SPONTANEOUS INCHOATIVE VERBS IN ROMANIAN
SPONTANEOUS INCHOATIVE VERBS IN ROMANIAN

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we take a look at the Romanian inchoatives which do not show reflexive morphology in an attempt to understand what underlies unmarkedness in this language. Starting from Haspelmath’s (2005) hypothesis that verbs are organized along a spontaneity scale which has an influence on morphological marking and transitive acceptability, we put forward a fine-grained classification of internally caused verbs into semantic categories seeking to establish if this has a bearing on their morphosyntactic properties. Our analysis will reveal that semantic notions like animacy and the natural development of the event intertwine to establish the core and filter out the various verb categories.

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