The morphosyntax-semantics interface and the Sicilian Doubly Inflected Construction
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Giuseppina Todaro
Abstract
We examine the Doubly Inflected Construction of Sicilian (DIC, Cruschina 2013; also known as Inflected Construction, Cardinaletti and Giusti 2001, 2003), in which a motion verb V1 is followed by an event verb V2, both verbs being inflected for the same person and TAM features. We propose to regard DIC as a Serial Verb Construction and analyze it in terms of an operation of lexical concatenation, whereby V1 and V2 are semantically composed as lexical verbs denoting spatio-temporally contiguous events and displaying argument sharing, to yield a complex predicate denoting concatenated events. The data we consider crucially include the causative motion verb ‘send’ and bring out a mismatch between the person features realized on V1 and V2 and semantic interpretation. We show how our analysis allows for a principled account of the morphology-semantics mismatch. The semantic analysis is implemented in a neo-Davidsonian framework (Parsons 1990).
Abstract
We examine the Doubly Inflected Construction of Sicilian (DIC, Cruschina 2013; also known as Inflected Construction, Cardinaletti and Giusti 2001, 2003), in which a motion verb V1 is followed by an event verb V2, both verbs being inflected for the same person and TAM features. We propose to regard DIC as a Serial Verb Construction and analyze it in terms of an operation of lexical concatenation, whereby V1 and V2 are semantically composed as lexical verbs denoting spatio-temporally contiguous events and displaying argument sharing, to yield a complex predicate denoting concatenated events. The data we consider crucially include the causative motion verb ‘send’ and bring out a mismatch between the person features realized on V1 and V2 and semantic interpretation. We show how our analysis allows for a principled account of the morphology-semantics mismatch. The semantic analysis is implemented in a neo-Davidsonian framework (Parsons 1990).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The dialects of Italy at the interfaces 1
- Inflectional uniformity in the present subjunctive in the dialects of central Friuli 41
- The Inflected Construction in the dialects of Sicily 63
- Mixed paradigms in Italo-Romance 79
- Selection and morphology of expletive subject clitics in northern Italian dialects 101
- Can structural deficiency be parametrized? 113
- The morphosyntax-semantics interface and the Sicilian Doubly Inflected Construction 131
- Matrix complementizers in Italo-Romance 155
- On the syntactic encoding of lexical interjections in Italo-Romance 185
- A person split analysis of the progressive forms in some southern Italian varieties 203
- Contact-induced phenomena in the Alps 237
- N morphology and its interpretation 257
- Indefinite articles and licensing of nominals in two Slavic varieties 295
- Syntactic variation across Greek dialects 319
- Author index 357
- Language and place index 361
- Subject index 365
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- The dialects of Italy at the interfaces 1
- Inflectional uniformity in the present subjunctive in the dialects of central Friuli 41
- The Inflected Construction in the dialects of Sicily 63
- Mixed paradigms in Italo-Romance 79
- Selection and morphology of expletive subject clitics in northern Italian dialects 101
- Can structural deficiency be parametrized? 113
- The morphosyntax-semantics interface and the Sicilian Doubly Inflected Construction 131
- Matrix complementizers in Italo-Romance 155
- On the syntactic encoding of lexical interjections in Italo-Romance 185
- A person split analysis of the progressive forms in some southern Italian varieties 203
- Contact-induced phenomena in the Alps 237
- N morphology and its interpretation 257
- Indefinite articles and licensing of nominals in two Slavic varieties 295
- Syntactic variation across Greek dialects 319
- Author index 357
- Language and place index 361
- Subject index 365
