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Chap 8

Figure 8.1. Five syntactic functions of NPs

Subj: Bob knows


DO: Termites smell fear
IO: She gave him a flower
OP: Put it on the table
PA: Bruce Wayne is Batman / The Joker is a jerk.
IO - Involved Entity
IO is more expansive in Spanish

Elena le dio/mandó/escribió/mostró un text a José. to Joe


hizo/cocinó/compró la comida a José. for Joe
quitó/exigió/escondió/robó la llave a José. from Joe
puso/echó/tendió otra sábana a José. on Joe
notó/observó cierto desdén a José. in Joe
apuntó/cambió/revisó el número a José. of Joe, Joe's

How many of these would be susceptible to Dative Shift in English?

In English just giving to and doing for IOs:


Gave Marvin a ray gun / Shined Zorro’s boots
IO - Involved Entity
IO is more expansive in Spanish

Elena le dio/mandó/escribió/mostró un text a José. to Joe


joe received/was shown something
hizo/cocinó/compró la comida a José. for Joe
joe benefitted from …
quitó/exigió/escondió/robó la llave a José. from Joe
what is called malefactive*, joe was inconvenienced
puso/echó/tendió otra sábana a José. on Joe
joe benefitted from … also a kind of receiving
notó/observó cierto desdén a José. in Joe
un-English-like, but the “desdén” is the DO
apuntó/cambió/revisó el número a José. of Joe, Joe's
un-English-like, but the “el número” is the DO

*oppositive of benefactive
(Semi-) Differences
Elena le tiene miedo (saca provecho, hace caso ...) a José.
DO IO
Elena is afraid of Joe (cf. has pity for Joe)
Subj Comp. DO IO
Elena le da cuerda (da media vuelta, echa un vistazo, echa la culpa) al reloj.
DO IO
winds ... (cf. gives bread crumbs to the pigeons)
DO IO
Elena le lavó el pelo a José, vs. lavó el pelo de José
DO IO
Washed Joe’s hair
Why are some IOs in PPs?
French
Before 1066, English IOs normally preceded DO and had a dative suffix
With influence of French, borrowed verbs behaved as in French and took IOs as
PPs
I gave her a dollar
?I donated her a dollar
She bought me a plushie
?She purchased me a plushie

Not absolute though since


I said something to her & She guaranteed Nick a spot on the team
results show opposite pattern
Why are some constructions not reversible?
Pinker in The Stuff of Thought argues that
V + DO + PP = V causes DO to go toward PP = Gave the muffin to the mouse
V + IO + DO = V causes IO to have DO = Gave the mouse the muffin

From his TED talk:


So, "give the X to the Y," that construction corresponds to the thought "cause X
to go to Y." Whereas "give the Y the X" corresponds to the thought "cause Y to
have X.“

cause X to go to Y: Oliver drove the car for Tania vs. *Oliver drove Tania the car
cause Y to have X: Janice gave Chandler a headache vs. *Janice gave a
headache to Chandler
Le vs Lo – levels of affectedness
Luisa lo distrajo

El ruido le distrajo

Su pasado __ persigue

Su muerte __ afectó

El olor __ encantó

Quiero ayudar__ a sentirse mejor / recojer las sillas


Reversals

Wait for vs. await / look for vs. seek


Why do reversals exist?
● A language can choose to place its semantic subject as its syntactic object if
the subject isn’t an agent
● So, “me gusta el helado” has the “yo” in object me form because it is
experiencing the liking without acting upon it in any way.
● English does this with verb pairs like care/matter
● I care about pandas vs. Pandas matter to me
● A good test for English is flipping a sentence like
Infants dont fear snakes to snakes dont fear infants, then using “be” as the verb
and making the experiencing verb into an adjective, with the semantic subject
relegated to a PP: snakes are not frightening to infants

Try this one: Igor knows the answer


Number
NORSEL or LONERS for gender

What´s one problem with this rule?


NORSEL or LONERS for gender

What´s one problem with this rule?


FEM tends to refer to refer to the field and MASC to the professional:
El químico vs. La química
PSRs
Possessives
p. 154 The two languages thus contrast as follows: in
English, a possessive noun-based NP (of …) can occur as D
or as PP but a pronominal (Hector’s, her …) one occurs only
as D, whereas in Spanish a possessive noun-based NP
occurs as PP but a pronominal one as either D or PP.
So,
● Eng Their bazookas; Ricky Martin’s children/the children
of Ricky
● Spa sus bazookas/ las bazookas de ellos; los niños de
Ricky Martin
Eng Spa

Determiner Ricky’s children Sus Bazookas


Their bazookas *Ricky’s niñ@s

Prepositional Children of Ricky Niñ@s de Ricky


*Bazookas of Las Bazookas
their(s)/them de ellos/suyas
Articles: 4 points of contrast
1. With titles and names:
● Vi al señor/general/profesor López en la Calle Kennedy.
● I saw (*the) Mister/General/Professor Lopez on (*the) Kennedy Street.

2. With nonspecific dates:


● Lo terminarán el lunes. They'll finish it (on) Monday.

3. In generic references:

Me gustan las papas. I like potatoes.


El hombre es mortal. Man is mortal.
Los seres humanos son mortales. Human beings are mortal.
Articles: 4 points of contrast

4. In non-particular references:
Jorge salió sin abrigo. George left without a coat.
¿Tiene hijo tu prima? Does your cousin have a
child?
Nora suele llevar Nora generally wears a hat
sombrero.
Mauricio es arquitecto. Maurice is an architect
General rule for articles in Spanish

p. 157 [+article] unless “the speaker is not selecting


one and only one entity from a group, but referring to
unquantified membership in the group denoted by
the "naked" noun.”

¿Sabes si la Nora compró chelas?


¿ Sabes si la Nora compró unas/las chelas?
8.4.1 Nominalization and pronominalization.
1. Article + N. In this case, nominalization =
pronominalization, definite article is replaced by a third-
person pronoun when the noun is dropped:
I fixed the (washer)  I fixed it. Arreglé la (lavadora)  La
arreglé.

2. Possessive +N. possessive D revert to their long forms in


nominalization:
My (house) is small.  Mine is small.
Mi (casa) es chica. (= la casa mía)  La mía es chica.
8.4.2 The Spanish neuter
Lo vs. La
Chap 9
Sentences I’ve Heard in Chile
Vo’ soy maestro
¿cómo andai?
¿qué queri’?
¿y vo’ de donde soy?

How does Chilean use of vo(s) differ from other areas where
it’s used?
Major Contrasts between Spa and Eng pronouns
1. Spa has freer pronoun movement
La quiero ver/ quiero verla vs. I want to see her/ *her i want to see

2. Spa distinguishes between stressed and unstressed pronouns

3. IO is marked by an obligatory le(s) / me / nos

4. Spa makes finer distinctions between formal and informal (usted / tú / vos)
Why does Spa distinguish between stressed and
unstressed pronouns?
Set 2, unstressed pronouns are all clitics and must

1. never appear sentence initial for commands: visitalos / *los visita

2. always be either directly before or after the verb:


Ponle más ganas po’ loco, te quiero, (la) puedes comprar(la) en cualquier kiosko

3. agree with the verb


le mandé un whatsapp a Diego; Almost always can be double marked:
a mi no me vengai con weas
me hice el medio sanguich;
con cue’a no nos toca el viernes a
nos dejaron plantados nososotros
Se
What do the se’s mean in this sentence?

Se dice que se sabe que se sabe que se sabe


9.3.1 Pseudo-reflexive or "spurious" se.

Les di la llave  *Les la di  Se la di.


Le cortaron el pelo  *le lo cortaron 
se lo cortaron
9.3.2 True reflexive se.

Ella se vio en el espejo. She saw herself in the mirror.

El gerente se criticó. The manager criticized himself,

OIga se compró una blusa. OIga bought herself a blouse.

Subject to the “a sí mismo/a” test


9.3.3 Recíprocal se.
● Lucía y Joaquín se miraron.
● Lucy and Joaquin looked at each other.

● Refers only to subjects who engage in a mutual


action/state
○ Batman y Robin se conocen, quizás demasiado
9.3.4 Lexical or inherent se.
Ella se quejó de la sopa (*a sí misma).

She complained (*herself) about the soup.

Corresponds to Chilean use of mandar to mean cause:


Me mande un condoro / *mandé un condoro
9.3.5 Meaning-changing and/or inchoative se.
● Ella bebió el café. ● She drank the coffee.
● Ella se bebió el café. ● She drank down (up) the coffee.
● Ellos durmieron. ● They slept.
● Ellos se durmieron. ● They fell asleep.

Check if it’s this usage by


asking ¿está v+participle?: ¿está dormido?
Check if it’s “blocking external agency”:
Mia (se) arregló su vida
Does this sound odd?: “no rías po’ weon”
9.3.6 Intransitivizing se.
● Ella se detuvo en el andén. / She stopped on the platform.
● El aluminio se ha fundido. / The aluminum has melted.
● Los vasos se rompen. / Glasses break.
● El barco se hundirá. / The boat will sink.
● El conejito se movió. / The bunny moved.
● Las fronteras se extienden al mar. / The boundaries extend
to the sea.

English leaves intransitivity to context: Mason moved.


Test this use of se by seeing if “a sí mismo” can be added; if it can
then it’s reflexive se: El perro se mojó (a sí mismo)
● El perro se mojó. ● The dog got wet.
● El perro se mojó (a sí mismo). ● The dog wetted himself.
● Pilar se lastimó. ● Pilar got hurt/injured.
● Pilar se lastimó (a sí misma). ● Pilar hurt herself.
● Él se llama Zorro. ● His name is Fox.
● Él se llama Zorro (a sí mismo). ● He calls himself Fox.
● apagar (tr), apagarse (intr) turn off/out (tr), go off/out (intr)
● acostar (tr), acostarse (intr) put to bed (tr), go to bed (intr)
● encargar (tr), encargarse (intr) put in charge (tr), take charge (intr)
● criar (tr), criarse (intr) bring up, rear (tr), grow up, be raised (intr)
● acercar. (tr), acercarse (intr) bring closer, pulI up (tr), approach (intr)
● sentar (tr), sentarse (intr) seat (tr), sit down (intr)
● reunir (tr), reunirse (intr) bring together (tr), meet (intr)
● desatar (tr), desatarse (intr) untie (tr), come untied (intr)
● disculpar (tr), disculparse (intr) excuse (tr), apologize (intr)

English changes lexeme to make trans/intrans distinction


9.3.7 Reflexive se of emotional reaction.
Se alegra mucho de esto. She's very happy about this.

psych verbs
● aburrir(se) ● enojar(se)
Can be included ● alegrar(se) ● enfurecer( se)
in the intransive bunch ● animar/se) ● entristecer(se)
or in the inchoative bunch ● asombrar(se) ● entusiasmar(se)
● asustar(se) ● extrañar(se)
● calmar(se) ● inquietar(se)
● confundir(se) ● interesar( se)
● conmover(se) ● molestar(se)
● deprimir( se) ● ofender(se)
● desesperar(se) ● preoeupar(se)
● desilusionar(se) ● sorprender(se)
9.3.9 Passive and impersonal se

● Se cierra la puerta a la una. The door is closed at 1:00;


one closes the door at 1:00.
● Se habla español. Spanish is spoken;
one speaks/
you speak Spanish.

How to tell difference?


● Passive se can be converted to true passive: se conoce /
es conocido; passive also only works with transitive verbs
● Impersonal se always takes 3sg verb form: se puso las
pilas nuevas y se reseteó todos las configuraciones
HW
1.- A ellos se les antojó comer pasteles.
Lexical, b/c needed to make grammatical sense
2.- Sus libros Juan se los lee de arriba a abajo.
Meaning-changing (vs. Juan___los lee)
3.- Este piso no quiero alquilárselo a nadie.
IO, le  se; would be “le” if not before “lo”
4.- ¡Qué bien se vive en este país!
Impersonal, no one in particular
5.- El mérito de la victoria habrá que dárselo a los jugadores.
IO, le  se; same as #3
6.- Mi mujer se arregla varias veces al día.
DO reflexive, refers back to “mi mujer”
7.- Mi hija no se pinta aún los labios.
IO réflexive, refers back to “los labios”
8.- Juan se construyó un hermoso chalé en la Sierra.
IO réflexive if Juan was involved in the building process; if not it could be causitive like “se operó, se
cortó el pelo”
9.- Se convocarán elecciones la próxima semana.
Passive (if focusing on the event) or impersonal (if focusing unspecified entity who will carry out the
convocation)
10.- Redondo se lesionó al caer al suelo.
Intransitive (Contrasts with lesionar a otros)
11.- Nunca más se supo lo que había ocurrido.
Impersonal or passive
12.- Juan y su novia han dejado de hablarse.
Reciprocal
13.- Si no te comes el filete se te enfriará enseguida.
Intransitive (vs. Enfriar otras cosas)
14.- Mario se corta el pelo todos los meses.
Same analysis as #8
15.- Se cree muy listo.
DO Reflex
16.- Mi hermano se lanzó al agua de cabeza.
Intransitive, same as #10; reflexive if willfully executed
17.- Se rompieron los platos que compré en rebajas.
Intransitive same as #10
18.- Los espárragos se comen con los dedos.
Passive
19.- A veces se queja uno sin razón. 19 Lexical
20.- Asno se es desde la cuna hasta el sepulcro. 20 DO impersonal
21.- No se atrevió a salir sola. 21 Lexical
22.- La ignorancia no se puede ocultar. 22 Passive
23.- En mi tierra se admira a las personas nobles. 23 Impersonal
24.- Juan y María se pelean. 24 Reciprocal
25.- Se cortó un dedo pelando patatas. 25 IO intransitive
26.- Pedro se recorrió el país en tres meses. 26 Meaning-changing
27.- Las cartas se marcaron antes de la partida. 27 Passive
28.- En toda la tarde no se atrevió a levantarse. 28 Lexical
29.- Los líquidos se convirtieron en sólidos. 29 passive / intransitive
30.- No sé si se la entregó a tiempo. 30 IO le  se
31.- Se saluda a los embajadores. 31 Impersonal
32.- Este verano se escribieron todos los días. 32 Reciprocal
33.- Se entregó a la policía. 33 DO réflex
34.- Pronto se celebrarán nuevas elecciones. 34 Passive
35.- Se está hablando de ese tema en todos los medios. 35 Impersonal

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