A Comparative Grammar of Borgomanerese

A Comparative Grammar of Borgomanerese

Author: Christina Tortora

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0199945640

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This book treats the morphosyntax of Borgomanerese, a Northern Italian dialect. The rich description of the many unusual features of this dialect, some of which have not been previously reported in the literature, gives rise to a number novel theoretical analyses, advancing our understanding of syntax and syntactic theory.


Diachrony and Dialects

Diachrony and Dialects

Author: Paola BenincĂ 

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-05-29

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 019100524X

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This book examines diachronic change and diversity in the morphosyntax of Romance varieties spoken in Italy. These varieties offer an especially fertile terrain for research into language change, because of both the richness of dialectal variation and the length of the period of textual attestation. While attention in the past has been focussed on the variation found in phonology, morphology, and vocabulary, this volume examines variation in morphosyntactic structures, covering a range of topics designed to exploit and explore the interaction of the geographical and historical dimensions of change. The opening chapter sets the scene for specialist and non-specialist readers alike, and establishes the conceptual and empirical background. There follow a series of case studies investigating the morphosyntax of verbal and (pro)nominal constructions and the organization of the clause. Data are drawn from the full range of Romance dialects spoken within the borders of modern Italy, ranging from Sicily and Sardinia through to Piedmont and Friuli. Some of the studies narrow the focus to a particular construction within a particular dialect; others broaden out to compare different patterns of evolution within different dialects. There is also diversity in the theoretical frameworks adopted by the various contributors. The book aims to take stock of both the current state of the field and the fruits of recent research, and to set out new results and new questions to help move forward the frontiers of that research. It will be a valuable resource not only for those specializing in the study of Italo-Romance varieties, but also for other Romanists and for those interested in exploring and understanding the mechanisms of morphosyntactic change more generally.


A Comparative Grammar of Borgomanerese

A Comparative Grammar of Borgomanerese

Author: Christina Tortora

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014-11-03

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0199945632

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This book presents and analyzes various features of the morphosyntax of Borgomanerese, a Gallo-Italic dialect spoken in the town of Borgomanero, in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. The study is highly comparative, drawing on the literature on numerous other Italian dialects and Romance languages (as well as English), to inform our understanding of the Borgomanerese phenomena. Christina Tortora takes the many unusual and understudied (and often novel) facts of Borgomanerese grammar as compelling grounds for revisiting and reformulating current analyses of syntactic phenomena in these other languages. The phenomena treated include the syntax and semantics of the weak locative in presentational sentences; the syntax of object clitics and argument prepositions; the syntax of subjects and subject clitics; the syntax of interrogatives; clausal architecture; and the relationship between orthography and theoretical analysis. The principal value of this book lies both in the rich description of the morphosyntactic phenomena of Borgomanerese, many of which have not been previously reported in the literature, and in the consequent novel analyses developed, which contribute insights for other languages and dialects, and advance our understanding of syntax and syntactic theory in general.


Grammar of Central Trentino

Grammar of Central Trentino

Author: Jan Casalicchio

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-07-27

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9004430970

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Central Trentino is a Romance dialect spoken in the North-East of Italy, which shows features belonging to both Gallo-Italic and Venetan dialects. Grammar of Central Trentino aims to present the first comprehensive grammatical description of this dialect, taking into consideration its morpho-syntactic properties and pragmatic phenomena. The book's general approach is synchronic and focused on the language currently in use. The authors discuss a wide range of examples gathered from both oral and written sources. The theoretical reference model is that of generative grammar, but the description of the phenomena is also accessible to a non-specialized audience.


Sociolinguistic and Typological Perspectives on Language Variation

Sociolinguistic and Typological Perspectives on Language Variation

Author: Silvia Ballarè

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-10-02

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 3110781239

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Linguistic variation, loosely defined as the wholesale processes whereby patterns of language structures exhibit divergent distributions within and across languages, has traditionally been the object of research of at least two branches of linguistics: variationist sociolinguistics and linguistic typology. In spite of their similar research agendas, the two approaches have only rarely converged in the description and interpretation of variation. While a number of studies attempting to address at least aspects of this relationship have appeared in recent years, a principled discussion on how the two disciplines may interact has not yet been carried out in a programmatic way. This volume aims to fill this gap and offers a cross-disciplinary venue for discussing the bridging between sociolinguistic and typological research from various angles, with the ultimate goal of laying out the methodological and conceptual foundations of an integrated research agenda for the study of linguistic variation.


Romance Object Clitics

Romance Object Clitics

Author: Diego Pescarini

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0198864388

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This book offers an empirical and theoretical exploration of the development of object clitic pronouns in the Romance languages, drawing on data from Latin, medieval vernaculars, modern Romance languages, and lesser-known dialects. Diego Pescarini examines phonological, morphological, and especially syntactic aspects of Romance object clitics, using the findings to reconstruct their evolution from Latin to Romance and to model clitic placement in modern Romance languages. On the theoretical side, the volume engages with previous accounts of clitics, particularly in generative theory. It challenges the received idea that cliticization resulted from a form of syntactic deficiency; instead, it proposes that clitics resulted from the feature endowment of discourse features, which initially caused freezing of certain pronominal forms and then - through reanalysis - their successive incorporation to verbal hosts. This approach leads to a revision of earlier analyses of well-known phenomena such as interpolation, climbing, and enclisis/proclisis alternations, and to new approaches to issues including V2 syntax, scrambling, and stylistic fronting, among many others.


Historical Dialectology

Historical Dialectology

Author: Jacek Fisiak

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 716

ISBN-13: 9783110115505

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Contains twenty-nine papers. Twenty-five were presented at the International Conference on Historical Dialectology (Regional and Social) held at Blazejewko, Poland (May,1986). Papers deal with various aspects of historical regional dialectology. Some border on the issue of dialectology and linguistic change. Although most deal with English, a number discuss more general issues such as Bartoli's norms, the role of the center and periphery in dialect distribution with reference to the adoption, diffusion and spread of linguistic change, the naturalness problems, the problem of convergence, the use of the computer in historical dialectology. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


The Antisymmetry of Syntax

The Antisymmetry of Syntax

Author: Richard S. Kayne

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1994-12-14

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780262611077

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It is standardly assumed that Universal Grammar (UG) allows a given hierarchical representation to be associated with more than one linear order. This book proposes a restrictive theory of word order and phrase structure that denies this assumption. According to this theory, phrase structure always completely determines linear order, so that if two phrases differ in linear order, they must also differ in hierarchical structure. It is standardly assumed that Universal Grammar (UG) allows a given hierarchical representation to be associated with more than one linear order. For example, English and Japanese phrases consisting of a verb and its complement are thought of as symmetrical to one another, differing only in linear order. The Antisymmetry of Syntax proposes a restrictive theory of word order and phrase structure that denies this assumption. According to this theory, phrase structure always completely determines linear order, so that if two phrases differ in linear order, they must also differ in hierarchical structure. More specifically, Richard Kayne shows that asymmetric c-command invariably maps into linear precedence. From this follows, with few further hypotheses, a highly specific theory of word order in UG: that complement positions must always follow their associated head, and that specifiers and adjoined elements must always precede the phrase that they are sister to. A further result is that standard X-bar theory is not a primitive component of UG. Rather, X-bar theory expresses a set of antisymmetric properties of phrase structure. This antisymmetry is inherited from the more basic antisymmetry of linear order. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph No. 25


A Short History of the Italian Renaissance

A Short History of the Italian Renaissance

Author: Kenneth R. Bartlett

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2013-01-01

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1442600144

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Award-winning lecturer Kenneth R. Bartlett applies his decades of experience teaching the Italian Renaissance to this beautifully illustrated overview. In his introductory Note to the Reader, Bartlett first explains why he chose Jacob Burckhardt's classic narrative to guide students through the complex history of the Renaissance and then provides his own contemporary interpretation of that narrative. Over seventy color illustrations, genealogies of important Renaissance families, eight maps, a list of popes, a timeline of events, a bibliography, and an index are included.


Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 12

Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 12

Author: Ruth E.V. Lopes

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2017-10-15

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 9027265305

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The current volume contains a selection from papers presented at the 45th meeting of the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 45), which took place from May 6 to 9, 2015 at the University of Campinas, Brazil. A volume of selected papers, such as this one, will ultimately be successful contingent upon the success of the event itself, which proved a strong commitment to theoretical and empirical rigor to the studies in Romance linguistics. All the chapters in this volume are high-quality papers on the state-of-the-art in linguistic research into Romance languages. The studies offer a variety of topics on the syntax, phonology, semantics-pragmatics, L2 acquisition and contact situations of Romance languages (Peninsular and American Spanish; European, Brazilian and African Portuguese; French; Italian), Romance dialects (Borgomanerese) and Romance-based creoles (Palenquero).