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Title:
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Complex Small Clauses
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Author:
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Joan Rafel
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
, Department of Spanish Philology
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Degree Date:
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2000
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Syntax
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Director(s):
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Avellina Suqer
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Abstract:
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In this dissertation I present and defend a single syntactic configuration for a range of constructions that I call 'Complex Small Clauses4 (CSCl). The general idea that the term CSCl conveys is the belief that a situation can be predicated of an individual. From a syntactic viewpoint, this means that a clause or Small Clause can be predicated of a DP. I claim that this occurs when that DP is base-generated in the specifier of the highest functional projection associated with the lexical head of the construction. I call the predicative relationship that is established within the clause or Small Clause the 'internal predication4 of the CSCl, and the predication that is set up between the DP and the constituent introduced by the highest functional head associated with the lexical head of that clause or Small Clause the `external predication4 of the CSCl. I show that this latter predication, which contains the former one, behaves syntactically like an ordinary Small Clause. I claim that a general property that must be satisfied in order for the 'extra' DP to be base-generated in the specifier of the highest functional projection associated with the lexical head of the construction, and hence the formation of a CSCl, is that that DP must corefer with the grammatical subject of the internal predication.
The CSCl-structure defended here explains the sytactic and the semantic properties of what I call verbal and nonverbal CSCls that are found in Romance and Germanic languages. The verbal CSCls that are investigated in this dissertation are the so-called Pseudo-Relative, the Prepositional Infinitival Construction, and the Gerund Construction. These CSCls are verbal since the lexical head of the construction is a verb. On the other hand, the lexical head of the nonverbal CSCls that I explore here is either an adjective or a noun.
I show that the head of the CSCl behaves like an aspectual marker in the three types of verbal CSCl examined in this dissertation. I claim that in each case the CSCl-head provides the construction with a progressive interpretation by operating on the temporal domain that is provided by the internal predication. I argue, on the other hand, that the head of the nonverbal CSCls investigated here (i.e., `take DP for XP4) functions as a modal marker that indicates the presumptive nature of the internal predication that it introduces.
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