Sequence of tenses in Old Italian (Comrie vs. Declerck)*

Abstract

In this article Old Italian sequence of tenses is described in detail and compared to other languages (in particular English, Modern Italian and Russian). Two distinct views of sequence of tenses phenomena (Comrie's 1986 vs. Declerck's 1990) will be contrastively evaluated focusing on how they can be accommodated to account for cross-linguistic differences in tense selection. As far as complement clauses depending from past matrix clauses are concerned Comrie's morphosyntactic rules will be proved as more consistent than Declerck's semantic model in providing a unifying picture of cross-linguistic variation, including diachronic tendencies.