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Abstract
Despite displaying identical exponents (a reflexive clitic, imperfective tenses and
agreement between the verb and the preverbal definite DP theme), change-of-state predicates
in generic/middle contexts (inchoative middles, henceforth), can in fact have two
different underlying representations: (i) a generic inchoative and (ii) a generic
se-passive, this being the only one projecting a Voice head passivized by the reflexive
clitic, which denotes an implicit generic external argument. Spanish allows the insertion
of an affected applicative head in inchoative configurations ( Cuervo 2003 ), which
introduces an unselected dative argument interpreted either as an unintentional causer
of the event if merged above the verbalizing head, or as affectee if merged below
it. Crucially, this paper shows that the generic passive configuration disallows the
applicative’s unintentional causer interpretation, since the position above vP is
already filled by Voice; therefore, the only available merging position for the applicative
is below vP. However, the unintentional causer interpretation is possible in generic
inchoative constructions, which lack a VoiceP. The data and analysis presented here
support Wood and Marantz’s ( 2017 ) proposal of a single argument-introducing head
whose category and interpretation vary in terms of the syntactic context it is merged
in. Finally, this study stresses the need to establish a more detailed classification
of Spanish se-constructions as a whole and middles in particular with respect to their
interaction with applied arguments.
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