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. 101–112

Selection and morphology of expletive subject clitics in northern Italian dialects

| Università degli Studi di Torino

This paper aims to sketch a morphological typology of 3sg expletive subject clitics (ESCs) in northern Italian dialects (NIDs). In order to show a variation greater than that reported in descriptive studies, a preliminary examination of the ESCs of some varieties of Piedmontese is made, with particular reference to the impersonal verbs sembra (‘it seems’) and bisogna (an impersonal only verb meaning ‘it is necessary’). Keeping the same focus, such a microvariational analysis is then extended to the whole of NIDs, seeking to draw up a morphological typology linked to syntax-semantic interface hypotheses. Lastly, some suggestions about a crosslinguistic comparison and some diachronic facts are presented.

Keywords: Subject clitics, expletives, impersonal verbs, semi-arguments
Article outline
  • 1.Impersonals in Piedmontese dialects
  • 2.General issues
    • 2.1Semi-arguments
    • 2.2Hypothesis of morphological typology of NIDs
  • 3.Crosslinguistic perspective
  • 4.Diachronic remarks
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.251.05fer
References
AIS. Jaberg, Karl & Jud, Jacob
1928–1940 Atlante linguistico ed etnografico dell’Italia e della Svizzera Meridionale (Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz), Vol. 1–8. Zofingen: Ringier.Google Scholar
ASIt
Atlante Sintattico D’Italia, Università di Padova, Università di Venezia [URL] (July 2016).
Benincà, Paola & Poletto, Cecilia
1994 Bisogna and its companions: The verbs of necessity. In Paths Towards Universal Grammar. Studies in Honor of Richard S. Kayne, Guglielmo Cinque, Jan Koster, Jean-Yves Pollock & Luigi Rizzi (eds), 35–57. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Benincà, Paola
1983 Il clitico a nel dialetto padovano. In Scritti linguistici in onore di Giovan Battista Pellegrini, Paola Benincà et al. (eds), 25–35. Pisa: Pacini.Google Scholar
Bernini, Giuliano
2012 Il clitico a nell’italo-romanzo settentrionale: Osservazioni metodologiche. In Per Roberto Gusmani: Linguistica storica e teorica, Vincenzo Orioles (ed.), 269–82. Udine: Forum.Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, Anna & Repetti, Lori
2010 Proclitic vs enclitic pronouns in northern Italian dialects and the Null-Subject Parameter. In Syntactic Variation. The Dialects of Italy, Roberta D’Alessandro, Adam Ledgeway & Ian Roberts (eds.), 119–134. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Cherubini, Francesco
1856 Vocabolario Milanese-Italiano, Vol. V: Sopragiunta. Nozioni filologiche intorno al dialetto milanese. Saggio d’osservazioni su l’idioma brianzuolo, suddialetto del milanese. Milano: Società tipografica de’ Classici italiani.Google Scholar
Eriksen, Pål, Kittilä, Seppo & Kolehmainen, Leena
2012 Weather and language. Language and Linguistics Compass 6: 1–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 The world is raining: Meteorological predicates and their subjects in a typological perspective. In Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-canonical [Constructional Approaches to Language 16], Marija-Lisa Helasvuo & Tuomas Huumo (eds), 205–228. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goria, Cecilia
2004 Subject Clitics in the Northern Italian Dialects. A Comparative Study Based on the Minimalist Program and Optimality Theory. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Huang, Yan
2000 Anaphora. A Cross-linguistic Study [Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory]. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Manzini, Maria Rita & Savoia, Leonardo Maria
2005 I dialetti italiani e romanci. Morfosintassi generativa, Vol. 1. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar
Newman, Paul
2000 The Hausa Language: An Encyclopedic Reference Grammar. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Parry, Mair
1993 Subject clitics in Piedmontese: A diachronic perspective. Vox Romanica (52): 96–116.Google Scholar
Pescarini, Diego
2014 La distribuzione dei clitici soggetto espletivi: Tipologia e prospettive parametriche. L’Italia Dialettale 75: 229–246.Google Scholar
Poletto, Cecilia
2000 The Higher Functional Field: Evidence from Northern Italian Dialects. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Puglielli, Annarita & Frascarelli, Mara
2008 L’analisi linguistica. Dai dati alla teoria. Cesena: Caissa.Google Scholar
Pustejovsky, James
1996 The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Regis, Riccardo
2006 Se i clitici soggetto sono facoltativi: Il caso piemontese. Studi e Ricerche . In Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze del linguaggio e letterature moderne e comparate dell’Università di Torino 1, Gabriella Bosco & Chiara Sandrin (eds), 191–232. Alessandria: Edizioni Dell’Orso.Google Scholar
2013 Può un dialetto essere standard? Vox Romanica 72: 151–169.Google Scholar
Renzi, Lorenzo & Vanelli, Laura
1983 I pronomi soggetto in alcune varietà romanze. In Scritti linguistici in onore di Giovan Battista Pellegrini, Paola Benincà et al. (eds), 120–145. Pacini: Pisa.Google Scholar
Thráinsson, Höskuldur, Petersen, Hjalmar P., Jacobsen, Jógvan í Lon & Svabo Hansen, Zakaris
2004 Faroese: An Overview and Reference Grammar. Tórshavn: Føroya Fróðskaparfelag.Google Scholar
Tortora, Cristina
2014 A Comparative Grammar of Borgomanerese. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vai, Massimo
2014 Materiali per una storia del pronome soggetto in milanese. Annali della Facoltà di Studi Umanistici dell’Università degli Studi di Milano 2: 101–144.Google Scholar