Toward a Uniform Analysis of Romance SE

This paper discusses the analysis of the Romance anticausative proposed in Alexiadou et al. (2015) and expands their analysis to inherent reflexive verbs in Romance languages so that a uniform account of both anticausatives and inherent reflexives in Romance languages are provided, further shedding lights on antipassive constructions in non-ergative-absolutive languages. Based on observations on inherent reflexives in Alboiu et al. (2004), we propose a neo-Davidsonian structure for inherent reflexives adapting Alexiadou et al. s (2015) analysis of anticausatives. That is, while in normal transitives the object introducer has the feature set [λx, D], in inherent reflexives the object introducer merely has the feature [D]. In brief, then, we propose that the SE anaphor is introduced in object position and the theme is merged as an adjunct PP. The SE anaphor merely satisfies the need for an element with a D feature in object position but does not receive a theta-role. Under our proposal transitive reflexives, anticausatives, and inherent reflexives in Romance receive a monolithic analysis, bringing us toward a uniform analysis of Romance SE.