Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish
- Barrajón López, Elisa (coord.)
- Cifuentes Honrubia, José Luis (coord.)
- Rodríguez Rosique, Susana (coord.)
Editorial: John Benjamins
ISBN: 978-90-272-6785-6, 978-90-272-4015-6
Año de publicación: 2015
Páginas: 110-130
Tipo: Capítulo de Libro
Resumen
This paper analyzes the transitive/intransitive alternation in class 2 psychological verbs of Belletti and Rizzi. The transitive variant implies an agentive subject and an aspectual change of state. The intransitive variant implies a cause and a locative state. Spanish class 2 psychological verbs are causative due to the cause component conflated in the verbal structure which gives rise to the verb: most of the psychological verbs with a transitive/intransitive alternation are denominal or deadjetival causative verbs from Romance origin. Some others come from a Latin denominal or deadjectival structure or from a causative meaning which comes as a result of an evolution in their meaning (usually agentive and local). Psychological verbs result from a conflation process by means of which the verb semantically incorporates the psychological element - as it results from a verbal lexicalization of the emotional or psychological noun or adjective, thus shaping a complex predicate. Psychological verbs are consequently complex predicates with a semantically incorporated psychological element.