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Defective Causative and Perception Verb Constructions in Romance. a Minimalist Approach to Infinitival and Subjunctive Clauses

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Defective Causative and Perception Verb Constructions in Romance. a Minimalist Approach to Infinitival and Subjunctive Clauses Defective causative and perception verb constructions in Romance. A minimalist approach to infinitival and subjunctive clauses Elena Ciutescu Doctoral Dissertation Supervised by Dr. Jaume Mateu Fontanals Programa de Doctorat Ciència Cognitiva i Llenguatge Centre de Lingüística Teòrica Departament de Filologia Catalana Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2018 Eu nu strivesc corola de minuni a lumii şi nu ucid cu mintea tainele, ce le-ntâlnesc în calea mea în flori, în ochi, pe buze ori morminte. Lumina altora sugrumă vraja nepătrunsului ascuns în adâncimi de întuneric, dar eu, eu cu lumina mea sporesc a lumii taină- şi-ntocmai cum cu razele ei albe luna nu micşorează, ci tremurătoare măreşte şi mai tare taina nopţii, aşa îmbogăţesc şi eu întunecata zare cu largi fiori de sfânt mister şi tot ce-i nenţeles se schimbă-n nenţelesuri şi mai mari sub ochii mei- căci eu iubesc şi flori şi ochi şi buze şi morminte. Lucian Blaga – ‘Eu nu strivesc corola de minuni a lumii’ (Poemele luminii, 1919) Abstract The present dissertation explores aspects of the micro-parametric variation found in defective complements of causative and perception verbs in Romance. The study deals with infinitival and subjunctive clauses with overt lexical subjects in three Romance languages: Spanish, Catalan and Romanian. I focus on various syntactic phenomena of the Case-agreement system in environments that exhibit defective C-T dependencies (in the spirit of Chomsky 2000; 2001, Gallego 2009; 2010; 2014). I argue in favour of a unifying account of the non- finite complementation of causative and perception verbs, investigating at the same time the mechanisms responsible for the micro-parametric variation exhibited by the three languages. I also defend the thesis that Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) configurations are present in Romance languages and that infinitival complements of causative and perception verbs in Spanish and Catalan, as well as subjunctive clauses in Romanian, are manifestations of (Romance) ECM cases. The principal aim of this dissertation is to analyse two (apparently) similar configurations paying detailed attention to the syntactic and semantic (a)symmetries between them. These two configurations are made up of causative/perception verbs that subordinate infinitival clauses. The focus is placed on the behaviour of the infinitival subject which can occur pre- or post-verbally, giving rise to issues of clausal architecture, word order patterns, the licensing of objects and subjects, and dependencies found at the level of the Case- agreement system. The goal of the thesis is twofold. On the one hand, I propose a unified account for the two configurations based on causative and perception verbs taking infinitival complements. This account is then extended to the case of Romanian subjunctive in the realm of causative constructions. On the other hand, I investigate the syntactic strategies that account for the derivation of the two constructions. My proposal is that, even though causative/perception verb complements receive the same analysis, Catalan and Spanish differ substantially in the mechanisms (object shift, verb movement, raising-to-object) they use in the derivation of the two constructions that are subject to a parametric cut. Acknowledgements First of all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Jaume Mateu, my advisor. I thank him for guiding me during all these years and for offering me his unconditional help from the very first day we met. I consider myself very fortunate to have had the chance to spend time in his company and to benefit from his vast knowledge of language and his invaluable comments and suggestions. I also thank him for his constant support and encouragements, and, above all, I thank him for trusting me and for being so patient, kind and understanding. In the second place I want to thank Ángel Gallego. I am greatly indebted to him for supporting me throughout the process and for helping me untangle many issues discussed here. Needless to say, his works have been an important source of inspiration for my research. I also thank him for showing me care and trust and for giving me hope whenever I needed it. My special thanks go to Alexandra Cornilescu. She is the first person who introduced me to the beautiful world of linguistics. She has always been a reference to me, both professionally and personally. I deeply admire and respect her for her energy and commitment to others. I am also grateful to the members of Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, Anna Bartra, Eulàlia Bonet, Josep Maria Brucart, Maria Teresa Espinal, Anna Gavarró, Maria Lluïsa Hernanz, Joan Mascaró, Carme Picallo, Gemma Rigau, and Xavier Villalba, for their comments and suggestions made during the evaluation and progress of this thesis. I especially thank Maria Teresa Espinal for accepting me in her project. I also want to thank Maria Lluïsa Hernanz for the moments we shared talking about causative and perception verbs. Her research on the topic has been a crucial starting point for my investigation. I also want to thank my fellow students (and visiting students) at the CLT, with whom I spent many beautiful moments: Andrea Bellavia, Lídia Bogatyreva, Myriam Cantú, Jan Casalicchio, Livia Cucatto, Adriana Fasanella, Maya Leela, Ares Llop, Anna Paradís, Anna Pineda, Marina Roman, Carlos Rubio, Io Salmons, Noèlia Sánchez, Federico Silvagni and Teresa Xiqués. Finally, but most importantly, I want to thank my parents, Cristiana Teeru and Gheorghe Ciutescu, for always giving me unconditional love, support, and a pair of wings to fly. Many thanks are also due to my brother, Sergiu-Alexandru Ciutescu, for being my best friend, my wise confidant and a constant source of spiritual enlightenment. My beloved husband, Daniel Tomàs, also deserves special thanks. I am grateful to him for his profound love, but also for his help, patience and understanding during all these years. From the bottom of my heart, many thanks to you all for surrounding me with so much love and for making me feel important. I am blessed beyond measure to have such a beautiful family. Mami, tati, Andu şi Dani, această teză vă este dedicată vouă. Acknowledgements to the projects The present dissertation has been supported by a predoctoral AGAUR grant (FI-DGR 2011) from the Generalitat de Catalunya, and also benefited from the funding provided by two research projects: the project 2009SGR-1079 Lingüística Teòrica, IP Gemma Rigau, awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya to the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, and the project La composicionalidad del significado y las operaciones semánticas en la interfaz sintaxis- semántica y en la interfaz gramática-cognición (FFI2011-23356), IP Maria Teresa Espinal, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Interest of the project 1 1.1. Motivation and aim 1 1.2. Outline and structure of the thesis 2 2. Introducing infinitival complements of causative and perception verbs 5 2.1. Defining IC and RIC 6 2.2. Microvariation in Romance 7 Chapter 2: Infinitival complements to causative and perception verbs 1. Introduction 19 2. The nature of the matrix verb 19 2.1. On the notion of complex predicate 22 2.2. Degrees of verbal lightness 26 2.3. Coping with the lexical-functional distinction 35 3. Syntactic properties of the infinitival complement 46 3.1. Clitic climbing 46 3.1.1. Perception verbs 46 3.1.2. Causative verbs 55 3.2. Long object movement 61 3.3. Impersonal se-passives 63 4. Critical overview of previous accounts 71 4.1. Sentential complementation 72 4.2. Parallel configurations 86 4.3. Incorporation 90 4.4. Perception and causative predicates as ECM verbs 100 4.5. Towards a formal analysis: An embedded defective TP 117 5. Conclusions 121 Chapter 3: The structure of the infinitival complement: a unified account 1. Introduction 123 2. Setting the groundwork for a unified account 125 2.1. Theoretical assumptions 125 2.2. Chomsky’s (2000, 2001) Probe-Goal framework 130 2.3. On the concept of defectiveness 135 3. The proposal: A defective CP structure for the infinitival complement 138 4. Reconsidering three potential problems for a unified account 142 4.1. The variable behaviour of the matrix predicate in IC and RIC 143 4.1.1. The monoclausal-biclausal conflict and the nature of the matrix verb 143 4.1.2. Spanish hacer ‘make’: lexical or functional? 153 4.2. The subject of the infinitive 163 4.2.1. A semantic characterization of the infinitival subject and its relation with the embedded event 164 4.2.2. Implications for the semantics of the IC and RIC constructions 175 4.2.2.1. Direct vs. indirect causation 175 4.2.2.2. Aspectual differences with perception verbs 183 4.3. The behaviour of clitics 189 4.3.1. Observations on the cliticisation of the subject 190 4.3.2. Object clitics that do not climb 198 4.3.3. Reflexive clitics 207 5. Conclusions 210 Chapter 4: The minimalist syntax of infinitival and subjunctive clauses 1. Introduction 213 2. The derivation of the RIC construction 214 2.1. Transitive complements 214 2.1.1. The licensing of subjects and objects 214 2.1.2. Two strategies for word order: Verb movement and object shift 216 2.1.3. Accusative and dative Case assignment 220 2.1.4. Against an applicative analysis 223 2.2. Intransitive complements 229 2.2.1. Unergative infinitives 229 2.2.2. Unaccusative infinitives 230 3. The derivation of the IC construction 231 3.1. Word order and the licensing of the infinitival subject 232 3.2. The relation between preinfinitival subjects, clitics and DOM 234 4. Other micro-parametric differences in Romance: The case of Romanian 239 4.1.
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