Spanish [auto + V + se] constructions

In this paper we analyse Spanish verbal constructions that accept both the clitic and the prefix in order to determine whether these formations are or are not more agentive than the corresponding non-prefixed constructions ( ). The proposal arises from the discussion about the different semantic values observed in formations with and explores the distinctive features of such formations in contrast to those without . We carried out a twofold analysis: first, we applied a set of tests of agentivity and control to a sample of 130 verbs with extracted from the Modern Spanish Reference Corpus (CREA) and compared the sample with its non-prefixed pronominal pairs (i.e. verbs with clitic ). Second, we carried out a series of surveys using similar tests with Spanish speakers to guarantee the acceptability of the corpus interpretations. We argue that prefixed constructions show a higher degree of agentivity and control by external arguments, which results in the impossibility of bidirectionally replacing these constructions with those that only have the clitic