This paper provides a syntactic analysis of Italian verb-based discourse particles. In spite of their utterance-peripheral distribution and their pragmatic content, they should be considered as integrated in the sentence with which they are associated. It is argued that sentence-initial and sentence-final particles are not derivationally related but are merged in different layers of the clause (CP and IP, respectively). Following Haegeman and Hill (2013) and (2014), it is proposed that sentence-initial particles occur in Speech Act projections above Rizzi’s (1997) ForceP. The interaction of particles and vocatives is also discussed. In a comparative perspective, some differences between Italian and West Flemish have been correlated with the different distribution of discourse particles, namely as specifiers and heads, respectively.
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Coniglio, Marco
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Coniglio, Marco
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Coniglio, Marco
2014The fine structure of force: On the interaction of modal particles with illocutionary force and clause type. In On Peripheries. Exploring Clause Initial and Clause Final Positions, Anna Cardinaletti, Guglielmo Cinque & Yoshio Endo (eds), 103-140. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo Publishing.
Giorgi, Alessandra
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Grosz, Patrick
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Haegeman, Liliane & Hill, Virginia
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Haegeman, Liliane & Hill, Virginia
2014Vocatives and speech act projections: A case study in West Flemish. In On Peripheries: Exploring Clause Initial and Clause Final Positions, Anna Cardinaletti, Guglielmo Cinque & Yoshio Endo (eds), 209-236. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo Publishing.
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Rizzi, Luigi
1997The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281-337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
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2010Vocatives: A note on addressee-management. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 16: 176-185.
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1968Sequencing in conversational openings. American Anthropologist 70: 1075-1095.
Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann
2004The syntax of person, tense, and speech features. Italian Journal of Linguistics / Rivista di Linguistica 16: 219-251.
Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann
2011Conditions on argument drop. Linguistic Inquiry 42: 267–304.
Speas, Peggy & Tenny, Carol
2003Configurational properties of point of view roles. In Asymmetry in Grammar, Vol.1: Syntax and Semantics [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 57], Anna-Maria Di Sciullo (ed.), 315-344. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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[no author supplied]
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2022. List of Abbreviations. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. xi ff.
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2022. Copyright Page. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. iv ff.
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