Perfective auxiliaries, aspect and grammaticalisation in Spanish
The study of auxiliaries has concerned linguists of many persuasions for decades generating an ample body of research. Important questions of this research have revolved around several issues. Firstly, whether the category of auxiliaries form a uniform category across languages or whether there is cross-linguistic variation. Secondly, the issue of whether auxiliaries form a distinct and discrete category from lexical verbs or whether they are categorically related to them. Thirdly, the traditional open/closed or lexical/functional part of speech divide. In this thesis we investigate these issues within the context of Generative grammar where they have been taken up and translated into questions with important implications. In connection with the first question it is generally assumed in this literature that auxiliaries are discrete and form a universal category. In other words, this means that auxiliaries are uniform across languages. The second question is connected to the way auxiliaries are represented in a syntactic tree and is translated as whether auxiliaries project in Syntax as verbs (i.e. as VÂ° level categories) or as the distinct category âauxiliaryâ (or AUX). Finally, the functional/lexical
Robinson, Martha G.
Perfective auxiliaries, aspect and grammaticalisation in Spanish. The study of auxiliaries has concerned linguists of many persuasions for decades generating an ample body of research. Important questions of this research have revolved around several issues. Firstly, whether the category of auxiliaries form a uniform category across languages or whether there is cross-linguistic variation. Secondly, the issue of whether auxiliaries form a distinct and discrete category from lexical verbs or whether they are categorically related to them. Thirdly, the traditional open/closed or lexical/functional part of speech divide. In this thesis we investigate these issues within the context of Generative grammar where they have been taken up and translated into questions with important implications. In connection with the first question it is generally assumed in this literature that auxiliaries are discrete and form a universal category. In other words, this means that auxiliaries are uniform across languages. The second question is connected to the way auxiliaries are represented in a syntactic tree and is translated as whether auxiliaries project in Syntax as verbs (i.e. as VÂ° level categories) or as the distinct category âauxiliaryâ (or AUX). Finally, the functional/lexical
perfective auxiliary aspect spanish study auxiliary concerned linguist many persuasion decade generate ample body research important_question revolve_around several issue firstly whether category auxiliary form uniform category across languages whether cross_linguistic variation secondly issue whether auxiliary form distinct discrete category lexical verb whether categorically relate them thirdly traditional open closed lexical_functional part speech divide investigate_issue within_context generative_grammar take translated question important_implication connection first question_generally assume literature discrete form universal category word mean auxiliary uniform across_language second question connect way auxiliary represent syntactic tree translate whether auxiliary project syntax verb level category distinct_category auxiliary finally functional lexical