Reduplicative coordination in Spanish

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyze the properties of Spanish reduplicative coordination (ReCo) within a generative framework. Therefore, it intends to systematically contrast Spanish ReCo with the characterization and predictions made for English by De Vos (2005). English examples as (1.a) show Spanish counterparts as (1.b), suggesting that both languages have parallel syntactic structures involving a conjunction with a similar semantic interpretation:(1) a. My friend Jim Stoltz walks and walks and walks in the wilderness (De Vos 2005: 62)b. Mi amigo Jim Stoltz camina y camina y camina en la naturaleza.The Spanish structure in (1.b) represents a case of pseudo-coordination, as De Vos claims for English, since the sentences do not describe two distinct events but only one event of walking which is longer than expected. However, we will try to demonstrate that there are significant differences between Spanish and English in regard to the semantic interpretation of ReCo and to its syntactic distribution with predicates of various Aktionsart classes. These contrasts deserve a detailed analysis, since they are also a symptom of the fact that each language has an essentially distinct syntactic structure, implying, in turn, that De Vos’ proposal is not applicable to Spanish.