Eckhard Bick - VISL

In (4d) ter ('have') does have monotransitive valency, but belongs to a verb class
that cannot be passivised 206 or reflexivised to yield a passive or reflexive meaning
(*muito dinheiro é tido [por ele], *muito dinheiro se tem, *muito dinheiro se tem a si
mesmo). Also, and disambiguationally more important, there is one @ACC candidate
already, exerting its prohibitive influence by means of the uniqueness principle. In (4e),
which is the kind of corpus jewel that makes the uniqueness principle (and many
generative grammars) sweat blood and tears, there are even three direct object
candidates, the object pronouns o and se, as well as the NP a maior veemência. Even if
one concedes the NP the status of post-positioned subject, o is so strong a direct object,
for morphological reasons, that a direct object se is in trouble with the uniqueness
principle. With a subject-se, however, o can be interpreted as a kind of place-holder for
the bigger NP-object later in the sentence, a technique not entirely uncommon in
Portuguese.
Another context where neither a reflexive nor a passive reading make sense, are
verb chains where a matrix verb governs a non-finite clause and "se" is linked, either by
fronting (4g) or by hyphenation (4f), to a matrix verb demanding a +HUM subject (a
condition clausal subjects can't comply with).
(4f)
Costuma- [costumar] V PR 3S IND VFIN @FAUX ‘usually’
se [se] PERS M/F 3S/P ACC/DAT @N ‘other’
benefícios [benefício] N M P @ ‘maybe’
se [se] PERS M/F 3S/P ACC/DAT @SUBJ> ‘one’
precisa [precisar] V PR 3S IND VFIN @FMV ‘needs’
acumular [acumular] V INF 0/1/3S @IMV @#ICL-