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Article published In: Revue Romane
Vol. 60:2 (2025) ► pp.182–208

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Articles linguistiques

Los complementos con en del gallego

Una alternancia transitivo/oblicuo

ORCiD logo with link | Instituto da Lingua Galega | Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Article language: Spanish

Published online: 25 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rro.22010.mig
Resumen
En gallego, un amplio conjunto de verbos transitivos muestra una alternancia diatética en la que el objeto directo es realizado como un complemento oblicuo introducido por la preposición en. Esta contribución analiza la sintaxis y la semántica del fenómeno con el objetivo de revelar aspectos fundamentales de esta construcción que han pasado desapercibidos en trabajos previos. En el plano sintáctico, se refuta la extendida idea de que los complementos introducidos por en son complementos directos y se señala la posibilidad de que la alternancia tenga lugar con verbos cuyo segundo argumento es un complemento indirecto. En el plano semántico, se concluye que la construcción introducida por en describe un evento dinámico, durativo y atélico e implica una lectura agentiva del mismo. De esta manera, se pretende contribuir a profundizar en el conocimiento de una construcción singular entre las lenguas románicas.
Abstract
In Galician, a large set of transitive verbs displays a diathesis alternation in which its direct object is realized as an oblique complement introduced by the preposition en, ‘in’. This contribution analyzes the syntax and semantics of the phenomenon in order to unravel key aspects that have been ignored by previous work. At the syntactic level, the extended idea that complements introduced by en are direct objects is refuted, and the possibility is noted of the alternation taking place with verbs that select an indirect object as their second argument. At the semantic level, it is concluded that the structure introduced by en describes a dynamic, durative, atelic event that entails agentivity. In this way, this article intends to contribute to our understanding of a construction that is unique among Romance languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introducción
  • 2.Los complementos con en en la bibliografía gramatical
    • 2.1La perspectiva tipológica: Complementos directos periféricos
    • 2.2Aspecto y especificidad (Martí i Girbau, 1999)
    • 2.3De realización a actividad (Rosales Sequeiros, 2000, 2005)
    • 2.4Verbos durativos no resultativos (Riveiro Costa, 2004)
    • 2.5Limitaciones de la bibliografía
  • 3.Delimitación sintáctica
  • 4.Caracterización semántica
    • 4.1Las clases verbales que permiten la alternancia
    • 4.2Restricciones sobre el objeto
    • 4.3Los oblicuos con en como actividades
    • 4.4Oblicuos con en y agentividad
  • 5.Conclusiones
  • Notas
  • Bibliografía
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