Datives in Constructions with Unaccusative Se

In this talk I argue that in Spanish there is a type construction, involving a verb with the unaccu-sative seclitic and a dative, where the dative is in fact the external argument, which renders the construction comparable to a transitive structure (in the well-established unaccusative-transitive al...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Fernández Soriano, Olga|||0000-0002-1426-0749
Format: article
Publication Date:1999
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:2218
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/2218
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Spanish
Quirky case
Se-unaccusatives
Argument structure
Castellà
Cas capriciós
Inacusatius amb se
Estructura argumental
Description
Summary:In this talk I argue that in Spanish there is a type construction, involving a verb with the unaccu-sative seclitic and a dative, where the dative is in fact the external argument, which renders the construction comparable to a transitive structure (in the well-established unaccusative-transitive alternation). A number a tests and criteria are reviewed to support the external argument status of the dative (which in fact can be assimilated to the status of locatives and datives with some impersonal verbs, see Fernández Soriano 1999). These are: unmarked word order, raising and binding. On the other hand, there is also evidence for the non externalized status of other, internal, argument: impossibility of anaphor binding, possibility of being a bare NP, inability to control, among others. I conclude that in this constructions the dative is an instance of quirky case.