Eckhard Bick - VISL

different subjects of matrix and subclause imply two clauses and make one-clausepassivisation
impossible:
O rei mandou matar a ovelha.
*A ovelha mandou ser morta pelo rei.
For the same reason, both test-sets sharply exclude ACI- and causative constructions,
and the verbs concerned will here be kept outside the auxiliary camp.
A problem with the subject identity test is that some of the preposition-mediated
and a few other auxiliary candidates have a double status - they can sometimes appear
as full verbs governing preposition phrases with ICL-arguments substituting for NParguments.
In this case, the subject of the infinitive clause must be expressed, it must be
in the nominative if pronominal, and there would be inflexion agreement between the
infinitive (thus personal) and its subject:
Gostaria de eles me visitarem
(as opposed to the auxiliary reading in eles gostam de viajar)
Temo de (eles) cairem
(as opposed to the ”auxiliary” reading in temo de cair)
I tend to think that the reason for, for instance, gostar and supor allowing a different
subject in its ICL complement, and tencionar not allowing it, is semantico-lexical rather
than proof of these verbs’ membership in to different syntactic classes. Opting for the
passivisation criterion for auxiliarity, we could hold that subject identity across matrix
and subclause is just one of three possible semantic permutations for the subjects of
ICL-complements (same subject, different subject or either), and that the criterion of
same subject is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for auxiliarity.
A problem with the passivisation test is that some candidate verbs (começar a/de,
continuar a/de, deixar de, parar de) can appear both with a PAT/-CONTR subject (1c,
2c) or a AG/+CONTR subject (1a, 2a), yielding two different meanings and conflicting
results with the passivisation (1c, 2c) and imperative tests (1d, 2d). And while their
complements fail the finite subclause substitution test, they do take direct np-objects
without apparent change in meaning, unlike all other verbs in the set: “começou a
aula”, or“parou o cavalo”.
(1a) A empresa continua a produzir o antigo modelo. ‘.. continues to produce ...’
(1b) O antigo modelo continua a ser produzido. ‘.. continues to be produced’
(1c) A inflação continua a crescer. ‘.. keeps increasing.’
(1d) Continue a produzir o antigo modelo! ‘go on producing ..!
(2a) Pára de molestar a irmã. ‘(he) stops molesting ...’
(2b) ?A irmã pára de ser molestada. ‘.. stops being molested.’
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