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Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events: Verb-verb constructions at the syntax-semantic interface
Edited by Brian Nolan and Elke Diedrichsen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 180] 2017
► pp. 118–137

Chapter 4
Non-conventional arguments

Finite and non-finite verbal complementation in Sicilian

| Computational and Functional Linguistics Research Group, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown Dublin, Ireland

In the Romance context, Sicilian rather unusually allows finite verbs to be governed by a preposition within a subordinate phrasal constituent expressing purpose. In other Romance languages, the verb slotted in this context is normally an infinitive. Sicilian also has the corresponding infinitive construction, and the distribution of these two functionally equivalent structures in a corpus of Sicilian folk tales is analysed, revealing overall conciseness conditions restricting the occurrence of the finite-verb construction. The two structures are then analysed from a semantic and syntactic point of view, employing the formalism of Role and Reference Grammar, in order to understand what distinguishes them in terms of event structure and its expression via core complementation vs. adjunction.

Keywords: Sicilian, Romance, subordination, coordination, event structure, RRG, SVC
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The “nothing special” hypothesis
  • 3.History of a: The “once-a-coordinate” hypothesis
  • 4.Distribution of AF vs AI
  • 5.Semantic bleaching of V1
  • 6.Event structure and V1 – V2 cohesion
  • 7.A continuum to serialization?
  • 8.Summing up
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 26 January 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.180.04fre
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