 10.1177/13670069060100010301
    https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069060100010301 [Google Scholar]
  31. Morales, Amparo
    2003 “Patrones sintácticos y pragmáticos en el orden de las unidades de la oración.” Español actual80: 15–25.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Ocampo, Francisco
    1991 “Word Order in Constructions with a One-Valency Verb, a Subject NP and a PP in Spoken Rioplatense Spanish.” Hispania74 (2): 409–416. doi: 10.2307/344851
    https://doi.org/10.2307/344851 [Google Scholar]
  33. 2003 “On the Notion of Focus in Spoken Spanish: An empirical approach.” InTheory, Practice, and Acquisition: Papers from the 6th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium and the 5th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portugueseed. by Paula Kempchinsky and Carlos-Eduardo Piñeros , 207–266. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Ortiz López, Luis A.
    2009 “El español del Caribe: Orden de palabras a la luz de la interfaz léxico-sintáctica y sintáctico-pragmática.” Revista internacional de lingüística iberoamericana7 (2): 75–93.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Otheguy, Ricardo , Ana Celia Zentella , and David Livert
    2007 “Language and Dialect Contact in Spanish in New York: Toward the Formation of a Speech Community.” Language83 (4): 770–802. doi: 10.1353/lan.2008.0019
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2008.0019 [Google Scholar]
  36. Parafita Couto, María C. , Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole , and Hans Stadthagen-González
    2015 “Interface Strategies in Monolingual and End-State L2 Spanish Grammars Are not that Different.” Frontiers in Psychology5 (1525): 1–17.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Perlmutter, David M.
    1978 “Impersonal Passives and the Unaccusative Hypothesis.” InProceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society February 18–20, 1978ed. by Jeri J. Jaeger , Anthony C. Woodbury , Farrell Ackerman , Christine Chiarello , Orin D. Gensler , John Kingston , Eve E. Sweetser , Henry Thompson and Kenneth W. Whistler , 157–189. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Prévost, Philippe
    2011 “The Interface Hypothesis: What about optionality in native speakers?” Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism1 (1): 79–83. doi: 10.1075/lab.1.1.12pre
    https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.1.1.12pre [Google Scholar]
  39. Pustejovsky, James
    1995The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Rex, Scott M.
    2001 “Unaccusativity in Spanish.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California-Davis.
  41. Rivas, Javier
    2008 “La posición del sujeto en las construcciones monoactanciales del español: Una aproximación funcional.” Hispania91 (4): 897–912.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Rosen, Carol G.
    1984 “The Interface between Semantic Roles and Initial Grammatical Relations.” InStudies in Relational Grammar 2ed. by David M. Perlmutter and Carol G. Rosen , 38–77. Chicago: University of Chicago.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Shan, Chuan-Kuo , and Boping Yuan
    2007 “Is Gradience of Mapping between Semantics and Syntax Possible in L2 Acquisition?” InBUCLD 31: Proceedings of the 31st annual Boston University Conference on Language Developmented. by Heather Caunt-Nulton , Samantha Kulatilake and I-hao Woo , 567–575. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Shannon, Thomas F.
    1990 “The Unaccusative Hypothesis and the History of the Perfect Auxiliary in Germanic and Romance.” InHistorical Linguistics, 1987: Papers from the 8th International Conference on Historical Linguisticsed. by Henning Andersen and E. F. K. Koerner , 461–488. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.66.32sha
    https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.66.32sha [Google Scholar]
  45. Silva-Corvalán, Carmen
    1982 “Subject Expression and Placement in Mexican-American Spanish.” InSpanish in the United States: Sociolinguistic Aspectsed. by Jon Amastae and Lucía Elías-Olivares , 93–120. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Sorace, Antonella
    1993 “Unaccusativity and Auxiliary Choice in Non-Native Grammars of Italian and French: Asymmetries and Predictable Indeterminacy.” Journal of French Language Studies3 (1):71–93. doi: 10.1017/S0959269500000351
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269500000351 [Google Scholar]
  47. 2000 “Gradients in Auxiliary Selection with Intransitive Verbs.” Language76 (4): 859–890. doi: 10.2307/417202
    https://doi.org/10.2307/417202 [Google Scholar]
  48. 2004 “Gradience at the Lexicon-Syntax Interface: Evidence from Auxiliary Selection and Implications for Unaccusativity.” InThe Unaccusativity Puzzleed. by Artemis Alexiadou , Elena Anagnostopoulou and Martin Everaert , 243–268. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257652.003.0010
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257652.003.0010 [Google Scholar]
  49. 2011 “Pinning Down the Concept of “Interface” in Bilingualism.” Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism1 (1): 1–33. doi: 10.1075/lab.1.1.01sor
    https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.1.1.01sor [Google Scholar]
  50. Sorace, Antonella , and Yoko Shomura
    2001 “Lexical Constraints on the Acquisition of Split Intransitivity.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition23: 247–278. doi: 10.1017/S0272263101002066
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263101002066 [Google Scholar]
  51. Torrego, Esther
    1989 “Unergative-Unaccusative Alternations in Spanish.” MIT Working Papers in Linguistics10: 253–272.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Tuttle, Edward F.
    1986 “The Spread of ESSE as Universal Auxiliary in Central ltalo-Romance.” Medioevo Romanzo11 (2): 229–287.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. White, Lydia
    2011 “Second language acquisition at the interfaces.” Lingua121 (4): 577–590. doi: 10.1016/j.lingua.2010.05.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2010.05.005 [Google Scholar]
  54. Zaenen, Annie
    1993 “Unaccusativity in Dutch: Integrating Syntax and Lexical Semantics.” InSemantics and the Lexiconed. by James Pustejovsky , 129–161. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. doi: 10.1007/978‑94‑011‑1972‑6_9
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1972-6_9 [Google Scholar]
  55. Zapata, Gabriela C. , Liliana Sánchez , and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
    2005 “Contact and Contracting Spanish.” International Journal of Bilingualism9 (3–4): 377–395. doi: 10.1177/13670069050090030501
    https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069050090030501 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/sic.00004.rog
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/sic.00004.rog
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): interfaces; unaccusativity; word order
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error