Abstract
The aim of the paper is to discuss a class of transitive-prepositional reflexive constructions in Romanian, tied to the sphere of inalienable possession. It is argued that their properties are best explained by the presence of a prepositional phrase (pP), generated as the complement of V, which encodes a figure-ground relation between a possessor and an inalienably possessed object. Transitive variants of these constructions have a thematic Voice head and the reflexive clitic is merged as the figure argument and bound by the DP in spec, Voice. Unaccusative variants, on the other hand, have an expletive Voice head. In these cases, the DP subject merges in the position of the figure argument and raises to Tense while the reflexive clitic is a purely case-absorbing element that does not saturate a theta role.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Some verbs are specified for particular body parts and therefore the overt expression of the body part is not required and may be understood in context: a se rade (pe obraz) (‘shave (one’s cheek)’), a se vopsi (la păr) (‘dye (one’s hair)’).
- 2.
Other extensions of the locative pattern, which do not include possession, also exist:
- 3.
Still further, if reflexive anticausatives have the same syntactic configuration as causatives, in particular as true reflexives, then in context their derived subject should be interpreted as an Agent-Theme, deriving a true reflexive reading:
Conversely, potential Agents may be reinterpretable as Themes, if the subject position is focused and alternatives need to be supplied:
Thus, the presence of the VoiceP facilitates the rebracketing of the construction as a causative reflexive, as well as the negation of the causer, distinct from the negation of the caused event.
References
Alexiadou, Artemis, Elena Anagnostopoulou, and Florian Schäfer. 2006. The properties of anticausatives crosslinguistically. In Phases of interpretation, ed. Mara Frascarelli, 175–199. Berlin: Mouton.
Baker, Mark C. 2008. The macroparameter in a microparametric world. In The limits of syntactic variation, ed. Theresa Biberauer, 351–373. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Beavers, John. 2011. On affectedness. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29 (2): 335–370.
Beavers, John, and Andrew Koontz-Garboden. 2013. In defense of the reflexivization analysis of anticausativization. Lingua 131: 199–216.
Bruening, Benjamin. 2013. By-phrases in passives and nominals. Syntax 16 (1): 1–41.
Cornilescu, Alexandra, and Alexandru Nicolae. 2015. The grammaticalization of a constraint on passive reflexive constructions in Romanian. In Diachronic variation in Romanian, ed. G. Pană Dindelegan, R. Zafiu, A. Dragomirescu, I. Nicula, and A. Nicolae, 309–361. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
D’Alessandro, Roberta. 2007. Impersonal si constructions. Agreement and interpretation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Deo, Ashwini, Itamar Francez, and Andrew Koontz-Garboden. 2013. From change to value difference in degree achievements. Proceedings of SALT 23: 97–115.
Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen. 1994. The syntax of Romanian. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
———. 2015. Reflexive-marking in romance: Voice and feature deficiency. Ms., CNRS-LLF, to appear in Syn-Com.
Dowty, David. 1979. Word meaning and montague grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Dragomirescu, Adina. 2009. Consecinţele sintactice ale variaţiei reflexiv/nonreflexiv în cazul verbelor inacuzative. In Limba română: teme actuale, ed. R. Zafiu, G. Stoica, and M.N. Constantinescu, 85–95. Bucharest: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.
———. 2010. Ergativitatea: Tipologie, sintaxă, semantică. Bucharest: Editura Universității din București.
Dragomirescu, Adina, and Alexandru Nicolae. 2017. Semantic constraints on the reflexive/non-reflexive alternation of Romanian unaccusatives. In Contrastive studies in verbal valency, ed. L. Hellan, A. Malchukov, and M. Cennamo, 407–430. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Guéron, Jaqueline. 2006. Inalienable possession. In The Blackwell Companion to syntax, ed. Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk, 589–638. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Harley, Heidi. 1995. Subjects, events and licensing. PhD diss., MIT.
Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. More on the typology of inchoative/causative verb alternations. In Causatives and transitivity, ed. Bernard Comrie and Maria Polinsky, 87–120. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Labelle, Marie. 1992. Change of state and valency. Journal of Linguistics 28 (2): 375–414.
Labelle, Marie, and Edit Doron. 2010. Anticausative derivations (and other valency alternations) in French. Probus 22 (2): 303–316.
Lambert, Silke. 2010. Beyond recipients: towards a typology of dative uses. PhD diss., University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
Landau, Idan. 1999. Possessor raising and the structure of VP. Lingua 137: 1–37.
MacDonald, Jonathan E. 2015. A case of multiple agree: Accusative, not dative se. In Romance linguistics 2012. Selected papers from the 42nd linguistic symposium on romance languages (LSRL), Cedar City, Utah, 20–22 April, ed. Jason Smith and Tabea Ihsane, vol. 2012, 275–288. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Manoliu-Manea, Maria. 1993. Gramatică, pragmasemantică și discurs. Bucharest: Litera.
———. 1996. Inalienability and topicality in Romanian: Pragma-semantics of syntax. In The grammar of inalienability: A typological perspective on body part terms and the part–whole relation, ed. Hilary Chappell and William McGregor, 711–743. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Martin, Fabienne and Florian Schäfer. 2014. Anticausatives compete but do not differ in meaning: A French case study. In Proceedings of Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française 2014, FU Berlin, 2485–2500.
Niculescu, Dana. 2013. The possessive dative structure. The possessive object. In The grammar of Romanian, ed. G. Pană Dindelegan, 183–190. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pesetsky, David, and Esther Torrego. 2004. Tense, case, and the nature of syntactic categories. In The syntax of time, ed. J. Guéron and J. Lecarme, 495–538. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schäfer, Florian. 2008. The syntax of (anti-)causatives. External arguments in change-of-state contexts. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
———. 2009. The causative alternation. Language and Linguistics Compass 3 (2): 641–681.
Svenonius, Peter. 2007. Adpositions, particles and the arguments they introduce. In Argument structure, ed. E.J. Reuland, T. Bhattacharya, and Giorgos Spathas, 63–103. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Talmy, Leonard. 1978. Figure and ground in complex sentences. In Universals of human language, ed. J. Greenberg, C. Ferguson, and H. Moravcsik, 627–649. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Wood, Jim. 2012. Icelandic morphosyntax and argument structure. PhD diss., New York University.
Wood, Jim, and Alec Marantz. 2017. The interpretation of external arguments. In The verbal domain, ed. Roberta D’Alessandro, Irene Franco, and Ángel Gallego, 255–278. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to both the editors of the volume and the reviewers of this paper. We were particularly sensitive to the sharp questions and substantive issues raised by the reviewers, which have led to a careful rewriting of the paper in the hope of increasing clarity and relevance. We are also indebted to the participants in the Workshop on Romance SE/SI, held on April 21st and 22nd, 2016 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thanks are also due to Adina Dragomirescu for the comments on an earlier version of the paper. The editors of the volume deserve our warmest gratitude for their kindness, patience and wonderful help.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cornilescu, A., Nicolae, A. (2021). On a Class of Figure Reflexives in Romanian: Ion se spală pe mâini ‘John washes his hands’. In: Armstrong, G., MacDonald, J.E. (eds) Unraveling the complexity of SE. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 99. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57004-0_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57004-0_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57003-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57004-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)