Grammatical Analyses in Basque and Romance Linguistics: Papers in Honor of Mario Saltarelli

316 Pages·1999·29.12 MB·English

by  Jon A. Franco

GRAMMATICAL ANALYSES IN BASQUE
AND ROMANCE LINGUISTICS
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E. F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles); Lyle Campbell (Christchurch, N.Z.)
John E. Joseph (Edinburgh); Manfred Krifka (Austin, Tex.)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Hans-Jürgen Sasse (Köln)
Volume 187
Jon Franco, Alazne Landa and Juan Martín (eds.)
Grammatical Analyses in Basque and Romance Linguistics
Papers in honor of Mario Saltarelli
GRAMMATICAL ANALYSES
IN BASQUE AND ROMANCE
LINGUISTICS
PAPERS IN HONOR OF MARIO SALTARELLI
Edited by
JON FRANCO
Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao
ALAZNE LANDA
Universidad del País Vasco
JUAN MARTÍN
The University of Toledo, Ohio
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences ■— Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grammatical analyses in Basque and Romance linguistics : papers in honor of Mario Saltarelli / edited
by Jon Franco, Alazne Landa, Juan Martin.
p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV,
Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 187)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Anaphora and soft constraints / Luigi Burzio - Passive constructions and partitive case
checking in Spanish / Héctor Campos - Deconstructing weak cross-over / Heles Contreras - A
minimal account of Spanish adjective position and interpretation / Violeta Demonte - Pre-Basque
plosives / José Ignacio Hualde - A unified approach to control and obviation / Marta Luján - Theta
binding and the semantics of NPs in Romance / Juan Martin - Tuscan germinates and trochaic feet /
Michael Mazzola - Unaccusative and antipassive constructions in Basque and Spanish / Errapel
Mejías-Bikandi -- Focus phrases, force phrases and left heads in Basque / Jon Ortiz de Urbina - On
agreement and case / Claudia Parodi and Carlos Quicoli - Directionality of cliticization in European
Portuguese : left or right / Eduardo Raposo - Clitic doubling of strong pronouns in Spanish /
Margarita Suñer -- Clitic clusters in Romance / Dieter Wanner - Voice and aspect / Karen Zagona.
1. Romance languages-Grammar congresses. 2. Basque language-Grammar Congresses. I. Franco,
Jon. IL Landa, Alazne. III. Martin, Juan, 1961- . IV Saltarelli, Mario. V. Series.
PC61.G68 1999
440'045--dc21 99-37010
ISBN 90 272 3693 3 (Eur.) / 1 55619 964 3 (US) (Hb; alk. paper) CIP
1999 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other
means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Luigi Burzio
Anaphora and Soft Constraints 1
Héctor Campos
Passive Constructions and Partitive Case Cheeking in Spanish .............. 23
Heles Contreras
Deconstructing Weak Crossover 35
Violeta Demonte
A Minimal Account of Spanish Adjective Position and Interpretation ..... 45
José Ignacio Hualde
Pre-Basque Plosives 77
Marta Luján
A Unified Approach to Control and Obviation 105
Juan Martin
Theta Binding and the Semantics of NPs in Romance:
The affectedness condition revisited 131
Michael Mazzola
Tuscan Geminates and Trochaic Feet 151
Errapel Mejías-Bikandi
Unaccusative and Antipassive Constructions in Basque and Spanish ...... 165
Jon Ortiz de Urbina
Focus Phrases, Force Phrases and Left Heads in Basque 179
vi CONTENTS
Claudia Parodi & Carlos Quicoli
On Agreement and Case 195
Eduardo Raposo
Directionality of Cliticization in European Portuguese:
Left or right ..................... 219
Margarita Suñer
Clitic Doubling of Strong Pronouns in Spanish:
An instance of object shift 233
Dieter Wanner
Clitic Clusters in Romance:
A Modest Account 257
Karen Zagona
Voice and Aspect 279
Index of Authors 295
Index of Terms & Concepts 299
Preface
This volume contains fifteen papers on current theoretical issues in
Basque and Romance linguistics. Although Basque and Romance languages are
typologically different and have different genetic origins, one thousand years of
coexistence have shown certain parallelisms in their respective grammars. Some
scholars have previously noticed those similarities between the two language
families, however, it was Mario Saltarelli who first offered a formal linguistic
account of phonological and syntactic phenomena occurring in these two
language groups. Thus, the compilation of articles in both Basque and Romance
linguistics serves more than one purpose. In addition to paying tribute to
Saltarelli's work by acknowledging his formalization of this relational insight, this
volume comprises research on languages with strong geographical and historical
kinship.
Furthermore, the volume is designed in such a way that it reflects Mario's
past and present career as a linguist. On the one hand, due to the rich variety of
articles on Romance linguistics, the book resembles a volume of the LSRL
Conference, which Mario has supported as an organizer, referee, and participant
on numerous occasions since its inception. The Basque component recognizes
Mario's work in Basque linguistics, one of the first works cited in a Basque
linguistics data base being his 1988 book ,Basque. This together with his support
of Basque graduate students in linguistics and research on Basque has made him
a great ambassador for the Basque Country in the US.
The majority of the papers provide analyses in the syntax semantics
interface. There are also four papers in syntax, two in phonology and one in
morphology. Fresh analyses of long standing challenging phenomena in Romance
and Basque linguistics such as geminates, the evolution of Basque plosives, clitic
doubling, clitic clustering, directionality of clitization, the role of agreement,
focus, the interaction of voice and aspect, unaccusativity, semantic interpretation
and syntactic structure of Determiner Phrases, obviation, control, and anaphoric
and pronominal binding are provided in light of recent developments in the
Generative Grammar framework. All of these linguistic fields and most of these
topics have been addressed by Mario at some point of his career as a researcher.
PREFACE
viii
Acknowledgments
The editors want to express their gratitude to the real makers of this
volume, the contributors. From the very first day we launched the idea, we
received immediate support and encouragement from the contributors. However,
the main reason why we should be thankful to them is, without doubt, the quality
of their articles.
At the initial stage of the planning of the book we were able to count on
relevant feedback from José Ignacio Hualde and Jon Ortiz de Urbina. Also
Domnita Dumitrescu, Fernando Martínez-Gil, Frank Nuessel and Carmen Silva-
Corvalán have been with us backing the project in many different ways. The team
of reviewers for the Basque Center of Language Research (LEHIA) helped us
review all the articles. Judy Dyer gave us a useful hand with the proof reading.
Teresa Fernández was a great help with the formatting of the articles. Anke de
Looper, the Benjamins representative, and Konrad Koerner, the Series editor,
have been coaching us with respect to the actual editing, clarifying several points
and answering a good number of questions pertaining technical details. To all of
them we are indebted.
In the process of putting this volume together, the editors have been
productive in more than one way. Thus, three children, Eukene, Jack and Unai,
were born during this period. We owe them much of the time put into this book.
Finally, the editors were fortunate enough to have Mario as their syntax
professor in graduate school at USC. Our gratitude to him stems from those
years and many that followed. Indeed, Mario's personality exhibits many
properties that the ideal professor should have. This book is dedicated to him,
especially to his enthusiasm as a linguist, and his philosophy of life. We hope it
is worthy of him.
ANAPHORA AND SOFT CONSTRAINTS*
LUIGI BURZIO
The Johns Hopkins University
0. Introduction
In previous work, I have argued for the existence of several hierarchies
controlling the behavior of anaphoric elements. It is easy to see, from the vantage
point of 'Optimality Theory' (), that hierarchies and soft constraints are just
the same thing, yielding a direct translation of those earlier analyses into 
terms. In this paper I review the several hierarchies in question and argue that the
 analysis of anaphora they collectively entail has virtues of both empirical
accuracy and cross-linguistic generality which are beyond the reach of any theory
based on inviolable constraints.
1. Hierarchy 1: referential economy
In Burzio (1989, 1991) I have proposed that in a configuration in which there
is coreference under C-command, standardly referred to as 'binding', a reflexive
element is preferable to a pronoun, which in turn is preferable to an R-expression.
This hierarchy, given in (1) below, is interpretable as implementation of a
principle of 'referential economy', if one takes reflexives to have no inherent
referential content, pronouns to have some, and R-expressions to have full
referential content, as seems plausible.
(1) Referential economy: a » b » 
a. bound NP = reflexive
b. bound NP = pronoun
c. bound NP = R-expression
A version of this article bearing minor differences has appeared in Is the Best Good Enough?,
MIT Press/MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 1998. Ideas presented here were inspired in part
by discussions with Colin Wilson, who offers similar ones and much further elaboration in Wilson
(1996). Much of this material was discussed in a seminar at Johns Hopkins in the Spring of 1995.
I am grateful to the participants for helpful suggestions and much stimulating discussion.