Abstract
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.
Highlights
Case Study 1differential object marking (DOM) in Calabrese The system of accusative marking we describe below is attested in several southern Calabrian dialects spoken in an area roughly corresponding to the southern side of the Aspromonte, e.g. Bagaladi, Bova, Cardeto, Embrisi, Melito di Porto Salvo, San Lorenzo, San Pantaleone, San Roberto, Scido
This paper discusses two case studies of microvariation in accusative marking in the ItaloRomance varieties of the extreme south of Italy
In order to explain this micro-variation in accusative Case marking, we propose that accusative DPs in Calabrese2 undergo the same licensing mechanism as in Calabrese1, but with the crucial difference that, when Agree takes place in Calabrese2, the lexicalisation of the D head through the definite determiner is the necessary and sufficient condition for v to value the unvalued Case feature (uCase) feature on the [±Person] DP
Summary
DOM in Calabrese The system of accusative marking we describe below is attested in several southern Calabrian dialects spoken in an area roughly corresponding to the southern side of the Aspromonte, e.g. Bagaladi, Bova, Cardeto, Embrisi, Melito di Porto Salvo, San Lorenzo, San Pantaleone, San Roberto, Scido. In Calabrese DOM surfaces on nominal expressions denoting humans. They correspond to highly referential nominals in definite and specific contexts (Abbott 2006), including. The marker a co-occurring with the non-aphaeresized forms of the definite determiners triggers the lengthening of the /l/:. DOM is generally not licensed with nominal expressions prototypically conveying indefiniteness, it does occur when the direct object refers to a specific individual (Diesing 1992; Abbott 2006). Petru killed.3sg two priests ‘Petru killed two priests (=two non-specific priests).’. In Calabrese DOM is a syntactic reflex of the specific interpretation of DPs and it occurs with highly referential DPs, including definite DPs and indefinite DPs when they refer to human, concrete, singular and count individuals (Table 1). In Calabrese only specific animate direct objects are marked through DOM
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