Differential Object Marking and the properties of D in the dialects of the extreme south of Italy

This paper discusses two case studies of microvariation in accusative marking in the Italo-Romance varieties of the extreme south of Italy. In particular, the diatopic variation displayed by the dialects of southern Calabria gives rise to peculiar patterns of alternation between presence or absence of the marker a 'to' in flagging the accusative. The realisation of accusative case is partially governed by semantic and referential features, i.e. specificity and animacy. In addition, the nature of the realisation of the D head results in a degree of competition between zero marking and analytic accusative marking with a. Given the century-long co-existence of Latin/Romance and Greek in southern Calabria, the relevant morphosyntactic patterns in Case-marking will also be examined from a language contact perspective. We will highlight how the relevant outcomes do not simply involve borrowing mechanisms or template copying from the lending variety but, rather, produce hybrid structures no longer ascribable to a purely Romance or Greek grammar

Negation and Verb-Movement in Romance: New Perspectives on Jespersen's Cycle

In this article we bring to light one additional factor underlying so-called Jespersen's Cycle (JC) in Romance which has to date gone unnoticed, namely the varying position of the finite verb within the IP. More specifically, we show that there exists an empirical correlation between the availability of clause-medial/high verb-movement and Stages II-III of JC in which a postverbal negator is licensed. Drawing on novel data, we demonstrate that this correlation holds not only across modern Romance varieties, but also across early varieties. Formally, we explain this link between negation and verb-movement from the (in)active status of the T-domain and the consequent (im)possibility of donating a [Neg] feature to the lower v-VP domain. Although verb-movement in itself is not a sufficient condition to trigger a shift towards Stages II-III negation, we argue that it is a necessary one, a fact which explains the peculiar distribution of negation strategies across the Romània

Testing linguistic theory and variation to their limits: The case of Romance

Through a number of illuminating cases studies which draw in large part on the largely under-utilized data of Romance dialectal varieties, the present article sets out to highlight the importance that Romance data, especially those of non-standard varietites, can play in testing and enriching currents theories of syntax. In particular, we shall show that dialectal varieties, although frequently overlooked in the past, offer an immensely fertile and still relatively unexplored experimental territory in which to profitably investigate new ideas about language structure, change and variation. At the same time, we champion the mutual benefits for theoretical linguists and Romanists of adopting a more integrated and reciprocally-informed approach in their respective treatments of linguistic evidence, highlighting how a familiarity with the key tools and ideas established in both fields has the potential to enrich linguistic and empirical analyses considerably.Théorie linguistique et variation. Le cas des langues romanes Grâce à l’examen d’une série d’études de cas éclairantes puisées en grande partie dans les données de variétés dialectales romanes trop souvent mises à l’écart, cet article a pour objectif de mettre en relief l’importance du rôle des données romanes, et surtout de celles tirées des variétés non-standard, dans l’évaluation et dans l’enrichissement des théories syntaxiques actuelles. En particulier, on met en évidence comment les variétés dialectales, bien qu’à peine exploitées dans le passé, offrent un terrain expérimental extrêmement fertile et encore peu exploré aujourd’hui, qui permet d’explorer de nouvelles pistes à propos de la structure, du changement et de la variation linguistiques. En même temps, on exposera les avantages mutuels pour les linguistes théoriques et les spécialistes en linguistique romane à adopter une approche à la fois plus intégrée et réciproquement informée dans leurs traitements respectifs des faits linguistiques. On montrera ainsi comment une connaissance des outils et des principes établis dans les deux champs peut apporter des enrichissements considérables aux analyses linguistiques et empiriques

Changing alignments in the Greek of southern Italy

This article investigates a peculiar pattern of subject case-marking in the Greek of southern Italy. Recent fieldwork with native speakers, coupled with the consultation of some written sources, reveals that, alongside prototypical nominative subjects, Italo-Greek also licenses accusative subjects, despite displaying a predominantly nominative-accusative alignment. Far from being random replacements within a highly attrited grammar, the distribution of these accusative subjects obeys specific structural principles, revealing similarities with historical attestations of the so-called ‘extended accusative’ in early Indo-European. On the basis of these data, Italo-Greek is argued to be undergoing a progressive shift towards an active-stative alignment, a claim supported by additional evidence from auxiliary selection, adverb agreement and sentential word order

Exploring Microvariation in Verb-Movement Parameters within Daco-Romanian and across Daco-Romance

This article reviews some of the principal patterns of morphosyntactic variation within Daco-Romanian and across Daco-Romance in support of a distinction between low vs high V-movement grammars variously distributed in accordance with diatopic variation (Daco-Romance: west vs east, Aromanian: north vs south), diachronic and diagenerational variation (Megleno-Romanian) and endogenous vs exogenous factors (Istro-Romanian). This approach, which builds on the insights of the Borer–Chomsky conjecture, assumes that the locus of parametric variation lies in the lexicon and the (PF-)lexicalization of specific formal feature values of individual functional projections, in our case the clausal heads T and v and the broad cartographic areas that they can be taken to represent. In this way, our analysis locates the relevant dimensions of (micro)variation among different Daco-Romance varieties in properties of T and v. In particular, we show that the feature values of these two heads are not set in isolation, inasmuch as parameters form an interrelated network of implicational relationships: the given value of a particular parameter entails the concomitant activation of associated lower-order parametric choices, whose potential surface effects may consequently become entirely predictable, or indeed render other parameters entirely irrelevant. In this way we can derive properties such as verb–adverb order, auxiliary selection, retention vs loss of the preterite, the availability of a dedicated preverbal subject position, the distribution of DOM, and the different stages of Jespersen’s Cycle across Daco-Romance quite transparently, based on the relevant strength of T and v in individual sub-branches and sub-dialects

DIFFERENTIAL OBJECT MARKING IN THE DIALECTS OF SOUTHERN ITALY: AN OVERVIEW

This article undertakes a descriptive overview of the variation in the distribution and licensing of differential object marking across a wide range of dialects of the south of Italy. It is shown how variation in this area is not random, but follows patterns of structured variation which can be modelled in a scalar fashion in terms of four broad splits based on grammatical person, and on pronominal-nominal, head-phrasal and animacy/specificity oppositions. These four broad dimensions of variation are in turn shown to conceal a number of more subtle differences of a microvariational nature. This microvariation, it is suggested, can be read not only horizontally as synchronic variation across the dialects, but also vertically to provide some key insights into the diachronic development of (Italo-)Romance DOM

Verb segon en el llatí tardà: l’ordre de paraules de l’oració en l’«Itinerarium Egeriae»

In this article we undertake a systematic study of the Itinerarium Egeriae, one of the best known late Latin texts, to determine the proper characterization of the word order of the text and to consider in particular whether the Itinerarium Egeriae can legitimately be considered to present a verb-second (V2) grammar on the par with the well-studied grammars of medieval Romance. The results, based on detailed quantitative and qualitative analyses of the text and, where relevant, appropriate comparisons with medieval Romance, confirm the innovative nature of the syntax of the Itinerarium Egeriae whose word order patterns are shown to follow an asymmetric V2 constraint. The article therefore offers valuable original evidence for the often claimed, but hitherto unproven, hypothesis that the V2 syntax of medieval Romance represents the continuation of a parametric setting already well established in the grammar of late Latin.En aquest article duem a terme un estudi sistemàtic de l’Itinerarium Egeriae, un dels textos del llatí tardà més ben coneguts, per tal de determinar la caracterització adequada de l’ordre de mots del text i veure, en particular, si l’Itinerarium Egeriae es pot considerar legítimament que presenta una gramàtica de verb segon (V2) de manera semblant a les gramàtiques ben estudiades del romànic medieval. Els resultats, basats en detallades anàlisis quantitatives i qualitatives del text i, on és pertinent, en comparacions adequades amb el romànic medieval, confirmen la naturalesa innovadora de la sintaxi de l’Itinerarium Egeriae, els patrons d’ordre de mots de la qual es demostra que segueixen una restricció asimètrica de V2. L’article, per tant, ofereix evidència original i valuosa a favor de la hipòtesi sovint proposada però fins ara no demostrada que la sintaxi V2 del romànic medieval representa la continuació d’una fixació paramètrica ja ben establerta en la gramàtica del llatí tardà

The limits of linguistic theory and variation: The case of Romanian

Drawing on Romanian examples, this article explores, in a manner which is accessible to both general scholars of the Romance languages and linguists, how the richly documented diachronic and synchronic variation exhibited by Romanian offers a wealth of linguistic data (often of a typologically exotic nature) of interest not just to comparative Romance linguists, but also to general linguists. This perennially fertile and still under-utilized testing ground will be shown to have a central role to play in challenging linguistic orthodoxies and shaping and informing new ideas and perspectives about language change, structure and variation, and should therefore be at the forefront of linguistic research and accessible to the wider linguistic community. At the same time, the discussion will also highlight how a familiarity with current key ideas and assumptions in theoretical linguistics has a significant role to play in understanding the structures and patterns of Romanian.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by the university of Bucharest

Il contatto tra il greco e le varietà romanze nella Calabria meridionale

Centuries-old Greek-Romance contact in southern Italy has led to the Hellenization of the local surrounding Romance dialects, as succinctly summed up by Rohlfs’ catchphrase spirito greco, materia romanza (literally ‘Greek spirit, Romance material’) to highlight the fact that in many respects the syntax of these Romance dialects is underlyingly Greek, despite employing predominantly Romance lexis. By the same token, in more recent times the indigenous Greek dialects of these areas have increasingly been subject to Romance influence (in particular, from regional Italian) giving rise to a number of underlyingly Romance structures and features in an otherwise Greek syntax. In this article we draw on two cases studies from the Romance and Greek varieties spoken in Calabria to illustrate how the syntax of argument-marking has variously been subject to contact-induced change. In both cases, it is shown that contact-induced borrowing does not replicate the original structure of the lending language but, rather, combines aspects of core Greek and Romance syntax to produce innovative hybrid structures, the evidence of which can be profitably used to throw light on the formal characterization and nature of convergence and divergence. Furthermore, the data considered here underline how convergence between grammars in contact does not necessarily lead to simple borrowing and transference through interference, but more frequently gives rise to new hybrid structures born of reanalysis of the original Italo-Greek or regional Italian structures within a Romance or Italo-Greek gramma