Mirror symmetries in the internal order of absolute constructions: from Old Catalan to Contemporary Catalan

Abstract

Abstract: Absolute constructions are supposed to display the main syntactic and interpretive properties of adverbial subordinate clauses but, in contrast to them, they lack any overt subordinating element. This article provides arguments against this hypothesis. On the basis of the argument fronting in Old and Modern Catalan, it will be claimed that absolute constructions introduced by una vegada and un cop in Catalan do have a subordinator which is compositionally built up from two discontinuous portions: on the one hand, a preposition which is incorporated in the sub-lexical structure of the participle, as proposed by Gallego & Hernanz (2012) and, on the other hand, a time expression (una vegada, un cop) that encodes an anteriority value with respect the event taking place in the main clause.

Key words: absolute construction, word order, left periphery, topic, grammaticalisation, adverbial subordination.