Copulas, Verbs of Possession and Auxiliaries in Old Spanish: The Evidence for Structurally Interdependent Changes

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Notes

1. I am extremely grateful to Martin Harris, Fred Hodcroft and Roger Wright for detailed comments on an earlier draft of this article.

2. See, for example, E. Bourciez, éléments de lingüistique romane, 5th ed. (Paris: Klincksieck, 1967), 116–17.

3. I. R. Macpherson, ‘Past Participle Agreement in Old Spanish: Transitive Verbs’, BHS, XLIV (1967), 246.

4. M. M. Ramsay and R. K. Spaulding, A Textbook of Modern Spanish (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1956), 385: ‘In modern Spanish the formal passive is relatively less used, because of the number of equivalent constructions. Its place is often taken by the much overworked reflexive form of the verb.’

5. S. Gili y Gaya, Curso superior de sintaxis española, 2nd ed. (Barcelona: Spes, 1948), 65 and 111–2: ‘El se ha dejado de ser reflexivo y se ha convertido en mero signo de pasiva’.

6. But note with regard to the expression of an agent with the reflexive the following examples quoted by Gili y Gaya (op. cit., 112): Se firmó la paz por los embajadores and Se han divulgado estas noticias por la radio; also Ramsey and Spaulding (op. cit., 390): Las pirámides se edificaron por esclavos; Estas obras se venden por todos los libreros, and ¿Para qué quiere aquí a Vespasiano?—Para aconsejarme de él y solicitar su valimiento. There is also evidence that the reflexive is increasingly being used as a passive equivalent, even in contexts where according to pedagogical grammars this is impossible, e.g., Rolf Stommelen se mató [=‘was killed’] en Riverside (La Vanguardia, 26.4.83), contrasting with the observations of H. Ramsden, An Essential Course in Modern Spanish (London: Harrap, 1959), 245.

7. J. Benzing, ‘Zur Geschichte von “ser” als Hilfszeitwort bei den intransitiven Verben im Spanischen’, ZRP, LI (1931), 385–460.

8. J. Benzing, ‘Zur Geschichte von “ser” als Hilfszeitwort bei den intransitiven Verben im Spanischen’, ZRP, LI (1931), 460: ‘Der Grund, weshalb ser als Hilfsverb auf der iberischen Halbinsel haber bzw. ter allmählich Platz machte, ist nicht ganz klar. Sehr wahrscheinlich ist hier die Ausgleichtendenz, die wir bei allen romanischen Sprachen beobachten, zugunsten von habere besonders stark gewesen. Vielleicht haben auch trans. Bedeutung, Reflexiva und Funktionsdifferenzierung zwischen haber und tener zusammengewirkt, um einen völligen Ausgleich herbeizuführen.’

9. J. Bouzet, ‘Orígenes del empleo de “estar”: ensayo de sintaxis histórica’, Estudios dedicados a Menéndez Pidal, IV (Madrid: CSIC, 1953), 56–58.

10. See N. C. W. Spence, ‘Quantity and Quality in the Vowel System of Vulgar Latin’, Word, XXI (1965), 1–18.

11. See T. Vennemann, ‘An Explanation of Drift’, in C. N. Li (ed.), Word and Word Order Change (Austin and London: University of Texas, 1975), 269–305.

12. H. Mendeloff, ‘The Passive Voice in Old Spanish’, Romantisches Jahrbuch, 15 (1964), 269–87.

13. The texts, the editions used, and the abbreviations by which I shall refer to them are as follows: Cid: Poema de mio Cid, ed. C. C. Smith (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1972), lines 1–1320 [early thirteenth century?]; Mil: Gonzalo de Berceo, Milagros de Nuestra Señora, ed. B. Dutton (London: Tamesis, 1971), stanzas 1–404 [first half of thirteenth century]; Luc: Don Juan Manuel, El Conde Lucanor, ed. J. M. Blecua (Madrid: Castalia, 1969), 54–92 [early fourteenth century]; LBA: Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita, Libro de buen amor, ed. M. Criado de Val and E. W. Naylor (Madrid: CSIC, 1965), stanzas 44–369, following the Salamanca MS [1343]; Rim: Pero López de Ayala, Libro de poemas o Rimado de Palacio, ed. M. García (Madrid: Gredos, 1978), stanzas 1–335 [1386]; Tal: Alfonso Martínez de Toledo, Arcipreste de Talavera, Arcipreste de Talavera o Corbacho, ed. J. González Muela (Madrid: Castalia, 1970), 121–55 [1438]; Carc: Diego de San Pedro, La Cárcel de Amor, ed. K. Whinnom (Madrid: Castalia, 1971), 81–120 [1492]; Cel: Fernando de Rojas, La Celestina, ed. D. S. Severin (Madrid: Alianza, 1971), 198–231 [1499]; Loz: Francisco Delicado, La Lozana andaluza, ed. B. M. Damiani (Madrid: Castalia, 1969), 37–78 [1528]; Ter: Santa Teresa de Ávila, Epistolario, ed. E. de la Madre de Dios and O. Steggink (Madrid: Ed. Católica, 1959), Letters 1–24 [1561–70]. The order of arrangement in the tables is intended to be chronological, although there must be doubt about the ordering of Cid and Mil. Generally speaking, it would seem that for the phenomena considered here, Cid is appropriately represented as antedating Mil, but I would not wish on this basis to challenge the consensus which dates Cid as an early thirteenth century text, nor to ignore the possibility of the author of the fourteenth century MS having introduced modifications of the original text.

14. This sample was extended to 20,000 words in order to achieve a total of at least ten examples.

15. This sample was similarly extended to 30,000 words.

16. This sample was similarly extended to 20,000 words.

17. F. Hanssen, ‘La pasiva castellana’, RF, XXIX (1912), 764–78.

18. E. Seifert, ‘Haber y tener como expresiones de la posesión en español’, RFE, XVII (1930), 233–76 and 345–89.

19. (Tú) lo deves perdonar, e a Dios en gracia aver (279c). The E MS has tener here.

20. A set phrase: Jamás perderá aquella casa el nombre de Celestina, que Dios haya (203.19): ‘… whom God preserve’.

21. The sample was extended to 30,000 words.

22. Projected total from the accurate counting of 2,500 words.

23. Fred Hodcroft has called my attention to a number of examples of tener + non-agreeing past participle that he has observed in texts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (and more recently from Palacio Valdés and Valle Inclán, though the Galician origin of these authors may explain their ease with the usage).

24. The Auto contains four clear examples of agreement, all with the direct object as a feminine singular pronoun preceding the verb, e.g.: Agora primas la e veida (line 3). The Fuero de Madrid examples are restricted to the phrase la iura quod habet facta.

25. See A. Yllera, Sintaxis histórica del verbo español: las perífrasis medievales (Zaragoza: Univ. of Zaragoza Press, 1980), 111–5.

26. See G. Rohlfs, Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti (Turin: Einaudi, 1969), 126–27.

27. See P. Guiraud, Le Français populaire (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965), 40–41.

28. See M. Canale, R. Mougeon and M. Bélanger, ‘Analytical Leveling of the Auxiliary être in Ontarian French’, in M. Suñer (ed.), Contemporary Studies in Romance Linguistics (Washington, Georgetown U.P., 1977), 41–61.

29. J. N. Green, ‘On the Frequency of Passive Constructions in Modern Spanish’, BHS, LII (1975), 345–62.

30. Green's categories are: (1) journalistic, (2A–C) literary, (3A–C) ‘layman-scientific’ and (4) semi-formal speech.

31. From R. Martin and M. Wilmet, Syntaxe du moyen français (Bordeaux: SOBODI, 1980), 201.

32. From R. Martin and M. Wilmet, Syntaxe du moyen français (Bordeaux: SOBODI, 1980), 201.

33. F. Brunot, Histoire de la langue française des origines à 1900, I (Paris: Colin, 1905), 237–39.

34. F. Brambilla Ageno, Il verbo nell’ italiano antico (Milan: Ricciardi, 1964), 186ff.

35. R. Kontzi, Der Ausdruck der Passividee im alteren Italienischen (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1958).

36. L. O. Wright, ‘The Indicative Function of the -ra Verb Form’, Hispania, XII (1929), 259–78.

37. Dieron le en Valençia o bien puede estar rico (1304). The primary motivation for estar is either the locative complement (but cf. C. C. Smith's gloss of o as ‘as a result of which’) or the ‘full’ meaning of ‘remain’. See also J. M. Saussol, Ser y estar: orígenes de sus funciones en el Cantar de Mio Cid (Seville: Seville U.P., 1978), 39–40.

38. See C. J. Pountain, ‘*Essere/stare as a Romance Phenomenon’, in N. Vincent and M. Harris (eds), Studies in the Romance Verb (London: Croom Helm, 1982), 139–60.

39. See L. D. Hickey, ‘Los verbos de existencia en castellano e irlandés’, Filología Moderna, XXXI–II (1968), 213–27.

40. See K. Kazazis, ‘The Modern Greek Verbs of “being” ‘, in J. W. M. Verhaar (ed.), The Verb ‘be’ and its Synonyms, Part 2 (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1968), 71–87.