11.402, Qs: Spanish clitic "se",Searching for Helga Humbert

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-402. Sat Feb 26 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.402, Qs: Spanish clitic "se",Searching for Helga Humbert

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=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Thu, 24 Feb 2000 22:58:42 -0800 (PST)
From:  Randy Sharp <randy at cs.ubc.ca>
Subject:  Spanish clitic "se"

2)
Date:  Fri, 25 Feb 2000 12:15:44 +0000 (GMT)
From:  S J Hannahs <S.J.Hannahs at durham.ac.uk>
Subject:  In search of Helga Humbert

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 24 Feb 2000 22:58:42 -0800 (PST)
From:  Randy Sharp <randy at cs.ubc.ca>
Subject:  Spanish clitic "se"

Dear Linguists,

I am doing research on the Spanish clitic "se". I've not been able to find
much on it; I've found more on Italian "si" (e.g. Manzini 1986, Hyams
1986) and French "se" (Wehrli 1986). I'm trying to do something similar to
their approach, i.e. unifying the different uses of "se" into a single
morpheme which covers all of the instances of Spanish "se". I would be
very grateful if you could direct me to any references on this topic.

Some immediate questions that I have are the following:
(1) What is the "se" in (i)b and (ii)b?
     (i)  a. Lo comio todo.   (sorry; no accents)
          b. Se lo comio todo.
     (ii) a. Metio las manos en los bolsillos.
          b. Se metio las menos en los bolsillos.

Could this be an ethical dative? I've never seen it described as such
anywhere. A pedagogical grammar I have describes it as an "affective" or
"intensifier", which at best describes its effect.

(2) Is there any explanation for why the spurious "se" is "se" and not
something else? For that matter, is there an explanation for why it even
occurs, other than "for phonological reasons"?

Thank you very much.

Randy Sharp
University of British Columbia


Manzini, Hyams and Wehrli (1986) are all taken from "Syntax and Semantics:
The Syntax of Pronominal Clitics" Vol.19, Hagit Borer (ed.).


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 25 Feb 2000 12:15:44 +0000 (GMT)
From:  S J Hannahs <S.J.Hannahs at durham.ac.uk>
Subject:  In search of Helga Humbert

Does anyone in the LINGUIST community know the whereabouts of Helga
Humbert (i.e. e-mail and/or terrestrial address)? She has a paper in a
volume I co-edited, recently published by Benjamins, and we're trying to
get offprints and a copy of the book to her. I've had no success finding
her through the normal channels, LINGUIST, LSA, HIL, nor from the
Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam, her last known address.

Many thanks!

- S.J. Hannahs
		==============================================
		Dr S.J. Hannahs
		Department of Linguistics and English Language
		University of Durham, Elvet Riverside,
		Durham, DH1 3JT     phone: +44 (0)191 374-2646
		United Kingdom        fax: +44 (0)191 374-2685
		http://www.dur.ac.uk/Linguistics/hannahs1.html
		==============================================

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