Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions

We discuss conceptual and empirical arguments from Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages against an analysis treating anticausative verbs as derived from their lexical causative counterparts under reflexivization. Instead, we defend the standard account to the semantics of the causative alternation...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Schäfer , Florian, Vivanco Gefaell, Juana Margarita
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Recursos:Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia)
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/44563
Acesso em linha:https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.36
https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4829/
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/44563
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Anticausative verb
Causative alternation
Reflexive verb
Scalar implicature
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repository_id_str
spelling Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressionsSchäfer , FlorianVivanco Gefaell, Juana MargaritaAnticausative verbCausative alternationReflexive verbScalar implicatureWe discuss conceptual and empirical arguments from Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages against an analysis treating anticausative verbs as derived from their lexical causative counterparts under reflexivization. Instead, we defend the standard account to the semantics of the causative alternation according to which anticausatives in general, and anticausatives marked with reflexive morphology in particular, denote simple one-place inchoative events that are logically entailed by their lexical causative counterparts. Under such an account, anticausative verbs are weak scalar expressions that stand in a semantico-pragmatic opposition to their strong lexical causative counterparts. Due to this scalar relation, the use of an anticausative can trigger the implicature that the use of its lexical causative counterpart is too strong. As usual with implicatures, they can be ‘metalinguistically’ denied, cancelled, or reinforced and we argue that these mechanisms explain all central empirical facts brought up in the literature in favor of a treatment of anticausatives as semantically reflexive predicates. Our results reinforce the view that the reflexive morphemes used in many (Indo-European) languages to mark anticausatives do not necessarily trigger reflexive semantics. However, we also show that a string involving a reflexively marked (anti-)causative verb can be forced into a semantically reflexive construal under particular conceptual or grammatical circumstances.Open Library of Humanities202520252016info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.36https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4829/https://hdl.handle.net/10578/44563reponame:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLMinstname:Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/445632026-05-27T07:36:41Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
title Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
spellingShingle Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
Schäfer , Florian
Anticausative verb
Causative alternation
Reflexive verb
Scalar implicature
title_short Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
title_full Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
title_fullStr Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
title_full_unstemmed Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
title_sort Anticausatives are weak scalar expressions, not reflexive expressions
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Schäfer , Florian
Vivanco Gefaell, Juana Margarita
author Schäfer , Florian
author_facet Schäfer , Florian
Vivanco Gefaell, Juana Margarita
author_role author
author2 Vivanco Gefaell, Juana Margarita
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Anticausative verb
Causative alternation
Reflexive verb
Scalar implicature
topic Anticausative verb
Causative alternation
Reflexive verb
Scalar implicature
description We discuss conceptual and empirical arguments from Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages against an analysis treating anticausative verbs as derived from their lexical causative counterparts under reflexivization. Instead, we defend the standard account to the semantics of the causative alternation according to which anticausatives in general, and anticausatives marked with reflexive morphology in particular, denote simple one-place inchoative events that are logically entailed by their lexical causative counterparts. Under such an account, anticausative verbs are weak scalar expressions that stand in a semantico-pragmatic opposition to their strong lexical causative counterparts. Due to this scalar relation, the use of an anticausative can trigger the implicature that the use of its lexical causative counterpart is too strong. As usual with implicatures, they can be ‘metalinguistically’ denied, cancelled, or reinforced and we argue that these mechanisms explain all central empirical facts brought up in the literature in favor of a treatment of anticausatives as semantically reflexive predicates. Our results reinforce the view that the reflexive morphemes used in many (Indo-European) languages to mark anticausatives do not necessarily trigger reflexive semantics. However, we also show that a string involving a reflexively marked (anti-)causative verb can be forced into a semantically reflexive construal under particular conceptual or grammatical circumstances.
publishDate 2016
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2016
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.36
https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4829/
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/44563
url https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.36
https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4829/
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/44563
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Open Library of Humanities
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Open Library of Humanities
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
instname:Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia)
instname_str Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanociencia)
reponame_str RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
collection RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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