Lexical-syntactic description of the past participle form in relation to the prepositional structure headed by “bajo” (under) in Spanish

Abstract

This study explores the semantic and aspectual factors that allow for the alternation between the prepositional phrase with the structure ‘bajo + NP’ and the morphological construction of the past participle, as seen in the examples: The family was under the threat of the most feared gang of those times / The family was threatened by the most feared gang of those times. Using semantic-aspectual analysis tools (Rappaport-Hovav & Levin 1998; Mendikoetxea 2000), the structures and/or mechanisms were evaluated to identify the factors that motivated the alternation between the prepositional phrase and the morphological construction of the past participle. The source of examples was mixed: a) Cases from the scientific literature and original examples. It was found that the factors involved in the alternation are related to the Aktionsart of the predicates in which they are embedded (De Miguel 1999; Escandell 2004, 2007; Morimoto 2017) and are linked to the event structure [COME TO BE [x<STATE>]], which focuses on the culmination subevent, explaining its alternation with morphological past participle constructions, also associated with a perfective character. Similarly, the viewpoint aspect (Smith 1997) will also affect the semantic alternation. The scientific novelty and relevance of this research lie in its focus on studying the prepositional group in relation to other categories (Masullo 2008; Gallego 2010; Brucart & Gallego 2016), thereby contributing to a grammatical study that establishes relationships not only at the intracategorial level but also at the intercategorial level.