en
Scientific article
Open access
English

Clitic Positions and Restructuring in Italian

Published inLinguistic inquiry, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 519-557
Publication date2004
Abstract

Verbs can be introduced (merged) in either a lexical VP or a functional head, the latter position giving rise to restructuring contexts. We argue that there are two clitic positions in Italian “restructured” clauses: one associated with the (restructured) lexical verb and the other a clausal clitic position located in the functional domain. While restructuring can be recursive, clitics appear either on the restructured infinitive (no clitic climbing) or in the functional domain of the highest verb (full clitic climbing). There is no clitic climbing to an intermediate restructuring verb. We argue that only the lowest restructured verb makes a position for clitics available and that this position is the same as that of infinitive-final [e]. Finally, we show that the functional ∼ lexical dichotomy is too sharp and that a variety of verb classes must be admitted, whose properties correlate with the point in the structure in which they are merged.

Keywords
  • Restructuring
  • Italian
  • Clitic climbing
Citation (ISO format)
CARDINALETTI, Anna, SHLONSKY, Ur. Clitic Positions and Restructuring in Italian. In: Linguistic inquiry, 2004, vol. 35, n° 4, p. 519–557. doi: 10.1162/0024389042350523
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
ISSN of the journal0024-3892
565views
837downloads

Technical informations

Creation04/28/2016 11:56:00 PM
First validation04/28/2016 11:56:00 PM
Update time03/15/2023 12:19:03 AM
Status update03/15/2023 12:19:03 AM
Last indexation01/16/2024 8:43:33 PM
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack