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. 155–183

Matrix complementizers in Italo-Romance

| University of Cambridge
| University of Cambridge

Based on uncharted evidence from Italo-Romance, we describe and discuss three types of matrix clauses, i.e. jussives, concessives and optatives, which reveal a certain degree of consistency but also display different patterns of microvariation. We show how such clauses may be introduced by complementizers, whose insertion is strictly dependent on the utterance of speech-act material at the outset of the sentence. The variation in the overt realization of the complementizers and the utterance of initial interjections convey different pragmatic information. We finally interpret the morpho-syntactic behaviour of jussive, concessive and optative matrix clauses through the interplay of three semantico-syntactic variables, i.e. beyond-Force, Mood and Modality.

Keywords: matrix clauses, left periphery, speech act, complementizers, Italo-Romance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Complementizers in matrix clauses in southern Italian dialects
    • 2.1Jussive clauses
    • 2.2Concessive clauses
    • 2.3Optative clauses
  • 3.Microvariation in matrix clauses
    • 3.1The status of mi and cu
    • 3.2The role of intonation
  • 4. beyond-Force, Mood and Modality
  • 5.Interpreting jussives, concessives and optatives
    • 5.1Jussive clauses
    • 5.2Concessive clauses
    • 5.3Optative clauses
    • 5.4Three variables for a unified interpretation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowldgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.251.08col
References
Avesani, Cinzia & Mario Vayra
2005 Quale informazione codificare per la sintesi dell’intonazione? In Italia linguistica. Discorso di scritto e di parlato, Marco Biffi, Luciana Salibra & Omar Calabrese (eds), 235–248. Siena: Protagon.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark
2008 The Syntax of Agreement and Concord. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina
2006 On the syntax of personal arguments. Lingua 116: 2023–2067. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. & Fleischman, Suzanne
1995 Modality in the Grammar and Discourse [Typological Studies in Language 32] Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cable, Seth
2007 Insubordination in Tlingit: An aerial effect? Northwest Journal of Linguistics 5: 1–38.Google 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
Colasanti, Valentina
2015 The Complementiser System of Cepranese. MPhil dissertation, University of Cambridge.
2017 On triple complementation in Southern Lazio dialects. In (Re/De) Contextualisation. Structure, Use and Meaning,Elena Buja, Stanca Măda, Mona Arhire (eds), 41–50. Brașov: Editura Universității Transilvania.Google Scholar
2018 Towards a microparameter C-hierarchy in Italo-Romance. In Comparative and Diachronic Perspectives on Romance Syntax, Gabriela Pană Dindelegan, Adina Dragomirescu, Irina Nicula & Alexandru Nicolae (eds), 191–225. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Colasanti, Valentina & Giuseppina Silvestri
In progress. To the left of the left periphery. Ms, University of Cambridge.
Corr, Alice
2017 Ibero-Romance at the syntax-pragmatics interface: The clause and beyond. PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.
Cruschina, Silvio
2012 Discourse-related Features and Functional Projections. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
D’Alessandro, Roberta
& Claudio Di Felice 2015 The diachrony of Abruzzese complementation. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique 60(2–3): 129–145.Google Scholar
D’Eugenio, Antonio
1976 The intonation systems of Italian and English. Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata 8: 57–85.Google Scholar
Damonte, Federico
2005 La diffusione della particella mi in alcune varietà messinesi: Problemi di metodo. In Dialetti in città. Atti del convegno Sappada/Plodn, 30 giugno-4 luglio 2004, Gianna Marcato (ed.), 237–242. Padua: Unipress.Google Scholar
2009 La particella mu nei dialetti calabresi meridionali. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt 9: 101–117.Google Scholar
2011 Matching moods: Mood concord between CP and IP in Salentino and Southern Calabrian Subjunctive complements. In Mapping the Left Periphery. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 5, Paola Benincà & Nicola Munaro (eds), 228–256. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Angelis, Alessandro
2014 Origini formali e funzionali della particella (m)i, (m)u, ma nell’area messinese e calabrese centro-meridionale. In Dialetti: per parlare e parlarne. Atti del IV Convegno Internazionale di dialettologia. Progetto A.L.Ba. (Potenza, Castelmezzano, Lagopesole, 6–8 novembre 2014), Patrizia Del Puente (ed.). Potenza: Il Segno Arti Grafiche.Google Scholar
2017 Between Greek and Romance: Competing complementation systems in Southern Italy. In Language and Identity in Multilingual Mediterranean settings. Challenges for Historical Sociolinguistics, Piera Molinelli (ed.), 135–155. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Demonte, Violeta & Fernández-Soriano, Olga
2014 Evidentiality and illocutionary force: Spanish matrix que at the syntax-pragmatics interface. In Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish: Diachronic, Variationist and Typological Perspectives [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 214], Andreas Dufter & Álvaro S. Octavio de Toledo (eds), 217–252. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Etxepare, Ricardo
2008 On quotative constructions in Iberian Spanish. In Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining: The Multifunctionality of Conjunctions [Typological Studies in Language 80], Ritva Laury (ed.), 35–77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas
2007 Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), 366–431. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2009 Insubordination and the Grammaticalisation of Interactive Presuppositions. Paper given at Methodologies in determining morphosyntactic change, Osaka, March 2009.Google Scholar
Franco, Irene
2009 Verbs, Subjects and Stylistic Fronting. PhD dissertation, University of Siena.
Giorgi, Alessandra
2010 About the Speaker: Towards a Syntax of Indexicality. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra & Pianesi, Fabio
1997 Tense and Aspect: From Semantics to Morphosyntax. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Grice, Martine, D’Imperio, Mariapaola, Savino, Michelina & Avesani, Cinzia
2005 Strategies for intonation labelling across varieties of Italian. In Prosodic Typology: The Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing, Sun-Ah Jun (ed.), 362–389. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos
1984 On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents. Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane
2014 West Flemish verb-based discourse markers and the articulation of the speech-act layer. Studia Linguistica 68: 116–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane & Hill, Virginia
2014 The syntactization of discouse. In Syntax and its Limits, Raffella Folli, Christina Sevdali & Robert Truswell (eds), 370–389. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Heim, Johannes
2017 How dialogical meaning can deconstruct speech acts: Insights from studying intonation. Ms, University of British Columbia.
Heycock, Caroline
2006 Embedded root phenomena. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Martin Everaert & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds), 174–209. London: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hill, Virginia
2012 A main clause complementizer. In Main Clause Phenomena: New Horizons [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 190], Lobke Aelbrecht, Liliane Haegeman & Rachel Nye (eds), 279–296. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hinterhölzl, Roland & Munaro, Nicola
2015 On the interpretation of modal particles in non-assertive speech-acts in German and Bellunese. In Discourse-oriented Syntax [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 226], Josef Bayer, Roland Hinterhölzl, Andreas Trotzke (eds), 41–70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam
1998 Variation in the Romance infinitive. The case of the Southern Calabrian inflected infinitive. Transactions of the Philological Society 96(1): 1–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 A Comparative Syntax of the Dialects of Southern Italy: A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2003 Il sistema completivo dei dialetti meridionali: La doppia serie di complementatori. Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia 27: 89–147.Google Scholar
2005 Moving through the left periphery: Dual complementiser systems in the dialects of Southern Italy. Transaction of the Philological Society 103(3): 339–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Diachrony of finiteness: Subordination in the dialects of Southern Italy. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, Irina A. Nikolaeva (ed.), 335–365. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2009 Aspetti della sintassi della periferia sinistra del cosentino. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt 9: 3–24.Google Scholar
2012 Contatto e mutamento: Complementazione e complementatori nei dialetti del Salento. Studi Italiani di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata 41: 459–480.Google Scholar
2013 Greek disguised as Romance? The case of Southern Italy. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Greek Dialects, Mark Janse, Brian D. Joseph, Angela Ralli & Metin Bagriacik (eds), 184–228. Patras: Laboratory of Modern Greek Dialects, University of Patras.Google Scholar
2015 Reconstructing complementiser-drop in the dialects of the Salento: A syntactic or phonological phenomenon? In Syntax Over Time: Lexical, Morphological, and Information-structural Interactions, Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds), 146–162. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 Complementation. In The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, Adam Ledgeway & Martin Maiden (eds), 1013–1028. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam & Alessandra Lombardi
2014 The development of the southern subjunctive. Morphological loss and syntactic gain. In Diachrony and Dialects. Grammatical Change in the Dialects of Italy, Paola Benincà, Adam Ledgeway & Nigel Vincent (eds), 25–47. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam, Schifano, Norma & Giuseppina Silvestri
2016 The negative imperative in Southern Calabria. Spirito greco, materia romanza again? Paper presented at the Romance Linguistics Seminars, University of Oxford, St John’s College.
Loporcaro, Michele
1995 Recessività sintattica dell’infinito e vitalità morfologica della desinenza infinitivale in alcuni dialetti del reggino. In Scritti linguistici e filologici in onore di Tristano Bolelli, Roberto Ajello & Saverio Sani (eds), 331–358.Pisa: Pacini.Google Scholar
Manzini Maria Rita & Savoia, Leonardo
2005 I dialetti italiani e romanci. Morfosintassi generativa, 3 Vols. Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso.Google Scholar
Miyagawa, Shigeru
2012 Agreements that occur mainly in the main clause. In Main Clause Phenomena: New Horizons [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 190], Lobke Aelbrecht, Liliane Haegeman & Rachel Nye (eds), 79–112. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Munaro, Nicola
2010 On the edge-feature of particles, interjections, and short answers. In Edge, Heads and Projections: Interface Properties [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 156], Anna Maria di Sciullo & Virginia Hill (eds), 67–86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
this volume On the syntactic encoding of lexical interjections in Italo-Romance. In Italian Dialectology at the Interfaces [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 251], Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway & Eva-Maria Remberger (eds), 185–202. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Palmer, Frank Robert
1986 Mood and Modality. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Paoli, Sandra
2007 The fine structure of the left periphery: COMPs and subjects. Evidence from Romance. Lingua 117(6): 1057–1079. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet B. & Julia Hirschberg
1990 The meaning of intonational contours in the interpretation of discourse. In Intentions in Communication, Philip R. Cohen, Jerry Morgan & Martha E. Pollack (eds), 271–311. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prins, Karine
2014 Overt Complementizers in root clauses in southern Italian dialects. MA thesis, Leiden University.
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 On the position “int(errogative)” in the left periphery of the clause. In Current Studies in Italian Syntax: Essays Offered to Lorenzo Renzi, Guglielmo Cinque & Giampaolo Salvi (eds), 267–296. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Reis, Marga
2006 Is German V-to-C movement really semantically motivated? Some empirical problems. Theoretical Linguistics 32(3): 369–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Ian
2004 The C-system in Brythonic Celtic languages, V2 and the EPP. In The Structure of CP and IP. The Carthography of the Syntactic Structures, Luigi Rizzi (ed.), 297–328. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian & Roussou, Anna
2003 Syntactic Change: A Minimalist Approach to Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard
1969 Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
1972 [1965] La congiunzione mi (in sostituzione dell’infinito) in Sicilia. In Studi e ricerche su lingua e dialetti d’Italia, 333–338. Florence: Sansoni.Google Scholar
Ross, John Robert
1970 On declarative sentences. In Readings in English Transformational Grammar, Roderick Jacobs & Peter Rosenbaum (eds), 222–277. Waltham MA: Ginn.Google Scholar
Sigurđsson, Halldór Ármann
2004 The syntax of Person, Tense, and speech features. Italian Journal of Linguistics 16:219–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorianello, Patrizia
2010 Il tipo esclamativo. Analisi e percezione delle risorse prosodiche. In Parlare con le persone, parlare con le macchine: la dimensione dimensione internazionale della comunicazione verbale, Atti del VI Convegno Internazionale dell’Associazione Italiana Scienze della Voce, Francesco Cutugno, Pietro Maturi, Renata Savy, Giovanni Abete & Iolanda Alfano (eds), 85–104. Torriana: EDK.Google Scholar
2011 Aspetti prosodici e pragmatic dell’atto esclamativo. Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 9: 287–332.Google Scholar
Speas, Peggy & Tenny, Carol
2003 Configurational Properties of Point of View Roles. Asymmetry in Grammar, 315–345. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Truckenbrodt, Hubert
2006 On the semantic motivation of syntactic verb movement to C in German. Theoretical Linguistics 32(3): 257–306.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Semantics of intonation. In Semantics. An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning, Vol. 3, Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger & Paul Portner (eds), 2039–2969. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Villa-García, Julio
2015 The Syntax of Multiple-que Sentences in Spanish: Along the Left Periphery [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 2]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wiltschko, Martina
In progress. The syntax of the interaction. Towards a formal typology of discourse markers. Ms, University of British Columbia.
Wiltschko, Martina & Heim, Johannes
2016 The syntax of confirmationals. A neo-performative analysis. In Outside the Clause: Form and Function of Extra-clausal Constituents [Studies in Language Companion Series 178], Gunther Kaltenböck, Evelien Keizer & Arne Lohmann (eds), 305–340. Amsterdam:John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 18 other publications

Corr, Alice
2022. Conclusions. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 299 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Interjections and particles. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Vocatives. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Doing things with utterance grammar. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. The grammar of dialogue. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 251 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. The Grammar of the Utterance, DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Utterances without commitment. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. A grammar for the utterance. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. The expression of affect. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 157 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Introduction. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Cruschina, Silvio & Eva-Maria Remberger
2018. Speaker-oriented syntax and root clause complementizers. Linguistic Variation 18:2 ► pp. 336 ff. DOI logo
Menza, Salvatore & Valentina Bianchi
2023. Cooperativity Markers in the Left Periphery. Evidence from Sicilian and from Lombard Italian. Probus 35:1 ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Munaro, Nicola
2019. On the syntactic encoding of lexical interjections in Italo-Romance. In Italian Dialectology at the Interfaces [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 251], ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Munaro, Nicola
2022. Chapter 6. Anchoring primary and secondary interjections to the context. In Discourse Particles [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 276], ► pp. 157 ff. DOI logo
Olivier, Marc, Christina Sevdali & Raffaella Folli
2023. Clitic climbing and restructuring in the history of French. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8:1 DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. General Preface. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. vii ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Copyright Page. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. iv ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. List of Abbreviations. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. xi 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.