La Preferència per la posposició dels subjectes definits en les construccions inacusatives: un tret desapercebut del català nord-occidental

Abstract

The preference for the postposition of definite subjects in unaccusative constructions. A hitherto unnoticed feature of North-Western Catalan
On the basis of the data shown in map 1 of the Atles lingüístic del domini català («Tinc rodaments de cap»), which displays numerous constructions of the type «El cap em roda» / «Em roda el cap», I show how the North-Western variety of Catalan, in contrast to other dialects, presents a clear preference for placing definite subjects in unaccusative constructions in postverbal position. I attempt to explain this phenomenon by relating it to the specific behaviour of Fabras type-IV constructions of North-Western Catalan, in which there is no number agreement between the verb and the indefinite plural noun phrase a fact pointed out by Solà (1973, 1987, 1994, 1999), studied by Rigau (1992, 1997a, 1997b) and delimited territorially by Alonso i Suïls (1998).