Abstract
One of the most interesting aspects of the faire-Inf construction in the Romance languages concerns the properties and the structural position of the causee. In the relevant literature, the most consensual hypothesis is that, in these languages, the causee is the grammatical subject of the embedded domain, although it occurs in a post-verbal position and is introduced by a preposition whenever it is dependent on a transitive verb (see Kayne, 1975; Raposo, 1981; Burzio, 1986; Villalba, 1992; Guasti, 1993, 1997, among others). The aim of this paper is to present some evidence against the idea that the causee, in European Portuguese, is the subject of the embedded domain. I will claim that this domain is the projection of a null affix that incausativizes the embedded verb, suspending the assignment of the external θ -role of this verb. In consequence, the causee is merged in the positions classically associated to objects.
Highlights
Since Kayne’s (1975) pioneering work on causatives, it has been demonstrated that Romance languages differ from English in the sense that only the former allow for the faire-Inf construction, with the general properties listed in (i)-(iii): (i) the causative verb and the embedded verb (Inf) occur in adjacency and the so-called subject of the infinitival domain occupies the post-verbal position (see (1a)-(10a)); (ii) the causee surfaces as a DP or a PP, depending on the transitivity of the embedded verb; in the first case, it can be cliticized by an accusative clitic (see (1)-(5)), in the second case, by a dative clitic (see (6)-(10)); Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 1 (2002), 197-214
Let us assume, alternatively, the following hypothesis: In the faire-Inf construction of European Portuguese (EP), the infinitival domain is the projection of a null affix – Incaus, which is empirically motivated in polysynthetic languages
Contrary to the Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH; Baker, 1988), -roles may be discharged in the course of the derivation, in appropriate configurations
Summary
Since Kayne’s (1975) pioneering work on causatives, it has been demonstrated that Romance languages differ from English in the sense that only the former allow for the faire-Inf construction, with the general properties listed in (i)-(iii):. (i) the causative verb and the embedded verb (Inf) occur in adjacency and the so-called subject of the infinitival domain (the causee) occupies the post-verbal position (see (1a)-(10a));. The João made work-INF the children ‘João made the children work.’ b. The João made-CL-ACCUS-3PLMASC work-INF ‘João made them work.’ c. O João mandou comer a sopa à Ana. the João made eat-INF the soup to-the Ana ‘João made Ana eat the soup.’ b. The João made-CL-DAT-3SG eat-INF the soup ‘João made her eat the soup.’ c. El cura hizo leer el libro a Pedro b. Classical approaches to the faire-Inf construction tend to analyze the causee as the grammatical subject of the infinitival domain. The causee is always merged in positions classically associated to objects
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