Low applicatives in Catalan: the case of 'veure-hi'
This paper analyzes an argument structure alternation found in Catalan in which a verb of perception appears with a non-referential locative pronominal clitic hi. In this alternation, a transitive verb like veure ‘to see’ can combine with the pronoun hi and form a stative intransitive predicate veu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Septentrio Academic Publishing
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/borealis/article/view/8069 |
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| Summary: | This paper analyzes an argument structure alternation found in Catalan in which a verb of perception appears with a non-referential locative pronominal clitic hi. In this alternation, a transitive verb like veure ‘to see’ can combine with the pronoun hi and form a stative intransitive predicate veure-hi, which means ‘to be able to see’, and with a reflexive pronoun es, as in veure-s’hi, which has a similar meaning plus an inchoative interpretation. This paper analyzes this alternation within the argument structure framework laid out by Wood and Marantz (2017). Specifically, I propose that the locative pronoun hi and the reflexive pronoun es are the exponents of expletive pronouns associated with identity functions that license different values of a single argument introducer head, i*. In the former case, hi appears in the complement position of i*, which gets a low applicative head interpretation, and the latter in the specifier position of a Voice functional head. With this approach, the paper paves the way for a unified approach to the different values that the locative pronoun hi can display in Catalan.
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| ISSN: | 1893-3211 |