Pour une représentation syntaxique duale: structure syntagmatique et structure lexical en basque

Resumen

In this essay the author attempts to deal with the non-configurationality hypothesis of the constituent structure of the Basque sentence. In so doing, he wants to put an end to misunderstandings on this issue and to several errors he himself committed regarding this subject. First, the author points out that the lack of asymmetry between subject and object (which has often been called upon to justify the existence of a VP in Basque) comes objectively from a circular rea­soning (§1.), as structural arguments by themselves. do not result in any decisive conclusions (§2.). After that, it is shown that Basque anaphors belong to the two levels of representation (from which one must necessarily be non-configurational) (§3.), and that the diathetical alternations of this language ask for such a distinction too (§4.). In part 5 data from the interference among variables, pronouns and operators are examined: once again the author makes it clear that configurationality tests are at least non-operating or, as far as some speakers are concerned, they can even turn into an index of non-configurationality. The last section discusses consequences of this analysis and offers trends for future research.