Spanish double passives and related structures

This paper studies the properties of a previously unnoticed passive construction found in some varieties of present day Spanish. Such construction, which we refer to as double passive (following NGRALE 2009), contains two adjacent passive complexes (Ese producto fue empezado a ser usado como conserv...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Bosque, Ignacio|||0000-0002-7281-6418, Gallego, Ángel J.|||0000-0001-6352-458X
Format: article
Publication Date:2011
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:320134
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/320134
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Reement
Auxiliaries
Doubling
Passive
Romance
Uninterpretable features
Description
Summary:This paper studies the properties of a previously unnoticed passive construction found in some varieties of present day Spanish. Such construction, which we refer to as double passive (following NGRALE 2009), contains two adjacent passive complexes (Ese producto fue empezado a ser usado como conservante, Eng. That product was started to being used as a preservative), but only one of them is interpretable as a bona fide passive. We discuss the properties of this structure, suggesting that the passive (i.e., participial) morphology of the aspectual predicate (i.e., fue empezado) is uninterpretable, and obtained through a mechanism of agreement at a distance (Chomsky's 2000, 2001 Agree).