The Passive-Reflexive Syncretism: A Cross-linguistic Study

• Grant number: 11/21973-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2012
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Scher
• Grantee: João Paulo Lazzarini Cyrino
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/21697-0 - An argument approach to the passive-reflexive syncretism, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Through the term Passive-Reflexive Syncretism one can understand de insertion of a same morphological mark in reflexive, passive and anti-causative constructions. The phenomenon is considered to be very common within the languages and it has been approached by Generative Theory mainly in two different ways: on one hand, it is said that the syncretism is consequence of a common syntactical property shared by the contexts of insertion of the morpheme. On another, it is considered that, actually, te contexts in which the morpheme is inserted share the same semantical representation.From what it has been seen, both ways of approaching the phenomenon have important theoretical issues and their explanations cannot apply to so many languages as expected. Through the observation of the behaviour of a group of diverse languages concerning the passive-reflexive syncretism, it is possible to say that within Generative Theory, the mainstream theories approaching such syncretism fail by not having in account - among other factors - that of which the syncretical morpheme not always is provenient from the same paradigm within the languages, hence, nothing asures us that, within the languages, they are occupying the same grammatical function.This project presents an investigation proposal on the passive-reflexive syncretism based in the differences among languages in relation to it. Through a typologically oriented study of the behaviour differences of the syncretism cross-linguistically, we intend to present more precise generalizations on the phenomenon so as to explain it more reasonably within Generative Theory.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

CYRINO, João Paulo Lazzarini. The passive-reflexive syncretism: a crosslinguistic study.. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.