Middle Constructions Research Articles

Dispositional middle constructions with accusative objects in Slovenian

This paper provides a study of an impersonal type of dispositional middle construction that appears in Slovenian. This impersonal construction atypically contains an undemoted thematic external argument in syntax, but nevertheless ascribes a disposition to the internal one in semantics, which goes against previous assumptions about the way in which syntax and semantics interact in middles. On the basis of this Slovenian construction, the paper develops a new syntactic and semantic analysis of the modal phrase whose head contributes the dispositional interpretation and assigns it to the internal argument. The paper shows how such an analysis accounts for both non-canonical Slovenian middles with syntactically realised external arguments as well as the more prototypical middles without external arguments both in Slovenian and English. Finally, the paper proposes why the external argument in the Slovenian impersonal middle is – exceptionally – not an intervener for the dispositional assignment.

Ahí se apuesta la vida. The emergence of impersonal interpretations in Spanish*

AbstractThis paper explores the range of uses associated with se constructions in Mexican Spanish. The validity of treating most se constructions as passives is under scrutiny. In contrast, a model to analyze the emergence of an important variety of impersonal interpretations is proposed. Arbitrary and quasi‐universal construals conform the base for finer interpretations for se constructions. In agreement with a usage‐based model, passive, impersonal and middle constructions are evaluated against four different genres which presumably determine the choice of se constructions for specific communicative necessities. While impersonal se constructions characterize journalistic writing and formal oral usage, middle se constructions are dominant in oral informal genres. Further specialization for impersonal se constructions, such as rules, norms, performative and arbitrary constructions are identified as a result of particular contexts determinacies.

On the subject-orientation of the dispositional middle construction

Abstract This article argues against the claim that the dispositional middle construction is always subject-oriented, by discussing dispositional constructions in Japanese and impersonal middle constructions formed with the causative verb lassen ‘let’ in German. In Japanese, the disposition is ascribed not to the nominative subject, but to an object. In German, nominative subjects are not required. This suggests that subject orientedness is not inherent but arises from the properties of independently existing constructions that are interpeted as dispositional. In English and German, an intransitive or a reflexive construction derived from its transitive variant is employed as a canonical middle construction. In these cases, the accusative argument becomes a nominative subject by applying specific grammatical operations; thus, the expression of a subject becomes obligatory. In contrast, a potential construction is interpreted as dispositional in Japanese in which case the disposition is typically ascribed to the object with nominative case, which is almost obligatory in Japanese. It follows that the target of the disposition in middle constructions is a grammatically “highlighted” event participant, as in the case of root modals.

Bosnian Translation Equivalents of English Constructions with Permissive Subjects / Bosanski prijevodni ekvivalenti engleskih konstrukcija s permisivnim subjektima

Even though a verb can assign a variety of thematic roles to the subject, the most typical role for a subject is that of an agent or that of an experiencer for verbs of perception and mental inference. In this paper, we describe constructions where verbs that typically select agent or experiencer subjects occur with subjects expressing thematic roles typical of adverbials: instrument, time or place. We refer to those subjects as permissive subjects. On the other hand, it is argued that in South Slavic languages, non-agents (and non-experiencers) do not show such a strong tendency to occur in the subject position. We performed a translation task to answer the following research question: What range of structures occur in Bosnian translation equivalents of the following English constructions with permissive subjects: Period sees, Money buys, Object seats number, Object sleeps number, Book/ Album/Record sells copies? The quantitative analysis showed that some of the most frequent translation strategies include the following: middle constructions, passive constructions and constructions where the English permissive subject becomes an adverbial in the Bosnian translation equivalent. Moreover, translation equivalents where the English permissive subject is translated as a Bosnian non-agentive/ permissive subject are rather frequent too. Nevertheless, our qualitative analysis shows that the choice of a translation equivalent for the target construction depends on the English target construction itself. For example, in the case of some combinations, we show a correlation between the thematic meaning of a particular permissive subject in English and the choice of a translation equivalent.

러시아어 중간문의 의미와 범위에 관한 연구 : 조력적 중간문을 중심으로

Middle voice is a construction that is difficult to define from the viewpoint of the voice as a dual system with passive and active constructions. Middle constructions are classified into several detailed semantic types. Among them, facilitative middles are the subject of this study. Facilitative middles in Russian mainly present the degree to which the object of the underlying transitive verb (promoted to the position of syntactic subject) is likely to be put into action. Therefore, the facilitative middles consist of a subject (the object of the underlying transitive verb), a present tense form of a reflexive verb derived from an imperfective transitive verb, and generic agent that is not explicitly expressed. In addition, many middle constructions combine with adverbial phrases of manner that indicate how an action is carried out.BR This study examines the semantic and structural properties of facilitative middles in Russian, focusing on subject, verb, agent, and adverbial phrases, and analyzes the attributes of Russian facilitative middles through comparison with related constructions. The findings and conclusions are as follows.BR First, the typical attributive meaning of facilitative middles is derived from the specific tense aspect form of the verb, namely the present imperfective verb form. Thus, when the verb tense is changed to the past, the possibility and potential of the action is weakened and when the aspect of the verb is changed to the perfective, the genericity and conventionality of the action disappear, consequently shifting to the interpretation of anticausative constructions.BR Second, while generic agents cannot be specified and are only implied, non-generic agents can be specified through the “у” prepositional phrase. However, in this case, the cause of and responsibility for the action performed can be ascribed to the agent expressed through the prepositional phrase, not the subject; hence, the sentence obtains an interpretation similar to the passive.BR Third, facilitative middles have modal meanings of potential and possibility in the sense that the object is likely to be subjected to an action. In particular, facilitative middles combine with various adverbial phrases with manner meanings.BR Finally, there are the similar constructions that promote arguments other than the object of the underlying transitive verb as the subject. These are instrument-subject constructions and antipassive. These constructions are formed from a much narrower range of verbs than middle constructions. Therefore, the Russian middles are closely related to the passive, anticausative, antipassive, instrument-subject constructions and generalized personal constructions in accordance with the tense aspect form of verb, the genericity of the agent and the semantic role of the subject, among others.

Property and Functional Constuctions in Chinese

There exist some “property and functional semi-affix + VP” constructions in Chinese language, which generally denote disposition and function. This paper defines this type of constructions as property and functional constructions, and describes and generalizes their syntactic and stylistic properties after putting them into different classes. This paper finds that property and functional constructions are widely used in property language styles such as advertisements, product descriptions, etc. with conciseness, reduplicated use, and productivity as their stylistic properties. Upon a thorough stylistic analysis, this paper takes a step further than previous studies on Middle constructions.

Middle Polish constructions of comparison of inequality

Middle Polish constructions of comparison of inequality

Grammatical encoding of agency in Asturian middle constructions

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.

Middle Verbs and Their Acquisition

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the L2 learners’ acquisition of middle constructions. One of the properties of middle constructions is that the subject of middle verbs must be a definite NP. Middle verbs can occur by revealing an intrinsic characteristic or property of the definite NP. In addition, middle verbs can only occur along with short adverbs such as well and easily. In this paper, we conduct a survey and evaluate the L2 learners’ responses to middle verbs. More specifically, we have examined how the L2 learners acquired the abstract constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint. It is worth noting that 45% of the adult subjects acquired the definite condition, 32.5% of the L2 learners acquired the middle construction condition, 50% of the adult subjects acquired the abstract noun constraint, and 20% of the L2 learners acquired the adverb constraint. This in turn indicates that that the abstract noun constraint was first acquired by the adult subjects, followed by the definite DP condition, the middle construction condition, and the adverb constraint, in that order. With regard to middle verbs, it is significant to note that English are subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint, whereas Korean is not subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, and the definite DP condition. This in turn suggests that Korean is a superset language, compared to English. Thus, learning difficulty arises. Finally, this paper argues that unlike Chomsky’s UG hypothesis (Chomsky 1981, 1982, 2019a, 2019b), the L2 learners looked for similarities between L1 and L2 and thus relied on their L1.

Facilitator effects in middles and more

In this paper, I will argue that obligatory adjuncts in many languages’ middle constructions are a byproduct of an independent constraint on movement, called Anti-locality (Abels 2003; Grohmann 2003; Bošković 2007; Schneider-Zioga 2007; Erlewine 2016; Brillman & Hirsch to appear). Anti-locality rules out movement that is too local; in other words, movement cannot produce a structure that is too similar to the pre-movement configuration. Though Anti-locality has typically been proposed for Ā-movement, one of its signatures is the presence of obligatory adjuncts (Erlewine 2016; Brillman & Hirsch to appear), which are also found in many languages’ middle constructions. I argue that the profile of obligatory adjuncts in middles is best understood if we extend Anti-locality to A-movement (Deal 2019), thus providing support for the unity of A- and Ā-movement. The proposal will include a tightly restricted set of assumptions about the structure and derivation of a middle, which combined with a formalized Anti-locality constraint, predicts the obligatory adjunct effects we find in different languages’ middle constructions. In particular, middles will be argued to lack a VoiceP and have a two step derivation, in which the object moves through Spec vP en route to subject position. Each movement step will be subject to Anti-locality, which can be ameliorated by adjuncts, reflexives, or lexical structure in the predicates that can form middles.

Applied arguments in Spanish inchoative middle constructions

Despite displaying identical exponents (a reflexive clitic, imperfective tenses and agreement between the verb and the preverbal definite DP theme), change-of-state predicates in generic/middle contexts (inchoative middles, henceforth), can in fact have two different underlying representations: (i) a generic inchoative and (ii) a generic se-passive, this being the only one projecting a Voice head passivized by the reflexive clitic, which denotes an implicit generic external argument. Spanish allows the insertion of an affected applicative head in inchoative configurations (Cuervo 2003), which introduces an unselected dative argument interpreted either as an unintentional causer of the event if merged above the verbalizing head, or as affectee if merged below it. Crucially, this paper shows that the generic passive configuration disallows the applicative’s unintentional causer interpretation, since the position above vP is already filled by Voice; therefore, the only available merging position for the applicative is below vP. However, the unintentional causer interpretation is possible in generic inchoative constructions, which lack a VoiceP. The data and analysis presented here support Wood and Marantz’s (2017) proposal of a single argument-introducing head whose category and interpretation vary in terms of the syntactic context it is merged in. Finally, this study stresses the need to establish a more detailed classification of Spanish se-constructions as a whole and middles in particular with respect to their interaction with applied arguments.

Syntactic Of English Middle Constructions

Syntactic Of English Middle Constructions

An Overview of the Studies on the Generation of Typical Middle Construction

This paper mainly takes an overview of previous studies on the generation of middle constructions. First is the introduction of the research background of the generation of middle constructions. Then the author describes the main syntactic features of typical middle constructions, followed by an overview of previous studies on this construction It can be seen that each study has its advantages and disadvantages. Through this review, the author advise to study the middle construction from different aspects because of its complexity. Through this review, the author hopes to find some space for future study.

难易类中动句的多视角考察

This paper defines the Chinese middle construction, and compares two types of typical middle constructions expressing degree of difficulty in terms of the restrictive conditions of verbs and modifiers, the discourse structure, the parallel constructions, the syllabic collocations, the stylistic tendencies, and the two sentence patterns being “NP+V-qilai+AP

漢韓中動結構對比硏究

Middle Construction is a structure between initiative and passivity. Its subject is non agent component, while predicate verb is active form. Although the Middle Construction is active in form, it actually expresses passive meaning. The syntactic and semantic mismatch of Middle Constructions has attracted much attention from various linguists, and has been a hot topic in grammar research since the 80s of last century. The field of academic research mainly focuses on the formation of the middle dynamic structure, the cognitive motivation, the syntactic and semantic features, and the construction and sentence conditions of the middle verb, but some of the problems have not reached a consensus until now. The middle dynamic structure is the syntactic realization of the middle verb in different languages. It is also a universal and cross linguistic phenomenon. The study of the language phenomenon is of typological significance.BR Chinese shows a more obvious view based on the object, while Korean shows a more obvious view based on the main body. Because the Middle Construction is the weakening of the practice, the difference between the cognitive perspective and the cognitive perspective determines the dynamic structure of the Korean language, the Chinese Middle construction is more productive, the content of the expression can be more rich, and the applicable context is more. There are similarities and differences between Chinese and Korean Middle Constructions. Their differences are determined by the different linguistic attributes of Chinese and Korean.

Theta Roles Assigned to Subject Argument in Arabic and English Passive Voice

This descriptive study sought to compare and contrast theta roles assigned to the passive voice arguments with special reference to the subject in Arabic and English. The findings of the study showed that both Arabic and English, though they belong to different language families, have close similarities concerning theta roles that could be assigned to the subject of the passive voice. The subject could have various theta roles (theme, patient, experiencer, source, goal, recipient, instrument, beneficiary, or location) in the two languages. The agent theta role could hardly be possible for a passive subject in the two languages. Agentive passive where the agent occurs in a prepositional phrase is more common in English than in Arabic. The study also showed that the recipient is preferably used as a subject of passive sentences with ditransitive verbs in the two languages. On the other hand, there are middle voice constructions in Arabic whose subject has a recipient theta role. The English counterpart for such constructions is passive voice. The study concluded that it is vitally important for Arab EFL learners to know these differences and similarities to help them understand the significance of maintaining the same theta roles of the arguments when they change sentences from active to passive or when they translate from Arabic into English or vice versa.

Middle constructions in Romanian

Abstract The present paper aims to present an inventory of Romanian middle contructions (se‑verbal constructions), and to extend the analysis to other structures (with or without se) that were not previously investigated, but exhibit the same characteristics, and seem to allow middle reading (adjunct middles). Since Jespersen (1927), middles were attested cross-linguistically, and the focus on middles is justified if we consider the fact that this is an interesting testing ground for theories of syntax, semantics and their interaction (Fagan 1992). Starting from Grahek’s definition (2008, 44), in this paper, middles are a heterogeneous class of constructions that share formal properties of both active and passive structures: on the one hand, they have active verb forms, but, on the other hand, like passives, they have understood subjects and normally display promoted objects. The corpus analysis will focus on the particular contexts in which the middle reading is triggered: i) the adverbial modification; ii) the modal/procedural interpretation of the event; iii) the responsibility of the subject; iv) the arbitrary interpretation of the implicit argument which follows from the generic interpretation (Steinbach 2002).

Unergatives are different: Two types of transitivity in Samoan

This paper provides arguments in favour of a non-unified treatment of transitive and unergative verbs, based upon the patterning of unergative constructions in the ergative-absolutive language Samoan. Building upon a proposal by Massam (2009; to appear), I argue that unergative subjects in Samoan are merged lower than transitive subjects, the result being a difference in case marking patterns associated with each verb type. In the spirit of much work which has advocated for a split vP structure (e.g., Pylkkännen 2008; Harley 2013; Legate 2014; a.o.), I propose that unergative subjects are merged in the specifier of vP, while transitive subjects are introduced in a higher projection (VoiceP). This proposal is motivated primarily from split case patterning: while Samoan unergative subjects appear with absolutive case, addition of an object to an unergative verb does not yield the typical ergative-absolutive pattern associated with canonical transitives. Instead, a non-ergative case pattern arises, in which the subject is absolutive, and the object is marked with the prenominal marker i. The Samoan unergative + object construction bears similarities with another set of two-place (so-called middle verbs) which exhibit the same abs-i case frame. Despite the absence of ergative case, both unergative + object and middle constructions are syntactically transitive with respect to various language-internal diagnostics. I argue that the case split results from differing case assigning properties of v and Voice: i is analysed as structural accusative case, assigned to the object by v0, while ergative subjects are assigned case by Voice0. The division of external arguments across two VP-external projections can be captured by expanding Dowty’s (1991) framework of thematic proto-roles, whereby unergative and middle “proto-low” (vP) agents encompass a subset of the semantic properties of full-fledged transitive “proto-high” (VoiceP) agents. The additional properties of proto-high agents correspond to additional phrasal structure.

From middle to passive

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between middle and passive voice constructions in Korean, in particular how they have come to share the same grammatical marker-eci. Based on diachronic data from the UNICONC (Korean historical) database, spanning Old, Middle and Modern Korean (15th to 20th century), our analysis reveals that-eciwas initially used as a middle voice marker for spontaneous and inchoative events, with change-of-state as their common feature, then extended to transitive contexts, giving rise to passive voice usage. More recently,-ecihas developed into a marker of facilitative middle constructions as well. These semantic extensions involve shifts in aspectual focus from change-of-state to resultative-state, and further to potential aspect and mood. This analysis contributes to our understanding of the diachrony of voice markers beyond the causative-to-passive pathway commonly seen in Northeast Asia to include the middle-to-passive pathway, with typological implications.

On Middle Construction in Japanese

This study uncovers Japanese middle constructions based on the approach of “distributed morphology”. The findings reveal that adjunct is obligatory in Japanese middles. Two types of grammatical elements contribute to the adjunct: suffix and adverbs. The suffix yasui corresponds to English “able”. The case of the subject must be nominative, i.e., が. Once verbs are attached by the suffix yasui, their part of speech transits from verb into adjective. The new lexicon predicates an inherent property of the subject. Regarding middles with adjuncts rendered by adverbs, two subtypes are confirmed: the na-adjective formed adverb 簡単に kantan ni, and the i-adjective formed adverb よく yoku. The former is produced by the na-adjective 簡単 with the copular に. The latter is formed by the i-adjective よい with the predicate く ku. The mechanisms of the constructions rendered by the two are similar. Furthermore, unlike English middles, where non change-of-state verbs are ruled out, there is no distinct lexical category of middle verb Japanese. Rather, six groups of verbs are compatible: (a) motion verbs; (b) change-of-state verbs; (c) action verbs; (d) perception verbs; (e) stative verbs; and (f) accomplishment verbs. Crucially, such generosity does not result from the adjuncts. It is the “potential form” of verbs that enables psychological and perception verbs to be licensed in Japanese middles.