Causation in Polish anticausatives
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Anna Bondaruk [1]
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[1] John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Lublin, Polonia
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- Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Nº 256, 2021
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
The aims of this paper are twofold. The first objective is to check whether Polish anticausatives are causative in their lexical semantic or syntactic representation. Four diagnostics supporting the presence of a cause in anticausatives are examined against the Polish data, including cause PPs, modification by by itself, the interpretation of negation, and the occurrence of dative causes. Evidence is provided that none of these diagnostics proves the presence of a cause in syntax or semantics of Polish anticausatives. The causative meaning of anticausatives comes from the complex event structure built in the syntax, but interpreted as causative at the syntax-semantics interface. The paper also aims to offer a syntactic analysis of Polish anticausatives in the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (2000, et seq.). The validity of three approaches to the structure of anticausatives is tested against the Polish data, including the unaccusative analysis of Schäfer (2008), the reflexive account of Koontz-Garboden (2009) and Cuervo, 2014, Cuervo, 2015, and the predication-based approach of Den Dikken and Dekány (2019). Schäfer's (2008) analysis seems to best fit the Polish data, since Polish anticausatives are unaccusative and contain a reflexive marker, equipped with φ-features, but lacking a theta role, hence functioning as an A-expletive.
