Cover not available
Part of
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2018: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' 32, Utrecht
Edited by Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen and Luisa Meroni
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 357] 2021
► pp. 151–170

Chapter 8
-ŋ plurals in North Lombard varieties

Differential plural marking and phases

| Università di Firenze
| Università di Firenze
| Università di Firenze
We focus on North Lombard -a and -n feminine plurals, for which we provide a morphological analysis. At the syntactic level, the relevant varieties are characterized by the phenomenon of Differential Plural Marking, whereby phasal domains have different realizations of plural morphology on the head of the phase and on the complement of the phase. We provide an account of DPM based on the assumption that under the PIC the complement of the phase and its head are externalized separately. We draw consequences concerning clitics as phasal heads as well as object agreement with participles and with finite verbs.
Keywords: number, nominal class, agreement, phase, clitic
Article outline
  • 1.Differential plural marking in Mesolcina Valley varieties
  • 2.Morphological analysis: -a as a plural
  • 3.Syntax: Externalization by phase
    • 3.1The vP and CP phases
    • 3.2Alternative accounts
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.357.08man
References
Acquaviva, Paolo
2008 Lexical plurals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis
2011 Plural mass nouns and the morpho-syntax of number. In Mary B. Washburn, Katherine McKinney-Bock, Erika Varis, Ann Sawyer, & Barbara Tomaszewicz (eds.), Proceedings of WCCFL 28, 33–41. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Baldi, Benedetta & Ludovico Franco
2018 Gender, number and inflectional class in some North-Italian dialects. The plural inflection -i and the interpretation of N morphology. In Mirko Grimaldi, Rosangela Lai, Ludovico Franco & Benedetta Baldi (eds.), Structuring variation in Romance Linguistics and beyond, 31–54. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baldi, Benedetta & Leonardo M. Savoia
2018 Morphosyntactic reorganization phenomena in Arbëresh dialects: The neuter. Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali 4. 109–130.Google Scholar
Bonet, Eulàlia
2018 Missing inflectional features and missing exponents in DP-internal agreement asymmetries. Glossa 3(1). 79. 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carstens, Vicky
2000 Concord in Minimalist Theory. Linguistic Inquiry 31. 319–355. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro
2010 Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation. Synthese 174. 99–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1995 The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
2001 Derivation by phase. In Michael Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language, 1–54. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
2005 Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry 36. 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 On phases. In Robert Freidin, Carlos Otero & Maria-Luisa Zubizarreta (eds.), Foundational issues in linguistic theory. Essays in honour of Jean-Roger Vergnaud. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 Problems of projection. Lingua 130. 33–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Costa, João & M. Cristina Figueiredo Silva
2002 Notes on nominal and verbal agreement in Portuguese. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa 27. 17–29.Google Scholar
D’Alessandro, Roberta & Ian Roberts
2008 Movement and agreement in Italian past participles and defective phases. Linguistic Inquiry 39(3). 477–491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Déchaine, Rose-Marie, Raphaël Girard, Calisto Mudzingwa & Martina Wiltschko
2014 The internal syntax of Shona class prefixes. Language Sciences 43. 18–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giusti, Giuliana
2008 Agreement and concord in nominal expressions. In Cécile de Cat & Katherine Demuth (eds.), The Bantu–Romance connection: A comparative investigation of verbal agreement, DPs, and information structure, 201–237. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Higginbotham, James
1985 On semantics. Linguistic Inquiry 16. 547–621.Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard
1991 Romance clitics, verb movement and PRO. Linguistic Inquiry 22. 647–686.Google Scholar
Kramer, Ruth
2016 A split analysis of plurality: Number in Amharic. Linguistic Inquiry 47(3). 527–559. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Landau, Idan
2016 DP-internal semantic agreement: A configurational approach. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34. 975–1020. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manzini, M. Rita
2020 The morphosyntactic structure of number in Italian and Albanian. High and low plurals. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 19. 127–157. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manzini, M. Rita, Benedetta Baldi & Leonardo M. Savoia
2018 Plural morphology in DPs in -s and -i systems: A Romance comparative perspective. In Annamaria Chillà & Alessando De Angelis (eds.), Capitoli di morfosintassi delle varietà romanze d’Italia: teoria e dati empirici, 307–330. Palermo: Supplementi del Bollettino del Centro Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani.Google Scholar
Manzini, M. Rita & Leonardo M. Savoia
2005 I dialetti italiani e romanci. Morfosintassi generativa. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar
2011 Mesoclisis in the imperative: Phonology, morphology or syntax? Lingua 121. 1101–1120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Enclisis/Proclisis alternations in Romance: Allomorphies and (re)ordering. Transactions of the Philological Society 115. 98–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018a N inflections and their interpretation: Neuter -o and plural -a in Italian varieties. In Roberto Petrosino, Pietro Cerrone & Harry van der Hulst (eds.), From sounds to structures: Beyond the veil of Maya, 361–394. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
2018b The morphosyntax of Albanian and Aromanian varieties. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 N morphology and its interpretation: Romance feminine singular/plural -a . In Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway & Eva-Maria Remberger (eds.), Italian dialectology at the interfaces, 257–293. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nevins, Andrew
2011 Multiple agree with clitics: Person complementarity vs. omnivorous number. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29(4). 939–971. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rasom, Sabrina
2008 Lazy concord in the central Ladin feminine plural DP. Ph.D. Dissertation: Università di Padova.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1986 On the status of subject clitics in Romance. In Osvaldo Jaeggli & Carmen Silva-Corvalan (eds.), Studies in Romance linguistics, 391–419. Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Ian
2010 Agreement and head movement: Clitics, incorporation, and defective goals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard
1968 [1949] Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti. Morfologia. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Salvioni, Carlo
1902 Del plurale femminile di 1. declinazione esposto per -a ed -an in qualche varietà alpina di Lombardia: nota. Rendiconti del Reale Istituto lombardo di scienze e lettere 2(35). 905–919.Google Scholar
Savoia, Leonardo M., Benedetta Baldi & M. Rita Manzini
2018 Sigmatic plurals in Romance varieties spoken in Italy and their interaction with -i plurals. LINGBAW 4. 141–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 Asymmetries in plural agreement in DPs. In Joseph Emonds, Markéta Janebová, & Ludmila Veselovská (eds.), Language use and linguistic structure Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium 2018, 204–224. Olomouc: Palacký University Olomouc.Google Scholar
Sportiche, Dominique
1996 Clitic constructions. In Johan Rooryck & Laurie Zaring (eds.), Phrase structure and the lexicon, 213–276. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stark, Elisabeth & Natascha Pomino
2009 Adnominal adjectives in romance. Where morphology seemingly meets semantics. In M. Teresa Espinal, Manuel Leonetti & Louise McNally (eds.), Proceedings of the IV Nereus International Workshop: Definiteness and DP structure in Romance languages, 113–135. Konstanz, Germany.Google Scholar