1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910820649403321

Autore

Bentley Delia

Titolo

Split intransitivity in Italian / / by Delia Bentley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; New York, : Mouton de Gruyter, c2006

ISBN

3-11-089605-2

Edizione

[Reprint 2011]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 455 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Empirical approaches to language typology, , 0933-761X ; ; 30

Classificazione

IS 5840

Disciplina

455

Soggetti

Italian language - Transitivity

Italian language - Verb

Italian language - Syntax

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [423]-450) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Chapter 2 Perfective operators -- Chapter 3 Experiencer predicates -- Chapter 4 Si-constructions and unexpressed arguments -- Chapter 5 Agreement -- Chapter 6 Ne-cliticization -- Chapter 7 Past participles -- Chapter 8 Word order -- Chapter 9 Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Split intransitivity has received a great deal of attention in theoretical linguistics since the formulation of the Unaccusative Hypothesis by David Perlmutter (1978). This book provides an in-depth investigation of split intransitivity as it occurs in Italian. The principal proposal is that the manifestations of split intransitivity in Italian, whilst being variously constrained by well-formedness conditions on the encoding of information structure, primarily derive from the tension between accusative (syntactic) and active (semantic) alignment. In contrast to approaches which consider the selection of the perfective operator to be the primary diagnostic of unaccusative or unergative syntax, this study identifies two morphosemantic domains in intransitive constructions on the basis of the analysis of a cluster of related phenomena (including agreement, argument suppression, ne -cliticization, past-participle behaviour, the morphosyntax of experiencer predicates and word order, as well as the selection of the perfective operator). Analysing the degree to which semantic, syntactic



and discourse factors interact in determining each manifestation of split intransitivity, this work captures successfully the mismatches in the scope of the various diagnostics.  Drawing upon insights provided by Role and Reference Grammar, and relying on corpus-based evidence and crossdialectal comparison, this study makes new empirical and theoretical contributions to the debate on split intransitivity. The book is accessible to linguists of all theoretical persuasions and will make stimulating reading for researchers and scholars in Italian and Romance linguistics, typology and theoretical linguistics.