"The reflexive constructions that are the focus of this book are the constructions broadly described with the term "middle": i.e., those that can appear in all persons, and in which the reflexive marker (RM) cannot be understood as a full referential pronoun. One goal of this study is to provide a corpus-based typology of middle and related uses that allow us to compare the behaviour of the RM in these constructions with previous typological accounts, where competing models (based either on changes of diathesis or on the semantics of the verbal event) can be found. A second goal is to shed light on the evolution of the different functions of the RM, by exploring the factors that affect its productivity, with a specific focus on those verbs where reflexive marking is most variable, that is, anticausative verbs and verbs with no change of valency. Spanish and Galician, though closely-related and neighbouring languages, show rather different productivity in terms of these reflexive constructions and are thus good candidates for a contrastive and variationist analysis serving these two goals. The semantic class of the predicate, its aspectual properties and the animacy of the subject are some of the most relevant factors that are taken into account to understand the motivations behind the presence (or absence) of the RM. By relying on a corpus of interviews from rural communities across peninsular Spain (except Catalonia), space as a relevant extra-linguistic variable is taken into account, helping uncover previously unknown geographical patterns"--.

• The Middle Voice and Connected Constructions in Ibero-Romance
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1. Reflexive constructions: An introduction
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Reflexive constructions in the varieties under study: State of the art
    • 1.2.1 Purely reflexive and reciprocal verbs
    • 1.2.2 The relationship of the reflexive verb and its unmarked counterpart
    • 1.2.3 Semantic criteria in typologies of paradigmatic reflexive constructions
    • 1.2.4 “Difficult cases”
    • 1.2.5 Summary
  • 1.3 The diachrony of reflexive constructions
    • 1.3.1 Overall development
    • 1.3.2 Indirect reflexive constructions
    • 1.3.3 From reflexive to reciprocal
    • 1.3.4 From reflexive to middle
    • 1.3.5 Reflexive intransitive and transitive verbs
    • 1.3.6 Summary
  • 1.4 Typological approaches to reflexive and middle constructions
    • 1.4.1 Voice and diathesis
    • 1.4.2 The middle voice
    • 1.4.3 The middle voice as a derived voice
    • 1.4.4 The middle voice as a basic voice
  • 1.5 Theoretical framework
    • 1.5.1 Language change and variation
    • 1.5.2 Mechanisms of language change
    • 1.5.3 Spatial diffusion of language change
• Chapter 2. Methodology
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 The COSER data
    • 2.2.1 Selected interviews
    • 2.2.2 Collection of examples
    • 2.2.3 Analysis of the data
    • 2.2.4 Note on spelling and linguistic representation
  • 2.3 Other sources
    • 2.3.1 Video questionnaire
    • 2.3.2 Written examples
  • 2.4 Technical notes
    • 2.4.1 Statistical methods
    • 2.4.2 Geographical representation
• Chapter 3. The middle voice in Spanish
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 The middle voice as a derived voice
    • 3.2.1 Subject deletion diathesis: Anticausative verbs
    • 3.2.2 Object-deletion diatheses: Absolute constructions
    • 3.2.3 Object-deletion diatheses: De-objective verbs
    • 3.2.4 Subject-demoting diathesis: Conversive verbs
    • 3.2.5 Object-demoting diathesis: Antipassive verbs
    • 3.2.6 No change of diatheses: Reflexive intransitive verbs
    • 3.2.7 No change of diatheses: Non-reversible verbs
  • 3.3 The middle as a basic voice: Semantics of the middle domain
    • 3.3.1 Body action middles
      • 3.3.1.1 Grooming or body care actions
      • 3.3.1.2 Body processes
      • 3.3.1.3 Change in body posture events
      • 3.3.1.4 Non-translational motion events
      • 3.3.1.5 Translational motion events
    • 3.3.2 The cognition middle
      • 3.3.2.1 Emotion events
      • 3.3.2.2 Cognition events
      • 3.3.2.3 Perception events
    • 3.3.3 Spontaneous events
    • 3.3.4 Naturally reciprocal events
    • 3.3.5 Verbs with no semantic ascription in Kemmer’s account
    • 3.3.6 Pseudocopulative or attributive verbs
    • 3.3.7 The RM in auxiliary verbs
  • 3.4 The middle voice in Spanish and Galician: A basic or a derived voice?
• Chapter 4. Anticausative verbs in Spanish
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Different kinds of anticausative verbs
    • 4.2.1 Rest of the territory
    • 4.2.2 North-western varieties
  • 4.3 Externally and internally caused events
  • 4.4 The aspectual properties of the predicate
  • 4.5 The event structure of the predicate: The acceptability of datives
  • 4.6 Animacy of the subject
  • 4.7 Generalised linear mixed model
  • 4.8 Conclusions
• Chapter 5. Reflexive intransitive verbs
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Analogical effects of the semantic class of the verb
  • 5.3 Analogical effects of the animacy of the subject
  • 5.4 Intransitive reflexive verbs of translational motion
  • 5.5 Morir(se) and caer(se)
  • 5.6 Corporal (physical and psychological) processes
  • 5.7 Quedar(se), estar(se) and esperar(se)
  • 5.8 Spontaneous pasar(se)
  • 5.9 More sporadic analogies
  • 5.10 Conclusion
• Chapter 6. Reflexive transitive verbs
  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Indirect reflexive constructions
    • 6.2.1 Recipient datives
    • 6.2.2 Autobenefactives
    • 6.2.3 Possessive datives
    • 6.2.4 Indirect detransitivised constructions
  • 6.3 Transitive verbs: General considerations
  • 6.4 Inherently autobenefactive transitive verbs
  • 6.5 Verbs of consumption
    • 6.5.1 Emphasis in autobenefactives and reflexive transitive verbs
  • 6.6 Verbs of spending time
  • 6.7 Verbs of cognition
    • 6.7.1 Saber(se) ‘to know’, aprender(se) ‘to learn’, estudiar(se) ‘to study’
    • 6.7.2 Creer(se) ‘to believe’, imaginar(se) ‘to imagine’
    • 6.7.3 Dar(se) cuenta ‘to realise’: Cognition light verb structures
  • 6.8 Corporal processes
  • 6.9 Verbs of finding and forgetting: Lack of intentionality
  • 6.10 Transitive reflexive verbs of translational motion
    • 6.10.1 Transitive reflexive verbs of translational motion with a direct object that conveys a path
    • 6.10.1 Transitive reflexive verbs of translational motion with a direct object that conveys a path
  • 6.11 Allobenefactives
  • 6.12 Conclusion
• Chapter 7. Conclusions
  • 7.1 A variationist study of the middle voice
  • 7.2 The nature of the middle voice in the varieties under study
  • 7.3 The RM in verbs with no change of diathesis
• References
• Appendix 1. Localities interviewed with the corpus COSER
• Appendix 2. Questionnaire videos
• Appendix 3. Localities interviewed with the questionnaire
• Appendix 4. List of analysed verbs and their classification
• Appendix 5. List of verbs analysed in corpus eseuTenTen11
• Index