Epistemic adverbs, the prosody-syntax interface, and the theory of phases
Epistemic adverbs in Italian (e.g., probabilmente ‘probably’) can appear in several positions. Cinque (1999) proposed that they always occupy the same position above IP and that the various orders are derived via movement of the other phrases around them. In this paper I consider contrasts between sentences where these adverbs are associated with a “normal intonation” and those where they are associated with a parenthetical (comma) intonation. To provide an account for the distribution of parenthetical adverbs, I appeal to Giorgi (2011, to appear). I consider parentheticals as syntactically integrated structures, rejecting adjunction and adopting the cartographic approach, based on Kayne’s (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom. As for the non-parenthetical occurrences, I propose that there are two basic positions for these adverbs, one for each phase: above v*P and above IP (Cinque’s position). The existence of a low left periphery above v*P agrees has also been recently hypothesized for other phenomena in Old (Poletto, 2006 and to appear) and Modern Italian (Belletti, 2004).
References
Andrews, Avery Delano III
1975 “
Studies in the Syntax of Relative and Comparative Clauses.” MIT PhD Dissertation.
Burton-Roberts, Noel
2006 “
Parentheticals.” In
Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 9 (2nd edition), ed. by
Keith Brown, 179 – 182. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.


Banfield, Ann
1982 Unspeakable Sentences. London: Routledge.

Belletti, Adriana
2004 “
Aspects of the Low IP Area.” In
The Structure of CP and IP, ed. by
Luigi Rizzi, 16-51. New York: Oxford University Press.

Benincà, Paola, and Cecilia Poletto
2004 “
Topic, Focus and V2: Defining the CP Sublayers.” In
The Structure of CP and IP, ed. by
Luigi Rizzi, 52 – 75. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cinque, Guglielmo
1990 Types of A-bar Dependencies. LI Monograph. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chomsky, Noam
2000 “
Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework.” In
Step by Step - Essays in Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, ed. by
Roger Martin,
David Michaels, and
Juan Uriagereka. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chomsky, Noam
2002 Derivation by Phase. In
Ken Hale: A life in Language, ed. by
Michael Kenstowicz. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Collins, Chris, and Paul Branigan
1997 “
Quotative Inversion.”
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 15 (1): 1 – 41.


Dehé, Nicole, and Yadranka Kavalova
Dehé, Nicole
2009 “
Clausal Parentheticals, Intonational Phrasing, and Prosodic Theory.”
Journal of Linguistics 45: 569 – 615.


Doron, Edit
1991 “
Point of View as a Factor of Content.”
Proceedings of SALT 11,
Cornell University
: 51 – 64.
Emonds, Joe
1973 “
Parenthetical Clauses.” In
You Take the High Node and I’ll Take the Low Node, ed. by
Corum Claudia,
et al., 333 – 347. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Espinal, Maria Teresa
1991 “
The Representation of Disjunct Constituents.”
Language 67 (4): 726 – 762.


Giorgi, Alessandra
2010 About the Speaker., Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Giorgi, Alessandra
2011 “
The Syntax of Commas: An Analysis of Two Types of Parentheticals.” In
Universals and Variation, ed. by
Gao Ming-le. Beijing: Beijing University Press.

Giorgi, Alessandra
to appear. “
Prosodic Signals as Syntactic Formatives in the Left Periphery.” (
[URL]).
Guéron, Jacqueline
2007 “
Remarks on the Grammar of Unspeakable Sentences.” Manuscript. University of Paris X.
Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey Pullum
2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University Press.

Kayne, Richard
1993 “
Toward a Modular Theory of Auxiliary Selection.”
Lingua 47: 3 – 31.

Kayne, Richard
1994 The Antisymmetry of Syntax, LI Monograph. MIT Press.

Kavalova, Yodranka
2007
And Parenthetical Clauses. In
Parentheticals, ed. by
Nicole Dehé, and
Yordanka Kavalova, 145 – 172. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.


Haegeman, Liliane
1991 “
Parenthetical Adverbials: The radical Orphanage Approach.”
Aspects of Modern English Linguistics: Papers presented to Masatomo Ukaji on his 60th birthday
: 232 – 254.
Poletto, Cecilia
2006 “
Parallel Phases: A Study on the High and Low Left Periphery of Old Italian.”
Phases of Interpretation 91: 261 – 294.


Poletto, Cecilia
to appear.
Word Order in Old Italian, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Potts, Christopher
2002 “
The Syntax and Semantics of as-parentheticals.”
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 20(3): 623 – 689.


Potts, Christopher
2005 The Logic of Conventional Implicatures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reinhart, Tanya
1983 “
Point of View in Language – The Use of Parentheticals.”
Essays on Deixis: 169 – 194.

Rizzi, Luigi
1997 “
The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery.” In
Elements of Grammar, ed. by
Liliane Haegeman, 281 – 337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.


Ross, John
1973 “
Slifting.”
The Formal Analysis of Natural Languages: 133 – 169.

Schlenker, Philippe
2004 “
Context of Thought and Context of Utterance.”
Mind and Language 19: 279 – 304.


Selkirk, Lisa
2005 “
Comments on intonational phrasing.” In
Prosodies, ed. by
Sonia Frota,
Marina Vigario, and
Maria Joao Freitas, 11 – 58. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter

Sharvit, Yael
2004 “
Free indirect discourse and de re pronouns.”
Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 14, Cornell University: 305 – 322.


Tescari Neto, Aquiles
2013 “
On Verb Movement in Brazilian Portuguese: A Cartographic Study.” Dissertation, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Zanuttini, Raffaella
1997 Negation and Clausal Structure. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Tescari Neto, Aquiles
2022.
On the Raising of the Finite Main Verb in Angolan Portuguese and in Mozambican Portuguese: Cartographic Hierarchies, Microvariation and the Use of Adverbs as Diagnostics for Movement.
Probus 34:1
► pp. 171 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 may 2023. 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.