2020 - Grammatical ideas on the Basque language

2006

In this note I reflect on a reconstructive path for the syntax of Proto-Basque, building on the results of Gomez and Sainz (1995), who themselves work on a tradition started already by Astarloa two centuries ago, and of which Trask (1977) is an excellent example. The matter is interesting not just in itself, but also in that it may help us determine what procedures one can reliably use to figure out an extinct linguistic entity. Section one lays out some foundations of syntactic change from three different, yet related perspectives, which I call ‘lenses’ on syntactic change: a theory of Universal Grammar presupposed by language learners (Principles), a theory of Core Variation that involves the learner in the task of fixing open dimensions (Parameters), and a putative theory of Sociological Drift that requires learners to actually learn something and affect one another in the process. Section two relates those three ‘lenses’ in a model, showing how specific phenomena are best descri...

2006

My research explores the predicate-argument structure of unergatives (cough, dream, float, run, work...) and questions their ontological status as a primitive type of intransitive verb (contra the Unaccusative Hypothesis: Perlmutter 1978; Burzio 1986) or transitive verb (contra Hale and Keyser 2003). For instance, unergatives are transitive in the Basque language, as object agreement and light verb constructions show, among other morphosyntactic evidence. The predictions arising from an ontological commitment are falsifiable in view of the typological classification of languages. If we consider unergatives intransitive, we eliminate split-intransitive languages like Basque. On the other hand, considering unergatives transitive eliminates accusative and ergative languages like English or Dyrbal, where unergatives behave as intransitive verbs. Hence, unergatives are transitive or intransitive on a language particular basis. This prevents an ontological commitment but permits a more ar...

Lingua Posnaniensis 54/2, 2012

Basque has an impressive number of resultative constructions for transitive verbs, not to mention dialectal variants. The purpose of this paper is to classify them according to Nedjalkov’s typology and compare Basque resultatives with similar periphrastic constructions in Classical Armenian. On the way, we meet the questions of Basque diatheses, of voice ambiguity of past participles, and of the affinity between possession and resultativity. The paper is based on material available in the literature and discussions with a native speaker or a specialist of the field. It appears that only “mediopassive”, a detransitivizing transformation, can be considered a diathesis, whereas the so-called “passive” and “antipassive” are respectively an objective and a subjective resultative. Also Lafitte’S so-called “parfait” (1979) is a resultative, possessive in form and rather subjective in meaning. Classical Armenian displays a strikingly similar series of resultatives and the same kind of voice ambiguity for its past participle. It is hypothesized that the voice ambiguity may be related to the existence of a possessive resultative construction.

TINTA: Research Journal of Hispanic and Lusophone Studies , 2009

Journal of Language Contact 14, 497-523, 2021

Basque is the only non-Indo-European language in western Europe. This fact, and particularly its ergative alignment, make its morphosyntactic structure and its verb different from those of Standard Average European. However, the massive and prolonged influence which Basque has received first from Latin and later from Romance has conditioned the layout of the analytic vps (the open type) in a very curious way. Since Basque synthetic verbs have a template of the type S-vb.root for intransitives and O-vb.root-A for transitives, as opposed to vb.root-A/S for any kind of verb in sae, lexical borrowing of verbs from Latin was impossible. A solution arose when the old periphrastic resultative perfect was grammaticalized in Late Latin as the primary expression of the perfect. This form distinguished intransitive and transitive verbs, so it served as an entry point for Latin and Romance verbal lexicon into Basque, by means of autochthonous auxiliaries.

Basque is well known for its complex verbal morphology, where the in-flected verb, i.e. the predicate core, shows agreement with up to three ar-guments (ergative, absolutive, and indirect object). This entails that the syntactic relations between the central participants and the situation core are perfectly reflected in verbal and nominal morphology, by both agree-ment and case. The Basque agreement pattern illustrates the syntactic hier-archy between the central participants in different argument constellations. The argument slots on the top allow of most variation. For those at the end, possible candidates are restricted to third person. Auxiliaries correspond-ing to uncommon argument-constellations fall gradually out of use. As a consequence of the obsolescence of verbal morphology, new strategies for the expression of syntactic relations (and semantic content) emerge. The evolutions illustrated in this paper are symptoms of the typological shift from agglutinative to fusional morphology, and even beyond, as parts of the grammar have entered what may be called “the post-fusional stage”. The influence of Romance contributes to the obsolescence as well as the preservation of morphologically complex forms.

Journal of Historical Linguistics, 2020

The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed overview of the changes undergone by the reflexive buru-construction in Basque under the light of grammaticalization theory. On the basis of quantitative historical data, the reflexive construction is argued to have undergone changes predicted by the grammaticalization path of reflexive markers: the distinction between regular and reflexive possessive pronouns is lost; anaphoric, non-reflexive uses of buru disappear; and number agreement between the subject and buru is no longer obligatory. The buru-construction is furthermore argued to have become more prevalent at the expense of other reflexivization strategies. As opposed to these changes, the reflexive construction seems to have degrammaticalized as well: the number of direct object uses of this construction decreases over time, and it occurs in subject position with more predicates in present-day written Basque than in the historical period. In view of these facts, an argument is made against unidirectional conceptions of grammaticalization. External motivations for these developments, such as the standardization of the language, are also considered.

Basque is well known for its complex verbal morphology, where the inflected verb, i.e. the predicate core, shows agreement with (or represents) up to three arguments, namely ergative, absolutive, and dative marked noun phrases. This entails that the syntactic relations between the core arguments and the verb complex are perfectly reflected in verbal and nominal morphology, by both head- and dependent marking. Moreover, Basque predicates indicate tense (present, past, hypothetical), mood (indicative vs. subjunctive) and realis vs. irrealis. This leads to a large number of possible forms, with a high degree of morpholological irregularity. While the replacement of finite lexical verbs by complex predicates involving auxiliaries is well documented, the gradual obsolescence of many auxiliary forms is an ongoing and less noted phenomenon. The Basque agreement pattern illustrates the syntactic hierarchy between the core arguments in different argument constellations. The argument at the top of the syntactic hierarchy, i.e. the subject, allows of most variation. Head-marking cross-referencing arguments further down on the hierarchy is increasingly restricted, so that in some cases only third person dependents can be cross-referenced. Basque thus exhibits both the Monotransitive and the Ditransitive Person-Role Constraint, albeit to different degrees. Auxiliaries corresponding to uncommon argument constellations fall gradually out of use. Frequency is therefore not only responsible for grammaticalization, but also for the subsequent disintegration of paradigms according to the Rarity Condition on Obsolescence. As a consequence of the obsolescence of verbal morphology, new strategies for the expression of syntactic relations (and semantic content) emerge. The evolution illustrated in this paper is a symptom of the typological shift from agglutinative to fusional morphology and beyond, and suggests that a very high degree of synthesis is incompatible with a high degree of fusion. In addition to language-internal factors, the influence of Romance contributes to the obsolescence as well as the preservation of morphologically complex forms.