Cover not available
Part of
Italian Dialectology at the Interfaces
Edited by Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway and Eva-Maria Remberger
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 251] 2019
► pp. 63–78

The Inflected Construction in the dialects of Sicily

Parameters of microvariation

| Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Sicilian dialects display an instance of verbal Pseudo-Coordination (V1[TAM.Agr] a V2[TAM.Agr]), here referred to as the Inflected Construction or IC (cf. Cardinaletti and Giusti 2001, 2003), that can occur in very different configurations. Aim of this paper is to discuss the following parameters of microvariation, by providing new data from recent fieldwork: (i) the restriction of the IC to some V2s; (ii) the possibility for the IC to occur across moods and tenses and to display complete paradigms for person features; (iii) the reduction of go as V1, and of other possible V1s, to a prefix-like invariable form. In the paper, three major types of IC are identified: Type 1 IC is only possible in some persons of the indicative present and in the 2sg of the imperative; Type 2 IC features the extension of the paradigm to other simple tenses of the indicative; Type 3 IC displays a full-fledged paradigm in the indicative (3 simple tenses), subjunctive and imperative.
Keywords: Inflected Construction, Pseudo-Coordination, Sicilian dialects, motion verbs, restructuring verbs
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Type 1: The IC in Marsalese
  • 3.Restrictions on V2 in the dialect spoken in Palermo
  • 4.Type 2: The indicative preterite IC in Deliano
  • 5.Type 3: The IC in the dialects of eastern Sicily
  • 6.Other configurations of Inflected Construction
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.251.03dic
References (36)
References
Accattoli, Matilde & Todaro, Giuseppina. 2017. Verbes de mouvement et grammaticalisation: Le cas du sicilien vaffazzu. In Normes et grammaticalisation: Le cas des langues romanes, Malinka Velinova (ed.), 187–210. Sofia: CU “Romanistika”.Google Scholar
Aronoff, Mark. 1994. Morphology by Itself. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ascoli, Graziadio Isaia. 1896. Un problema di sintassi comparata dialettale. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 14: 453–468.Google Scholar
. 1901. Appendice all’articolo ‘Un problema di sintassi comparata dialettale’. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 15: 221–225.Google Scholar
Biberauer, Theresa & Roberts, Ian. 2012. Towards a parameter hierarchy for auxiliaries: Diachronic considerations. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics (COPiL) 6: 267–294.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2003. Mechanisms of change in grammaticalization: The role of frequency. In Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Richard Janda & Brian Joseph (eds), 602–623. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calabrese, Andrea. 1993. The sentential complementation of Salentino: A study of a language without infinitival clauses. In Syntactic Theory and the Dialects of Italy, Adriana Belletti (ed), 28–98. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar
Carden, Guy & Pesetsky, David. 1977. Double-verb constructions, markedness, and a fake coordination. In Papers from the Thirteenth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 82–92. Chicago IL: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, Anna & Giusti, Giuliana. 2001. Semi-lexical motion verbs in Romance and Germanic. In Semi-lexical Categories, Norbert Corver & Henk Van Riemsdijk (eds), 371–414. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003. Motion verbs as functional heads. In The Syntax of Italian Dialects, Christina Tortora (ed.), 31–49. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
. To appear. Multiple agreement in southern Italian dialects. In Linguistic Variations: Structure and Interpretation – Studies in Honor of M. Rita Manzini, Ludovico Franco & Paolo Lorusso (eds). Berlin: De Gruyter.
Cruschina, Silvio. 2013. Beyond the stem and inflectional morphology: An irregular pattern at the level of periphrasis. In The Boundaries of Pure Morphology, Silvio Cruschina, Martin Maiden & John Charles Smith (eds), 262–283. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Di Caro, Vincenzo Nicolò. 2015. Syntactic constructions with motion verbs in some Sicilian dialects: A comparative analysis. MA thesis, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Di Caro, Vincenzo Nicolò & Giusti, Giuliana. 2015. A protocol for the Inflected Construction in Sicilian dialects. Annali di Ca’ Foscari, Serie Occidentale 49: 393–422.Google Scholar
. 2018. Dimensions of variation: The Inflected Construction in the dialect of Delia (Caltanissetta). In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 14: Selected papers from the 46th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Stony Brook, NY Lori Repetti & Francisco Ordóñez (eds), 54–68. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. & Thornton, Anna. 1991. Doppie basi e binarismo nella morfologia italiana. Rivista di Linguistica 3 (1): 3–22.Google Scholar
Josefsson, Gunlög. 2014. Pseudo-coordination in Swedish with gå ‘go’ and the ‘surprise effect’. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 93: 26–50.Google Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam. 1997. Asyndetic complementation in Neapolitan dialect. The Italianist 17: 231–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016. From coordination to subordination: The grammaticalization of progressive and andative aspect in the dialects of Salento. In Coordination and Subordination. Form and Meaning. Selected Papers from CSI Lisbon 2014, Fernanda Pratas, Sandra Pereira & Clara Pinto (eds), 157–184. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Leone, Alfonso. 1973. Vattel’a pesca, vieni a piglialo. Lingua Nostra 34: 11–13.Google Scholar
. 1978. Sullo scadimento semantico di andare. Lingua Nostra 39: 50–54.Google Scholar
Maiden, Martin. 2004. When lexemes become allomorphs – On the genesis of suppletion. Folia Linguistica 38: 227–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manzini, M. Rita & Savoia, Leonardo M. 2005. I dialetti Italiani e Romanci: Morfosintassi generativa. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar
Pitrè, Giuseppe. 1993[1875]. Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliani, Vol. I–IV. Catania: Clio.Google Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1969. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti, Vol. 3: Sintassi e formazione delle parole. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Shopen, Timothy. 1971. Caught in the act. In Papers from the Seventh Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society , 254–263. Chicago IL: CLS.
Sornicola, Rosanna. 1976. Vado a dire o vaiu a ddico problema sintattico o problema semantico?. Lingua Nostra 37(3/4): 65–74.Google Scholar
Sorrento, Luigi. 1950. Sintassi romanza: Ricerche e prospettive. Milan: Istituto editoriale cisalpino.Google Scholar
Sorrisi, Fabrizio. 2010. Le costruzioni flesse con va + verbo lessicale in palermitano. In Quaderni di lavoro ASIt, 11. Studi sui dialetti della Sicilia, Jacopo Garzonio (ed.), 111–120. Padua: Unipress.Google Scholar
Stefanini, Ruggero. 1970. Imperativo per infinito in fiorentino. Lingua Nostra 31: 19–20.Google Scholar
Thornton, Anna. 2007. Is there a partition in the present indicative of Italian irregular verbs? Annali Online di Ferrara - Lettere 2: 43–61.Google Scholar
Wilson, Imogen. 1999. Paratactic complementation in Sicilian. M.Phil. dissertation, University of Cambridge.
Wiklund, Anna-Lena. 1996. Pseudocoordination is subordination. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 58: 29–54.Google Scholar
. 2007. The Syntax of Tenselessness. Tense/Mood/Aspect-agreeing Infinitivals. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
. 2008. Creating surprise in complex predication. Nordlyd 35: 163–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Amenta, Luisa, Luisa Brucale & Egle Mocciaro
2023. Modalità e dintorni in siciliano: status quaestionis e prospettive di ricerca.. Cuadernos de Filología Italiana 30 ► pp. 9 ff. DOI logo
Cruschina, Silvio
2022. Chapter 5. Gone unexpectedly. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 130 ff. DOI logo
Di Caro, Vincenzo Nicolò
2022. Chapter 4. Preterite indicative Pseudo-Coordination and morphomic patterns. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 100 ff. DOI logo
Giusti, Giuliana & Anna Cardinaletti
2022. Chapter 2. Theory-driven approaches and empirical advances. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 36 ff. DOI logo
Giusti, Giuliana, Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro & Daniel Ross
2022. Chapter 1. Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Manzini, Maria Rita & Paolo Lorusso
2022. Chapter 3. A bisentential syntax for a/bare finite complements in South Italian varieties. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 66 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.