Tous les verbes psychologiques sont statifs

MARÍN, RAFAEL; MANGIALAVORI RASIA, MARÍA EUGENIA

Simposio; JE Aspects of psych verbs; 2022

Structures Formelles du Langage, UMR 7023 - CNRS/Paris 8

Problem. Psych verbs are well known for presenting unusual semantic and syntactic properties. In fact, the aspectual value of experiencer psych verbs (OEPVs) is still open to debate. Yet, at least two important syn-sem asymmetries arise deserving to be discussed. ● There is a subset of OEPVs which are crucially sensitive to [±animacy/agentivity] in the subject (1), with aspectual shifts affecting dynamicity, participants involved, and transitivity. For another subset, a similar eventive/stative alternation is unavailable (2), as the predication preserves a (noneventive, nonagentive) constant nature. ● For the former subset, predication is independent of psych state denotation and psych-state defeasibility (3) is possible, along with canonical transitivity and agent control (1). Other contrasts follow, including passive structures and copula distribution (4).(1)a. El árbol (le) molesta a Maria. ‘The tree bothers María’STATIVE/PSYCHb. Juan molesta a María (con una rama/para que se vaya). EVENTIVE/AGENTIVE‘The tree bothers M with a stick/to make her leave’(2)a. El árbol ??(le) aburre a Maria. ‘The tree bores María’ STATIVE/PSYCHb. Juan aburre a María *(con una rama/para que se vaya). #EVENTIVE/AGENTIVE‘The tree bores María with a stick/to make her leave’(3)a. Juan molestó a María, pero María no se molestó. ‘Juan bothered María, but M didn’t bother’b. #Juan aburrió a María, pero María no se aburrió. ‘Juan bored María, but M didn’t bore’(4)a. María estuvo molesta(da)/aburrida ‘María has been bothered/bored’ ADJECTIVAL PASSIVEb. María fue molestada/*aburrida (por Juan) ‘María was bothered/bored by John’PASSIVEHere, we propose that: [A] while previous works (Arad 1998 i.a.) postulate 3 distinct predications – the stative: expressing psych state of the experiencer (Economy concerns Mary); the eventive: a change-of-state arises in the experiencer with no intentional agent (The noise bothered Mary); the agentive: an agent intentionally causes a change of state in the experiencer (John frightened Mary deliberately) – the typology can be readily reduced to two crucially distinct predications, namely those defined by (un)availability of patterns tested in (1)-(4). [B] All verbs in (6) appear in psych predications and show transitive/unaccusative alternation with SE-CL marking in Romance. Yet, this does not mean that psych denotation is part of verb meaning in all cases ((3)a), nor that TR/ UNACC alternations are automatically cases of causative alternation – nor that all verbs showing the alternation are causative. We take the invariable stative nature of verbs in (6)b to claim that these are not proper causative verbs (cf. (5)), contra Arad i.a. and received view, but in line with recent proposals (Neeleman & Van de Koot 2012). [C] Verbs in (6)a are not true psych verbs, but verbs described as ‘having other uses’, not limited to psych effects (Arad 1998; Bouchard, 1992).(5)a. TRJuan molestó a María / UNACCMaría se molestó.‘Juan bothered María’/‘María bothered’.b.TRJuan aburrió a María / UNACCMaría se aburrió. ‘Juan bored María’/‘María (got) bored’(6)a. molestar-type (accepts agentive subjects): agobiar ‘overwhelm’, animar ‘encourage’, consolar ‘comfort’, fastidiar ‘annoy’, ofender ‘offend’, amedrentar ‘intimidate’.b. preocupar-type (do not take agentive subjects): aburrir ‘bore’, apasionar ‘impassion’, disgustar ‘disgust’, fascinar ‘fascinate’, indignar ‘outrage, obsesionar ‘obsess’.