Fifty shades of morphosyntactic microvariation

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse Motion Verb Constructions (MVCs) in southern Italian dialects, especially in Sicily and Apulia, which provide an ideal illustration of morphosyntactic microvariation. Depending on the grammatical status of the motion verb, we can distinguish between MVCs in which a lexical verb selects a purpose clause and those that involve a restructuring configuration where the motion verb behaves as a functional verb. We focus on the latter configuration and show that in these MVCs, the second verb can occur either as an infinitive or as a verb inflected for the same features as the motion verb. Following the most recent developments in Distributed Morphology, we then offer an analysis of the morphosyntactic and word-internal structure that surfaces as periphrastic morphology, and propose that the difference between the infinitival restructuring and double inflection is due to the nature of the agreement node within the verbal complex. Within this account, double inflection is simply viewed as a case of agreement within the extended vP which arises independently from restructuring. Finally, the defective paradigm of some MVCs and the configurations in which the motion verb has become a prefixal element are discussed and analysed as the result of specific wordinternal morphological operations.

The “Return” of Southern Italo-Romance Tonna: From Pseudocoordination to Adverb. A Case Study in Grammaticalization

“…One view of the morphosyntactic status of V1s, adopted by Ledgeway (2016Ledgeway ( , 2021, Cruschina and Calabrese (2021), and Andriani (2016: §5, for USIDs), is that they lexicalize various aspectual or modal heads within the complex IP defined by Cinque (1999Cinque ( , 2006, for whom restructuring verbs are intrinsically functional heads (2004: 142ff.). They are thus said to be first-merged in the clausal spine, rather than re-merged, raised from the VP.…”

“…They are thus said to be first-merged in the clausal spine, rather than re-merged, raised from the VP. (Cinque 1999: 106;2006: 47, 70;Anderson 2017;Ledgeway 2016;Cruschina and Calabrese 2021). They are said to encode the aspectual deictic values of andative and venitive viewpoint, though they do not show all the hallmarks of grammaticalization, namely they retain their ability to inflect as well as their semantics of motion (Cruschina 2013(Cruschina , 2022.…”

“…20 See Rivero (1992), Dobrovie-Sorin (1993: §2.2), Nicolae (2015: 79-81;2019: 19) for accounts of adverbial left adjunction. With regards to Movement Verb Constructions including those under consideration here, a not too dissimilar view, consisting of the formation of complex heads through cyclic head movement, is proposed by Cruschina and Calabrese (2021).…”

“…Loporcaro 1997b.4 Ascoli (18964 Ascoli ( , 1901; Rohlfs (1969: §759, §761, §766);Leone (1973);Sornicola (1976);Sorrento (1977);Cardinaletti and Giusti (2001;Manzini and Savoia (2005: 688ff. );Cruschina (2013Cruschina ( , 2022; DiCaro and Giusti (2015); DiCaro (2019aCaro ( , 2019b;Andriani (2016: §5, Forthcoming);Ledgeway (2016Ledgeway ( , 2021;Manzini, Lorusso and Savoia (2017); Lorusso (2019); Calabrese (2020);Cruschina and Calabrese (2021);Giusti, Di Caro and Ross (2022), inter alia.…”

“…Aronoff 1994) and the so-called "N-Pattern" pervasive in Romance, seeMaiden 2004, et seq. 9 Despite their assuming the presence of a theme vowel, not postulated byLedgeway (2016Ledgeway ( : 168, 2021, Calabrese (2020: §2.3) andCruschina and Calabrese (2021) consider these constructions to be 'uninflected', unlikeManzini, Lorusso, and Savoia (2017: 46), who accordingly prefer the term 'invariable'.10 Cruschina (201310 Cruschina ( , 2022; Di Caro (2019b); Calabrese (2020);Cruschina and Calabrese (2021).…”