Basque adjectival participles: Stative, resultative or experiential

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the form and meaning of adjectival participles in Basque, an ergative language with a predominant use of analytic verbal forms. I show that even though adjectival participles have similar morphological makeup, they can be the exponents of different aspectual configurations, with different interpretation and syntactic distribution. As attested for other languages such as English and Greek, Basque adjectival participles can be interpreted as stative or resultative (Embick 2004), and also as target state participles or resultant state participles (Kratzer 2000; Anagnostopoulou 2003). As noted in the literature (Anagnostopoulou 2003; Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 2008; Alexiadou et al. 2014; Alexiadou et al. 2015), these types are subject to different syntactic distribution, particularly regarding the acceptability of different sorts of event-related and subject-oriented modifiers. In this paper, I propose that a further aspectual class must be included into the typology of adjectival participles: experientials. In fact, adjectival participles in Basque can be interpreted experientially under certain conditions. The five-way typology of participles emerges as the result of the combination of two different aspectual heads (a stativizing Asp head, as in Kratzer 2000 and Embick 2004, and an aspectual operator with anteriority semantics, as in Kratzer 2000; Alexiadou et al. 2014; Alexiadou et al. 2015) with complements of different sizes and nature. In particular, the experiential reading arises when the Asp head of anteriority combines with particular vP semantics and/or with a particular linking relation between the subject of predication and the arguments within VOICEP.

Person matters in impersonality

“…Nevertheless, we disagree with that analysis. As convincingly argued by Ortiz de Urbina & Uribe‐Etxebarria 1991, this is not a monoclausal passive but a biclausal construction with a participial clause as a complement of the copula; see also Eguzkitza 1981 and Berro 2019 for an analysis and Fernández & Berro 2021 for discussion. This view is supported by various pieces of evidence, notably word‐order constraints, the optional presence of the ergative external argument, and optional dative agreement.…”

The *t-V-ce System of the Carib Languages and the Kuikuro Resultative Participle

“…According to Woolford (2006), ergative case is licensed by little v in the position where the external argument is base-generated. This phenomenon is observed in Basque (Berro 2019), an ergative language where agent arguments of adjectival participles are introduced or licensed in a regular verb configuration.…”

Los participios adjetivales: Clasificación y análisis sintáctico

“…No debe confundirse la noción de 'resultado' manejada en el sistema de Ramchand (2008), únicamente pertinente en el análisis del Aktionsart (o aspecto léxico) de predicados de cambio de estado télicos, con la noción de 'resultatividad' manejada en el estudio de los participios adjetivales, relacionada con el aspecto gramatical y, más concretamente, con el valor de perfecto resultativo (Kratzer, 2000;Bosque, 2014;véase la Introducción). La segunda, la asociamos a una proyección Sintagma Aspecto (SAsp) que define un límite aspectual y da lugar a estados acotados (esto es, de nivel de estadio) que se interpretan como posteriores a un evento o estado de cosas (para los distintos valores otorgados a esta proyección dentro de los participios adjetivales, véanse, entre otros, Embick, 2003Embick, , 2004Alexiadou et al, 2014;Alexiadou et al, 2015;Berro, 2019b).…”

“…Los participios adjetivales resultativos eventivos son los que presentan un comportamiento más claramente híbrido, puesto que muestran tanto propiedades verbales como adjetivales. Aquí, seguimos la tradición de clasificar los participios pasivos que denotan estados resultantes como predicados adjetivales(Kratzer, 2000;Anagnostopoulou, 2003;Embick, 2004;Alexiadou et al, 2014;Berro, 2019aBerro, , 2019b. Véase Bosque (2014) para un análisis de los participios resultativos como predicados verbales.…”