in J. Gutiérrez-Rexach and F. Martínez-Gil (eds.) Advances in Hispanic Linguistics. Boston, Cascadilla Press. 1999

Alfredo Arnaiz and José Camacho

Abstract

This paper discusses an auxiliary use of the motion verb \textit{ir} in certain varieties of Spanish, which shows two interesting properties. The first one has to do with the fact that it appears to share properties with serial verb constructions. The second one has to do with the interpretation of the auxiliary as a sort of topicalizer.

Among the different types of serial verb constructions, some involve the presence of a conjunction. In this respect, the auxiliary use of \textit{ir} that interests us here is similar. Additionally, it is not uncommon to find the use of motion verbs as auxiliaries, what is peculiar about this particular one is that its auxiliary nature relates to the topic structure of the clause.

We present the syntactic distribution of auxiliary ir and argue that the existance of this auxiliary use is intimately linked to the presence of the conjunction y 'and'. Based on this observation, we propose a novel treatment of conjunction within the Minimalist Program that allows us to relate what appear to be unconnected properties of this construction. Essentially, we argue that conjunction is the only category that projects a hybrid label when it merges with another category. Thus, the resulting label will have features of both its components.