Dialetti d'Italia e dialetti d'Europa

Prendendo spunto da un incontro fra linguisti e dialettologi europei che progettano atlanti sintattici dei dialetti dei loro paesi, il lavoro presenta alcune riflessioni sullo statuto dei dialetti nei diversi paesi d'Europa. Esaminando le situazioni di alcuni paesi a confronto con quella italiana, si sostiene che per render conto delle differenze nello sviluppo degli studi grammaticali riguardo ai dialetti si debbano valutare sia le ragioni sociolinguistiche, che hanno origini storiche e politiche, sia la tradizione degli studi grammaticali nei diversi paesi. Questi fattori interagiscono nel far sì che un dialetto sia percepito o meno come una lingua, sia studiato e si conservi nella sua area di variazione.Starting from the encounter between European linguists and dialectologists projecting a syntactic atlas of the dialects within their countries, the article presents certain reflections on the status of dialects in a number of European countries. Examining the situation of certain countries with respect to that in Italy, the article puts forward the view that, in order to inform on the difference in the development of the grammatical studies with reference to dialects, it is essential to evaluate those sociolinguistic reasons having historical and political origins, as well as the tradition of grammatical studies within various countries. These factors can be seen interacting in the ways in which a dialect is or is not perceived as a language, affecting whether it is studied and whether it is conserved within its own area of variation

Determiners and relative clauses

In the present paper, I consider first the behaviour of singular count nouns, showing that, in the limited set of contexts in which they are found, a specific kind of modification is in many cases necessary. The modification is represented by a variant of a kind defining relative clause. I briefly outline the main syntactic and semantic characteristics of kinddefining relatives; I then consider bare plural count nouns and singular mass nouns; I use the Left Dislocation construction as a test that permits us to explore the composition of the DP, and to localise the position of a silent operator. I show that, in this context too, the modifiers that permit the determiner to be omitted can be semantically interpreted as corresponding to a kind-defining relative. Finally, I examine the so-called partitive DPs introduced by di+article, which are often considered in the literature to be semantically equivalent to bare nouns, and I show that they are instead different, both semantically and syntactically; incidentally, this permits us to point out a minimal difference between French and Italian.En el presente artículo se trata primero el comportamiento de sustantivos singulares contables y se muestra que en el conjunto limitado de contextos en que estos aparecen, una clase de modificación específica es necesaria en muchos casos. Esta modificación se representa mediante una variante de cláusula relativa definidora. Tras brevemente perfilarse las principales características sintácticas y semánticas de las relativas definidoras, se abordan los sustantivos plurales contables escuetos y los sustantivos no contables singulares. La construcción de dislocación a la izquierda se utiliza como diagnóstico para la exploración de la composición del SD, así como para la localización de la posición del operador nulo. Se muestra que, también en este contexto, los modificadores que permiten la omisión del determinante pueden recibir la interpretación semántica de una relativa restrictiva. Finalmente se examinan las estructuras conocidas como SDs partitivos introducidos por di+artículo, que han sido frecuentemente consideradas en la bibliografía como semánticamente equivalentes a sustantivos desnudos, y se muestra que en realidad son diferentes, tanto en el plano semántico como en el sintáctico. Además, esto nos permite señalar una mínima diferencia entre el francés y el italiano.No presente artigo, considero primeiro o comportamento de nomes contáveis singulares, demonstrando que, no número limitado de contextos em que surgem, um tipo específico de modificação é, em muitos casos, necessário. A modificação é representada por uma variante de uma oração relativa de tipo restritivo. Apresento brevemente as principais caraterísticas sintáticas e semânticas das relativas de tipo restritivo; considero, em seguida, nomes simples contáveis plurais e nomes massivos singulares; uso a construção da deslocação à esquerda como um teste que nos permite explorar a composição do DP e localizar a posição de um operador silencioso. Demonstro que, também neste contexto, os modificadores que permitem que o determinante seja omitido podem ser semanticamente interpretados como correspondendo a uma relativa de tipo restritivo. Finalmente, examino os chamados DPs partitivos introduzidos por di+artigo, que são frequentemente considerados na literatura como sendo semanticamente equivalentes aos nomes simples, e demonstro que, pelo contrário, eles são diferentes, quer semântica quer sintaticamente; incidentalmente, tal permite-nos destacar a diferença mínima entre o francês e o italiano

An interview on linguistic variation with... Paola Benincà

This is an interview to Paola Beninc

Is there chaos out there? : analysis of complex dynamics in plankton communities

Species often show irregular fluctuations in their population abundances. Traditionally, ecologists have thought that external processes (e.g., variability in weather conditions) are the main drivers of these ups and downs. However, recent theoretical work suggests that fluctuations in natural populations may also be driven by internal mechanisms (e.g., the interplay between species). In this thesis I use a combination of time series analysis and modeling to provide more insight into the question to which extent such internally generated chaos might drive the population dynamics of plankton communities under controlled as well as natural conditions. In short, this thesis demonstrates in theory and experiment that species in plankton communities may rise and fall forever in a chaotic way. This result challenges the traditional view that nature is at equilibrium and that only externally driven processes may disturb this equilibrium

Towards a Finer-Grained Theory of Italian Participial Clausal Architecture

none2Much of the recent literature on clitic placement in the Romance languages is converging on the idea that the clause contains three different domains for complement clitic placement. Benincà (2006), for example, provides arguments based on Medieval Romance for a complement clitic placement site in the C-domain (see also Benincà, 1983 and Uriagereka, 1995); Kayne (1989, 1991) gives arguments based on French and Italian for complement clitic placement in the Idomain (see also Martins, 1994 for Portuguese); and, more recently, Cardinaletti and Shlonsky (2004), Cardinaletti (2008), Ledgeway and Lombardi (2004), and Tortora (2000, 2002, to appear) provide evidence for a relatively low clitic placement site, immediately outside the VP (the Vdomain). The question of whether all three domains (C, I, and V) could be available for complement clitics in a single language, or whether languages only make available one or the other domain, is an empirical question which needs to be examined on a language by language basis. A related theoretical question (but one which we do not address in this paper) is why some languages utilize one domain and not the others. The paper is organized as follows: in section 2.1, we present evidence from the behavior of Impersonal si for low clitic placement in Italian participial clauses. In section 2.2, we support the conclusion drawn in section 2.1 by examining the behavior of the clitic ci as it is used with the Italian verb volerci ‘to be necessary.’ We show that the behavior and interpretation of this verb in participial clauses (which is more restricted than that found in finite clauses) is best understood if we take participial clauses to have no access to the higher inflectional field. Section 3 concludes.University of Pennsylvania, PhiladelphiamixedBENINCA', PAOLA; CHRISTINA TORTORABeninca', Paola; Christina, Tortor

Probabilità e intuizione - Un'indagine nella scuola secondaria di secondo grado

In questo elaborato si indaga il rapporto che intercorre tra decisioni in condizioni di incertezza e intuizione. Numerose sono le ricerche che dimostrano come nelle valutazioni di probabilità vi sia una forte componente intuitiva basata principalmente sull'esperienza empirica, che può indurre in giudizi errati e che a volte sopravvive anche ad un processo di istruzione. Si è, pertanto, deciso di andare a sondare quale fosse lo stato di tale intuizione che Fischbein (psicologo ed insegnante di matematica) chiama "primaria", presso tre classi di scuola secondaria di secondo grado attraverso un questionario. Basandosi sui risultati del test, si sono progettati e realizzati due percorsi curricolari differenti in due delle tre classi, cercando di dare importanza al significato e al ruolo della probabilità e alla sua dipendenza dallo stato delle informazioni, non offrendo definizioni univoche, realizzando anche attività di gruppo con gli studenti volte a favorire la discussione sui punti più critici emersi. A qualche mese di distanza dalla fine delle lezioni si è tenuto un secondo questionario, molto simile al primo, con cui visionare se e come fossero cambiate le risposte, e se vi fossero degli elementi che facessero pensare ad un reindirizzamento dei processi intuitivi più ingenui verso ragionamenti più maturi e coerenti con i nuovi concetti trattati, che Fischbein definisce “intuizione secondaria”

Is “Hit and Run” a Single Word? The Processing of Irreversible Binomials in Neglect Dyslexia

The present study is the first neuropsychological investigation into the problem of the mental representation and processing of irreversible binomials (IBs), i.e., word pairs linked by a conjunction (e.g., “hit and run,” “dead or alive”). In order to test their lexical status, the phenomenon of neglect dyslexia is explored. People with left-sided neglect dyslexia show a clear lexical effect: they can read IBs better (i.e., by dropping the leftmost words less frequently) when their components are presented in their correct order. This may be taken as an indication that they treat these constructions as lexical, not decomposable, elements. This finding therefore constitutes strong evidence that IBs tend to be stored in the mental lexicon as a whole and that this whole form is preferably addressed in the retrieval process

Gaps, Ghosts and Gapless Relatives in Spoken English

This paper looks at the syntax of so-called gapless relative clauses in spoken English. �1 contrasts gap relatives (like that italicised in ?something which I said?, in which there is a gap internally within the relative clause associated with the relativised constituent) with gapless relatives (like that italicised in ?They were clowning around, which I didn't really care until I found out they had lost my file?, in which there is no apparent gap within the relative clause). In �2, we note that a number of recent analyses take which to function as a subordinating conjunction in gapless relatives, but we argue against this view and provide evidence that the wh-word in such clauses is indeed a relative pronoun. In �3, we argue that the relative pronoun in gapless relatives serves as the object of a ?silent? preposition. In �4, we present an analysis under which a preposition can be silent when it undergoes a type of deletion operation called Ghosting. �5 discusses gapless relatives which have a Topic-Comment interpretation, and argues for an extended Ghosting analysis under which a TP containing a predicate of saying associated with the ghosted preposition is also ghosted. Our overall conclusion is that supposedly ?gapless? relatives are more properly analysed as containing a gap created by relativization of the object of a ghosted preposition

West Flemish verb-based discourse markers and the articulation of the Speech Act layer

This paper focuses on the West Flemish discourse markers located at the edge of the clause. After a brief survey of the distribution of discourse markers in WF, the paper proposes a syntactic analysis of the discourse markers ne and we. Based on the distribution of these discourse markers, of vocatives and of dislocated DPs, an articulated speech act layer is elaborated which corroborates the proposals in Hill (). It is postulated that there is a syntactic relation between particles used as discourse markers and vocatives. The paper offers further support for the grammaticalization of pragmatic features at the interface between syntax and discourse and for the hypothesis that the relevant computation at the interface is of the same nature as that in Narrow Syntax

The specifier–head relationship: negation and French subject proforms

This article1 and the three others in this thematic collection are about heads and specifiers, the relationship between them, and how this relationship can change over time. A theme which emerges is the notion that the spec(ifier)–head relationship is cyclic, in other words, the synchronic relationship between the head and its specifier within a given phrase in a given language can be characterised as a location at a particular point on a cycle, while the diachronic development of the relationship can be seen as a directional stepwise shift around that cycle. The article is organised as follows. Section 2 introduces the theoretical framework. Section 3.1 sketches a well-known diachronic phenomenon – the history of sentential negation – which readily lends itself to an analysis in terms of a cyclic spec–head relationship, and shows how the stages in the cycle have been characterised theoretically. Section 3.2 considers another set of data − pre- and postverbal subject proforms in French − which is similarly suitable for such an approach. Section 4, finally, introduces the three other contributions to the collection