Middle formation and inalienability in Asturian

Abstract

Asturian middle-passive contexts containing activity verbs, such as lleer (to read), as well as a relational or body-part noun as their grammatical subject allow for the insertion of a non-selected dative argument interpreted as the inalienable possessor of such noun. Two configurations can yield these structures: one where the dative phrase raises to preverbal subject position, and another where the dative DP is left-dislocated and the theme in subject position. Interestingly, an analysis relying on the notion of low applicative heads relating the possessor and the possessee cannot successfully account for these configurations. An approach whereby the inalienable possession construal arises inside the DP-theme and subsequently spreads to the applicative head that introduces the dative possessor successfully overcomes this shortcoming.