Liljana Mitkovska
FON University, Skopje, Macedonia/University of
Silesia, Katowice, Poland
PCLA 2019 26 – 28 Sep 2019, Bialystok, Poland
Topic
 The construction that contains a reflexive marker on an
activity verb and a human dative argument, common in
South Slavic – Bulgarian, Macedonian and BCMS
(1) Spava mi se. (BCMS) ‘I feel like sleeping.’
(2) Mi se gleda film. (M) ‘I feel like watching a film.’
(3)Ne mu se vlizaše vǎtre. (B) ‘He had no desire to get in.’
 The composite meaning designates an internal state of
the participant expressed in the dative – necessity Stative
Reflexive Dative Constructions (SRDC)
 Broad range of uses in considered South Slavic languages
 Share structural and functional characteristics
 Show similar tendencies, differences in frequency
Goals and presentation plan
 To determine the contribution of the component
parts to the composite meaning of the Cxn
 To explain the variability within the Cxn
 To shed light on the relation of the target SRD with
the neighbouring Cxns, with which it shares
formal and semantic properties
 To look at the constraints on this Cxn and how
they tend to be overridden
Main hypotheses
 The necessity SRD Cxn is a language unit with its
particular semantics which is not a simple sum of
the meanings of the component parts.
 Particular structural and semantic features
distinguish it from other constructions that have
the same structure, but it also shares features with
them.
 The Cxn undergoes extension; predicates entering
the Cxn get adjusted to the meaning of the Cxn,
but the frequent use of certain type of predicates
can cause modification in the Cxn semantics.
Terms used for the necessity SRD
 They are called differently by different authors :
 Rivero 2004 – Involuntary state construction
 Kalluli 2006 - Dative unaccusative construction,
involuntary state reading
 Ilić 2013 – Dative anticausatives , modal necessity
meaning
 Palić 2010 – Constructions with experiencer dative –
 Стипчевић 2015 – modal dative constructions
 Иванова 2016, Джонова 2008 – želatelni ‘volitive’
 Димитрова 2015, Uhlik, Žele 2018 – optativni
 Савова 2018 – Impulsivni konstrukcii
The construction
Goldberg (1995) A Cxn is a form-meaning pair, some
aspects of which are not predictable from the
component parts.
Form: se + verb + dat. constituent
 Typically the verb expresses an activity initiated by a
human agent.
 The dative constituent is not represented in the lexical-
semantic frame of the verb.
The reflexive inheritance
 All considered South Slavic languages have a range of se-
-
-
constructions designating different degrees of suppression of
the agent in the lexical-semantic frame of the verb:
Autocausative: se kačuva ‘climb’, se podgotvuva ‘prepare’,
se žali ‘complain’
Anticausative: (4) Vratata se otvori. ‘The door opened’,
(5) Zemjata se treseše. ‘The earth shook.’
Pseudo-passive: (6) Ovde ne se puši. ‘Smoking is not allowed here.’
(7) Fleki od vino se čistat. ‘Wine stains can be removed.’
Passive: (8) Mnogu zgradi se izgradija vo centarot na gradot.
‘Many buildings were built in the centre of the town.’
Claim: the necessity SRD is not directly related to anticausative
(unaccusative) (Kalluli 2006 and Ilić 2013, Haspelmath 1993: 90,
Dimitrova 2015: 25 ), nor to the passive se-constructions, but to
the pseudo-passive Cxns.
Shared Properties
 Not actualized events, but generalizations over events
(6) Ovde ne se puši. ‘Smoking is not allowed here.’
(9) Mi se puši. ‘I feel like smoking’
 Typically with verbs that require human agents
 Unboundedness, atelicity
In both constructions verbs expressing continuous
activities are typically used
 Modality:
- Pseudo-passive: possibility, necessity, generality
(depends on the lexical meaning of the verb and the
situation - ambiguity)
- Necessity SRD: need, urge, desire, disposition,
The dative inheritance
 The dative case marked constituent is used in a variety
of contexts in all Slavic languages
 Wierzbicka (1986: 419) “the use of the dative implies a
situation which is not controlled by a person Z, but
which is likely (...) to have an effect on him”
 Rudzka-Ostyn (1996: 355): the dative marks the
participant as an “unintended affective endpoint”
 Prototype – recipient (Janda 1990:47), endpoint of
transfer
 Extensions – experiencer, affected by events
impinging upon the dat’s personal sphere – Target
person (Dąbrowska, 1997)
o SRD inherits from the dative:
unintentionality, lack of control, affectedness
The composite meaning
The combination of the reflexive marker and the dative
case results in the idiosyncratic meaning of the necessity
SRD Cxn
 It expresses an emotional state of the dative referent
presented as caused by some inexplicable internal force
(no outside stimulus implied)
-The dative indicates that this emotional state is not
controlled by the referent
- As a passive endpoint, s/he cannot stop it
- S/he is exposed to it – reduced to a domain in which
the processes take place, thus has no responsibility
The modal meaning
 The reflexive verb form indicates a generalized activity,
normally carried out by people, but without profiling an
initiator or actor:
se jade – there is eating/ someone is eating
 The dat. ref., being a human argument, is a good
candidate to be ascribed the activity designated in the
verb, even though it lacks control to carry it out.
 This incompatibility of the lexical meaning of the verb
with the lack of control creates a deontic claim of
necessity which is reflected as a need imposed on the
dative referent to carry out the activity designated in
the verb.
Comparison to pseudo-passives
(7) Fleki od vino se čistat.
(6) Ovde ne se puši.
‘Wine stains can be removed.’ ‘Smoking is not allowed here.’
(10) Na Vesna i se čisti.
(11) Na Ivan mu se puši.
‘Vesna feels like cleaning.’
‘Ivan feels like smoking.’
 In pseudo-passives the deagentivized predicate is related to
the only available argument (the wine stains, this place), but
since it has no potential to carry it out, the predication is
conceived of as its property through a modal assertion –
possibility or necessity/generality:
Wine stains can be removed, they are not problematic.
This is such a place where one shouldn’t/usually doesn’t smoke.
 In necessity SRD situations the ascription of the predicate to
the dat. ref. results in a different type of modality.
The Continuum – degree of control
 Variation within the Cxn - the type of the modal
component is viewed differently, contingent upon the
type of event expressed in the predicate/base verb.
 It has been noticed that there is a continuum from most
compelling physiological needs to wishes, the realization
of which a person can control
Uncontrollable activities
Controllable activities
Physiological
Psycho-physiological Psychological
need
urge/impulse
disposition/crave
(12)Povrǎšta mi se.(B) (14) Mi se jade. (М) (16) Pleše mi se. (C/S)
‘I feel sick.’
‘I feel like eating.’ ‘I’d like to dance’
(13)Marku se piški.(C/S) (15)Puši mi se. (B) (17) Mi se jade torta.
‘Marko needs to pee.’ ‘I feel like smoking.’ ‘I crave for some cake.’
A distancing strategy
 Even with controllable activities, by using this Cxn, the
speaker presents the desire as coming from some
inexplicable force from inside the person, which s/he
cannot control (Palić 2013, Ivanova 2014, Савова 2018).
A wish is conscious and intentional. Compare:
(18)Ide mi se na more. vs Hoću da idem na more. (S)
‘I feel like going to the seaside.’ ‘I want to go to the seaside.’
 In such cases this Cxn serves as a pragmatic means of
removing the individual’s responsibility by attributing it
to some inexplicable, uncontrollable inner force.
Relation to the neighbouring Cxns
Emotional processes and states
Dopada mi se. (S) ‘I like it’ ,
Gadi mi se. (B) ‘I feel sick’,
Mi se zdodea. (M) ‘I’ve had enough’
- the verb has an experiencer in its
lexical-semantic frame
- no modality
Perception and cognition processes
Mi se slušna nešto.(M)
‘I seem to have heard something.’
Vide mi se čudesno hubava. (B)
‘She seemed very pretty to me.’
-presented as unintentional
-Epistemic stance - pragmatic strategy
for reducing assertiveness
SRD - necessity
Accidental
Mi se izgubi telefonot. (M)
‘My phone got lost on me.’
Marku se slomio prozor. (S)
‘Marko accidently broke the window.’
-Causative predicates, no activities
-Events, not states
-modality: The causer is implied not
stated (Ilić 2013 )
Passive sentences with a receiver
dative
Mu se gradi kuќa. (М)
‘A house is being built for him.’
Sve im se kupuje. (S)
‘They are bought everything.’
-Inference of an intentional agent
Constraints – the participant
 Are there some idiosyncratic conditions that set the
necessity SRD apart from the other Cxns with the same
surface form?
The dative participant:
Semantics: [+animate], mainly [+human]
 Also for emotions, perceptions & cognitions, accidents
Person: all persons are possible, 1st person most common
 The Cxn expresses a subjective view on a situation, but
the speaker can assume the protagonist(s)’ point of view.
Constraints – the predicate (form)
 reflexivity, transitivity & tense – no constraints
(19) Ne mi se vrǎštaše. (B) ‘I had no desire to go back.’
(20)Njemu se igrao fudbal. (S) ‘He felt like playing football.’
 grammatical aspect – only imperf. verbs - idiosyncratic
Prefixes for inchoative and finitive meaning:
(21) Sega i az vidjah cenite i nešto mi se othodi. (B)
‘Now I saw the prices and lost the desire to go any more.’
(22) Na edniot od niv mu se pripuši cigara. (M)
‘One of them got a crave for a cigarette,’
(23) Prispavalo mi se, užas jedan. (S)
‘I got so damn sleepy.’
 The prefix affects the meaning of the Cxn, not the
meaning of the base verb (Димитрова 2015)
Mac:*prispie/*otspie, Bulg: dospa mi se vs dospie
Constraints – the predicate (meaning)
 Palić (2010:222) Verbs that denote activities for fulfillment
of bodily and emotional needs, as well as emotional
reactions.
 Kalluli (2006) – activities: unboundedness, atelicity,
intentionality
 Димитрова (2015), for Bulgarian:
 first argument [+animate] – obligatory (vrne ‘to rain’)
 previous studies [+ control]
 also important v. feature [+ continuous active event]
However, the last two constraints, though important, are not
sufficient for the necessity SRDC.
Contextual factors can play a role in making seemingly
“unacceptable” verbs build good optative expressions.
Overriding the constraints
 Emotional states > reinterpreted > emotional reactions
žali ‘be sad’, se gordee ‘be proud’, se luti ‘be angry’
 Савова (2018: 10): Štom/Ako/Kato ti se P, P! (B)
‘If/When you feel like P-ing, P!’
(24) Kato ti se tǎguva i reve prvi go. (B)
‘If you feel like being sad and crying, do it.’
(25) Štom ti se nervira, nerviraj se! (M)
‘Since you feel like raging, rage!
(26) Kad ti se ljuti, ljuti se! (BCMS)
‘If you don’t mind being angry, be angry.’
 The imperative implies that the referent can apply
energy to get into, stay or prevent an emotional reaction.
Overriding the constraints
 Unintentional events/processes >> intentionalized
(27) Ne pija lekarstva, boleduva mi se pо-dǎlgo ... (B)
‘I don’t take medicines, I’d like to be ill longer …’
(28) Odam na planina, mi se diše čist vozduh. (M)
‘I go to the mountains, I need to breathe clean air.’
More usual in the negative form – preventive context
(Ivanova 2014: 364) – control over the realization
(29) Vzemahme taksi, ne ni se mǎrzneše i ne ni se
trepereše poveče na spirkata. (B) ‘We took a taxi, did not
feel like freezing and shaking at the bus stop.’
(30) … ne mrzne mi se guzica još jednu noć ovde… (S)
‘I don’t intend to freeze my butt for another night here ’
Concluding remarks
 The SRD expressing necessity is a separate Cxn with a




defined formal and semantic properties that distinguish it
from the similar Cxns.
The modal meaning of necessity is its most prominent
feature; it can vary in intensity.
It arises as a result of the requirement that the lexical
semantics of the verb places on a structure which blocks or
lacks the needed conditions (presence of se & dat. ref).
Extension of the scope of acceptable predicates goes in the
direction from [+act] to [-act] activities and processes.
The predicates are coerced to fit the Cxn semantics, but they
also modify the meaning of the Cxn to some degree:
compulsion – urge – craving – disposition – inclination