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THE LOCATIVE ALTERNATION:
UNACCUSATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AND SUBJECT POSITION
by
Roberto Mayoral Hernández
______________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(LINGUISTICS, HISPANIC LINGUISTICS)
August 2008
Copyright 2008 Roberto Mayoral Hernández
Object Description
| Title | The locative alternation: unaccusative constructions and subject position |
| Author | Mayoral Hernandez, Roberto |
| Author email | mayoralh@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Linguistics (Hispanic Linguistics) |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-04-30 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-06-20 |
| Advisor (committee chair) |
Zubizarreta, Maria Luisa Silva-Corvalan, Carmen |
| Advisor (committee member) | Saltarelli, Mario |
| Abstract | The study of transitivity alternations plays a central role in linguistic research, because it can provide us with valuable information about the interface between the lexicon and the syntax. The main focus of this dissertation is to find the intrinsic features that characterize the locative alternation, i.e. to separate idiosyncratic and language specific properties from those that are inherent to this construction. Special attention is given to the locative alternation in Spanish.; I first provide an introduction to the most prominent features analyzed in the literature, such as the holistic effect and other asymmetries. However, the holistic effect cannot be hold as a feature of alternating verbs, however, since it can only be applied to a small group of verbs. These asymmetries do not hold crosslinguistically either, so they must be discarded.; The division of Spanish alternating verbs into subgroups serves as a means to identify what properties have are idiosyncratic. In particular, the prepositional object has a fundamental role in this construction; it is conceptually necessary and provides the argument structure to the sentence.; Based on the centrality of the preposition, I develop a system the lower PP generates the argument structure of an unaccusative construction. A fundamental assumption is that all alternating constructions are build on an unaccusative construction with the structure [VP D [V [PP]]], which may either imply a notion of change of state or location when the PP is complex, or a pure state or location when the PP is simple. Here, I postulate that the controversial swarm type verbs, a subtype within the locative alternation, which has been described as both unergative and unaccusative in the literature, have unaccusative properties when they enter the locative alternation.; In order to support such claim, I develop a test that can differentiate between unaccusative and unergative verbs in Spanish by measuring subject placement. The results indicate that swarm verbs behave as unaccusative when they participate in the locative alternation, because they show a higher percentage of postverbal subjects. These results support my classification and the description of alternating verbs as underlying unaccusatives. |
| Keyword | locative alternation; language variation; syntax; Spanish; subject position |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1281 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Mayoral Hernandez, Roberto |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-MayoralHernandez-20080621 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume32/etd-MayoralHernandez-20080621.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Full text | THE LOCATIVE ALTERNATION: UNACCUSATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AND SUBJECT POSITION by Roberto Mayoral Hernández ______________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (LINGUISTICS, HISPANIC LINGUISTICS) August 2008 Copyright 2008 Roberto Mayoral Hernández |
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