Workshop for PhD students and young researchers

Grand Meeting for Scandinavian Dialect Syntax
Leikanger, 25 August 2005

Syntactic aspects of interrogative clauses in some Veneto dialects

Nicoletta Penello & Chiara Polo, University of Padua

The main aim of our paper is to illustrate and discuss some syntactic (micro-) variation phenomena as they show up in the empirical sub-domain of interrogative clauses across a selected number of Eastern Veneto dialects. In greater details, the first part of the talk proposes a diachronic-oriented analysis of syntactic change throughout the history of the Venetian dialect, dealing specifically with the drastic drop and final disappearance of inverted interrogatives from the 18th century Venetian documented by Goldoni’s comedies to Modern Venetian. As far as diachronic variation is concerned, in fact, the confrontation between subsequent stages of development of one and the same dialect leads to single out and recognize a clear case of parameter resetting ([±VS]) in a time span presumably no longer than 50 years: even more interestingly, a number of structural discrepancies holding synchronically between contemporary Veneto dialects in the interrogative domain happens to be explainable in terms of the different stage of progression manifested by the dialects themselves towards the ultimate breakdown of the rule responsible for (pronominal) Subject / (inflected) Verb inversion. Thus synchrony can be shown to summarize diachrony and the two dimensions of analysis prove complementary tools to shed light on variation dynamics and to unfold the regularity hidden underneath seemingly idiosyncratic syntactic behaviours across the two lines of investigation (see Polo 2004, forthcoming).

In the second part of the talk, following recent studies on the higher functional field (in particular, Poletto 2000), we will try to give a contribution to the mapping of the CP projection, examining the behaviour of subject and object clitics in the dialect of Carmignano di Brenta (= carm.), a Northern Italian dialect near to Paduan. We will examine two particular patterns shown by this dialect, i.e. the co-occurrence of proclitic and enclitic subject and object clitics in main interrogatives: these phenomena have been labelled in Penello (2003-2004) the ‘Two Subject Clitics Pattern’ (= 2-Scl), shown in (1), and the ‘Two Object Clitics Pattern’ (= 2-Ocl), shown in (2).

(1) I a magne-li, a minestra, i putei ?
s.cl.3 pl.m./obj.cl.3 f.s./eat-s.cl.3 pl.m./the soup/the children
'“Are the children going to eat the soup?” (2-Scl)

(2) I a ga-la fata, a torta?
s.cl. 3pl.m./obj.cl.3f.s./have-obj.cl.3f.s./made/the cake (DO f.s.)
“Have they made the cake ?” (2-Ocl)

We will first examine the data, analyse the characteristics and restrictions of these patterns and then give some suggestions for a structural analysis of 2-Scl and 2-Ocl.

References
Penello, Nicoletta, 2003, Capitoli di Morfologia e Sintassi del dialetto di Carmignano di Brenta, Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Padova, supervisor Paola Benincà.
Penello, Nicoletta, 2004, “On enclisis and proclisis in interrogatives in the Northern Italian variety of Carmignano di Brenta”, in Proceedings of the  XXIX Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Cocchi G. and Donati C. (eds.), Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 27, pp.59-72.
Poletto, Cecilia, 2000, The Higher Functional Field, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Polo, Chiara, 2004, “Presentazione dell’ASIS – Atlante Sintattico dell’Italia Settentrionale – con illustrazione di alcuni fenomeni”, in G. Marcato (ed.), Questioni Linguistiche. Lingue e dialetti nel Veneto, vol.2, Unipress, Padova, pp.3-18.
Polo, Chiara, forthcoming, “Strutture con inversione a confronto in due generazioni di parlanti trentini”, in Marcato G. (ed.), Giovani, Lingue e Dialetti, Proceedings of the Sappada Dialectology Meeting, July 2005, Unipress, Padova.