The aim of this thesis is to present an in-depth analysis of a certain subset of middle constructions in the framework of contemporary generative grammar. In English, middle constructions represent syntactically active sentences without an external argument (e.g., John frightens easily), while in Slovenian, middles correspond to a subset of reflexively marked constructions. In the thesis, I first present new empirical evidence that supports a two-argument analysis of the reflexively marked impersonal construction (e.g., Gradilo se je hišo.acc) and argue that the inadmissibility of unaccusative verbs in this structure poses a problem for previous analyses. I therefore offer a new semantic and syntactic analysis of the construction with which I explain why such verbs are inadmissible. I also show that the impersonal Slovenian construction, when it has generic reference (e.g., To knjigo.acc se dobro bere), provides a counter-example for the claim that the subject-oriented modal interpretation of middles hinges on the exclusion of the external argument from the derivation. Instead, I offer a new analysis of the semantics of middles where the characteristic modal ascription is completely divorced from the syntactic realization of the middle%s argument structure.
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