Aspect, argument structure and options in deadjectival derivation

MANGIALAVORI RASIA, MARÍA EUGENIA

Conferencia; Linguistics Beyond And Within; 2021

A Latin-inherited verbalizer became a productive alternative for verb formation, to distinct results across Romance. 1. ITALIAN: maximal contrast (1), where choice of verbalizer crosscuts argument structure and aspectual class, (non)eventivity correlated with (a)transitivity. CATALAN alternates between stative unaccusativevs. ?standard? DA [DA] forms with transitive/unaccusative alternation. The morphologically opaque alternative (2) accommodates distribution of aspectually-and syntactically-sensitive contexts like ne/se-cliticization, perfectives and middles (telicity/completion restricted to standard DA). SPANISH LACKS A comparable alternative. Deadjectival realization is limited to standard DAs. 2. Catalan|Italian: stative monadic occurrences. Yet, Catalan monadics: (i)behave unaccusatively, keeping internal-argument-licensing constant across variants (vs. Italian stative unergatives); (ii)show mixed event-stative (Davisonisan) properties, whereas Italian yields pure (Kimian-like) states, yielding evidence for a distinction between aspectual types usually lumped together (statives).3. CATALAN -ejarverbsyield unaccusative statives yielding some sort of transition (COS never fully reaching the expected result state defined by (the adjectival form of) √). Incrementality sows in the glosses generally used (?go √-ish?Oltra & Castroviejo 2013) and aspectual patterns. Mixed eventive-stative (Davidsonian) behavior explains adjuncts (4), progressive entailments (5), sense of progression and gradability/scalarity returning a difference value [DV] (6). Combination with gradually(4) confirms INCREASEand clear DAstatus (Gawron 2009). Italian (-eggiare) counterparts lack such incremental and eventive-like (Davidsonian) behaviors.Catalan and Italian monadic forms are atelic and nonresultative; yet, in Italian these properties follow from similative stativity (attributive, nonincremental predication); while in Catalan they follow from a never-ending (approachingOltra & Castroviejo [OC] 2013) transition (scalar increase) supported by syntactic configuration (consistently recruiting affected themes). In Italian, auxiliary distribution, tense restrictions (generic tenses only), lack of causative/middle alternation, inchoative seand ne-cliticization (3) indicate that absence of eventivity/COS correlates to absence of theme (unergative) and incrementality (7). 4. HISPANIC VARIETIES: internal-object-licensing coincides with certain eventivity and incremental scalarity (gradual property increase over time). Data can be generalized with an interval-based notion of VALUE DIFFERENCE(change in the value of a function over a contextually given ordered domain); (vs.standard eventive change-of-state) on key conditions (axial cumulativity, Deo et al. 2013) in refined DA analyses (Gawron 2005,2009). Extent readings with relevant adjuncts in Catalan (4) transparently reflect crosslanguage examples.(1)a.?become √(er))?(DA)sbiancare/appianare/annerire/arrotondare/arrossareb.?be/look {√}(ish)? (state)biancheggiare/pianeggiare/nereggiare/rotondeggiare/rosseggiare(2)a.STATIVE ATELIC UNACCUSATIVELa camisa blanqueja.?The shirt looks white(ish)?b.EVENTIVE CAUSATIVEwith CAUS-ALTERNATIONHa blanquejat la camisa/La camisa s'ha blanquejat.?[he] whitened the shirt/the shirt whitened?(3)La pelle {*(se/ne) arrossa/(*se/ne) rosseggia}.?The skin (inch) reddens? vs. ?The skin (*inch) looks red(ish)? (4)El prat grogueja gradualment/en avançar l?estació/amb la calor/cap al Nord/a l?horitzó.?The lawn goesyellow gradually/as the season advances/with the heat/towards North/in the horizon?(5)El blatestàgroguejant⇒hagroguejat?The wheat is going yellow(ish)? ⇒?went yellow(er)?(6)La camisa ha groguejat una mica. (Oltra & Castroviejo 2013)(Cat.)?The t-shirt has gone a bit yellow(ish).?(7)rosseggiare/verdeggiare/biancheggirelook red/green/white(ish)#(gradualmente/piano piano/completamente)#gradually/slowly/completely