Asymmetries between Goal and Source prefixes in Spanish

Abstract

An asymmetry is observed in Spanish between the Goal prefixes a-and en-and the Source prefix des-: while the former are not productively adjoined to verbal bases, the latter felicitously attaches to verbs in order to encode Source-oriented transition events.From a diachronic standpoint, it is shown that this asymmetry was not present in Latin, and that it was triggered by the evolution from a satellite-framed system (rich in prefixed verbs able to encode a Manner co-event in the verbal root) to a verb-framed one (whose prefixed verbs can only encode an abstract Ground in the root of the verb).The different behaviour of a-and en-, on the one hand, and des-, on the other, can be accounted for by taking into consideration the different conceptual and structural complexity of Goal paths and Source paths. The present study offers a nanosyntactic analysis of the observed asymmetry which, in addition, fits the Goal bias and naturally explains the linear order in which Spanish directional prefixes appear in multi-prefixed verbs.

On the encoding of negation by Source prefixes and the satellite-/verb-framed distinction

“…The aim of this work is twofold. On the one hand, this study aims at contributing to the account of the typological change occurred in the evolution from Latin to Romance, that is, the shift from a satellite-framed pattern to a verb-framed one (on this topic, see Talmy 2000, Bartra & Mateu 2005, Acedo-Matellán 2006, 2016, Acedo-Matellán & Mateu 2013, and Gibert-Sotelo 2017a, 2017b. On the other hand, the paper explores why directional elements encoding departure from a Source can be used to express negation when embedded in certain syntactic contexts.…”