NADINE RENTEL

Universität Duisburg-Essen (Alemania)

Presentation title: The syntax of spoken Italian: The position of direct object clitics in combination with auxiliaries + infinitive

Sintaxis / Sintax

Direct object clitics can, if they are combined with an auxiliary + infinitive, be placed before the auxiliary (preposition) or after the infinitive (postposition): lo devo fare vs. devo farlo. It is often claimed that in the spoken variety of Italian, the type lo devo fare, that means the placement of the unstressed personal pronoun before the auxiliary, is more frequent (cf. Koch/ Oesterreicher 1990; Berretta 1985). In this context, authors generally refer to the characteristics of spoken discourse in general that favour the preposition of clitics, e.g. the degree of planning, intonation factors, the information structure or the need for a syntactic simplification (cf. Berruto 1985).

However, we have to deal with a phenomenon of spoken Italian that is subject to changes and that therefore needs further and detailed investigation. For this sake, we have carried out an analysis that is based on a large electronic corpus of spoken Italian, the L.I.P. corpus (Lessico di Frequenza dell’Italiano Parlato), covering 500.000 words. On the one hand, the study aims at finding out whether the pre- or the postposition of clitics is predominant. On the other hand, it aims at establishing a systematic categorisation of contextual, e.g. syntactic and semantic factors that influence the clitic position (cf. Berretta 1986). My hypothesis is that for example the type of the auxiliary (modal, aspectual or movement verb), the sentence type (question or affirmative clause) or the presence of an adverb may have an impact on the syntax of clitics.

References (selection):

Busch, Ulrike: Die klitischen Pronomina des Italienischen, Tübingen 1985.

Berretta, M.: “I pronomi clitici nell’italiano parlato.”, in: Holtus, G./ Radtke, E. (eds.): Gesprochenes Italienisch in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Tübingen 1985, 185-225..

Berretta, M.: “Struttura informativa e sintassi dei pronomi atoni: condizioni che favoriscono la risalita.”, in: Stammerjohann, H. (ed.): Tema – Rema in italiano, Tübingen 1986, 71-83.

Berretta, M.: “Pronomi atoni: una prospettiva funzionale.”, in: Italiano & Oltre 1/1 (1986) 26-29.

Koch, P./ Oesterreicher, W.: Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch, Niemeyer 1990.

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