On some active participles with motion verbs

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the structures containing a participle combined with a motion verb, in cases such as venir plorat de casa (lit. ‘to come cried from home’ / intend. ‘to come after crying at home’). The interest of these data lies in the fact that the participles involved here are not active (plorat ‘cried’, tossit ‘coughed’), but they acquire an active reading when combined with verbs of movement (venir ‘come’, arribar ‘to arrive’). In this paper, we compile and describe the data that patterns this configuration and we propose some ideas for a possible formal analysis. Firstly, following Armstrong (2017), we propose that verbs such as ‘cry’ allow the formation of an active participle because they have an implicit object. We consider this active participle to be a secondary predicate selected by the verb. In particular, the participle projects a small clause which is an absolute construction, therefore it expresses an action which is finished and previous to the action of the main verb. Secondly, we propose that the main verb is an inherently directed motion verb that projects an unergative structure, and not an unaccusative one, what triggers an agentive interpretation of the subject.