Word order in the Old Italian DP

In this article I examine the impact of a cartographic approach on research about diachronic change and investigate the internal structure of the DP in Old Italian (OI). I propose that some of its marked word orders can be interpreted as instances of a scrambling phenomenon which allows a series of DP internal elements to move in front of the head noun. I show that scrambling in the DP displays similar properties to those found in the vP and the CP layers, which suggests an analysis in terms of left peripheral movements in a way similar to the one usually assumed for the V2-like property of OI. Although I will not analyze in detail scrambling in the vP phase or V2 in this article (see Poletto (2006), (forthcoming) for a detailed discussion), I will assume that all phases are built in a parallel fashion (see Poletto (2006)) in particular with respect to the formal properties associated with the left peripher

Exploiting microvariation: How to make the best of your incomplete data

n this article we discuss the use of big corpuses or databases as a first step for qualitative analysis of linguistic data. We concentrate on ASIt, the Syntactic Atlas of Italy, and take into consideration the different types of dialectal data that can be collected from similar corpora and databases. We analyze all the methodological problems derived from the necessary compromise between the strict requirements imposed by a scientific inquiry and the management of big amounts of data. As a possible solution, we propose that the type of variation is per se a tool to derive meaningful generalizations. To implement this idea, we examine three different types of variation patterns that can be used in the study of morpho-syntax: the geographical distribution of properties (and their total or partial overlapping, or complementary distribution), the so-called leopard spots variation, and the lexical variation index, which can be used to determine the internal complexity of functional items

On Preverbal Negation in Sicilian and Syntactic Parasitism

In this paper the authors describe two different cases of CP negation in Sicilian dialects. The first element is a left periphery adverb that is derived from a grammaticalized negative cleft. The second one is a negative head that is lexicalized when a higher functional projection is activated. While the two items display a set of relevant differences, it is argued that they exemplify two possible cases of syntactic parasitism. The term is used to indicate that either the position of the parasitic element is "borrowed" from another type of category (in the present case it is Focus) or the presence of a given head (a negative morpheme in this case) is licensed by the presence of a different item in a proximate structural position. The existence of similar phenomena is potentially very interesting for the theoretical definition of the syntactic architecture and its economy and design principles

Embedded interrogatives as free relatives

In this work we intend to show that a typical property of North-Eastern Italian dialects (NEIDs) namely the sequence wh-complementizer in embedded interrogatives (which in some dialects also extends to non-standard (under the definition by Obenauer 2006) and even standard main questions originally developed out of a free relative structure where the complementizer is actually not a complementizer but part of the internal structure of the wh-item heading the relative clause

Multilingual Competence Influences Answering Strategies in Italian–German Speakers

The present study aims at analyzing the role of nativeness, the amount of input in L1 acquisition and the multilingual competence in the performance of Italian–German bilingual speakers. We compare novel data from the performance of adult L2 learners (L1: Italian; late L2: German) and that of heritage speakers (heritage language: Italian; majority language: German) to previous data from monolingual speakers of Italian. The comparison deals with the produced word order at the syntax-discourse interface in sentences containing New Information Subjects in answers to questions that prompt the identification of the clausal subject. Overall, adult L2 speakers and heritage speakers perform alike but crucially differently from Italian monolinguals. These data reveal that multilingual proficiency determines an increased variety in the adopted answering strategies; in particular, the German-like strategy is active in Italian. Nativeness alone is thus no guarantee for a homogeneous performance across groups, nor do we find similar patterns of performance in speakers who grew up as monolinguals. Data also show heritage speakers’ sensitivity to verb classes, with answering strategies varying in accordance with the verb argument structure. Participants’ productions reveal an interesting relation in sentences with transitive verbs between subject position (pre-/postverbal) and object form (lexical DP/clitic pronoun)

Is it prosody that settles the syntactic issue? An analysis of italian cleft sentences

The present study aims at investigating the prosodic realization of Italian cleft sentences, in order to provide some new cues for their still debated syntactic interpretation. A monoclausal approach to the analysis of cleft sentences (a.o. Frascarelli & Ramaglia 2013) parallels them to left focalization constructions, while a biclausal approach (a.o. Belletti 2008) considers them composed of a main copular clause and an embedded pseudo-relative clause. A systematic comparison between cleft sentences and left focalizations \u2013 carried out through an experimental study and an analysis of pitch accent distribution, scaling, and prosodic phrasing \u2013 leads to conclude that their prosodic realization is very similar. Prosody would thus suggest a monoclausal interpretation of cleft sentences, if we assume a direct matching between prosodic and syntactic phrases.The present study aims at investigating the prosodic realization of Italian cleft sentences, in order to provide some new cues for their still debated syntactic interpretation. A monoclausal approach to the analysis of cleft sentences (a.o. Frascarelli & Ramaglia 2013) parallels them to left focalization constructions, while a biclausal approach (a.o. Belletti 2008) considers them composed of a main copular clause and an embedded pseudo-relative clause. A systematic comparison between cleft sentences and left focalizations \u2013 carried out through an experimental study and an analysis of pitch accent distribution, scaling, and prosodic phrasing \u2013 leads to conclude that their prosodic realization is very similar. Prosody would thus suggest a monoclausal interpretation of cleft sentences, if we assume a direct matching between prosodic and syntactic phrases

Does prosody meet syntax? A case study on standard Italian cleft sentences and left peripheral focus.

In this work we deal with two structures that have a very similar pragmatic function in Italian and have been claimed to have similar semantic and syntactic properties, namely clefts and left peripheral focus. Since Chomsky (1977. On wh-movement. In Peter W. Culicover, Thomas Wasow & Adrian Akmajian (eds.), Formal Syntax, 71\u2013132. New York: Academic Press.) they have been both considered as instances of A\u2019-movement and should therefore behave alike. Here we investigate their prosody and their syntax on the basis of three experimental studies and show that while the prosodic patterns found are indeed very similar, their syntax is less homogenous than expected if we apply general tests that have been traditionally used to distinguish A- from A\u2019- movement. In particular, we will discuss three of these tests, namely parasitic gaps, weak crossover and anaphoric binding and show that the two constructions yield quite different results. We analyse the differences within the framework of featural relativized minimality originally proposed in Rizzi (2004. Locality and the left periphery. In Adriana Belletti (ed.), Structures and Beyond: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures 3, 223\u2013251. Oxford: Oxford University Press.) and subsequent work. On this basis, we conclude that there is no one to one match between prosodic and syntactic properties, since we observe differences in the syntactic behaviour of the two constructions that do not surface in the prosodic patterns. Indirectly, this study sheds new light on the interface between prosody and syntax and is a confirmation of a modular theory of the components of grammar: some specific syntactic properties have no reflex in other components of grammar and can only be detected through purely syntactic tests

On wh-clitics, wh-doubling and apparent wh-in-situ in French and some North Eastern Italian dialects

L’objectif principal de cet article est de contribuer à la compréhension des questions à redoublement des mots-wh communes dans de nombreux dialectes de l’Italie du Nord, d’une part, et, d’autre part, de la syntaxe des questions en que du français que nous analysons comme un cas de redoublement caché. Notre thèse est que les deux types de construction mettent en jeu dans le domaine des déplacements A-barre la contrepartie du redoublement des clitiques pronominaux. La mise en œuvre de ces idées repose sur une périphérie gauche hautement ‘éclatée’ et sur le déplacement résiduel de IP dans les différentes projections du domaine CP.This paper’s main goal is to shed light on the doubling wh-structures that many North Eastern Italian dialects exhibit, on the one hand, and on the ‘hidden’ doubling at work in French que-questions, on the other. Both constructions we claim should be analysed as the A-bar counterparts of pronominal clitic doubling. The execution of these ideas rests on a highly split left periphery and Remnant movement to the different layers of the CP domain