What’s the matter with main clauses? An emergentist account of complement constructions Victoria Vázquez Rozas [email protected] Universidade de Santiago de Compostela 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Complement constructions 1. Complement clauses a. The standard view b. Evidence against the standard view c. The binding hierarchy (Givón 1980) 2. 3. 4. What’s the matter with main clauses? Analysis of the Spanish data Conclusions 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The standard view “By complementation we mean the syntactic situation that arises when a notional sentence or predication is an argument of a predicate. For our purposes, a predication ca be viewed as an argument of a predicate if it functions as the subject or object of that predicate” (Noonan 1985: 42) “A complement clause is a subordinate clause that functions as an argument with respect to a governing element (the head)” (Achard 1998: 28) 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Consequences of the standard view It emphasizes the syntactic and distributional similarity of complement clauses and nominal (and pronominal) elements in object (or, less frequently, subject) function.[ex.] The emphasis on the identity between (pro)nominal and clausal constituents draws attention away from the main clause. Besides, the great diversity of complement clauses both across languages and in a particular language demands large research. 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Basic syntactic types of complement clauses in Spanish Infinitive (1) No dejaré a mi yerno chuparlo todo en Roccasera ‘I won’t let my son-in-law own everything in Roccasera’ (2) Roosevelt y Churchil decidieron abandonar a su antiguo aliado ‘R. & C. decided to abandon their former ally’ Subjunctive (3) Siento que te vaya tan mal ‘I am sorry you are going so bad’ Indicative (4) Plácida Linero pensó que había pasado el peligro ‘P.L. thought that the danger had come to an end’ (5) Creo que no tengo ni vocación ni talento ‘I suppose that I have neither vocation nor talent’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Aim of the analyses based in the standard view To describe and explain the differences in meaning and distribution of different types of complement clauses Focus of research: The morpho-syntactic coding of embedded clauses The semantic class of the matrix verb, which seems to correlate with the syntactic type of the embedded clause. 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Evidence against the standard view Thompson (2002) – discusses the ‘object status’ of complement clauses – points to the restrictions in the argument structure of the ‘complement taking predicates’ (CTP) – highlights the modal-evaluative communicative function of CTP Parenthetical constructions Hoffmann (1926) refers to the use of “verba dicendi and cogitandi” as parentheses within the sentences “which only indicate a subjective attitude of the speaker and they tend to get petrified almost like particles and to enclitizise”. Ex.: (Cic.) magnum, credo, acciperet dolorem. 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Evidence against the standard view • • As for Spanish: Strong tendency of verbs creer ‘believe/think’ and pensar ‘think’ to be used in 1st p s present tense with clausal objects (Weber & Bentivoglio 1991) Parenthetical uses: (i) Es que si a usted no le dejasen invitar a quien usted estimase oportuno, usted no estaría aquí, supongo. (CREA. España, oral) ‘The thing is if you were not allowed to invite whoever you felt appropriate, you would not be here, I suppose’ (ii) han debido ser unos momentos terribles, me imagino ¿no? (CREA. España, oral) ‘Those must have been terrible moments, I imagine, right?’ These facts facts suggest suggest that that the the use use of of complement complement clauses clauses is has some These also effects oninthe clauses reflected themain syntax and semantics of the main clauses. 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The ‘binding hierarchy’ (Givón 1980) Givón (1980) shows that the syntactic structure of the complement clauses correlates strongly with the relative independence of the event coded by the subordinate verb with respect to the main event. Givón’s account is intended to explain the relation between the meaning of main verbs and complement constructions, but it can be extended to the cases where the same verb takes different complement types. 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) What is the matter with main clauses? The relative (in)dependence of the complement clause is reflected also in the syntax and semantics of the main clause At the syntactic level: a higher degree of independence of the embedded clause correlates with the narrowing of combinatory possibilities of the main verb, while more dependent complements (more similar to nominal objects) determine the least restrictions in the morpho-syntactic construction of the matrix verb. At the semantic-conceptual level: the propositional-referential meaning of the main clause go through a subjectivization process, and, as a consequence, the main clause no longer stands for a ‘real’ event (a situation with its participants and circumstances). 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The data The ARTHUS corpus of the University of Santiago de Compostela. Syntactic data for each of the 158,954 clauses are recorded in the Base de datos sintácticos del español actual ‘Syntactic database of contemporary Spanish’ (http://www.bds.usc.es/) Genre Words % Clauses % Essay 257.718 17,78% 20.013 12,59% Narrative 538.906 37,19% 72.425 45,56% Oral 273.070 18,85% 25.143 15,82% Journalism 166.804 11,51% 13.247 Theatre 212.507 14,66% 28.126 17,69% Total 1.449.005 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) 158.954 8,33% Table 1. The most frequent verbs in SUBJECT-DIR.OBJ (cl que+ indicative) pattern and percentage of the construction over the total uses of the verb (BDS data) Verb Frequency % 1198 77.24 saber ‘know’ 549 22.84 pensar ‘think’ 412 52.02 decir ‘say’ 363 43.70 ver ‘see’ 226 9.89 recordar ‘remember’ 157 24.38 comprender ‘understand’ 106 33.97 suponer ‘suppose’ 96 43.24 asegurar ‘assure’ 93 69.92 afirmar ‘claim’ 87 71.31 considerar ‘consider’ 82 80.39 creer ‘believe’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Fig. 1. Distribution of the subject’s person 70 60 50 40 1st s 2nd s 3rd s 30 20 10 0 Total BDS (124,107) Cogn v (3,833) Cogn v + compl (1,796) 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Fig. 2. Distribution of the indicative present 80 70 60 50 40 Ind pres 30 20 10 0 Total BDS (57,384/158,954) Cogn v (2,299/3,986) Cogn v + compl (1,280/1,819) 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Fig. 3. Distribution of the subject’s person according to the category of the direct object 80 70 60 50 1st p s 2nd p s 3rd p s 40 30 20 10 0 NP Inf Cl "que" Cl + "que" Cl + subj indic 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Fig. 4. Distribution of the verbal tense (indicative present) according to the category of the direct object 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Indicative present NP Inf Cl "que Cl + "que" Cl subj + indic 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Fig. 5. Relative distribution of 1st person subjects and indicative present tense in main clauses (pred: creer, pensar, suponer, considerar) according to the type of complement clause in object function 80 70 60 50 Inf Cl "que" Cl + ind 40 30 20 10 0 1st p s Ind pres 1st p pres 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Temer que+subjunctive (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Ella guardó silencio, me miró sorprendida, y yo temí que se negara (Sur: 92, 25) ‘She was quiet, she looked at me surprised, and I was afraid that she denied’ Miró a derecha e izquierda, como si temiera que alguien pudiera estarnos escuchando (Laberinto: 238, 13) ‘S/he looked at the right and the left as if s/he were afraid that someone could be listening to us’ [Jano] temía que se enrareciera la atmósfera del balneario (Carta: 71, 1) ‘[Jano] was afraid that the atmosphere of the spa got heavy’ Por primera vez temí que pudieras condenarte de verdad (Sur: 22, 21) For the first time I was afraid that you could really be condemned Cuando el telón hubo caído, la sala se hubo vaciado y despuntaba el alba tras los alcores, empecé a temer que algo le hubiera pasado a mi Clotildita (Laberinto: 155, 13) ‘When the curtain had fallen, the room was emptied, and rose the dawn behind the hills, I started to fear that something had happened to my Clotildita’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Temer(se) que + indicative (11) David empezaba a temer que las imágenes de los dos mundos […] pertenecían a dos caras de la misma moneda (Jóvenes: 33, 37) ‘David started to fear that the images of the two worlds […] belonged to the two heads of the same coin’ (12) Me temo que has agotado nuestra bodega (Hombre: 58, 5) ‘I’m afraid that you had drained our ‘wine-cellar’’ (13) Bien, bien, ahora es más claro […]. Temo que antes no lo había entendido (Mirada: 17, 13) ‘Well, well, now is clearer […]. I’m afraid I hadn’t understood before’ (14) Mucho me temo que aunque hubieran encontrado lo que buscaban no nos habrían dejado en paz (Laberinto: 82, 1) ‘I’m really afraid that even if they had found what they looked for, they wouldn’t have let us in peace’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Creer en + NP (15) [N]o creyó del todo en tu enfermedad hasta que te encontró aquí a la vuelta, tirado en la calle (Historias: 39, 5) S/he didn’t believe entirely in your desease until he found you besides here, dropped on the street’ (16) Hubo un tiempo en que yo creía en la resurrección de la carne y en el perdón de los pecados (Ayer: 61, 31) ‘There was a time when didn’t believe in the resurrection of the flesh’ (17) Aquella noche yo empecé a creer en algo (Ochenta: 98, 11) ‘That night I started to believe in something’ (18) La Xunta cree "profundamente“ en el proyecto (2VOZ: 55, 2, 0, 1) ‘The Government deeply believes in the project’ (19) ¡Claro que creo en él! (Madrid: 141, 25) Of course that I believe in him’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Creer + infinitive (20) De buena fe creí estar muerto (Laberinto: 130, 5) ‘Faithfully I believed to be dead’ (21) [P]retendía ser escritor, aunque pienso que ya creía serlo (Sur: 48, 9) ‘He intended to be a writer, even though I think that he already believed to be’ (22) Pero no puedo menos de volver al pasado, cuando los cinco, mis padres, mis hermanos y yo, creíamos tener la fórmula de la felicidad (Jóvenes: 83, 16) But I can’t even come back to the past, when we five, my parents, my brothers and I believed to have the formula of the happiness’ (23) Creyó ahogarse sin remisión hasta que un golpe de tos le proveyó de aire (Mirada: 20, 2) S/he believed to drown her/himself without remission until a blow of cough provided her/him of air’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Creer que + indicative (24) Creía que su plata lo hacía intocable (Crónica: 101, 30) ‘S/he believed that her/his silver made her/him untouchable’ (25) Yo no necesitaba más para enamorarme, pues creía entonces que era eso lo que me había ocurrido con él (Sur: 35, 8) ‘I didn’t need anything else to be in love, because I believed then that it was what had happened to me about him’ (26) ¿Pero cuánto, cuánto cree que puede durar? (Jóvenes: 122, 34) ‘But how long, how long do you suppose that it can last?’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Creer que + indicative (25) Creo que ya empiezo a ver (Ternura: 30, 27) ‘I think that I already start to see’ (26) Creo que no tengo ni vocación ni talento (Laberinto: 128, 34) ‘I suppose that I have neither vocation nor talent’ (27) Consulté el reloj: eran las cinco y cuarto. --Creo que voy a hacer otra visita a la agencia (Laberinto: 87, 2) ‘I checked the watch: it was a quarter past five. I think that I will visit the agency again’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) The effects of the complement constructions on the main clauses. Some examples. Creer que + indicative (inserted) (30) a ella la votaron creo que veinte mil (CREA, oral) ‘Probably twenty thousand (people) vote for her’ Creo (parenthetical) (32) Usted está, creo, trabajando en un documental entorno [sic] a su país en estos momentos (CREA, oral) ‘You are, I think, working on a documentary about your country at this time’ 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) Conclusions Spanish corpus data presented do far seem to confirm the idea that differences in complement constructions are shown also through main clause patterns, both at the syntactic and at the conceptual level. (i) At the syntactic level, a higher degree of independence of the embedded clause correlates with the narrowing of combinatory possibilities of the matrix verb, while, more dependent complements (more similar to nominal objects) determine the least restrictions in the morpho-syntactic construction of the matrix verb. (ii) At the conceptual level, the propositional-referential meaning of the main clause go through a subjectivization process, and, as a consequence, the main clause no longer stands for a ‘real’ event (a situation with its participants and circumstances). 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007) References Achard, Michel (1998): Representation of Cognitive Structures. Syntax and Semantics of French Sentential Complements, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter. Bentivoglio, Paola y Elizabeth G. Weber (1999). “El perfil discursivo del verbo saber en el español hablado en Venezuela”. En A. Morales et al., eds., Estudios de la lingüística hispánica: homenaje a María Vaquero, San Juan: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, pp. 90-109. Cristofaro, Sonia (2003): Subordination, Oxford, Oxford UP. Dixon, R.M.W. and Aikhenvald, Alexandra (2006): Complement clauses and complementation strategies: a cross-linguistic typology, Oxfor, Oxford UP. Givón, T. (1980): “The binding hierarchy and the typology of complements”, Studies in Language, 4/3, 333-377. Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1926): Lateinische Umgangssprache, Heidelberg, Carl Winter. Translation to Spanish of J. Corominas, El latín familiar, Madrid, Instituto Antonio de Nebrija, 1958. Horie, Kaoru (2000): Complementation, Amsterdam, John Benjamins. Kärkkäinen, Elise (2003): Epistemic stance in English conversation. A description of its interactional functions, with a focus on ‘I think’, Amsterdam, John Benjamins. Noonan, Michael (1985): “Complementation”. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic Description, II (Complex Constructions). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 42140. Thompson, Sandra A. (2002): “Object complements and conversation: Towards a realistic account”, Studies in language, 26/1. 125-164. Thompson, Sandra A. & Anthony Mulac (1991): “A Quantitative Perspective on the Grammaticization of Epistemic Parentheticals in English”. In Elizabeth Traugott and Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization, II. Amsterdam, John Benjamins. 313-339. Weber, Elizabeth G. y Paola Bentivoglio (1991): “Verbs of cognition in spoken Spanish: a discourse profile”. In S. Fleischman y Linda R. Waugh (eds.), Discourse-Pragmatics and the Verb, Routledge, Londres y Nueva York. 194-213 10th ICLC (Krakow, July 2007)