La interfaz sintaxis-pragmática: caída de objeto acusativo definido sin clítico en el español rioplatense.
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Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Escuela de Letras. Facultad de Humanidades y Artes. Universidad Nacional de Rosario
Abstract
Description
Como es sabido, el español
permite sujetos y objetos implícitos. Los
primeros se identifican por la morfología
flexiva verbal, mientras que los segundos,
por medio de clíticos como lo y le. También
se ha establecido que el español presenta
caída de objetos indefinidos sin
identificación morfológica. Aunque
usualmente se presupone que el español no
permite caída de objetos definidos sin
clítico, el español quiteño constituye una
excepción (Suñer y Yépez 1989). Este
trabajo examina la caída de objeto definido
no identificado (ODNI) en otra variedad
del español, a saber, el español rioplatense,
fenómeno no estudiado hasta ahora, como
en los siguientes ejemplos: ¿Retiro, señor? o
¿Quiere que le guarde? (por ejemplo, una
bandeja, o una valija, dicho por una
azafata), en lugar de ¿La retiro, señor? y
¿Quiere que se la guarde? Proponemos que en
términos generales estas instancias de caída
de objeto definido pueden analizarse como
en las lenguas temáticamente orientadas
como el chino, es decir, como una variable
ligada por un operador vacío, el que
ulteriormente está fuertemente ligado por
un tema o tópico. Sin embargo, como se
demostrará, los ODNI en el español
rioplatense están sujetos a severas
restricciones pragmáticas. Así, la entidad
referida debe ser prominente en el contexto
inmediato de la enunciación, presupuesta o
prototípica y, crucialmente, anclada al
tiempo de habla, es decir, debe ser deíctica,
por lo que no puede tratarse de una entidad
en el universo del discurso en sentido
amplio.
As is well-known, Spanish allows implicit subjects and objects. Subjects are identified by the agreement morphology on the verb, definite accusative objects by the clitic lo, and dative objects by the clitic le. It has also been established that Spanish allows unidentified indefinite object drop. Although the usual assumption is that Spanish generally disallows cliticless definite object drop, Quiteño Spanish constitutes a noteworthy exception, as Suñer and Yépez (1989) demonstrate. This paper examines unidentified definite object drop (UDOD) in yet another dialect of Spanish, viz., River Plate (RP, spoken in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina, and parts of Uruguay), a phenomenon which, as far as can be ascertained, has gone unnoticed up till now, as (1) and (2) illustrate: (1) ¿Retiro, señor? Take-away, sir? “Shall I take this away?” (e.g. the tray) (2) ¿Quiere que le guarde? Want-3PSG that CL-DAT put-1PSG “Would you like me to put it away for you?” (e.g. the suitcase) We propose that by and large, these instances of UDOD can be analyzed along the same lines as their counterparts in topic-oriented languages such as Chinese, for which the standard account is that the empty category is a variable bound by an operator, strongly bound, in turn, by a topic. However, as we shall demonstrate, UDOD in RP Spanish is subject to heavy pragmatic restrictions. Thus, the entity being referred to must be salient in the immediate context of utterance, presupposed or prototypical, and, crucially, anchored to speech time, i.e., it must be deictic, so that it cannot be an entity in the larger universe of discourse.
As is well-known, Spanish allows implicit subjects and objects. Subjects are identified by the agreement morphology on the verb, definite accusative objects by the clitic lo, and dative objects by the clitic le. It has also been established that Spanish allows unidentified indefinite object drop. Although the usual assumption is that Spanish generally disallows cliticless definite object drop, Quiteño Spanish constitutes a noteworthy exception, as Suñer and Yépez (1989) demonstrate. This paper examines unidentified definite object drop (UDOD) in yet another dialect of Spanish, viz., River Plate (RP, spoken in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina, and parts of Uruguay), a phenomenon which, as far as can be ascertained, has gone unnoticed up till now, as (1) and (2) illustrate: (1) ¿Retiro, señor? Take-away, sir? “Shall I take this away?” (e.g. the tray) (2) ¿Quiere que le guarde? Want-3PSG that CL-DAT put-1PSG “Would you like me to put it away for you?” (e.g. the suitcase) We propose that by and large, these instances of UDOD can be analyzed along the same lines as their counterparts in topic-oriented languages such as Chinese, for which the standard account is that the empty category is a variable bound by an operator, strongly bound, in turn, by a topic. However, as we shall demonstrate, UDOD in RP Spanish is subject to heavy pragmatic restrictions. Thus, the entity being referred to must be salient in the immediate context of utterance, presupposed or prototypical, and, crucially, anchored to speech time, i.e., it must be deictic, so that it cannot be an entity in the larger universe of discourse.
Keywords
Objeto nulo, Clítico, Variación dialectal, Restricciones temporales, Syntax-pragmatic interface, Null object, Clitic