Eckhard Bick - VISL

While (2c-e) can be described as process or event verbs 202 without explicitable agent,
and the agent in (2a-b) is in the subject, it is unexpressed but explicitably non-subject in
(3a-c):
(3a) Collor pode eleger-se deputado (pelos amigos). ('Collor may be elected MP.')
(3b) Derrubam-se as estátuas. ('Statues are [being] overthrown.)
(3c) Cobram-se mensalidades .... ('Monthly fees are charged.')
(3d) jamais se soube como ... ('it was never known how ..')
Here, Collor is subject, but not agent, and the subjects in (3b) - (3d), being inanimate,
are not even semantically potential agents. In (3d) the problem is slightly different - if
se is to be a (reflexive) direct object, then the other argument of the cognitive verb must
be +HUM, which the interrogative clausal FS como ... clearly is not.
Rather, in all of (3), the patient role is represented by both subject and object. I
would like to argue that "se" in (3) is not reflexive at all, neither analytically nor
lexically. One solution for saving the uniqueness principle with regard to thematic roles
in (3a) is to opt for a condensed causative matrix reading ('Collor can let/make himself
be elected MP'), which is not, however, especially self-evident in the surface-structure
of the Portuguese sentence. Estátuas, mensalidades and como ... , in (3b-d), are not
even semantically capable of being agents, so a causative reading would not be an
option anyway. Rather, all four examples can be described as (reflexive) passives 203 ,
where the "reflexive" pronoun functions somewhat like the '-s' morpheme in the
Scandinavian "reflexive" synthetic passive ('Månedlige gebyrer opkræves.'), though
"se" in the Portuguese construction is not a bound morpheme, and not even obligatorily
enclitic 204 . In my parser I have therefore chosen a hybrid tag, @ACC-PASS, that at the
same time satisfies surface syntactic necessities (i.e. having a [surface-] direct object for
obligatorily transitive verbs) and the pseudo-morphological function of passivisation.
Thus, due to the @ACC function tag, both true reflexives (2) and passive
constructions (3) are more or less in harmony with the morphological accusative case
tag of “se”:
202 I am here applying a simple two-feature typology, that is also used in my lexicon designate the semantic class, of deverbal
nouns (cp. 6.3.2):
imperfective perfective
+ Agent-subject, + Control activity action
- Agent-subject, - Control process event
203 In the context of this chapter, the term (reflexive) passive will be applied to instances where pronominal se roles as
PATIENT, with no AGENT subject present or implied by the main verb's subject selection restrictions, and with number
agreement permitting a non-subject reading for se.
204 Diachronically, enclitic pronouns are on the retreat in Brazilian Portuguese.
- 330 -