The causative alternation in Italian: A case study in the parallel architecture of grammar

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Abstract

The examination of 8,000 lines of authentic data suggests that the causative alternation, and the distribution of anticausative SE in Italian, cannot be reduced to a single principle, be that a facet of meaning or of syntactic structure or a pattern in the semantics-syntax interface. The analysis reveals the causative alternation to be a prime illustration of the modularity of grammar. Couching our analysis in a parallel architecture framework, Role and Reference Grammar, we argue that the boundaries of the causative alternation are established in grammar through (i) the acquisition of inchoative and causative logical structures, which are stored in the lexicon alongside non-templatic facets of meaning, (ii) general semantics-syntax mapping principles, which are subject to alignment variation, and (iii) constructional instructions, which determine which subclasses of verbs can participate in the constructions that are relevant to the causative alternation in each individual language.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFrom fieldwork to linguistic theory
Subtitle of host publicationA tribute to Dan Everett
EditorsEdward Gibson, Moshe Poliak
Place of PublicationBerlin
PublisherLanguage Science Press
Chapter10
Pages225-273
Number of pages49
ISBN (Electronic)9783961104734
ISBN (Print)9783985541027
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Publication series

NameEmpirically Oriented Theoretical Morphology and Syntax
PublisherLanguage Science Press
Volume15
ISSN (Print)2366-3529

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