Backgrounded agents in Catalan Sign Language (LSC): passives, middles, or impersonals?

This article proposes that at least two agent-backgrounding operations with different syntactic and semantic properties have to be distinguished in Catalan Sign Language (LSC): the high-locus construction and the nonagreeing central construction. We show that the high-locus construction is a transit...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Barberà, Gemma, Cabredo Hofherr, Patricia
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/36467
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/36467
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2017.0057
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Agent backgrounding
Catalan Sign Language (LSC)
Middle
Nonspecificity
Passive
R-impersonal
Transitivity
Descripción
Sumario:This article proposes that at least two agent-backgrounding operations with different syntactic and semantic properties have to be distinguished in Catalan Sign Language (LSC): the high-locus construction and the nonagreeing central construction. We show that the high-locus construction is a transitive structure with a nonspecific subject. We propose to analyze this construction as involving a null pro-subject, licensed by agreement and interpreted as an impersonal third plural, as in other agent-backgrounding constructions with an impersonal third plural subject, which are crosslinguistically restricted to human interpretation. We propose that the nonagreeing construction is an intransitivized verb form that allows passive interpretations with agents and causes and anticausative interpretations comparable to middle voice.