Against the psych causative alternation in Polish
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Date
2019
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Publisher
"Studies in Polish Linguistics" 2019, Special Volume 1, s. 77-97
Abstract
The paper examines Object Experiencer (henceforth, OE)/Subject Experiencer (henceforth,
SE) verb alternations in Polish in order to check whether Polish exhibits the causative/
anticausative alternation in the psych domain (psych causative alternation of Alexiadou
and Iordăchioaia 2014, henceforth A&I 2014). The focus is on two types of SE reflexive
alternants of OE verbs, i.e., (i) SE forms with an obligatory instrumental case-marked DP
derived from stative OE roots, and (ii) SE forms with an optional instrumental DP derived
from eventive OE roots. It is argued that in both cases the reflexive SE alternants of either
stative or eventive OE verbs have an obligatory or optional instrumental DP which acts
as a complement and represents a Target/Subject Matter (henceforth, T/SM, cf. Pesetsky
1995), not a Cause. Therefore, the reflexive OE/SE verb alternation cannot be of the causative/
anticausative type. Monovalent reflexive SE verbs, lacking an instrumental DP altogether,
are unergative (Reinhart 2001), not unaccusative (contra A&I 2014). The overall
conclusion reached in the paper is that the psych causative alternation is absent in Polish.
Description
Keywords
psych verbs, Reflexive Subject Experiencer verb, Object Experiencer verbs, the Polish language, psych causative alternation