The locative alternation: unaccusative constructions and subject position

UnrestrictedThe study of transitivity alternations plays a central role in linguistic research, because it can provide us with valuable information about the interface between the lexicon and the syntax. The main focus of this dissertation is to find the intrinsic features that characterize the locative alternation, i.e. to separate idiosyncratic and language specific properties from those that are inherent to this construction. Special attention is given to the locative alternation in Spanish.; I first provide an introduction to the most prominent features analyzed in the literature, such as the holistic effect and other asymmetries. However, the holistic effect cannot be hold as a feature of alternating verbs, however, since it can only be applied to a small group of verbs. These asymmetries do not hold crosslinguistically either, so they must be discarded.; The division of Spanish alternating verbs into subgroups serves as a means to identify what properties have are idiosyncratic. In particular, the prepositional object has a fundamental role in this construction; it is conceptually necessary and provides the argument structure to the sentence.; Based on the centrality of the preposition, I develop a system the lower PP generates the argument structure of an unaccusative construction. A fundamental assumption is that all alternating constructions are build on an unaccusative construction with the structure [VP D [V [PP]]], which may either imply a notion of change of state or location when the PP is complex, or a pure state or location when the PP is simple. Here, I postulate that the controversial swarm type verbs, a subtype within the locative alternation, which has been described as both unergative and unaccusative in the literature, have unaccusative properties when they enter the locative alternation.; In order to support such claim, I develop a test that can differentiate between unaccusative and unergative verbs in Spanish by measuring subject placement. The results indicate that swarm verbs behave as unaccusative when they participate in the locative alternation, because they show a higher percentage of postverbal subjects. These results support my classification and the description of alternating verbs as underlying unaccusatives