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Upcoming events

Event Information:

  • Tue
    09
    Dec
    2025

    Gina Saviano (Ghent University) – "Mapping the Regional Linguistic Space between Italian and Dialect: A Computational Analysis of Phonetic Features in Neapolitan"

    11:00 amBlandijn, Faculteitszaal

    Abstract

    “Continuum con addensamenti”, ‘continuum with agglomerations’: this is how Berruto once described the Italian linguistic repertoire. Much has been discussed about the extremes of this continuum; however, little do we know about those intermediate “agglomerations”. How many are there? How are they organized? Do they share features? To address these questions, we adopt a phonetic perspective and borrow a technique typically used in commercial profiling. Examining established Neapolitan phonetic features alongside new prosodic parameters, we identify possible speaker profiles and features agglomerations, shedding a new light on the intermediate varieties of the Italian standard-dialect continuum. In this talk, I will discuss preliminary studies and findings, applying this innovative methodology to offer new insights into the nature of the concept of variety.

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Past events

Event Information:

  • Fri
    10
    Feb
    2017

    Subtraction from Datives and Differential Object Accusatives

    12:00 pmBlandijn, Grote Vergaderzaal

    ΔiaLing talk by dr. Ángel Jiménez-Fernández (University of Sevile): Subtraction from Datives and Differential Object Accusatives

    Subextraction from Datives and Differential Object Accusatives

    Ángel L. Jiménez-Fernández

    University of Seville

    ajimfer@us.es

    1. Introduction, the problem and our goal. In current research on the structure of DPs in Differential Object Marking and Dative Clitic Constructions, there has been an explosion of proposals suggesting that the preposition a present in both accusative and dative objects is not a true P in Spanish, but a morphological marker (Demonte 1995; Cuervo 2003; Ormazabal & Romero 2013; Pineda 2013, a.o.). Adopting the idea that this P does not project into a PP but rather occupies the K(ase) head above DP, in this talk I analyse subextraction out of both accusative and dative prepositional DPs in psych constructions in Spanish Wh-questions, as illustrated in (1).

    (1) a. ¿De qué edificio dices que no conoces [a ningún vecino]?

    ‘Of what building do you say that you don’t know any neighbours?

    b. ¿De qué partido crees que no les ha gustado [a muchos votantes] la nueva normativa?

    ‘Of what party do you think many voters didn’t like the new regulations?’

    However, the Spanish data are far from clear in that by assuming that a P is opaque for extraction (Abels 2003), the prediction follows that Experiencers introduced by P a should induce island effects, contrary to facts. To solve this problem, in line with Haegeman et al. (2014), I argue that island effects in objects introduced by a in Spanish are multifactorial. I extend their analysis by suggesting that one of the factors mitigating islandhood is the functional character of some prepositions (Riemsdijk 1978), and that the P a in dative and accusative DPs is a functional preposition which heads a Kase Phrase, motivated by the case properties of P. Being endowed with an Edge Feature, this KP is a weak phase which allows subextraction.

    Keywords: subextraction, dative clitic constructions, Differential Object Marking, Kase Phrase, phases

    Selected References

    Bianchi, Valentina and Cristiano Chesi. 2014. “Subject Islands, Reconstruction, and the Flow of the Computation.” Linguistic Inquiry 45 (4): 525–569.

    Haegeman, Liliane, Ángel L. Jiménez-Fernández and Andrew Radford. 2014. “Deconstructing the Subject Condition in Terms of Cumulative Constraint Violation.” The Linguistic Review 31(1): 73–150.

    Jiménez-Fernández, Ángel L. 2009. “On the Composite Nature of Subject Islands: A Phase-Based Approach.” SKY Journal of Linguistics 22: 91–138.

    Ormazabal, Javier and Juan Romero. 2013. “Differential Object Marking, Case and Agreement.” Borealis 2 (2): 221–239.

    Pineda, A. 2013. “Double Object Constructions in Spanish (and Catalan) Revisited.” In Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen, Luisa Meroni and Manuela Pinto (eds.), Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2011, 193–216. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Riemsdijk, Henk C. van. 1978. A Case Study in Syntactic Markedness: The Binding Nature of Prepositional Phrases. Lisse: The Peter de Ridder Press.

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