Grammatical encoding of agency in Asturian middle constructions

Imanol Suárez-Palma

doi:10.16995/glossa.5720

Abstract

Middle-passive constructions in Asturian –a Romance language spoken in the diglossic region of Asturias, in northern Spain– appear to optionally allow the occurrence of the reflexive pronoun se in them (esti pan esmigáya(se) fácil; ‘this bread crumbles easily’); this has been traditionally considered a pleonastic use of the reflexive due to the influence of Spanish, i.e. the dominant language in the territory (ALLA 2001). Here, I claim that the presence of such pronoun is not optional; instead, I argue that this clitic spells out a passive Voice head encoding the participation of an implicit generic agent/experiencer in the event, giving rise to a generic se-passive configuration. The se-less counterpart, on the contrary, is only possible with unaccusative verbs and those undergoing the causative alternation, thus resulting in a generic inchoative configuration. Among the evidence I present supporting this claim is the fact that only the reflexive variant can control into a purpose clause, but it does not license the insertion of the PP por sí mesmu (‘by itself’); this is quite the opposite of what happens with the se-less counterpart. Additionally, I explain that the presence/absence of the reflexive in middle contexts in Asturian and Asturian Spanish may be subject to crosslinguistic influence; therefore, several cases of linguistic transfer between Asturian and Asturian Spanish are teased apart and discussed.

Highlights

In this paper, I focus on Asturian middle-passive constructions,1 i.e. generic predicates denoting intrinsic properties of their notional object, syntactically realized as their grammatical subject (Ackema & Schoorlemmer 2006, inter alia)
I have argued that the apparent optionality of the reflexive pronoun se in Asturian middle-passive contexts is not such, as it had been proposed in the descriptive work on this language; rather, it is associated with the projection of a passive Voice head encoding the participation of a generic external argument in the event, just as it happens in run-of-the-mill reflexively marked passives
Inchoative configurations are necessarily nonpronominal in Asturian given their non-agentive nature, i.e. no Voice head merges in these contexts, and the reflexive pronoun is not required

Summary

Introduction

I focus on Asturian middle-passive constructions, i.e. generic predicates denoting intrinsic properties of their notional object, syntactically realized as their grammatical subject (Ackema & Schoorlemmer 2006, inter alia). I discuss the apparent optionality of the reflexive pronoun se in these sentences (1a), which is otherwise obligatory in other IberoRomance languages such as Spanish (1b) or Catalan (1c). I will argue that the presence of the reflexive clitic in sentences like (1a) is not optional; instead, I link it to the interpretation of an implicit generic agent in the event, which can be rephrased as anyone (e.g. anyone can read mystery novels cf (2)). It is possible to find speakers who accept non-agentive middle contexts containing the reflexive clitic; I argue that this is due to the influence of Spanish, the dominant language in the region, which shows the presence of se in passive and numerous inchoative contexts.. I present real instances of se-less non-agentive middle sentences in Asturian Spanish (AsturSp);.

Voice in Asturian middle-passives

Asturian middle-passives and datives

Unaccusative predicates in Asturian middle contexts

Linguistic transfer between Asturian and Asturian Spanish

Conclusions