- Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge, CB3 9DA
- Syntax, Generative Syntax, Italian Dialectology, Comparative Romance linguistics, Historical Morphosyntax, Latin linguistics, and 47 moreGreek Linguistics, History of Italian Language, Romanian Language, Romanian Linguistics, southern Italian dialects, Romance dialectology, Syntactic Theory, Dialectology, Dialettologia italiana, Dialetti italiani, Italian (Languages And Linguistics), Romance Linguistics, Italian dialects, Storia Della Lingua Italiana, Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Diachronic Syntax, Romance philology, Historical Syntax, Complementizers, Romance Languages, Catalan Language, Language Typology, Clitics, Noun Phrase, Complementation, Grammaticalization, French language, French linguistics, Historical French Linguistics, Gascon dialect, Gascon Occitan, Occitan Language, Spanish Linguistics, Portuguese Linguistics, Catalan linguistics, Romance dialect syntax, Rhaeto-Romance languages, Sociolinguistics, Sociolinguistic Variation, Romance Diachronic Sociolinguistics, Contact Linguistics, Morphology, Morphology and Syntax, Language Change, Language Variation and Change, Intercomprehension in Romance Languages, and Plurilingualismedit
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Research Interests: Romance philology, History of Latin Language, Romance historical syntax, Comparative Romance linguistics, Latin Language, and 12 moreRomance Linguistics, Romance Languages, Syntax, Historical Linguistics, Romance Linguistics, Limba Romana, Sintaxa, Syntax of Romance Languages, Romance Linguistics (Syntax, History of Romance Languages, Istoria Limbii Române, Limbi Romanice, lingvistică română, and Sintaxă diacronică
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Given the central role of Romance and, in turn, historical linguistics assumed today within the study of linguistics and the many new and exciting perspectives that they continue to afford us in shaping and informing our theoretical... more
Given the central role of Romance and, in turn, historical linguistics assumed today within the study of linguistics and the many new and exciting perspectives that they continue to afford us in shaping and informing our theoretical understanding of the nature of language, it seemed timely to the editors to bring together in a single issue some of the foremost scholars in the field of Romance Linguistics. In the articles of this special issue, they reflect in fresh and original ways on some major topics in historical linguistics in the light of contemporary thinking across a wide variety of formal approaches and in relation to a large body of empirical research conducted over a vast range of individual Romance languages and dialects, as well as across sub-branches of Romance from a comparative perspective.
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This volume brings together contributions from leading specialists in syntax and morphology to explore the complex relation between periphrasis and inflexion from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The chapters draw on data... more
This volume brings together contributions from leading specialists in syntax and morphology to explore the complex relation between periphrasis and inflexion from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The chapters draw on data from across the Romance language family, including standard and regional varieties and dialects.
The relation between periphrasis and inflexion raises questions for both syntax and morphology, and understanding the phenomena involved requires cooperation across these sub-domains. For example, the components that express many periphrases can be interrupted by other words in a way that is common in syntax but not in morphology, and in some contexts, a periphrastic form may be semantically equivalent to a single-word inflected form, with which it arguably forms part of a paradigmatic set. Patterns of this kind are found across Romance, albeit with significant local differences. Moreover, diachrony is essential in understanding these phenomena, and the rich historical documentation available for Romance allows an in-depth exploration of the changes and variation involved, as different members of the family may instantiate different stages of development. Studying these changes also raises important questions about the relation between attested and reconstructed patterns. Although the empirical focus of the volume is on the Romance languages, the analyses and conclusions presented shed light on the development and nature of similar structures in other language families and provide valuable insights relevant to linguistic theory more broadly.
The relation between periphrasis and inflexion raises questions for both syntax and morphology, and understanding the phenomena involved requires cooperation across these sub-domains. For example, the components that express many periphrases can be interrupted by other words in a way that is common in syntax but not in morphology, and in some contexts, a periphrastic form may be semantically equivalent to a single-word inflected form, with which it arguably forms part of a paradigmatic set. Patterns of this kind are found across Romance, albeit with significant local differences. Moreover, diachrony is essential in understanding these phenomena, and the rich historical documentation available for Romance allows an in-depth exploration of the changes and variation involved, as different members of the family may instantiate different stages of development. Studying these changes also raises important questions about the relation between attested and reconstructed patterns. Although the empirical focus of the volume is on the Romance languages, the analyses and conclusions presented shed light on the development and nature of similar structures in other language families and provide valuable insights relevant to linguistic theory more broadly.
Research Interests: Morphology, Comparative Romance linguistics, Morphology-syntax interface, including clitics, periphrasis, Romance Linguistics, Morphology (Languages And Linguistics), and 7 moreMorphology and Syntax, Romance Languages, Inflection, Morphology, The theory and typology of inflectional morphology, Verbal Periphrasis, Verbal Inflectional Morphology, and Inflectional Morphology
The Romance languages and dialects constitute a treasure trove of linguistic data of profound interest and significance. Data from the Romance languages have contributed extensively to our current empirical and theoretical understanding... more
The Romance languages and dialects constitute a treasure trove of linguistic data of profound interest and significance. Data from the Romance languages have contributed extensively to our current empirical and theoretical understanding of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. Written by a team of world-renowned scholars, this Handbook explores what we can learn about linguistics from the study of Romance languages, and how the body of comparative and historical data taken from them can be applied to linguistic study. It also offers insights into the diatopic and diachronic variation exhibited by the Romance family of languages, of a kind unparalleled for any other Western languages. By asking what Romance languages can do for linguistics, this Handbook is essential reading for all linguists interested in the insights that a knowledge of the Romance evidence can provide for general issues in linguistic theory.
Research Interests: Romance philology, Romance historical syntax, Comparative Linguistics, Romance Linguistics, Romance Languages, and 12 moresemantic change, grammaticalization, Romance languages, Romance Languages and Literatures, Syntax of Romance Languages, Lingüística Románica, Origen Lenguas Romances, Linguistica Romanza, Romance phonology, Linguistique générale et romane, Romance morphophonology, Linguistique Romane, Romance morphology, and Romance pragmatics
Research Interests: Sociolinguistics, Comparative Romance linguistics, Italian (Languages And Linguistics), Italian language, History of Italian Language, and 12 moreItalian Linguistics, Fonética, Linguistica italiana, Storia Della Lingua Italiana, Lessicografia italiana, Morfologia, Linguistica Italiana, Storia Della Lingua Italiana, Pragmatica Del Linguaggio, Lingua italiana, Italian Syntax, Fonologia, Linguistica e grammatica italiana, and Semantica
Research Interests: Contact Linguistics, Balkan linguistics, Syntactic Theory, Romanian Language, Comparative Romance linguistics, and 10 moreRomance Linguistics, Comparative Syntax, Italian dialects, Language contact, Italian Dialectology, Dialetti italiani, Istro-Romanian language, Dialettologia italiana, Arberesh Dialects, and Megleno-Romanian Language
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RÉSUMÉ Traditionnellement, la différence typologique principale entre le latin et les langues romanes résiderait dans une distinction entre morphologie et syntaxe : tandis que le latin recourt principalement aux structures synthétiques... more
RÉSUMÉ Traditionnellement, la différence typologique principale entre le latin et les langues romanes résiderait dans une distinction entre morphologie et syntaxe : tandis que le latin recourt principalement aux structures synthétiques (en concomitance avec un ordre des mots dit libre), les variétés romanes morphologiquement moins riches ont largement recours aux structures analytiques (en concomitance avec un ordre des mots fixe). Selon une opinion populaire, cette différence refléterait un passage de la non-configurationnalité à la configurationnalité : en latin les relations entre les différents lexèmes sont signalées par la forme des lexèmes mêmes grâce à un système de flexions casuelles et d'accord très riches, alors que dans les langues romanes les relations entre les lexèmes associés sont codées par leurs positions fixes les uns par rapport aux autres. Malgré les aperçus précieux offerts par cette approche configurationnelle, on développe une approche alternative des changements de l'organisation structurelle du latin dans le passage aux langues romanes qui présuppose déjà la présence de la configurationnalité et de la structure fonctionnelle en latin depuis ses origines. De ce point de vue, les différences incontestables entre latin et langues romanes, notamment le remplacement d'un ordre des mots pragmatiquement déterminé par un ordre de plus en plus grammaticalement déterminé et l'apparition parallèle des catégories fonctionnelles, se prêtent à une explication en fonction de changements formels relatifs au paramètre de la directionnalité de la tête et au rôle différentiel de la structure fonctionnelle dans les deux variétés. SUMMARY Traditionally, the principal typological difference between Latin and Romance has been taken to involve a distinction between morphology and syntax: while Latin predominantly makes recourse to synthetic structures (with concomitant so-called free word order), the morphologically poorer Romance varieties make greater use of analytic structures (with concomitant fixed word order). According to one popular view, this difference involves a move from non-configurationality to full configurationality: whereas in Latin grammatical relations are encoded by the forms of words themselves through case and agreement morphology, in Romance
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Centuries-old Greek-Romance contact in southern Italy has led to the Hellenization of the local surrounding Romance dialects, as succinctly summed up by Rohlfs’ catchphrase spirito greco, materia romanza (literally ‘Greek spirit, Romance... more
Centuries-old Greek-Romance contact in southern Italy has led to the Hellenization of the local surrounding Romance dialects, as succinctly summed up by Rohlfs’ catchphrase spirito greco, materia romanza (literally ‘Greek spirit, Romance material’) to highlight the fact that in many respects the syntax of these Romance dialects is underlyingly Greek, despite employing predominantly Romance lexis. By the same token, in more recent times the indigenous Greek dialects of these areas have increasingly been subject to Romance influence (in particular, from regional Italian) giving rise to a number of underlyingly Romance structures and features in an otherwise Greek syntax. In this article we draw on two cases studies from the Romance and Greek varieties spoken in Calabria to illustrate how the syntax of argument-marking has variously been subject to contact-induced change. In both cases, it is shown that contact-induced borrowing does not replicate the original structure of the lending language but, rather, combines aspects of core Greek and Romance syntax to produce innovative hybrid structures, the evidence of which can be profitably used to throw light on the formal characterization and nature of convergence and divergence. Furthermore, the data considered here underline how convergence between grammars in contact does not necessarily lead to simple borrowing and transference through interference, but more frequently gives rise to new hybrid structures born of reanalysis of the original Italo-Greek or regional Italian structures within a Romance or Italo-Greek grammar.
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This paper discusses two case studies of microvariation in accusative marking in the Italo-Romance varieties of the extreme south of Italy. In particular, the diatopic variation displayed by the dialects of southern Calabria gives rise to... more
This paper discusses two case studies of microvariation in accusative marking in the Italo-Romance varieties of the extreme south of Italy. In particular, the diatopic variation displayed by the dialects of southern Calabria gives rise to peculiar patterns of alternation between presence or absence of the marker a 'to' in flagging the accusative. The realisation of accusative case is partially governed by semantic and referential features, i.e. specificity and animacy. In addition, the nature of the realisation of the D head results in a degree of competition between zero marking and analytic accusative marking with a. Given the century-long coexistence of Latin/Romance and Greek in southern Calabria, the relevant morphosyntactic patterns in Case-marking will also be examined from a language contact perspective. We will highlight how the relevant outcomes do not simply involve borrowing mechanisms or template copying from the lending variety but, rather, produce hybrid structures no longer ascribable to a purely Romance or Greek grammar.
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This article investigates a peculiar pattern of subject case-marking in the Greek of southern Italy. Recent fieldwork with native speakers, coupled with the consultation of some written sources, reveals that, alongside prototypical... more
This article investigates a peculiar pattern of subject case-marking in the Greek of southern Italy. Recent fieldwork with native speakers, coupled with the consultation of some written sources, reveals that, alongside prototypical nominative subjects, Italo-Greek also licenses accusative subjects, despite displaying a predominantly nominative-accusative alignment. Far from being random replacements within a highly attrited grammar, the distribution of these accusative subjects obeys specific structural principles, revealing similarities with historical attestations of the so-called ‘extended accusative’ in early Indo-European. On the basis of these data, Italo-Greek is argued to be undergoing a progressive shift towards an active-stative alignment, a claim supported by additional evidence from auxiliary selection, adverb agreement and sentential word order.
Research Interests: Contact Linguistics, Greek Dialects, Comparative Syntax, Italian dialects, Alignment, and 9 moreItalian Dialectology, Dialetti italiani, Linguistic Morphology Language Contact, Greek Dialectology, Dialettologia, Modern Greek Dialects, Linguistics of Languages in Contact, Dialettologia italiana, and Dialetti Greci
Research Interests: Syntax, Comparative Romance linguistics, Comparative Syntax, Italian dialects, Microvariation, and 10 moreSyntactic change and variation, Dialetti italiani, Microvariation and Typology, Universal Hierarchy of Clausal Functional Projections., Syntactic Variation, Adverbs, Functional Projections, Clausal Architecture, Dialettologia italiana, Syntax of Romance Languages, Romance Linguistics (Syntax, and Microparametric Syntax
Given the central role of Romance and, in turn, historical linguistics assumed today within the study of linguistics and the many new and exciting perspectives that they continue to afford us in shaping and informing our theoretical... more
Given the central role of Romance and, in turn, historical linguistics assumed today within the study of linguistics and the many new and exciting perspectives that they continue to afford us in shaping and informing our theoretical understanding of the nature of language, it seemed timely to the editors to bring together in a single issue some of the foremost scholars in the field of Romance Linguistics. In the articles of this special issue, they reflect in fresh and original ways on some major topics in historical linguistics in the light of contemporary thinking across a wide variety of formal approaches and in relation to a large body of empirical research conducted over a vast range of individual Romance languages and dialects, as well as across sub-branches of Romance from a comparative perspective.
Research Interests: Diachronic Linguistics (Or Historical Linguistics), Historical Linguistics, Historical Syntax, Comparative Romance linguistics, Romance Linguistics, and 15 moreComparative Syntax, Diachronic Syntax, Historical Semantics, Diachronic Semantics, Diachronic Phonology, Diachronic linguistics, Romanian Linguistics, Historical Phonology, Romance dialectology, Diachronic Morphology, Italo-Romance Dialectology, Romanian Syntax, Ibero-Romance Linguistics, Romance Historical Linguistics, and Gallo-Romance languages
There is considerable consensus and increasing evidence within the descriptive and theoretical literature that the syntax of medieval Romance, as well as late Latin, was characterized by a verb-second (V2) constraint. Accordingly, in root... more
There is considerable consensus and increasing evidence within the descriptive and theoretical literature that the syntax of medieval Romance, as well as late Latin, was characterized by a verb-second (V2) constraint. Accordingly, in root clauses, and in certain types of embedded clause, the finite verb is argued to raise systematically to the vacant C(omplementizer) position, a movement operation which is variously accompanied by the fronting of one or more pragmatically-salient constituents to the left of the raised verb to target topic and focus positions situated in the left periphery. Now, while the V2 status of medieval Romance and old French in particular is widely supported by detailed empirical and statistical studies, there are still some dissenting voices, such that the introduction and detailed scrutiny of new data, especially involving a range of more diverse textual sources, is a welcome addition in that it can provide important confirmatory evidence in favour of the V2 hypothesis. The present article therefore undertakes a detailed examination of the word order of a non-canonical old French prose text, the Histoire Ancienne jusqu’à César (henceforth HA), a universal history of particular interest since its earliest manuscript witnesses were produced outside of France in Acre (in the Kingdom of Jersualem), providing us with a precious example of a supralocal use of French transmitted by scribes who were often multilingual, or in any case not necessarily from France, and intended for a broad linguistic readership across France, Italy and the eastern Mediterranean, many of whom would not have had French as a native language. Within this context, the study of word order and, in particular, the evidence for a V2 constraint in the HA offers us a discrete scientifically-controllable variable by which to measure the extent of structural unity across those mutually intelligible medieval koinés, of which the language of the HA is but one example, albeit from outside of France, conventionally considered to constitute old French. An examination of the word order of the HA, in itself an original result, is shown to follow a V2 syntax, thereby underlining the salience of this structural constraint as a distinctive and stable feature of the grammars of medieval French texts produced both inside and outside of France, including by perhaps less than fully native scribes. At the same time, this strengthens, in turn, claims for the existence of a common medieval Romance syntax characterized by a shared structural norm in the form of the V2 constraint, arguably the common denominator and hallmark of all medieval Romance grammars.
Research Interests: Historical Linguistics, Romance historical syntax, French linguistics, French syntax, Romance Linguistics, and 9 moreTheoretical Syntax, Word order, Historical French Linguistics, Histoire de la langue française, Verb Second, Linguistique Française, Clausal Left Periphery, Cartography of syntactic structures, and Syntax of Romance Languages
The present paper examines the syntax of the verbs of motion GO and COME in the dialects of northern Calabria. In these dialects both verbs of motion exceptionally license a case of pseudo-coordination, a monoclausal complementation... more
The present paper examines the syntax of the verbs of motion GO and COME in the dialects of northern Calabria. In these dialects both verbs of motion exceptionally license a case of pseudo-coordination, a monoclausal complementation structure in which two finite verbs occur in succession. In contrast to similar structures found in neighbouring southern dialects, it is argued that, despite their ‘special’ monoclausal syntax, GO and COME in the northern Calabrian pseudo-construction are not grammaticalized in that they have not undergone any process of grammaticalization. Rather, GO and COME indicate pure deictic motion and lack any of the typical functional (e.g. temporal) uses of their counterparts in other languages, Romance or otherwise. To capture their behaviour, it is proposed that GO and COME in northern Calabrian lexicalize a low functional head marking the aspectual deictic categories of andative and venitive viewpoint, but do not raise to higher positions within the functional domain to lexicalize grammaticalized categories such as future tense, as often happens in other Romance varieties where GO and COME are now also first-merged in such positions and therefore show the concomitant effects of grammaticalization. This leads to the claim that, in contrast to their equivalents in many other Romance varieties, GO and COME in northern Calabrian are grammatical, inasmuch as they are first-merged in a low aspectual head of the clausal functional domain, but they are not grammaticalized, in that they fail to raise to higher functional heads within the higher functional domain.
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The aim of this article is to investigate a special case of suppletion in the paradigm of the negative imperative in some dialects of southern Calabria. First, we show how these paradigms involve the extension of an original infinitival... more
The aim of this article is to investigate a special case of suppletion in the paradigm
of the negative imperative in some dialects of southern Calabria. First, we show how
these paradigms involve the extension of an original infinitival desinence to a present
indicative verb, giving rise to a hybrid imperatival form (Section 2). Second, we claim
that this pattern of suppletion does not represent a Romance-internal development
but, rather, the outcome of contact-induced change and, in particular, the influence
of the local Greek sub-/adstrate (Section 3). Furthermore, we show that these hybrid
patterns also provide significant evidence for the formal morphosyntactic equivalence
between competing Greek finite and Romance non-finite forms of subordination,
a typical Balkanism (Section 4). Finally, we demonstrate that the extension of the
Romance infinitival desinence according to an underlying Greek model yields in
synchrony an alternation between a suppletive positive imperative and a true negative
imperative, a typologically very rare formal opposition (Section 5).
of the negative imperative in some dialects of southern Calabria. First, we show how
these paradigms involve the extension of an original infinitival desinence to a present
indicative verb, giving rise to a hybrid imperatival form (Section 2). Second, we claim
that this pattern of suppletion does not represent a Romance-internal development
but, rather, the outcome of contact-induced change and, in particular, the influence
of the local Greek sub-/adstrate (Section 3). Furthermore, we show that these hybrid
patterns also provide significant evidence for the formal morphosyntactic equivalence
between competing Greek finite and Romance non-finite forms of subordination,
a typical Balkanism (Section 4). Finally, we demonstrate that the extension of the
Romance infinitival desinence according to an underlying Greek model yields in
synchrony an alternation between a suppletive positive imperative and a true negative
imperative, a typologically very rare formal opposition (Section 5).
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This article provides both a diachronic and synchronic account of the generalization of perfective auxiliary BE in specific irrealis modal contexts across numerous Romance varieties spoken in Italy and more widely within the Romània which... more
This article provides both a diachronic and synchronic account of the generalization of perfective auxiliary BE in specific irrealis modal contexts across numerous Romance varieties spoken in Italy and more widely within the Romània which has essentially gone unnoticed in the descriptive and theoretical literature. In some cases (southern Calabrian, Latin American Spanish, Portuguese), the distribution of BE is to be interpreted as a residue of an original unaccusative syntax which was exceptionally preserved under higher V-movement in irrealis contexts, whereas in others (person-driven dialects of central and southern Italy, southern peninsular Spanish, Romanian) this original unaccusative signal has been reanalysed as a specialized marker of irrealis (lexicalizing a high Mood head) and extended to all verb classes. In the case of Alguerès, by contrast, general-ization of irrealis be is argued to be the result of language contact with surrounding Sardinian dialects where a specific pattern of dedicated irrealis marking of Mood has been replicated. Finally, the reverse pattern with generalization of irrealis HAVE, the reanalysis of an aspectual dis-tinction between resultative and experiential perfects found in early Romance varieties (Neapoli-tan, Sicilian, Spanish, Catalan), is shown to involve a similar pattern of dedicated irrealis mark-ing in Mood.
Research Interests: Spanish Linguistics, Comparative Romance linguistics, Romance Linguistics, Italian dialects, Sardinian language, and 8 moreItalian Dialectology, Portuguese Linguistics, Romanian Linguistics, Romance dialectology, Catalan linguistics, Auxiliary verbs, Gramaticalización Verbos Auxiliares, and Auxiliary Selection
This article undertakes a descriptive overview of the variation in the distribution and licensing of differential object marking across a wide range of dialects of the south of Italy. It is shown how variation in this area is not random,... more
This article undertakes a descriptive overview of the variation in the distribution and licensing of differential object marking across a wide range of dialects of the south of Italy. It is shown how variation in this area is not random, but follows patterns of structured variation which can be modelled in a scalar fashion in terms of four broad splits based on grammatical person, and on pronominal–nominal, head–phrasal and animacy/specificity oppositions. These four broad dimensions of variation are, in turn, demonstrated to conceal a number of more subtle differences of a microvariational nature. This microvariation, it is suggested, can be read not only horizontally as synchronic variation across the dialects, but also vertically to provide some key insights into the diachronic development of (Italo-)Romance DOM.
Research Interests: Comparative Romance linguistics, Italian dialects, Differential Object Marking, Dialetti meridionali, Dialettologia, and 10 moresouthern Italian dialects, Dialettologia italiana, Syntax of Romance Languages, Romance Linguistics (Syntax, Object Markers, Grafia dei dialetti alto-meridionali, Dialects of central Italy, Dialetti alto-meridionali, Dialetti centro-meridionali, and Dialetti dell'area meridionale estrema
It is well known that many Romance varieties including French (Cornu 1953; Ayres-Bennett and Carruthers 1992), Occitan (Schlieben-Lange 1971:37-50, 134-55), northern Catalan (GLC 247, 957), Francoprovençal (Kristol 2016:362), Friulian... more
It is well known that many Romance varieties including French (Cornu 1953; Ayres-Bennett and Carruthers 1992), Occitan (Schlieben-Lange 1971:37-50, 134-55), northern Catalan (GLC 247, 957), Francoprovençal (Kristol 2016:362), Friulian (Benincà 1989; Benincà and Vanelli 2016:146), Ladin (Salvi 2016:161), north-eastern dialects of Italy (Marcato 1986; Poletto 1992; 2008; 2009; Formentin 2004; Benincà, Parry and Pescarini 2016:204f.) and old Neapolitan and Romanesco (Ledgeway [1997]1999; 2009:596f.; Formentin 2002:248) display a double compound perfective periphrasis, the so-called temps surcomposés, in which the auxiliary itself occurs in a compound form. This is illustrated in the northern Italian example (1a) from Poletto (2009), where the lexical participle magnà ‘eaten’ is preceded by an auxiliary complex consisting of a finite HAVE auxiliary go followed, in turn, by a specialized participial form of the auxiliary HAVE (viz. bio). In the case of the passive (1b), this naturally gives rise to a case of triple auxiliation.
(1) a. Co go bio magnà,… (Cereda, Vicenza)
when have.1SG have.PTCP eat.PTCP
‘When I (had) finished eating,…’ (Poletto 2009:34)
b. Co so bio stà ciamà,… (Cereda, Vicenza)
when be.1SG have.PTCP be.PTCP call.PTCP
‘When I had been called,…’ (Poletto 2008:502)
Although there is some variation in the interpretation of the temps surcomposés across Romance, such forms are typically claimed to give rise to specific aspectual readings such as anteriority and completive and experiential values (cf. Jolivet 1986; Haiman and Benincà 1992:109; Salvat 1998:106; Schaden 2007:ch. 4; Apothéloz 2010; Vincent 2011:430-32; 2014:12f., 17f.; Melchior 2012; Bertinetto and Squartini 2016:947). For instance, example (1a) clearly expresses a terminative or completive value, underlining that the speaker had finished eating at a reference point anterior to a subsequent event or situation (cf. Schaden’s (2007:216f.) type 1 aspectual use). Poletto (1992) argues that in such structures the HAVE participle spells out the head of an aspectual projection sandwiched between two tense projections which is responsible for licensing the observed marked aspectual reading, an idea that she develops in more detail from a cartographic perspective in her 2008 and 2009 (comparative) analyses of the temps surcomposés in Italo-Romance and Germanic.
Much less studied, by contrast, are the uses of the temps surcomposés to mark certain irrealis situations and events. One reported case comes from the dialects of central and northern Sardinia which restrict the use of the surcomposé paradigm to irrealis contexts such as past counterfactual conditionals, unrealized wishes and conditional perfects, witness (2).
(2) tamˈbɛne si aˈiað ˈapːi̯u ˈɸropːi̯u. (Dorgali, Srd.)
if.only if have.PST.IPFV.3SG have.PTCP rain.PTCP
‘If only it had rained!’ (Pisano 2010:130)
On the surface, one might interpret the uses of the temps surcomposés displayed in (1a-b) and (2) as instantiating two distinct constructions. However, evidence from the langue d’oïl varieties of Wallonia (southern Belgium) to be explored in this article demonstrates that the two uses can occur within the same variety. In particular, Wallon varieties display both the typical ‘aspectual’ uses of the temps surcomposés (cf. 3a) as well as the less frequently documented ‘modal’ uses (cf. 3b).
(3) a. I nn’ a avou vite toumé (La Gleize, Wal.)
it of.it= have.3SG have.PTCP quickly fall.PTCP
‘A lot of it [viz. snow] had quickly begun to fall.’ (Remacle 1956:74)
b. S’ il areût avou fêt mèyeûr, dju l’s- areû
if he have.COND.3SG have.PTCP do.PTCP better I them= have.COND.1SG
avou stou say (La Gleize, Wal.)
have.PTCP be.PTCP try.INF
‘If he had done better, I would have gone to try them.’ (Remacle 1956:75)
In what follows I take evidence such as (3a-b) from Wallon to support the idea that both uses of the temps surcomposés should be unified, in that the irrealis use in (3b) can be interpreted as an extension of the more widespread aspectual use in (3a). Following in part ideas first developed in Poletto (2009) and to be fleshed out in more detail below, I argue that the double compound form in examples such as (3b) functions as a dedicated emphatic marker of irrealis modality which extends the typical anterior values of the temps surcomposés observed in examples such as (3a) to yield a modalized (viz. non-actual) reading of the temporal value realized by the additional participial auxiliary (cf. also Schaden 2017:193f.). In this way, it is possible to capture the complementary aspectual and irrealis uses of the temps surcomposés and, ultimately, their extension to irrealis contexts.
(1) a. Co go bio magnà,… (Cereda, Vicenza)
when have.1SG have.PTCP eat.PTCP
‘When I (had) finished eating,…’ (Poletto 2009:34)
b. Co so bio stà ciamà,… (Cereda, Vicenza)
when be.1SG have.PTCP be.PTCP call.PTCP
‘When I had been called,…’ (Poletto 2008:502)
Although there is some variation in the interpretation of the temps surcomposés across Romance, such forms are typically claimed to give rise to specific aspectual readings such as anteriority and completive and experiential values (cf. Jolivet 1986; Haiman and Benincà 1992:109; Salvat 1998:106; Schaden 2007:ch. 4; Apothéloz 2010; Vincent 2011:430-32; 2014:12f., 17f.; Melchior 2012; Bertinetto and Squartini 2016:947). For instance, example (1a) clearly expresses a terminative or completive value, underlining that the speaker had finished eating at a reference point anterior to a subsequent event or situation (cf. Schaden’s (2007:216f.) type 1 aspectual use). Poletto (1992) argues that in such structures the HAVE participle spells out the head of an aspectual projection sandwiched between two tense projections which is responsible for licensing the observed marked aspectual reading, an idea that she develops in more detail from a cartographic perspective in her 2008 and 2009 (comparative) analyses of the temps surcomposés in Italo-Romance and Germanic.
Much less studied, by contrast, are the uses of the temps surcomposés to mark certain irrealis situations and events. One reported case comes from the dialects of central and northern Sardinia which restrict the use of the surcomposé paradigm to irrealis contexts such as past counterfactual conditionals, unrealized wishes and conditional perfects, witness (2).
(2) tamˈbɛne si aˈiað ˈapːi̯u ˈɸropːi̯u. (Dorgali, Srd.)
if.only if have.PST.IPFV.3SG have.PTCP rain.PTCP
‘If only it had rained!’ (Pisano 2010:130)
On the surface, one might interpret the uses of the temps surcomposés displayed in (1a-b) and (2) as instantiating two distinct constructions. However, evidence from the langue d’oïl varieties of Wallonia (southern Belgium) to be explored in this article demonstrates that the two uses can occur within the same variety. In particular, Wallon varieties display both the typical ‘aspectual’ uses of the temps surcomposés (cf. 3a) as well as the less frequently documented ‘modal’ uses (cf. 3b).
(3) a. I nn’ a avou vite toumé (La Gleize, Wal.)
it of.it= have.3SG have.PTCP quickly fall.PTCP
‘A lot of it [viz. snow] had quickly begun to fall.’ (Remacle 1956:74)
b. S’ il areût avou fêt mèyeûr, dju l’s- areû
if he have.COND.3SG have.PTCP do.PTCP better I them= have.COND.1SG
avou stou say (La Gleize, Wal.)
have.PTCP be.PTCP try.INF
‘If he had done better, I would have gone to try them.’ (Remacle 1956:75)
In what follows I take evidence such as (3a-b) from Wallon to support the idea that both uses of the temps surcomposés should be unified, in that the irrealis use in (3b) can be interpreted as an extension of the more widespread aspectual use in (3a). Following in part ideas first developed in Poletto (2009) and to be fleshed out in more detail below, I argue that the double compound form in examples such as (3b) functions as a dedicated emphatic marker of irrealis modality which extends the typical anterior values of the temps surcomposés observed in examples such as (3a) to yield a modalized (viz. non-actual) reading of the temporal value realized by the additional participial auxiliary (cf. also Schaden 2017:193f.). In this way, it is possible to capture the complementary aspectual and irrealis uses of the temps surcomposés and, ultimately, their extension to irrealis contexts.
Research Interests: Modality, Morphology-syntax interface, including clitics, periphrasis, Tense and Aspect Systems, Romance Linguistics, Mood and Modality, and 12 morePeriphrastic Constructions, Tense aspect modality, Periphrasis, Irrealis in language, Wallonia, Wallon language, Verbal Periphrasis, Langue D'Oil, Gallo-Romance languages, Langues d'oïl, Parfait Périphrastique, and Walloon language
Romanian and the Romance and Greek varieties of the extreme south of Italy show various degrees of diachronic and diatopic microvariation in the loss and retreat of the infinitive, whilst displaying at the same time a high degree of... more
Romanian and the Romance and Greek varieties of the extreme south of Italy show various degrees of diachronic and diatopic microvariation in the loss and retreat of the infinitive, whilst displaying at the same time a high degree of overall structural uniformity in their parallel preservation of the (bare) infinitive in: (1) restructuring contexts; (2) infinitival relatives; and (3) negative imperatives. On the surface, there is nothing a priori to suggest that these three contexts should be connected in any way. Yet the discussion below demonstrates how these three uses can be reduced to a single structural explanation which views the infinitive as a reduced clausal constituent (viz. v-VP) generated in a monoclausal structure selected in all cases by a modal, temporal or aspectual auxiliary which is phonologically overt in (1), but oscillates between overt and covert phonological realizations in (2) and (3) in accordance with crosslinguistic variation. The result is a unified analysis which allows us to capture the distribution of (bare) infinitival complementation in all the relevant varieties quite simply in terms of a so-called restructuring configuration in line with Hill’s (2013a,b, 2017) intuition that the Romanian (and more generally Balkan) bare infinitive instantiates a monoclausal structure selected by a T-related auxiliary.
Research Interests: Greek Dialects, Comparative Romance linguistics, Modal Verbs, Italian dialects, Language contact, and 12 moreItalian Dialectology, Complementation, Infinitives, Dialetti italiani, Dialetti meridionali, Languages in Contact, Romanian Linguistics, Greek Dialectology, Contact-Induced Language Change, Dialettologia italiana, Syntax of Romance Languages, and Romance Linguistics (Syntax
In this article we bring to light one additional factor underlying so-called Jespersen’s Cycle (JC) in Romance which has to date gone unnoticed, namely the varying position of the finite verb within the IP. More specifically, we show... more
In this article we bring to light one additional factor underlying so-called Jespersen’s Cycle (JC) in Romance which has to date gone unnoticed, namely the varying position of the finite verb within the IP. More specifically, we show that there exists an empirical correlation between the availability of clause-medial/high verb-movement and Stages II-III of JC in which a postverbal negator is licensed. Drawing on novel data, we demonstrate that this correlation holds not only across modern Romance varieties, but also across early varieties. Formally, we explain this link between negation and verb-movement from the (in)active status of the T-domain and the consequent (im)possibility of donating a [Neg] feature to the lower v-VP domain. Although verb-movement in itself is not a sufficient condition to trigger a shift towards Stage II-III negation, we argue that it is a necessary one, a fact which explains the peculiar distribution of negation strategies across the Romània.
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This article reviews some of the principal patterns of morphosyntactic variation within Da-co-Romanian and across Daco-Romance in support of a distinction between low vs high V-movement grammars variously distributed in accordance with... more
This article reviews some of the principal patterns of morphosyntactic variation within Da-co-Romanian and across Daco-Romance in support of a distinction between low vs high V-movement grammars variously distributed in accordance with diatopic variation (Da-co-Romance: west vs east, Aromanian: north vs south), diachronic and diagenerational variation (Megleno-Romanian) and endogenous vs exogenous factors (Istro-Romanian). This approach, which builds on the insights of the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture, assumes that the locus of paramet-ric variation lies in the lexicon and the (PF )lexicalization of specific formal feature values of in-dividual functional projections, in our case the clausal heads T and v and the broad cartographic areas that they can be taken to represent. In this way, our analysis locates the relevant dimensions of (micro)variation among different Daco-Romance varieties in properties of T and v (cf. Ledge-way 2020). In particular, we show that the feature values of these two heads are not set in isola-tion, inasmuch as parameters form an interrelated network of implicational relationships: the given value of a particular parameter entails the concomitant activation of associated low-er-order parametric choices, whose potential surface effects may consequently become entirely predictable, or indeed render entirely irrelevant other parameters (cf. Roberts 2019). In this way we can derive properties such as verb-adverb order, auxiliary selection, retention vs loss of the preterite, the availability of a dedicated preverbal subject position, the distribution of DOM, and the different stages of Jespersen’s Cycle across Daco-Romance quite transparently from the rele-vant stength of T and v in individual sub-branches and sub-dialects.
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Ledgeway, Adam, 2011. ‘Il ruolo del dialetto nell’apprendimento dell’italiano L2: alcuni esempi napoletani’, in Michela Cennamo and Annamaria Lamarra (eds), Scuola di formazione di italiano lingua seconda/straniera: competenze d’uso e integrazione. Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 125-138.more
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Ledgeway, Adam, 2014. ‘The Development of the Southern Subjunctive: Morphological Loss and Syntactic Gain’, in Paola Benincà, Adam Ledgeway and Nigel Vincent (eds), Diachrony and Dialects. Grammatical Change in the Dialects of Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 25-47 (with Alessandra Lombardi).more
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Ledgeway, Adam, 2014. ‘Parametrului poziţiei centrului şi efectele sale pragmatice în trecerea de la latină la limbile romance’, in Rodica Zafiu, Adina Dragomirescu and Alexandru Nicolae (eds), Diacronie și sincronie în studiul limbii române. Bucharest: Editura Universității din București, 11-26.more
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Ledgeway, A. 2015. ‘Reconstructing Complementiser-drop in the Dialects of the Salento: A Syntactic or Phonological Phenomenon?’, in Theresa Biberauer and George Walkden (eds), Syntax Over Time: Lexical, Morphological, and Information-structural Interactions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 146-62.more
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Chapter on deixis in dialects of Italy
Research Interests: Deixis, Italian dialects, Italian Dialectology, Spatial deixis, Dialetti italiani, and 14 moreComparative study on Deixis System, Demonstrative Pronouns, Social Deixis, Romance dialectology, The syntax of demonstratives, Time Deixis, Demonstratives and Indexicals, Complex Demonstratives, Demonstratives, Dialettologia italiana, Italo-Romance Dialectology, Romance dialect syntax, Person Deixis, and Dimostrativi
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Ledgeway, Adam (2016). ‘Présentation’, in E.Buchi, J-P.Cheveau & J-M.Pierrel (eds), Actes du XXVIIe Congrès international de linguistique et de philologie romanes (Nancy, 15–20 juillet 2013), Volume 1. Strasbourg: Société de linguistique romane/ÉliPhi (with M.Cennamo and G.Mensching), pp. 425-39.more
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Ledgeway, Adam (2017) ‘The Romanian definite article in a comparative Romance perspective’, in A. Dragomirescu, A. Nicolae, C. Stan and R. Zafiu (eds), Sintaxa ca mod de a fi. Omagiu doamnei profesoare Gabriela Pană Dindelegan, la aniversare. Bucharest: Editura Universități din Bucarești, 231-47.more
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Many Romance varieties are known to employ adjectives in adverbial function. This paper explores the parameters involved in the distribution of agreement of adjectival manner adverbs across Romance. Agreement is shown to be sensitive to... more
Many Romance varieties are known to employ adjectives in adverbial function. This paper explores the parameters involved in the distribution of agreement of adjectival manner adverbs across Romance. Agreement is shown to be sensitive to specific structural configurations which can ultimately be retraced to the phenomenon of split intransitivity: agreement is typically controlled by nominals which at some level of representation are associated with the object relation, although some exceptions to this generalization are noted producing what appear to be ergative patterns. Looking at such evidence from within and beyond Italy, the paper sketches a typology of the differing licensing conditions on adjectival adverb agreement in Romance in an attempt to identify the precise semantico-syntactic parameters involved in the relevant patterns.
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The present article considers the syntactic constraints operative on the distribution of a phonological fortition process, raddoppiamento fonosintattico ‘phonosyntactic doubling’, in the Calabrian dialect of Cosenza. It is shown that the... more
The present article considers the syntactic constraints operative on the distribution of a phonological fortition process, raddoppiamento fonosintattico ‘phonosyntactic doubling’, in the Calabrian dialect of Cosenza. It is shown that the relevant locality restrictions are best understood, not in terms of the three core structural configurations Spec-Head, Head-Head and Head-Comp, but in terms of phasal domains, highlighting how different phonological realizations represent the spell-out of deep syntactic differences mapped at the syntax-phonology interface. At the same time, the theoretical assumptions assumed here provide us with the key to understanding some intriguing empirical generalizations about the distribution of Cosentino RF which, in turn, throw new light on some current theoretical assumptions about clause structure and the nature of phases.
Key words: syntax-phonology interface; phase; locality; raddoppiamento fonosintattico.
Key words: syntax-phonology interface; phase; locality; raddoppiamento fonosintattico.
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A well known idiosyncrasy of modern Romanian syntax (cf. Sandfeld and Olsen 1936: 97; Lombard 1974:128f.; Dobrovie-Sorin 1994:22; Legendre 2000:232; Motapanyane and Alboiu 2000:9f.; Dragomirescu 2013:193f.; Vasilescu 2013:387) is the... more
A well known idiosyncrasy of modern Romanian syntax (cf. Sandfeld and Olsen 1936: 97; Lombard 1974:128f.; Dobrovie-Sorin 1994:22; Legendre 2000:232; Motapanyane and Alboiu 2000:9f.; Dragomirescu 2013:193f.; Vasilescu 2013:387) is the behaviour of the feminine singular accusative clitic o (< ILLA) which, in contrast to the generalized proclisis found with all other pronominal clitics (cf. msg.acc îl in 2a-b), exceptionally occurs enclitic to the participle/infinitive in conjunction with the indicative analytic perfect, conditional and colloquial future/presumptive in oi, ei,… (cf. 1a), as well as optionally – or substandardly in some cases – with the analytic literary future in voi, vei,…, the perfect subjunctive, and the perfect infinitive (cf. 1b).
1 a (*o) am iubit-o // (*o) am/oi iubi-o
her= I.have loved=her her= I.would/will love.INF=her
b (o) voi iubi(??-o) // …să (o) fi iubit(??-o) // faptul de a (o) fi iubit(-o)
her= I.will love.INF=her thatSBJV her=be loved=her fact.the of to her= be loved=her
2 a l- am iubit(*u-l) // l- am / l- oi iubi(*-l)
him= I.have loved=him him= I.would / him= will love.INF=him
b îl voi iubi(*-l) //…să-l fi iubit(*-l) // faptul de a-l fi iubit(*u-l)
him= I.will love.INF=him thatSBJV=him be loved=him fact.the of to=him be loved=him
Purely phonological accounts of the relevant facts which attempt to rule out the ungrammatical placements in examples such as (1a) by appealing to the apparent ill-formedness of vocalic o co-occurring before a vowel-initial auxiliary (cf. Bošković 2001; Monachesi 2005:169) are misplaced, as witnessed synchronically by the grammaticality of such sequences as (3) and the observation that in earlier stages of the language the ungrammatical placements of o in (1a) were entirely grammatical and, in some cases, even more common than their enclitic counterparts (Densusianu [1901]1997:727; Croitor 2012:124; Stan 2013:170; Nicolae and Niculescu in press:§2.2.3.7).
3 o am(*-o) cu mine
her= I.have=her with me
Rather, the distribution in (1a-b) suggests that the placement of o in modern Romanian is to be understood primarily in structural terms, although the resulting surface forms might be increasingly susceptible today to a partial reanalysis along phonological lines (cf. Dobrovie-Sorin 1994:22, 73; Rîpeanu Reinheimer, Tasmowski and Vasilescu 2013:251f.). Among other things, the contrast witnessed in (1)-(2) raises the following series of unresolved and interrelated questions:
i) What is special about the clitic o which exceptionally allows it to surface in a lower position apparently not available to all other clitics? Or put another way, what is it about clitics such as îl which makes them inappropriate candidates to surface in the lower clitic position?
ii) How many clitic positions are there in the Romanian clause and how, if at all, are the proclitic and enclitic positions of îl and o related, derivationally or representationally, in (1a)-(2a)?
iii) Why is there a growing (diachronic) tendency, at least in certain registers, for the enclitic position of o to be preferred in optional contexts such as (1b)?
iv) Why does the clitic o invariably occur in proclisis with finite lexical verbs (cf. 3), whether vowel- or consonant-initial, and is this proclitic position different from the grammatical enclitic positions observed in (1a-b)?
These and other related questions will be shown to find a solution by appealing to widely argued parallels in clausal and nominal structure (see, among others, Abney 1987; Szabolcsi 1994; Lyons 1999; Giusti 2005; 2006; 2014; Bošković 2010; Ledgeway 2015). In particular, on the basis of a variety of diachronic, synchronic and (sub)dialectal evidence I will make the original proposal that the position of clitic o has, through time, increasingly come to fall under the analogical influence of a similar position for determiners within the nominal domain (cf. Cornilescu 1992), a process which is not yet complete but which is increasingly manifested in the enclitic placement of o in such contexts as (1b).
1 a (*o) am iubit-o // (*o) am/oi iubi-o
her= I.have loved=her her= I.would/will love.INF=her
b (o) voi iubi(??-o) // …să (o) fi iubit(??-o) // faptul de a (o) fi iubit(-o)
her= I.will love.INF=her thatSBJV her=be loved=her fact.the of to her= be loved=her
2 a l- am iubit(*u-l) // l- am / l- oi iubi(*-l)
him= I.have loved=him him= I.would / him= will love.INF=him
b îl voi iubi(*-l) //…să-l fi iubit(*-l) // faptul de a-l fi iubit(*u-l)
him= I.will love.INF=him thatSBJV=him be loved=him fact.the of to=him be loved=him
Purely phonological accounts of the relevant facts which attempt to rule out the ungrammatical placements in examples such as (1a) by appealing to the apparent ill-formedness of vocalic o co-occurring before a vowel-initial auxiliary (cf. Bošković 2001; Monachesi 2005:169) are misplaced, as witnessed synchronically by the grammaticality of such sequences as (3) and the observation that in earlier stages of the language the ungrammatical placements of o in (1a) were entirely grammatical and, in some cases, even more common than their enclitic counterparts (Densusianu [1901]1997:727; Croitor 2012:124; Stan 2013:170; Nicolae and Niculescu in press:§2.2.3.7).
3 o am(*-o) cu mine
her= I.have=her with me
Rather, the distribution in (1a-b) suggests that the placement of o in modern Romanian is to be understood primarily in structural terms, although the resulting surface forms might be increasingly susceptible today to a partial reanalysis along phonological lines (cf. Dobrovie-Sorin 1994:22, 73; Rîpeanu Reinheimer, Tasmowski and Vasilescu 2013:251f.). Among other things, the contrast witnessed in (1)-(2) raises the following series of unresolved and interrelated questions:
i) What is special about the clitic o which exceptionally allows it to surface in a lower position apparently not available to all other clitics? Or put another way, what is it about clitics such as îl which makes them inappropriate candidates to surface in the lower clitic position?
ii) How many clitic positions are there in the Romanian clause and how, if at all, are the proclitic and enclitic positions of îl and o related, derivationally or representationally, in (1a)-(2a)?
iii) Why is there a growing (diachronic) tendency, at least in certain registers, for the enclitic position of o to be preferred in optional contexts such as (1b)?
iv) Why does the clitic o invariably occur in proclisis with finite lexical verbs (cf. 3), whether vowel- or consonant-initial, and is this proclitic position different from the grammatical enclitic positions observed in (1a-b)?
These and other related questions will be shown to find a solution by appealing to widely argued parallels in clausal and nominal structure (see, among others, Abney 1987; Szabolcsi 1994; Lyons 1999; Giusti 2005; 2006; 2014; Bošković 2010; Ledgeway 2015). In particular, on the basis of a variety of diachronic, synchronic and (sub)dialectal evidence I will make the original proposal that the position of clitic o has, through time, increasingly come to fall under the analogical influence of a similar position for determiners within the nominal domain (cf. Cornilescu 1992), a process which is not yet complete but which is increasingly manifested in the enclitic placement of o in such contexts as (1b).
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Discontinuous structures produced by edge-fronting represent one of the most distinctive features of Latin with regard to Romance. This difference follows from the head parameter: whereas in Romance the parameter is aligned with the... more
Discontinuous structures produced by edge-fronting represent one of the most distinctive features of Latin with regard to Romance. This difference follows from the head parameter: whereas in Romance the parameter is aligned with the head-initial setting, in Latin it fluctuates between both settings as a result of its occupying an intermediate position in the gradual shift from head-finality to head-initiality. In turn, this difference in the head parameter is responsible for the observed variation in edge-fronting, since its setting determines the application of antilocality in constraining movement.
In particular, antilocality is not a blanket constraint, but parametrized across languages. Interpreting head-finality as the output of a roll-up operation raising the complement to the specifier to the left of its head, suspension of antilocality therefore appears to constitute a sine qua non for languages like Latin which exhibit head-final orders. In Romance, by contrast, the head parameter is aligned with the head-initial setting such that roll-up, and hence antilocal movement, never arises. We thus derive from the different settings of the head parameter a concomitant parametrization in the role of antilocality in constraining movement. On the assumption that head-initiality represents the underlying order, I take antilocality to apply in full in head-initial languages as the default option. By the same token, given the derivationally more complex nature of head-finality, I take suspension of antilocality to represent the more marked option which arises just in those languages where the grammar (systematically or optionally) requires the marked option of linearization-related roll-up movement. In short I predict that application or otherwise of antilocality is parasitic on the head-initial/-final parametric distinction: once its potential effects are quashed by positive evidence of head-finality required to motivate roll-up, it fails to apply across the board licensing other short/local movements such as edge-fronting in apparent violation of the LBC.
Keywords: edge-fronting, head parameter, antilocality, Romance, Latin, roll-up, movement
In particular, antilocality is not a blanket constraint, but parametrized across languages. Interpreting head-finality as the output of a roll-up operation raising the complement to the specifier to the left of its head, suspension of antilocality therefore appears to constitute a sine qua non for languages like Latin which exhibit head-final orders. In Romance, by contrast, the head parameter is aligned with the head-initial setting such that roll-up, and hence antilocal movement, never arises. We thus derive from the different settings of the head parameter a concomitant parametrization in the role of antilocality in constraining movement. On the assumption that head-initiality represents the underlying order, I take antilocality to apply in full in head-initial languages as the default option. By the same token, given the derivationally more complex nature of head-finality, I take suspension of antilocality to represent the more marked option which arises just in those languages where the grammar (systematically or optionally) requires the marked option of linearization-related roll-up movement. In short I predict that application or otherwise of antilocality is parasitic on the head-initial/-final parametric distinction: once its potential effects are quashed by positive evidence of head-finality required to motivate roll-up, it fails to apply across the board licensing other short/local movements such as edge-fronting in apparent violation of the LBC.
Keywords: edge-fronting, head parameter, antilocality, Romance, Latin, roll-up, movement
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Research Interests: Humanities and Persona
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1.1 Lingua toscana in bocca romana The main title of the present article, Lingua italiana in bocca calabra, is clearly a play on words of the well-known saying Lingua toscana in bocca romana. The latter highlights a long-standing belief,... more
1.1 Lingua toscana in bocca romana The main title of the present article, Lingua italiana in bocca calabra, is clearly a play on words of the well-known saying Lingua toscana in bocca romana. The latter highlights a long-standing belief, especially among foreign travellers on the Grand Tour, that the Italian spoken in Tuscany cannot, and should not, be considered to be the best form of Italian. One of its earliest attestations is to be found in Alexandre De Rogissart’s Les délices de l’Italie (1709) who, writing in 1701, informed the interested traveller that:
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Exploiting parallels between nominal and clausal structures, it is argued that the strong / weak D dimension of parametric variation for nominals can be extended to clauses, such that V2 syntax can be reinterpreted as the reflex of a... more
Exploiting parallels between nominal and clausal structures, it is argued that the strong / weak D dimension of parametric variation for nominals can be extended to clauses, such that V2 syntax can be reinterpreted as the reflex of a strong C setting. On this view, we observe in the history of most Gallo-Romance varieties a parametric shift from strong to weak C manifested in the loss of generalized V-to-C movement and the concomitant reassignment of the EPP edge-feature from CP to TP, as witnessed in the emergence of a dedicated preverbal subject position and reversal in the null-subject parameter. Within this scenario, it is shown that Gascon represents a major exception having uniquely retained its medieval V2 syntax and, indeed, further extended it to embedded contexts. In particular, in the passage from medieval to modern Gascon, the grammar has witnessed a radical change in the formal realization of the strong C head requirement (while the accompanying EPP edge-feature remains unchanged) such that strong C is no longer satisfied through the Move option raising the finite verb to the C position, but through the Merge option directly lexicalizing the latter position with a so-called ‘enunciative’ particle. This development is the result of intensive contact with Basque, a language independently known to present similar preverbal particles, highlighting how the medieval Gallo-Romance V2 constraint was exceptionally reinforced in this area, but at the same time aligned with a Basque model triggering a shift from the Move to the Merge options in satisfaction of strong C and the emergence of an elaborate system of C-particles.
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... In particular. I should like to thank Delia Bentley, Maria Calzini, Maurizio Carrieri, Francesco Calonico. Anna Maria Canna-taro. Eugenio Cannataro, Carmine De Bartolo. Stefania Desideri. Giovanni Esposito. Anna Maria Ferrari ...
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Research Interests: Mathematics, Microvariation, Romance, CP, DP, and 3 moreParameters, Functional Structure, and Parallels
This paper explores the distribution of the perfective auxiliaries avere 'have' and essere 'be' in early Neapolitan, focusing on the limited distribution of avere with verbs of the unaccusative class. In contrast to some... more
This paper explores the distribution of the perfective auxiliaries avere 'have' and essere 'be' in early Neapolitan, focusing on the limited distribution of avere with verbs of the unaccusative class. In contrast to some previous studies that have characterised the gradual extension of avere in terms of a semantic continuum of unergativity/unaccusativity, the results presented here demonstrate, partly in accord with Formentin (2001), that the initial spread of avere is largely driven by modal factors. More specifically, there is shown to operate in early Neapolitan a core system of lexically-conditioned split intransitivity, which variously aligns the sole argument (S) of an intransitive predicate with the subject (S A , and hence auxiliary avere) or object (S O , and hence auxiliary essere) of a transitive construction. In a more restricted number of cases, however, there obtains a split which cannot be adequately explained in terms of lexical conditioning factors, inasmuch as the choice of auxiliary clearly proves sensitive to a realis/irrealis modal distinction. In particular, the spread of avere with unaccusatives in early texts appears quite consistently to affect only those clauses marked as [+irrealis], typically containing a verb in the subjunctive or conditional. It is argued that such a limited extension of the avere auxiliary in early Neapolitan, as well as the identification of a similar distributional pattern with auxiliary aviri in early Sicilian, be assimilated to similar cross-linguistic patterns of intransitive/ergative splits which grammaticalise active/inactive or ergative/absolutive marking in accordance with modal distinctions.
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This article provides an overview of grammatical developments or grammaticalisation in Latin and Romance languages. The historical sources of these languages reveal an unparalleled wealth of diachronic, diatopic, and diastratic variation,... more
This article provides an overview of grammatical developments or grammaticalisation in Latin and Romance languages. The historical sources of these languages reveal an unparalleled wealth of diachronic, diatopic, and diastratic variation, in short a fertile testing ground for assessing and shaping new ideas and perspectives about language change, structure, and variation in grammaticalization. This article explains that the Romance sentence provides dedicated grammaticalised positions for the verb, its arguments, and any accompanying adjuncts.
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1.1 Lingua toscana in bocca romana The main title of the present article, Lingua italiana in bocca calabra, is clearly a play on words of the well-known saying Lingua toscana in bocca romana. The latter highlights a long-standing belief,... more
1.1 Lingua toscana in bocca romana The main title of the present article, Lingua italiana in bocca calabra, is clearly a play on words of the well-known saying Lingua toscana in bocca romana. The latter highlights a long-standing belief, especially among foreign travellers on the Grand Tour, that the Italian spoken in Tuscany cannot, and should not, be considered to be the best form of Italian. One of its earliest attestations is to be found in Alexandre De Rogissart’s Les délices de l’Italie (1709) who, writing in 1701, informed the interested traveller that:
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Research Interests: History and Linguistics
Research Interests: Geography, Phonology, Linguistics, Inflection, Participle, and 4 moreVerb, Noun, Possessive, and Clitic
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This article provides an overview of grammatical developments or grammaticalisation in Latin and Romance languages. The historical sources of these languages reveal an unparalleled wealth of diachronic, diatopic, and diastratic variation,... more
This article provides an overview of grammatical developments or grammaticalisation in Latin and Romance languages. The historical sources of these languages reveal an unparalleled wealth of diachronic, diatopic, and diastratic variation, in short a fertile testing ground for assessing and shaping new ideas and perspectives about language change, structure, and variation in grammaticalization. This article explains that the Romance sentence provides dedicated grammaticalised positions for the verb, its arguments, and any accompanying adjuncts.
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Change is an inherent feature of all aspects of language, and syntax is no exception. While the synchronic study of syntax allows us to make discoveries about the nature of syntactic structure, the study of historical syntax offers even... more
Change is an inherent feature of all aspects of language, and syntax is no exception. While the synchronic study of syntax allows us to make discoveries about the nature of syntactic structure, the study of historical syntax offers even greater possibilities. Over recent decades, the study of historical syntax has proven to be a powerful scientific tool of enquiry with which to challenge and reassess hypotheses and ideas about the nature of syntactic structure which go beyond the observed limits of the study of the synchronic syntax of individual languages or language families. In this timely Handbook, the editors bring together the best of recent international scholarship on historical syntax. Each chapter is focused on a theme rather than an individual language, allowing readers to discover how systematic descriptions of historical data can profitably inform and challenge highly diverse sets of theoretical assumptions.