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Article published In:
Variation in C: Comparative approaches to the Complementizer Phrase
Edited by Jacopo Garzonio and Silvia Rossi
[Linguistic Variation 18:2] 2018
► pp. 265–298

On relative complementizers and relative pronouns

| Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
| Università degli Studi di Padova
This paper explores the syntactic status of che and (il) qual(e) relativizers, i.e. what are standardly referred to as relative complementizers and relative pronouns, in Old and Modern Italian and Italian varieties and proposes a unified analysis for both types of items. It takes into account the ongoing debate regarding the categorial status of relativizers (Kayne 1975, 2008, 2010; Lehmann 1984; Manzini & Savoia 2003, 2011, among many others) and aims at showing that what we call complementizers are not C0 heads, as commonly assumed. Instead, we propose that both relative “complementizers” and “pronouns” have the same categorial status, i.e. they are wh-items and are part of the relative clause-internal head.
Keywords: syntax of relative clauses, Romance varieties, status of complementizers
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.From relative pronouns to complementizers: Old and Modern Standard Italian
  • 3.Complementizers and relative pronouns in OI varieties
    • 3.1Agreeing “complementizers”
      • 3.1.1Case and animacy on the “complementizer”: Medieval Northern Italian dialects
      • 3.1.2Case and gender on the “complementizer”: Old Neapolitan 1300–1350 (circa)
      • 3.1.3Conclusions on the agreeing “complementizers”
    • 3.2Uninflected relative pronouns
    • 3.3Conclusion ad interim
  • 4.Our proposal: Relativizers as wh-determiners
    • 4.1The derivation of restrictive RCs through the history of Italian
      • 4.1.1Theoretical argument
      • 4.1.2Further empirical arguments
    • 4.2 Che through the history of Italian
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Databases
  • References
Published online: 1 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.16002.pol
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