Basque resultatives and related issues

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2012
Journal Lingua Posnaniensis
Volume | Issue number 54 | 2
Pages (from-to) 7-22
Number of pages 16
Organisations
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC)
Abstract
Basque has an impressive quantity of resultative constructions for transitive verbs, even not mentioning dialectal variants. The purpose of this paper is to classify them according to Nedjalkov’s typology and compare Basque resultatives with similar periphrastic constructions in Classical Armenian. On the way, we meet the questions of Basque diatheses, of voice ambiguity of past participles, and of the affinity between possession and resultativity. The paper is based on material available in the literature and discussions with a native speaker or a specialist of the field. It appears that only "mediopassive", a detransitivizing transformation, can be considered a diathesis, whereas the so-called "passive" and "antipassive" are
respectively an objective and a subjective resultative. Also the so-called "transitive perfect" is a resultative, possessive in form and rather subjective in meaning. Classical Armenian displays a strikingly similar series of resultatives and the same kind of voice ambiguity for its past participle. It is hypothesized that the voice
ambiguity may be related to the existence of a possessive resultative construction.
Document type Article
Note In fact publ. 2013
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.2478/v10122-012-0011-3
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Basque_resultatives_and_related_issues.pdf (Final published version)
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