Overview

This detailed study challenges the claim that syntax is arbitrary and autonomous, as well as the assumption that Spanish clitic clusters constitute grammaticalized units. Diverse--apparently unrelated--restrictions on clitic clustering in both simplex VP's and Accusative cum Infinitive structures are shown to be cognitively motivated, given the meaning of the individual clitics, and the compositional/interpretative routines those meanings motivate. The analysis accounts, in coherent and principled fashion, for the absolute non-occurrence of some clusters, and the interpretation-dependent acceptability of all remaining clitic combinations: cluster acceptability depends on the ease with which the given clitic combination can be processed to yield a congruent message; there is no point in combining clitics whose meanings preclude speedy processing of the cluster. The monograph goes beyond previous work on Spanish clitics in its wealth of data, the range of syntactic phenomena discussed, and its analytic scope.

Full Product Details

Author:   Erica C. García
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   61
Weight:   0.785kg
ISBN:  

9789027215703

ISBN 10:   9027215707
Pages:   335
Publication Date:   14 September 2009
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

1. Erica C. Garcia: In memoriam; 2. Acknowledgements; 3. Chapter 1. Introduction; 4. Chapter 2. The problem: Unacceptable clitic clusters; 5. Chapter 3. The communicative value of clitic reference; 6. Chapter 4. Basic clitic syntax; 7. Chapter 5. Variable clitic-cluster acceptability; 8. Chapter 6. Accounting for all the uses of Sp. se; 9. Chapter 7. Accounting for the non-uses of Sp. se; 10. Chapter 8. The syntactic structure of AcI's; 11. Chapter 9. Clitic syntax in AcI's; 12. Chapter 10. Clitic placement in AcI's; 13. Chapter 11. Complex role/referent allotment in AcI's; 14. Chapter 12. Clitic placement in AcI's and their look-alikes; 15. Chapter 13. Summary and conclusions; 16. Abbreviations; 17. Glossary; 18. References; 19. Corpus; 20. Name index; 21. Subject index

Reviews

[...] a fundamental study that contributes to the understanding of Spanish clitics and manages to go beyond previous analyses. It constitutes an insightful criticism to the hypotheses of the autonomy and arbitariness of syntax. -- Jaime Pena, University of Oregon, in Studies in Language, Vol.34:3 (2010)

[...] a fundamental study that contributes to the understanding of Spanish clitics and manages to go beyond previous analyses. It constitutes an insightful criticism to the hypotheses of the autonomy and arbitariness of syntax. -- Jaime Peña, University of Oregon, in Studies in Language, Vol.34:3 (2010)

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