Cover not available
Part of
Hispanic Linguistics: Current issues and new directions
Edited by Alfonso Morales-Front, Michael J. Ferreira, Ronald P. Leow and Cristina Sanz
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 26] 2020
► pp. 95–118

The seem-class verb paradigm and restructuring in Romance

| Georgetown University

This paper examines clitic climbing in contexts featuring Spanish parecer ‘seem’, a verb that has been claimed to lack restructuring altogether in Spanish (Gallego, 2009; Torrego, 1996; Zagona, 1982). The paper identifies several contexts favoring clitic climbing with parecer. In particular, 3rd person clitic climbing is favored with psychological predicates and functional elements such as negation, temporal priority adverbs, and left dislocated elements. It is argued that Spanish parecer is a bona fide example of restructuring (R-parecer). This paper offers an account of R-parecer in terms of Cinque’s (2004, 2006) approach to restructuring. Moreover, this paper also investigates whether R-parecer is subject to Cinque’s (2004, 2006) rigidly ordered functional hierarchy of the clause. It is shown that Spanish parecer and French sembler ‘seem’ deviate from Cinque’s functional hierarchy. The paper concludes that we must leave open the possibility that lexical verbs may also give rise to restructuring in Romance.

Keywords: clitic climbing, restructuring, seem-class verb paradigm, Romance, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Observations on Spanish parecer
    • 2.1Syntactic properties of Spanish parecer
    • 2.2Previous studies on parecer
  • 3.Spanish parecer and restructuring
    • 3.1Restructuring in Romance syntax
    • 3.2Cinque’s restructuring approach
    • 3.3Restructuring in contexts featuring Spanish parecer
    • 3.4Parecer and experiencer arguments
  • 4.Cinque’s functional hierarchy and R- parecer
    • 4.1Ordering of functional heads in Cinque’s hierarchy
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.26.05cru
References
Ausín, A., & Depiante, M.
(2000) On the syntax of parecer (‘to seem’) with and without an experiencer. In H. Campos, E. Herburger, A. Morales-Front, & T. J. Walsh (Eds.), Papers from the 3rd Hispanic Linguistics Symposium: Hispanic linguistics at the turn of the millennium (pp. 155–170). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Aissen, J., & Purlmutter, D.
(1983) Clause reduction in Spanish. In D. Perlmutter (Ed.), Studies in relational grammar (pp. 360–403). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ausín, A.
(2001) On A-Movement (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
Cardinaletti, A., & Shlonsky, U.
(2004) Clitic positions and restructuring in Italian. Linguistic Inquiry, 35(4), 519–558. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campos, H.
(1986) Inflectional Elements in Romance. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California Los Angeles.
Chomsky, N.
(1980) On binding. Linguistic Inquiry, 11(1), 1–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cinque, G.
(1999) Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2002b) A note on ‘restructuring’ and quantifier climbing in French. Linguistic Inquiry, 33(4), 617–636. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004) ‘Restructuring’ and functional structure. In A. Belletti (Ed.), Structures and beyond: The cartography of syntactic structures (Vol. III, pp. 132–191). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2006) Restructuring and functional heads. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gallego, A.
(2009) Defective C-T in Romance. Probus, 21(2), 163–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, L.
(2006) Clitic climbing and the dual status of sembrare. Linguistic Inquiry, 37(3), 484–501. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kayne, R.
(1975) French syntax. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
(1991) Romance clitics, verb movement, and PRO. Linguistic Inquiry, 22(4), 647–686.Google Scholar
Rizzi, L.
(1982) Issues in Italian syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, I.
(1997) Restructuring, head movement, and locality. Linguistic Inquiry, 28(3), 423–460.Google Scholar
Strozer, J.
(1976) Clitics in Spanish (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
Suñer, M.
(1988) The role of agreement in clitic-doubled constructions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 6, 391–434. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Torrego, E.
(1996) Experiencers and raising verbs. In R. Freidin (Ed.), Current issues in comparative grammar (pp. 101–120). Boston, MA: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Uriagereka, J.
(2006) Complete and partial infl. In C. Boeckx (Ed.), Agreement systems (pp. 267–298). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wurmbrand, S.
(2001) Infinitives: Restructuring and clause structure. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(2004) Two types of restructuring: Lexical vs. functional. Lingua, 114(8), 991–1014. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zagona, K.
(1982) Gerundive periphrases and restructuring. Revista Argentina de Lingüística, 0326-6400, 321–244.Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R.
(1997) Negation and clausal structure: A comparative study of Romance languages. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, M.
(1982) On the relationship of the lexicon to syntax (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT, Cambridge, MA.