Capeverdean reflexives: the importance of a silent Voice

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Published: 02-08-2014

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Fernanda Pratas
Universidade de Lisboa
Portugal
Biography
Vol 6 (2014), Pescuda
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15304/elg.6.1776
Submitted: 12-04-2014 Accepted: 29-07-2014 Published: 02-08-2014
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Abstract

In Capeverdean, a Portuguese-based Creole language, many reflexive contexts do not show any overt reflexi­ve expression. This is the case of transitive verbs like bisti ‘dress’ in simple clauses: Ana bisti ‘Ana has dressed herself’. This is a perplexing fact, given that there is an anaphor of the SELF-type available in the language: (si) kabesa — literally ‘his/her head’ —, meaning ‘himself/ herself’, which participates in reflexive clauses with other verbs. The current paper explores this puzzle, en­ding with a proposal supported empirically and also by recent studies for other languages. This novel analysis goes as follows: all Capeverdean finite sentences, ex­cept unaccusatives, have a Voice head, responsible for assigning external theta-roles. This also includes middles, passives and this type of reflexives. It is this Voice head that, in spite of being silent, attracts the internal argument to a preverbal position and provides the in­terpretation for an implicit external argument, which is syntactically active.

Keywords:

Capeverdean, reflexives, passive constructions, Voice projection, implicit arguments
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