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dc.contributor.authorGuajardo, Gustavo Ariel
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-11T07:51:22Z
dc.date.available2021-08-11T07:51:22Z
dc.date.issued2021-01-25
dc.description.abstractIn Spanish causative constructions with <i>dejar</i> ‘let’ and <i>hacer</i> ‘make’ the subject of the embedded infinitive verb can appear in the accusative or the dative case. This case alternation has been accounted for by resorting to the notion of direct vs. indirect causation. Under this account, the accusative clitic with a transitive verb denotes direct causation while the dative clitic with an intransitive verb expresses indirect causation. The problem with this account is that we lack an independent definition of (in)direct causation in this context and so this approach suffers from circularity: the case of the clitic is used to determine causation type and causation type implies use of one or the other grammatical case. Therefore, a more objective way to account for clitic case alternation is needed. In this paper, I offer one possible solution in this direction by investigating clitic case alternation against Hopper and Thompson’s Transitivity parameters and a small number of other linguistic variables. The novelty of this approach is that I operationalise Transitivity as a weighted continuous measure (which I call the Transitivity Index) and use it to predict the case of the clitic. The results indicate that the transitivity of the infinitive verb, the animacy of the object and the agentivity of the subject are strong predictors of clitic case. Moreover, the Transitivity Index clearly shows that higher levels of Transitivity are associated with the dative clitic contrary to other contexts in which accusative is said to be more transitive. The findings in this paper allow us to arrive at a finer-grained characterization of the contexts in which each clitic case is more likely to occur and provide further evidence of the pervasiveness of Transitivity in natural language.en_US
dc.identifier.citationGuajardo GA. The Transitivity Index: Using Transitivity as a continuous measure to account for clitic case alternation in Spanish causative constructions.. PLOS ONE. 2021en_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 1903472
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246834
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/21982
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.relation.journalPLOS ONE
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.rights.holderCopyright 2021 The Author(s)en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010::Spanish language: 026en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humaniora: 000::Språkvitenskapelige fag: 010::Spansk språk: 026en_US
dc.titleThe Transitivity Index: Using Transitivity as a continuous measure to account for clitic case alternation in Spanish causative constructions.en_US
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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