Les oracions triargumentals causatives dels verbs psicològics catalans d'interès

Abstract

Summary: This paper analyses simple tri-argumental causative sentences with Catalan psych verbs of interest (aficionar ‘to take up’, apassionar ‘to be passionate about’, entusiasmar ‘to be thrilled’, il∙lusionar ‘to get excited by’, interessar ‘to be interested in’) that do not fulfil Pesetsky’s Target/Subject Matter (T/SM) Restriction (1995): L’Arnau va interessar la Meritxell {en/per} la literatura (‘Arnau interested Meritxell in literature’). They are considered to have a complex bi-clausal argumental structure identical to that of sentences with the causative periphrasis fer ‘make’ + infinitive, but with the verb fer being silent. Both contain a dominant event nucleus v_DOP and a defective functional domain (CP, TP and VoiceP) in the infinitive clause. This structure is compared with that of causatives with a subordinate clause introduced with the conjunction que ‘that’, which have a dominant event nucleus v_GOP, and a complete functional domain (CP and TP). Lastly, this structure can be given more lexical content to form a periphrasis with a modal verb or equivalent, the structure of which is also analysed, together with that of constructions with other periphrases that have a pronominal psych verb in the subordinate clause. Keywords: Catalan, argumental structure, causative sentence, tri-argumental sentence, psych verb of interest, Target/Subject Matter Restriction