Eckhard Bick - VISL

(2c) Parou de chover. ‘(it) stopped raining.’
(2d) Pare de molestar a irmã! ‘stop molesting ..!’
The meaning shift from AG/+CONTR to PAT/-CONTR ”hurts” more in (2b) than in
(1b), but the fact, that – formally – all 4 verbs pass the passivisation test and fail the
subclause substitution test, seems enough to include them in the auxiliary set.
In Portuguese, there is a large group of reflexive matrix-verbs (acostumar-se a,
lembrar-se de, negar-se a/de) most of which pass the same-subject test, making them
auxiliary candidates. However, all of them fail the passivisation test due to the syntactic
object status of ”se”. Since most don’t pass the pronoun fronting, imperative and
selection restriction tests, either, they will here be excluded from the auxiliary set.
In all, the set then comprises of 22 verbs that all express either tense, voice,
modality or aktionsart (cp. bold faced verbs in list at end of chapter).
Those concatenating verbs, that according to the above criteria do not qualify as
auxiliaries, but – unlike full verbs governing ICLs – do permit non-nominative
pronouns as subject of the ICL (and can front those object pronouns), can be grouped as
transobjective constructions, and here, some intuitive semantic subclasses can be
distinguished also in more formal ways. The ACI-verbs ver, ouvir, sentir (3a) demand
accusative case, permit infinitive inflexion with NP subjects, and can govern
÷CONTROL verbs (”processes”), whereas causatives permit (3a1) or demand (3a2)
dative, or a mediating preposition before the infinitive (3c), and govern mostly
+CONTROL verbs (”actions or activities”).
The different classes of auxiliaries and other concatenating verbs are shown in
table (2) below. Classification criteria are (a) whether the subject of the infinitive clause
is the same as for the matrix verb, (b) what kind of verb-complements are allowed in
between the verb of the matrix clause (MC) and the verb of the infinitive clause (ICL),
(c) the (simple or double) case function of such interposed complements, (d) whether or
not fronting of (ICL-) object pronouns to the left of the matrix verb is possible, and (e)
whether or not the infinitive in the ICL is person-inflected.
(2) Typology of Portuguese auxiliaries and other concatenating verbs
@SUBJ of ICL
complements
allowed in
between MCverb
and ICL
same as for
matrix verb
pronouns
- 241 -
other than for matrix verb
pronouns NP