The goal of this work is to provide an account of dative clitic dependencies in constructions with raising verbs such as to seem in Romanian. Dative clitic experiencers as quirky subjects and dative clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) constructions are discussed from a syntactic point of view and experimentally tested in a psycholinguistics study. The study contributes to current innovations in the Minimalist Program, presenting new perspectives on Romanian clitic dependencies in raising constructions partially addressed in earlier generative grammar. This study poses new questions regarding raising, the intervention effects of dative clitic experiencers, and the effects of clitic dependencies in ditransitive constructions. Chapter II presents an overview of Romanian raising constructions without dative experiencers. I show that Romanian possesses three raising constructions, based on the type of the embedded clause: subjunctive, infinitive, and indicative. Each of these has three potential locations for the nominative subject, argued to be generated in the embedded clause. Formal mechanisms such as Long Distance and Multiple Agree, Movement, Case and EPP are considered independent of one another. Dative clitic experiencers in raising constructions, analyzed in Chapter III, are claimed to be quirky subjects and to structurally occupy the highest position in the sentence. Having established the role of dative clitic experiencers, I discuss raising constructions involving dative experiencers generated and/or surfacing in various positions, and their effects on operations such as Agree and Move. I then discuss Experiencer Islands, formed by matrix and embedded experiencers in the same utterance, and present the contexts in which they occur. A Grammaticality Judgment Test confirms the existence of such restriction in Romanian. Furthermore, I present an analysis of Experiencer Islands and discuss observed exceptions to the restriction. Dative clitic dependencies such as CLLD constructions and Long Distance CLLD Constructions are also analyzed in this thesis. The experimental study presented in Chapter IV supports theoretical claims and demonstrates that Romanian speakers are aware of dative clitic dependencies, such as clitic experiencer dependencies and clitic dependencies in CLLD constructions, possess the grammatical knowledge of biclausal constructions involving dative clitic dependencies and have the ability to recognize such dependencies.

The goal of this work is to provide an account of dative clitic dependencies in constructions with raising verbs such as to seem in Romanian. Dative clitic experiencers as quirky subjects and dative clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) constructions are discussed from a syntactic point of view and experimentally tested in a psycholinguistics study. The study contributes to current innovations in the Minimalist Program, presenting new perspectives on Romanian clitic dependencies in raising constructions partially addressed in earlier generative grammar. This study poses new questions regarding raising, the intervention effects of dative clitic experiencers, and the effects of clitic dependencies in ditransitive constructions. Chapter II presents an overview of Romanian raising constructions without dative experiencers. I show that Romanian possesses three raising constructions, based on the type of the embedded clause: subjunctive, infinitive, and indicative. Each of these has three potential locations for the nominative subject, argued to be generated in the embedded clause. Formal mechanisms such as Long Distance and Multiple Agree, Movement, Case and EPP are considered independent of one another. Dative clitic experiencers in raising constructions, analyzed in Chapter III, are claimed to be quirky subjects and to structurally occupy the highest position in the sentence. Having established the role of dative clitic experiencers, I discuss raising constructions involving dative experiencers generated and/or surfacing in various positions, and their effects on operations such as Agree and Move. I then discuss Experiencer Islands, formed by matrix and embedded experiencers in the same utterance, and present the contexts in which they occur. A Grammaticality Judgment Test confirms the existence of such restriction in Romanian. Furthermore, I present an analysis of Experiencer Islands and discuss observed exceptions to the restriction. Dative clitic dependencies such as CLLD constructions and Long Distance CLLD Constructions are also analyzed in this thesis. The experimental study presented in Chapter IV supports theoretical claims and demonstrates that Romanian speakers are aware of dative clitic dependencies, such as clitic experiencer dependencies and clitic dependencies in CLLD constructions, possess the grammatical knowledge of biclausal constructions involving dative clitic dependencies and have the ability to recognize such dependencies.

The goal of this work is to provide an account of dative clitic dependencies in constructions with raising verbs such as to seem in Romanian. Dative clitic experiencers as quirky subjects and dative clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) constructions are discussed from a syntactic point of view and experimentally tested in a psycholinguistics study. The study contributes to current innovations in the Minimalist Program, presenting new perspectives on Romanian clitic dependencies in raising constructions partially addressed in earlier generative grammar. This study poses new questions regarding raising, the intervention effects of dative clitic experiencers, and the effects of clitic dependencies in ditransitive constructions. Chapter II presents an overview of Romanian raising constructions without dative experiencers. I show that Romanian possesses three raising constructions, based on the type of the embedded clause: subjunctive, infinitive, and indicative. Each of these has three potential locations for the nominative subject, argued to be generated in the embedded clause. Formal mechanisms such as Long Distance and Multiple Agree, Movement, Case and EPP are considered independent of one another. Dative clitic experiencers in raising constructions, analyzed in Chapter III, are claimed to be quirky subjects and to structurally occupy the highest position in the sentence. Having established the role of dative clitic experiencers, I discuss raising constructions involving dative experiencers generated and/or surfacing in various positions, and their effects on operations such as Agree and Move. I then discuss Experiencer Islands, formed by matrix and embedded experiencers in the same utterance, and present the contexts in which they occur. A Grammaticality Judgment Test confirms the existence of such restriction in Romanian. Furthermore, I present an analysis of Experiencer Islands and discuss observed exceptions to the restriction. Dative clitic dependencies such as CLLD constructions and Long Distance CLLD Constructions are also analyzed in this thesis. The experimental study presented in Chapter IV supports theoretical claims and demonstrates that Romanian speakers are aware of dative clitic dependencies, such as clitic experiencer dependencies and clitic dependencies in CLLD constructions, possess the grammatical knowledge of biclausal constructions involving dative clitic dependencies and have the ability to recognize such dependencies.

The goal of this work is to provide an account of dative clitic dependencies in constructions with raising verbs such as to seem in Romanian. Dative clitic experiencers as quirky subjects and dative clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) constructions are discussed from a syntactic point of view and experimentally tested in a psycholinguistics study. The study contributes to current innovations in the Minimalist Program, presenting new perspectives on Romanian clitic dependencies in raising constructions partially addressed in earlier generative grammar. This study poses new questions regarding raising, the intervention effects of dative clitic experiencers, and the effects of clitic dependencies in ditransitive constructions. Chapter II presents an overview of Romanian raising constructions without dative experiencers. I show that Romanian possesses three raising constructions, based on the type of the embedded clause: subjunctive, infinitive, and indicative. Each of these has three potential locations for the nominative subject, argued to be generated in the embedded clause. Formal mechanisms such as Long Distance and Multiple Agree, Movement, Case and EPP are considered independent of one another. Dative clitic experiencers in raising constructions, analyzed in Chapter III, are claimed to be quirky subjects and to structurally occupy the highest position in the sentence. Having established the role of dative clitic experiencers, I discuss raising constructions involving dative experiencers generated and/or surfacing in various positions, and their effects on operations such as Agree and Move. I then discuss Experiencer Islands, formed by matrix and embedded experiencers in the same utterance, and present the contexts in which they occur. A Grammaticality Judgment Test confirms the existence of such restriction in Romanian. Furthermore, I present an analysis of Experiencer Islands and discuss observed exceptions to the restriction. Dative clitic dependencies such as CLLD constructions and Long Distance CLLD Constructions are also analyzed in this thesis. The experimental study presented in Chapter IV supports theoretical claims and demonstrates that Romanian speakers are aware of dative clitic dependencies, such as clitic experiencer dependencies and clitic dependencies in CLLD constructions, possess the grammatical knowledge of biclausal constructions involving dative clitic dependencies and have the ability to recognize such dependencies.

The issue of dative alternation construction has long been a debated topic in the linguistics field. This thesis especially focuses on the grammatical weight interpretation. Quirk et al. (1972) stated the end-weight rule, which predicted that people tended to put the NP which is heavier at the final position of a sentence. However, how to define the heaviness of NP is still in debate. Ross (1967) claimed that an NP is heavy if it dominates ¡§a sentence¡¨. Emonds (1976: 112) argued that an NP is called as heavy in the complex NP shift is that the NP dominates an S or PP. On the other hand, Hawkins (1990, 1994) proposed the idea that the heaviness is determined by the number of words dominated by a NP. Therefore, this thesis tries to shed some light on the precise definition of grammatical weight for Chinese native speakers. Secondly, Chang (2001) argued that the echo effect was prominent for Chinese native speakers to determing the dative word order variation. The subjects tended to echo the question pattern when they responded to that question. Hence, this thesis also tries to investigate the phenomenon when the echo effect issue meets with the grammatical weight interpretation. Judgment task, contextual questions task and corpus analysis are adopted in this study. Contextual questions task tries to investigate the subjects¡¦ response to a contextual question which contains dative verbs. The purpose of this contextual questions task is to know when the complexity effect meets with the echo effect, what is more determining. The judgment task tests the participants¡¦ judgment on the grammaticality of sentences which contains dative alternation. The purpose of this questionnaire is to see if the complexity of a NP contributes to the determining of a dative alternation construction. The corpus used is Chinese Word Sketch corpus developed by Academia Sinica. There are 253 sentences in total. I try to consider the length of the constituents and the complexity of constituents in dative alternation. In the first section of the questionnaire, the result shows that the Chinese native speakers are both sensitive to the echo effect and the complexity effect. Besides, the preference for the dative sentence type is also found based on the result. In the second section of the questionnaire, the result indicates that the Chinese native speakers are indeed sensitive to the complexity of a NP. The subjects tend to rate the sentences which contains a more complex NP at the final position of a sentence more acceptable than that at the middle of a sentence. In addition, the preference of the dative sentence type is also found in the result. In the corpus study, the results show that subjects are both sensitive to the complexity of constituents and length of constituents. In conclusion, the Chinese native speakers in this study shows sensitivity to both the complexity effect, length effect and echo effect. Furthermore, in both questionnaires, the preference for the dative sentence type is identified. This preference can be explained through the unmarked property of the dative sentence type in Chinese.

The thesis presents a syntactic and semantic analysis of selected problems in the analysis of transitivity in English, Japanese and Korean in terms of a system of 'thematic relations' adapted from the work of Gruber and Jackendoff. The system is introduced in Chapter One. One way in which it differs from those of Gruber and Jackendoff is that their ambiguous notion of Theme is replaced by two separate notions - Theme and semantic subject. Verbs are classified into 'univalent verbs', which have a single set of thematic relations, and 'ambivalent verbs', which have more than one set of thematic relations. It is claimed that syntactic alternations such as that between 'spray x on y' and 'spray y with x' are a reflection of the ambivalence of the verbs in question. Chapter Two reviews discourse approaches and semantic approaches to Dative-shift. On the basis of a comparison of English and Korean it argues that Dative-shift in these two languages is clearly a semantic process rather than pragmatically motivated. Moreover, like the 'spray' type alternation, Dative-shift is shown to be a reflection of the ambivalence of verbs expressing a change in possession. Chapter Three is devoted to double-nominative constructions in Japanese and Korean, which in the past have been considered to be syntactically and semantically equivalent. A careful study of data from the two languages shows that the double-nominative constructions in Korean are not homogeneous but are divided into two classes with distinct thematic relations, one of which is lacking in Japanese. Chapters Four and Five discuss the passive in Japanese and Korean, respectively, and propose a new classification of passives in the two languages. Three types are recognized: the passive of interest, the anti-causative passive and the attributive passive. Finally, Chapter Six presents some typological observations concerning the passive and Dative-shift. In particular, the English passive and the passives of Korean and Japanese are compared with regard to their relation to Dative-shift, and it is argued that Dative-shift and the passive are, in principle, independent grammatical processes.

Estudos que tratam da sintaxe dos objetos indiretos (OI) no português brasileiro (PB), com base em dados coletados de fonte documental histórica, revelam o uso variado das preposições a e para com OIs interpretados como recipiente/meta, no contexto dos verbos de transferência e movimento, entre eles, dar, levar, e outros. Tais estudos revelam ainda a ausência da preposição a com os chamados verbos de criação, entre eles, construir, desenhar, pintar, etc. nos quais OI é interpretado como beneficiário. Outro fato relacionado aos anteriores pode ser descrito da seguinte forma: no PB, o OI não mais é expresso pelos clíticos dativos de 3a pessoa. Tal estratégia está restrita à escrita formal. Isso sugere que sua expressão morfológica foi afetada. Nosso principal objetivo nesta dissertação é contribuir com novas evidências dos aspectos dinâmicos que caracterizam a variação e mudança na história do PB, com base em um corpus constituído de dados extraídos de peças teatrais dos séculos XIX e XX. Como será mostrado, nossos resultados corroboram os estudos anteriores: há uma forte queda na frequência dos clíticos dativos em seu uso de 3a pessoa. Estes deixam de ser a estratégia principal na expressão do OI pronominal. Com base em Torres Morais & Salles (2010) e trabalhos subsequentes, assumimos que a mudança paramétrica na gramática do PB pode ser descrita como a perda do núcleo aplicativo baixo que introduz o OI dativo em estruturas bitransitivas. A configuração em que uma preposição lexical introduz o OI como seu complemento oblíquo é a única opção encontrada no PB. Por ser um modelo internalista, a Teoria dos Princípios e Parâmetros propõe que a mudança sintática é ativada durante o processo de aquisição da língua materna. A mudança no valor de um parâmetro é catastrófica: uma vez fixado na fase de aquisição da linguagem não poderá ser refixado (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, 1997, 1999). Este tipo de abordagem, porém, não traz respostas para as questões que se referem à dinâmica da mudança sintática. Portanto, seguindo Roberts (2007), assumimos que é perfeitamente possível e desejável que se busque conciliar a abordagem proposta no quadro da teoria dos P&P e a abordagem proposta na Teoria da Variação e Mudança Linguística, tal como formulada por Weinreich, Labov & Hersog (1968) eLabov (1972, 1994).Assumimos ainda a ideia da competição de gramáticas, como proposta por Kroch (1989, 2000, 2001). / Studies on the syntax of indirect objects (IO) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), with data collected from a varied source of historical documents, reveal the variable use of the prepositions a and para introducing the recipient/goal argument, with predicates of transference, such as dar (to give), etc. Another relevant fact is that the preposition a is lost in contexts in which the IO is interpreted as the benefactive, with verbs of creation, such as construir (to build), etc., being replaced by para. Also, a related property is that the IO is no longer expressed by the 3rd person dative pronoun lhe, suggesting that its morphological expression is affected. Our main goal is to contribute to this aspect of variation and change in the history of BP from the perspective of a new data extracted from 19th and 20th centuries plays. Our results corroborate previous studies: there is a strong decrease in the frequency of 3a person dative clitics as a main strategy on the expression of the pronominal IO. Based on Torres Morais & Salles (2010) and subsequent studies we assume a parametric change in the BP grammar, described as the loss of the low applicative head that introduces the dative IO in ditransitive contexts. Thus configuration with the lexical/true preposition is the only option found in (Standard) BP. As an internalist model, the Principles and Parameters Theory assumes that syntactic change is driven by the first-language acquisition process. Consequently the parametric change is catastrophic in each individual in process of learning the mother tongue (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, 1997, 1999). This kind of approach is not insightful for a number of questions concerning the dynamics of syntactic change. Then, following Roberts (2007) we assume that it is perfectly possible and desirable to reconcile the P&P approach with the Theory of Variation and Change, as proposed by Weinreich, Labov &Hersog (1968) e Labov (1972, 1994). We assume also the ideia of competing grammar as proposed by Kroch (1989, 2000, 2001).

Estudos já apontaram para o crescente desaparecimento do pronome clítico dativo de terceira pessoa e para a substituição da preposição a pela preposição para na introdução de objeto indireto (OI) lexical no português brasileiro (PB). Tal fenômeno é identificado a partir de dados do século XIX e esses estudos, em sua maioria, partem de dados da linguagem adulta, sendo que poucos tratam deste fenômeno no âmbito escolar. Esta dissertação discute as estratégias de preenchimento do dativo no português brasileiro (PB), caracterizado pela gramática tradicional de objeto indireto, com o uso das preposições a e para, sob a forma nula e de pronome (lhe/lhes) em redações de alunos de 6º. ao 9º. ano de um colégio público e um colégio particular, da cidade de Santos. Nosso objetivo é verificar o papel da escola na recuperação das formas de prestígio e confrontar os dados encontrados com os trabalhos de Torres Morais e Berlinck (2006), Freire (2011) e Dutra (2003), os quais apontam três estratégias inovadoras: a substituição da preposição a por para, a perda progressiva dos clíticos de 3ª pessoa (lhe/lhes), que são substituídos pela forma preposicionada (a ele/eles, a ela/elas), e o aumento das formas nulas. Acima disso, espera-se, no confronto entre as produções textuais produzidas pelos alunos da escola pública e particular, indagar se há diferença na gramática internalizada de alunos que receberam diferentes estímulos linguísticos. / Several studies have pointed at the increasing disappearance of the pronoun dative clitic third person and for the replacement of the preposition a for para for the introduction of indirect object (OI) lexical in Brazilian Portuguese (PB). This phenomenon is identified from data of the nineteenth century and these studies, mostly originated from data of adult language, and few deal with this phenomenon in the school environment. This essay discusses strategies for fulfilling the dative complement in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), characterized by traditional grammar as indirect object, with the usage of the prepositions a and para and its usage as a null form and a pronoun (lhe/lhes) in 6th to 9th grade students\' compositions within a public and a private school, in Santos. Our aim is to verify the school\'s role in the rescuing of the forms of prestige and comparing the data found in the works of Torres Morais and Berlinck (2006), Freire (2011), and Dutra (2003), which point at three innovative strategies: the replacement of the preposition a for para, the progressive loss of 3rd person clitics (lhe/lhes), which are replaced for the prepositional form (a ele/eles, a ela/elas), and the increasing of null forms. Moreover, it is attempted to question if there is a difference, in the grammar internalized by students from public and private school who received different linguistic stimuli.

Estudos que tratam da sintaxe dos objetos indiretos (OI) no português brasileiro (PB), com base em dados coletados de fonte documental histórica, revelam o uso variado das preposições a e para com OIs interpretados como recipiente/meta, no contexto dos verbos de transferência e movimento, entre eles, dar, levar, e outros. Tais estudos revelam ainda a ausência da preposição a com os chamados verbos de criação, entre eles, construir, desenhar, pintar, etc. nos quais OI é interpretado como beneficiário. Outro fato relacionado aos anteriores pode ser descrito da seguinte forma: no PB, o OI não mais é expresso pelos clíticos dativos de 3a pessoa. Tal estratégia está restrita à escrita formal. Isso sugere que sua expressão morfológica foi afetada. Nosso principal objetivo nesta dissertação é contribuir com novas evidências dos aspectos dinâmicos que caracterizam a variação e mudança na história do PB, com base em um corpus constituído de dados extraídos de peças teatrais dos séculos XIX e XX. Como será mostrado, nossos resultados corroboram os estudos anteriores: há uma forte queda na frequência dos clíticos dativos em seu uso de 3a pessoa. Estes deixam de ser a estratégia principal na expressão do OI pronominal. Com base em Torres Morais & Salles (2010) e trabalhos subsequentes, assumimos que a mudança paramétrica na gramática do PB pode ser descrita como a perda do núcleo aplicativo baixo que introduz o OI dativo em estruturas bitransitivas. A configuração em que uma preposição lexical introduz o OI como seu complemento oblíquo é a única opção encontrada no PB. Por ser um modelo internalista, a Teoria dos Princípios e Parâmetros propõe que a mudança sintática é ativada durante o processo de aquisição da língua materna. A mudança no valor de um parâmetro é catastrófica: uma vez fixado na fase de aquisição da linguagem não poderá ser refixado (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, 1997, 1999). Este tipo de abordagem, porém, não traz respostas para as questões que se referem à dinâmica da mudança sintática. Portanto, seguindo Roberts (2007), assumimos que é perfeitamente possível e desejável que se busque conciliar a abordagem proposta no quadro da teoria dos P&P e a abordagem proposta na Teoria da Variação e Mudança Linguística, tal como formulada por Weinreich, Labov & Hersog (1968) eLabov (1972, 1994).Assumimos ainda a ideia da competição de gramáticas, como proposta por Kroch (1989, 2000, 2001). / Studies on the syntax of indirect objects (IO) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), with data collected from a varied source of historical documents, reveal the variable use of the prepositions a and para introducing the recipient/goal argument, with predicates of transference, such as dar (to give), etc. Another relevant fact is that the preposition a is lost in contexts in which the IO is interpreted as the benefactive, with verbs of creation, such as construir (to build), etc., being replaced by para. Also, a related property is that the IO is no longer expressed by the 3rd person dative pronoun lhe, suggesting that its morphological expression is affected. Our main goal is to contribute to this aspect of variation and change in the history of BP from the perspective of a new data extracted from 19th and 20th centuries plays. Our results corroborate previous studies: there is a strong decrease in the frequency of 3a person dative clitics as a main strategy on the expression of the pronominal IO. Based on Torres Morais & Salles (2010) and subsequent studies we assume a parametric change in the BP grammar, described as the loss of the low applicative head that introduces the dative IO in ditransitive contexts. Thus configuration with the lexical/true preposition is the only option found in (Standard) BP. As an internalist model, the Principles and Parameters Theory assumes that syntactic change is driven by the first-language acquisition process. Consequently the parametric change is catastrophic in each individual in process of learning the mother tongue (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, 1997, 1999). This kind of approach is not insightful for a number of questions concerning the dynamics of syntactic change. Then, following Roberts (2007) we assume that it is perfectly possible and desirable to reconcile the P&P approach with the Theory of Variation and Change, as proposed by Weinreich, Labov &Hersog (1968) e Labov (1972, 1994). We assume also the ideia of competing grammar as proposed by Kroch (1989, 2000, 2001).

Estudos já apontaram para o crescente desaparecimento do pronome clítico dativo de terceira pessoa e para a substituição da preposição a pela preposição para na introdução de objeto indireto (OI) lexical no português brasileiro (PB). Tal fenômeno é identificado a partir de dados do século XIX e esses estudos, em sua maioria, partem de dados da linguagem adulta, sendo que poucos tratam deste fenômeno no âmbito escolar. Esta dissertação discute as estratégias de preenchimento do dativo no português brasileiro (PB), caracterizado pela gramática tradicional de objeto indireto, com o uso das preposições a e para, sob a forma nula e de pronome (lhe/lhes) em redações de alunos de 6º. ao 9º. ano de um colégio público e um colégio particular, da cidade de Santos. Nosso objetivo é verificar o papel da escola na recuperação das formas de prestígio e confrontar os dados encontrados com os trabalhos de Torres Morais e Berlinck (2006), Freire (2011) e Dutra (2003), os quais apontam três estratégias inovadoras: a substituição da preposição a por para, a perda progressiva dos clíticos de 3ª pessoa (lhe/lhes), que são substituídos pela forma preposicionada (a ele/eles, a ela/elas), e o aumento das formas nulas. Acima disso, espera-se, no confronto entre as produções textuais produzidas pelos alunos da escola pública e particular, indagar se há diferença na gramática internalizada de alunos que receberam diferentes estímulos linguísticos. / Several studies have pointed at the increasing disappearance of the pronoun dative clitic third person and for the replacement of the preposition a for para for the introduction of indirect object (OI) lexical in Brazilian Portuguese (PB). This phenomenon is identified from data of the nineteenth century and these studies, mostly originated from data of adult language, and few deal with this phenomenon in the school environment. This essay discusses strategies for fulfilling the dative complement in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), characterized by traditional grammar as indirect object, with the usage of the prepositions a and para and its usage as a null form and a pronoun (lhe/lhes) in 6th to 9th grade students\' compositions within a public and a private school, in Santos. Our aim is to verify the school\'s role in the rescuing of the forms of prestige and comparing the data found in the works of Torres Morais and Berlinck (2006), Freire (2011), and Dutra (2003), which point at three innovative strategies: the replacement of the preposition a for para, the progressive loss of 3rd person clitics (lhe/lhes), which are replaced for the prepositional form (a ele/eles, a ela/elas), and the increasing of null forms. Moreover, it is attempted to question if there is a difference, in the grammar internalized by students from public and private school who received different linguistic stimuli.