On the position of dative DPs in Spanish middle-passive sentences

This paper examines external possession between a dative possessor and a relational noun in Spanish middle-passive configurations. The dative DP in these contexts must surface preverbally in out-of-the-blue contexts, either by itself -presumably in preverbal subject position-, or along with the them...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Suárez-Palma, Imanol|||0000-0002-1935-7662
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:304766
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/304766
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.393
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Middle-passive
Clitic-left dislocation
Dative arguments
Locality
Descripción
Sumario:This paper examines external possession between a dative possessor and a relational noun in Spanish middle-passive configurations. The dative DP in these contexts must surface preverbally in out-of-the-blue contexts, either by itself -presumably in preverbal subject position-, or along with the theme containing the possessee. When the dative precedes the theme, it cannot be assumed that the former is left-dislocated while the latter sits in preverbal subject position, for this would imply a violation of locality under a low applicative analysis of dative possessors: Tº would skip the possessor argument in Spec,ApplP to probe the possessee in Applº's complement position to its specifier. Rather, I provide data showing that preverbal DPs -dative or otherwise- in Spanish middle-passive contexts are clitic left-dislocations co-referring with empty pronouns in argument position. I offer a biclausal analysis of these configurations that avoids any potential intervention effects, while at the same time accounting for the extra-sentential properties of these constituents.