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On the grammar of kinship

Possessive enclisis in Italian dialects

Abstract

The semantic category of kinship is reflected in the pronominal system of Italian and its dialects. Standard usage prefers the form mio padre over *il mio padre. Among south Italian dialects, the possessive appears in enclisis on the head noun, as in patreme (Molise). Possessive enclisis is exclusively attested with kinship nouns and the construction is subject to a restriction on definiteness, since speakers reject the definite article as in *il patreme. This paper gives an overview of the grammatical and semantic properties of such constructions in two Italian dialects of the south. Moreover, a brief comparison is made with Scandinavian dialects that to some extent exhibit similar phenomena. It is argued that the grammatical phenomena have a universal origin related to the notion of uniqueness.

Abstract

The semantic category of kinship is reflected in the pronominal system of Italian and its dialects. Standard usage prefers the form mio padre over *il mio padre. Among south Italian dialects, the possessive appears in enclisis on the head noun, as in patreme (Molise). Possessive enclisis is exclusively attested with kinship nouns and the construction is subject to a restriction on definiteness, since speakers reject the definite article as in *il patreme. This paper gives an overview of the grammatical and semantic properties of such constructions in two Italian dialects of the south. Moreover, a brief comparison is made with Scandinavian dialects that to some extent exhibit similar phenomena. It is argued that the grammatical phenomena have a universal origin related to the notion of uniqueness.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction to deixis and pronouns in Romance languages 1
  4. Part I. Deixis and grammatical paradigms
  5. Deixis and person in the development of Greek personal pronominal paradigms 19
  6. First person strong pronouns in spoken French 33
  7. Preservation, modification, and innovation. Paradigmatic reorganisation of the system of personal pronouns – from Latin into Modern Italian 49
  8. On the grammar of kinship 69
  9. Part II. Deixis and impersonality
  10. Impersonality in Spanish personal pronouns 87
  11. The Spanish impersonal se -construction 109
  12. Diaphasic variation and change in French pronouns 125
  13. Clitic subjects in French text messages 147
  14. The use of personal deixis as an ideological instrument in Spanish political discourse 171
  15. Cognitive collages and other mental representations of address forms and strategies 189
  16. Part IV. Deixis and the verbal system
  17. The relevance of deixis in the description of the predicative relative clause 207
  18. The marking of person deixis in the French future system – a diachronic approach 227
  19. Part V. Deixis in a metalinguistic perspective
  20. Place deixis in the 16th century grammars of Italy 253
  21. Deixis and reference in the treatment of personal pronouns and demonstratives in Francesco Soave 273
  22. Name index 285
  23. Subject index 287
Deixis and Pronouns in Romance Languages
This chapter is in the book Deixis and Pronouns in Romance Languages
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.136.05ege

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction to deixis and pronouns in Romance languages 1
  4. Part I. Deixis and grammatical paradigms
  5. Deixis and person in the development of Greek personal pronominal paradigms 19
  6. First person strong pronouns in spoken French 33
  7. Preservation, modification, and innovation. Paradigmatic reorganisation of the system of personal pronouns – from Latin into Modern Italian 49
  8. On the grammar of kinship 69
  9. Part II. Deixis and impersonality
  10. Impersonality in Spanish personal pronouns 87
  11. The Spanish impersonal se -construction 109
  12. Diaphasic variation and change in French pronouns 125
  13. Clitic subjects in French text messages 147
  14. The use of personal deixis as an ideological instrument in Spanish political discourse 171
  15. Cognitive collages and other mental representations of address forms and strategies 189
  16. Part IV. Deixis and the verbal system
  17. The relevance of deixis in the description of the predicative relative clause 207
  18. The marking of person deixis in the French future system – a diachronic approach 227
  19. Part V. Deixis in a metalinguistic perspective
  20. Place deixis in the 16th century grammars of Italy 253
  21. Deixis and reference in the treatment of personal pronouns and demonstratives in Francesco Soave 273
  22. Name index 285
  23. Subject index 287
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