The spread and decline of indefinite man-constructions in European languages. An areal perspective

In: Paolo Ramat & Elisa Roma (eds.), Europe and the Mediterranean as Linguistic Areas. Convergencies from a historical and typological perspective, 95-131. Amsterdam: John Benjamins

Sur quelques manifestations de la grammaticalisation dans l’acquisition de l’italien comme deuxième langue

Cet article fait appel à la notion de grammaticalisation comme instrument pour décrire l’accroissement de la complexité syntaxique et morphophonologique dans les variétés d’apprenants. Pour ce faire, cette notion ne peut toutefois pas être transférée sans quelques réaménagements des domaines où elle a été originellement employée - la linguistique historique et la typologie des langues - à la recherche sur l’acquisition des langues. Quelques thèmes sont abordés à la lumière de cette notion en ..

L’expression de l’aspect progressif en italien seconde langue et le rôle des propriétés sémantiques des verbes

Cette étude porte sur l’acquisition de la périphrase stare + gérondif qui représente la marque morphologique de l’aspect progressif en italien. En italien, contrairement à ce qui se passe en anglais, les formes simples de l’indicatif peuvent également avoir une valeur progressive, de sorte que la périphrase progressive a de fait le statut d’une variante facultative des formes simples. En raison de cette facultativité, on pourrait se demander si les apprenants vont utiliser ou non cette périphrase, à quel stade et avec quelles fonctions. Les données présentées ici indiquent que les apprenants d’italien L2 sont influencés par les propriétés sémantiques des catégories verbales : après avoir appris le système fondamental des temps du verbe, ils commencent à utiliser la périphrase progressive avec les verbes d’activité et les verbes d’accomplissement, mais étendent aussi son emploi aux verbes d’état qui peuvent être employés au progressif dans l’italien des natifs.Les résultats de cette étude peuvent également apporter des éclaircissements sur quelques thèmes controversés de la théorie linguistique, à savoir les relations entre l’aspect et l’« actionnalité » (« Aktionsart ») et le rôle que jouent les notions sémantiques dans l’acquisition des propriétés morphologiques et syntaxiques.This study deals with the acquisition of the verbal periphrasis stare + gerund which represents the morphological marking of the progressive aspect in Italian. In Italian, unlike English, the simple forms of the indicative may also serve the progressive function, so that the progressive periphrasis has in fact the status of an optional variant of the simple forms. Because of such facultativity one might wonder whether learners will use it at all, at what stage, and with what functions. The data presented here indicate that learners of Italian L2 are sensitive to the semantic properties of verb categories : after having acquired a basic system of tenses they start using the progressive periphrasis with verbs of activity and accomplishment, but they also extend its use to those verbs of state that admit a progressive use in native Italian.The results of this study may shed light on some controversial issues of theoretical interest, in particular the relations between aspect and « Aktionsart » and the role played by semantic notions in the acquisition of the morphological and syntactic properties of a given language

"Piuttosto che": dalla preferenza all’esemplificazione di alternative

"Piuttosto che": dalla preferenza all’esemplificazione di alternativ

Seeking systematicity in variation : theoretical and methodological considerations on the “variety” concept

One centennial discussion in linguistics concerns whether languages, or linguistic systems, are, essentially, homogeneous or rather show “structured heterogeneity.” In this contribution, the question is addressed whether and how sociolinguistically defined systems (or ‘varieties’) are to be distinguished in a heterogeneous linguistic landscape: to what extent can structure be found in the myriads of language variants heard in everyday language use? We first elaborate on the theoretical importance of this ‘variety question’ by relating it to current approaches from, among others, generative linguistics (competing grammars), sociolinguistics (style-shifting, polylanguaging), and cognitive linguistics (prototype theory). Possible criteria for defining and detecting varieties are introduced, which are subsequently tested empirically, using a self-compiled corpus of spoken Dutch in West Flanders (Belgium). This empirical study demonstrates that the speech repertoire of the studied West Flemish speakers consists of four varieties, viz. a fairly stable dialect variety, a more or less virtual standard Dutch variety, and two intermediate varieties, which we will label ‘cleaned-up dialect’ and ‘substandard.’ On the methodological level, this case-study underscores the importance of speech corpora comprising both inter- and intra-speaker variation on the one hand, and the merits of triangulating qualitative and quantitative approaches on the other

Prog imperfective drift in ancient Greek? Reconsidering eimi 'be' with present participle

In this paper, I reconsider the diachrony of the Ancient Greek periphrastic construction of eimi 'be' with present participle by means of Bertinetto’s recently proposed model for the development of progressive grams (a process called ‘PROG imperfective drift’). While Bertinetto’s proposal sheds new light on the diachronic development of the construction, at the same time the evidence from Ancient Greek brings to light the need for modification and further refinement of the model (most importantly with regard to the role of what I call the ‘stative’ function, next to the diachronic source(s) of the construction). I furthermore show that eimi with present participle never fully developed a (focalized) progressive function, which can be explained in terms of ‘constructional competition’

Color naming in Italian language

The present study investigated Italian basic color terms (BCTs). It is an extension of our previous work that explored Italian basic color categories (BCCs) using a constrained color-naming method, with 11 Italian BCTs allowed, including blu for naming the BLUE area. Since a latter outcome indicated a categorization bias, here monolexemic color-naming method was employed, enabling also use of azzurro, deeply entrenched Italian term that designates light blue. In experiment 1, colors (N5367), sampling the Munsell Mercator projection, were presented on a CRT; color names and reaction times of vocalization onset were recorded. Naming consistency and consensus were estimated. Consistency was obtained for 12 CTs, including the two blue terms; consensus was found for 11 CTs, excluding rosso “red.” For each consensus category, color with the shortest response time wasconsidered focal. In experiment 2, consensus stimuli (N572) were presented; on each trial, observers indicated the focal color (“best example”) in an array of colors comprising a consensus category. For each of the 12 Italian CCs, centroid was calculated and focal color (two measures) estimated. Compared to English color terms, two outcomes are specific to Italian color naming: (i)naming of the RED-PURPLE area is highly refined, with consistent use of emergent non-BCTs; (ii) azzurro and blu both perform as BCTs dividing the BLUE area along the lightness dimension. The findings are considered in the framework of the weak relativity hypothesis. Historicolinguistic, environmental, and pragmatic communication factors are discussed that conceivably have driven the extension of the BCT inventory in Italian