Acceso usuarios
Ana Rodet Iraola
This study is about impersonal sentences in Basque, that is, those sentences that allow an arbitrary interpretation of empty categories in subject position. Even though the paradigm of this interpretation are infinitival clauses, in this essay we analize those temporal syntactic configurations that allow this interpretation: Impersonal Sentences, Arbitrary Plurals an Singulars.
The study of these configurations will be divided according to the type of quantification expressed by the CV, since this characteristic is crucial when analyzing the properties of these configurations.
We conclude that the arbitrary reading of null subjects is linked to the node INFL and that the type of quantification expressed is irrelevant. Each type of quantification is the result of different licencing mechanisms. The AGR element is implied in existencial quantification (omission of one of its morphological characteristics or absorption of the verb's external thematic role). The TIME element, which is blocked by the generic operators, is related to the quasi-universal interpretation.
Basque morphology permits us to offer empirical evidence of the relationship between arbitrary interpretation and loss of inflectional material that exhibits the element AGR in INFL, as well as of the relationship between aspect and generic contexts.
Finally, some of the observed phenomena put into question some of the explanations given to this topic, which are linked to concrete markers of each particular language, and serve as a base for the search of general solutions capable of explaining similar phenomena observed in different languages.
