This paper studies the preposition contra in Old Catalan by analysing data from the Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), with the aim of describing its syntactic behaviour. The data analysed consist of a total of 6,118 tokens of the preposition contra, corresponding to all the instances recorded in the CICA for the entire Old Catalan period (up to and including the fifteenth century). The objectives are (a) to distinguish between verbs governing contra and other constructions containing contra; (b) to describe and classify the verbs that govern contra and to provide information on argument alternations; and (c) to establish an initial comparison between Old Catalan and contemporary Catalan in the domain of verbal complementation with the preposition contra. The study concludes that the preposition contra, as an introducer of complements, has been highly productive since the origins of the language, contrary to the researchers’ initial expectation that it would occur much less frequently than in its function as a verbal adjunct. The results amount to 1,533 occurrences as complements and 1,373 as verbal adjuncts. Complements headed by contra typically occur with agentive verbs that bear the semantic feature referred to here as hostility, thus producing semantic redundancy. These verbs have been classified into four groups: reciprocal hostility verbs, non-reciprocal hostility verbs, non-reciprocal hostility verbs with a second argument, and counter-hostility verbs, which are triadic verbs denoting the action of an agent (formalised as the subject) aimed not at exercising hostility towards the referent designated by the direct object, but rather at preventing or neutralising the hostile intervention of a third participant. In addition, the preposition contra is found in the complements of direction motion verbs that are not inherently hostile, to which the preposition adds a semantics of hostility (without, however, introducing an additional adjunct). Finally, in a limited number of cases, we have identified the preposition contra with motion verbs in constructions lacking any semantics of hostility, where the preposition has a merely locative/directional value. Although this use already existed in Latin, it appears that in medieval Catalan it tended to be avoided in formal language, which favoured the semantics of hostility or intentional opposition. As for alternations, the complement introduced by contra can alternate with complements introduced by other prepositions or with the direct object. These alternations are not general across all verbs in each class, and at the present stage of research it is difficult to generalise on this point, since it is difficult to identify clear and regular patterns. With regard to the comparison with contemporary Catalan, both discrepancies and continuities are observed. In aspects more closely tied to the grammatical system, contrasts involving complements introduced by contra primarily concern directional motion predicates, which occur more frequently and with greater versatility in Old Catalan, as well as predicates that do not denote hostility and have either disappeared from the contemporary language or occupy a marginal position.

Abstract

This paper studies the preposition contra in Old Catalan by analysing data from the Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), with the aim of describing its syntactic behaviour. The data analysed consist of a total of 6,118 tokens of the preposition contra, corresponding to all the instances recorded in the CICA for the entire Old Catalan period (up to and including the fifteenth century). The objectives are (a) to distinguish between verbs governing contra and other constructions containing contra; (b) to describe and classify the verbs that govern contra and to provide information on argument alternations; and (c) to establish an initial comparison between Old Catalan and contemporary Catalan in the domain of verbal complementation with the preposition contra. The study concludes that the preposition contra, as an introducer of complements, has been highly productive since the origins of the language, contrary to the researchers’ initial expectation that it would occur much less frequently than in its function as a verbal adjunct. The results amount to 1,533 occurrences as complements and 1,373 as verbal adjuncts. Complements headed by contra typically occur with agentive verbs that bear the semantic feature referred to here as hostility, thus producing semantic redundancy. These verbs have been classified into four groups: reciprocal hostility verbs, non-reciprocal hostility verbs, non-reciprocal hostility verbs with a second argument, and counter-hostility verbs, which are triadic verbs denoting the action of an agent (formalised as the subject) aimed not at exercising hostility towards the referent designated by the direct object, but rather at preventing or neutralising the hostile intervention of a third participant. In addition, the preposition contra is found in the complements of direction motion verbs that are not inherently hostile, to which the preposition adds a semantics of hostility (without, however, introducing an additional adjunct). Finally, in a limited number of cases, we have identified the preposition contra with motion verbs in constructions lacking any semantics of hostility, where the preposition has a merely locative/directional value. Although this use already existed in Latin, it appears that in medieval Catalan it tended to be avoided in formal language, which favoured the semantics of hostility or intentional opposition. As for alternations, the complement introduced by contra can alternate with complements introduced by other prepositions or with the direct object. These alternations are not general across all verbs in each class, and at the present stage of research it is difficult to generalise on this point, since it is difficult to identify clear and regular patterns. With regard to the comparison with contemporary Catalan, both discrepancies and continuities are observed. In aspects more closely tied to the grammatical system, contrasts involving complements introduced by contra primarily concern directional motion predicates, which occur more frequently and with greater versatility in Old Catalan, as well as predicates that do not denote hostility and have either disappeared from the contemporary language or occupy a marginal position.