The swarm-alternation in Romance languages : the fine line between causes and sources
Gómez-Vazquez, Diana (Universidad de Sevilla. Facultad de Filología)
Mateu Fontanals, Jaume (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Date:	2025
Description:	41 p.
Abstract:	The swarm-alternation shows two variants, where the locatum and location alternate their positions: in the locatum-subj variant (The bees swarm in the garden), the locatum appears in subject position, whereas the location surfaces as a PP. In turn, in the location-subj variant (The garden swarms with bees), the location appears as the subject, and the locatum is introduced by a preposition (de/di "of" in Spanish, Catalan, and Italian). We argue that the locatum-PP is, in fact, the element introducing the initiator of the event in the latter variant. This is so because the subject is a non-theta selected element, functioning as the undergoer of the event; hence, it does not meet the requirements to initiate it. As to the locatum-subj variant, the locatum subject works as the initiator and undergoer of the event. Furthermore, we show that the argument structure of these verbs consists of both process and initiation phrases in Ramchand's first phase syntax. While the location-subj variant is consistently unergative, the locatum-subj variant can also be unaccusative as is the case with verbs such as overflow or abound.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Swarm-alternation ; Verbs of internal causation ; Paths ; Initiators ; Causes
Published in:	Probus, 2025, art. 0011, ISSN 1613-4079

DOI: 10.1515/probus-2025-0011

42 p, 1.3 MB

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