Abstract This paper deals with the selection of ‘to be’ and/or ‘to have’ and clitic placement in clauses with compound verbs in the upper southern Italian dialect of Atri. The data from field investigations allows to analyse on the one hand the conditions operating in the auxiliary selection in unergative, transitive, reflexive and unaccusative constructions, with a description of the synchronic developments in the atriano system, and on the other hand the context in which it is possible to place some types of clitics in enclisis on the auxiliary.
Abstract This paper is dedicated to a cross-linguistic comparison of the Instrument-Subject Alternation in Italian and the dialect of Reggio Emilia. This phenomenon lies at the interface between semantics and syntax. It is syntactic in nature but ruled by two main semantic constraints, i.e., the Constraint on the Instrumental Subrole and the Deliberation Constraint. The comparative analysis reveals that the semantic constraints that rule the Instrument-Subject Alternation hold for both Italian and the dialect of Reggio Emilia. Differences between the two languages are found in the lexicon, i.e., in the way the two languages lexicalize the same concepts.
Abstract This paper investigates a construction attested in the Cannese dialect, a Calabrese variety of the Lausberg area (more specifically, the Mittelzone ), consisting of the light verb fɛ́ ‘to do’ followed by a reduplicated verbal form (V+V). The construction encodes aspectual meanings such as durativity and insistence, which in Standard Italian are typically expressed by adverbial means. The paper examines the morphosyntactic restrictions governing this construction and argues that the reduplicated element functions as the lexical predicate, while fɛ́ behaves as a light verb encoding the inflectional features of the clause and contributing an aspectual function. The analysis shows that, unlike the corresponding Italian V+V action nouns, the Cannese reduplicated forms retain core verbal properties, including argument structure and selectional restrictions, supporting their analysis as verbal compounds within a particular type of Light Verb Construction.
Abstract This research aims to examine the grammaticalization process of the lexical verb raːħ ‘went’ in the Urban Jordanian dialect, and explore semantic differences and sociolinguistic factors (gender and age) that influence the use of raːħ variants. We used a forced-choice task to identify the dominant variants across demographics and then examined their semantic association with certainty and possibility. An acceptability judgment task was also employed, focusing on the influence of markers of certainty and probability on Urban Jordanians’ choices. It is shown that ħ - (the shortest variant of ra:ħ ) is dominant in certainty contexts, whereas raħ (the second shortest variant) is prevalent in probability contexts. Additionally, men and older speakers tend to favor the less reduced forms, particularly raːħ and raħ , while raːjiħ appears relatively more often among younger speakers. In contrast, women and younger speakers show a stronger preference for ħ- , the most grammaticalized variant, suggesting that women and younger speakers may be leading the ongoing language change. Overall, the variation is systematic, reflecting both semantic differentiation and socially conditioned change.
Abstract This paper draws on acceptability judgments and corpus data to investigate the alternation between infinitival (INF) and finite da -present complements (DPC) in Serbo-Croatian. We first provide experimental evidence that predictors suggested in the literature on the basis of limited empirical evidence do indeed shape complement choice: DPCs are more frequent with larger complements and root modality, while INFs are preferred with smaller complements and epistemic modality. Second, our corpus analysis shows that the previously reported effects of subject concreteness and animacy are better accounted for by subject theta role: DPC is favored by agentive subjects, INF by theme subjects. At the same time, however, we observe a notable mismatch between usage and acceptability: while speakers across the region rate both forms as acceptable to varying degrees, actual usage is sharply polarized, with DPCs prevalent in Serbian and nearly absent in Croatian. This pattern confirms the well-known finding that speakers’ intuitions preserve multiple grammatical options, while production data reveal how competing variants are resolved under communicative and normative pressure. But the discrepancy might also suggest that social meanings such as prestige, stigma, and identity, mediate production beyond grammar alone. We propose that INF vs. DPC constitutes a syntactic variable that carries social meaning, challenging claims in the sociolinguistic literature that syntax is socially inert, and we outline a research programme to identify and quantify such social meanings.
