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Nominal Infinitives in Spanish: An Aspectual Constraint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Elena De Miguel
Elena De Miguel*
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide an analysis of two types of Spanish infinitival constructions headed by a determiner. In an attempt to define the categorial status of the infinitive morpheme, it is proposed that there are two homophonous infinitival morphemes which project two different structures: one of them is inflectional in nature and projects clausal configurations; the other one is derivational in nature and projects nominal structures. This latter suffix carries an activity aspect and attaches only to aspectually compatible verbal stems. This proposal explains the different properties and contexts for the two structures analysed, and, more interestingly, provides an account for a number of data that remained unexplained in previous analyses.

Résumé

Résumé

Le but de cet article est de présenter une analyse de deux types de constructions infinitives introduites par un déterminant en espagnol. L’examen du statut catégoriel du morphème d’infinitif conduit à l’hypothèse qu’il existe deux morphèmes homophones d’infinitif projetant deux structures différentes. L’un, de nature flexionnelle, projette des configurations phrastiques; l’autre, de nature dérivationnelle, projette des structures nominales. Ce dernier suffixe comporte une information aspectuelle d’activité et ne peut être affixé qu’à des bases verbales aspectuellement compatibles. Cette hypothèse permet d’expliquer la diversité des propriétés et des contextes des structures en question et rend compte notamment d’un certain nombre de faits encore non expliqués.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 29 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1996

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