‘Liking’ constructions in Spanish
The role of frequency and syntactic stimulus in constructional
change
This study examines the diachronic change in
argument structure in Spanish psych-verbs of ‘liking’, with emphasis
on the change from nominative-experiencer gustar
‘to like’ to dative-experiencer gustar. While
previous studies have looked at factors pertaining to frequency and
semantics, this change must also be studied taking into account
certain syntactic factors, and especially the evolution of
prepositional finite clauses introduced by functional prepositions.
Results suggest that the subcategorization properties of the
preposition are grammatically relevant in determining the linguistic
encoding of the arguments of Spanish ‘liking’ constructions. This
study offers an extensive corpus study of ‘liking’ verbs, spanning
the 13th to the 17th centuries, and adopts a constructionist
usage-based view of syntactic productivity.
Article outline
- 1.Previous accounts of argument structure change in Spanish
psychological verbs
- 2.Data collection and methodology
- 3.A survey of liking verbs and constructions in the history of
Spanish (13th–17th c.)
- 4.Stimuli of ‘liking’ constructions: An analysis of their syntactic properties
- 4.1A diachronic account of clausal complementation in
Spanish
- 4.1.1The diachrony of infinitival clauses
- 4.1.2The diachrony of subordinate finite clauses
- 4.2‘Liking’ constructions in Spanish and their subcategorization
properties
- 4.2.1‘Liking’ constructions in early medieval Spanish
- 4.2.2‘Liking’ constructions in late medieval Spanish
- 4.2.3Experiential liking constructions in Spanish: The Golden Age
- 5.Conclusion
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Notes
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Abbreviations
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References
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Appendix