Anna Cardinaletti (Venice) and Ur Shlonsky
Anna Cardinaletti (Venice) and Ur Shlonsky
Anna Cardinaletti (Venice) and Ur Shlonsky
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GLOW 27, Thessaloniki April 18–21, 2004<br />
Clitic Positions, Restructuring <strong>and</strong> Verbal Representations in Italian<br />
<strong>Anna</strong> <strong>Cardinaletti</strong> – University of <strong>Venice</strong><br />
<strong>Ur</strong> <strong>Shlonsky</strong> – University of Geneva<br />
We argue that there are two clitic positions in Italian ‘restructured’ clauses, (§1). One position<br />
is associated with the (restructured) lexical verb <strong>and</strong> the other is a clausal clitic position<br />
located in the functional domain. While restructuring can be recursive, clitics appear either on<br />
the restructured infinitive (no clitic climbing) or in the functional domain of the highest verb<br />
(full climbing). Climbing to an intermediate restructuring verb is impossible. We claim that<br />
only the lowest in a series of restructured verbs makes available a position for clitics. We then<br />
discuss the distribution of the infinitive-final [e] (as in amare) <strong>and</strong> argue that its position<br />
should be identified with the lexical clitic position, (§2). In (§3&4), we show that the<br />
functional ~ lexical dichotomy is too sharp <strong>and</strong> that different functional verb classes must be<br />
admitted, manifesting different subsets of restructuring properties. The properties exhibited by<br />
each class of verbs correlate with their position in the functional hierarchy. §5 attempts to<br />
provide a rudimentary structural representation of the domains projected by lexical <strong>and</strong><br />
functional verbs.<br />
1. The following sentences are representative of a typical restructuring pattern, Rizzi 1982.<br />
The pronoun ci ‘there’ can appear as a clitic either on the infinitival lexical verb <strong>and</strong>are ‘go’,<br />
by which it is selected, as in (1a), or on the inflected matrix verb volere ‘want’, as in (1b). The<br />
latter sentence illustrates clitic climbing.<br />
(1) a. Vorrei <strong>and</strong>arci con Maria.<br />
(I) would-want (to) go.there with Maria.<br />
b. Ci vorrei <strong>and</strong>are con Maria.<br />
When there is more than one restructuring verb in the clause, the clitic can appear on the<br />
infinitival lexical verb <strong>and</strong>are ‘go’ as in (2a), on the infinitival modal verb potere ‘can’ in<br />
(2b) or on the inflected modal verb volere ‘want’, (2c).<br />
(2) a. (?)Vorrei poter <strong>and</strong>arci con Maria.<br />
(I) would want (to) be able (to) go.there with Maria<br />
b. Vorrei poterci <strong>and</strong>are con Maria.<br />
c. Ci vorrei poter <strong>and</strong>are con Maria.<br />
Clitic climbing is, however, subject to a hitherto unnoticed restriction. If an auxiliary is<br />
added to (2) <strong>and</strong> auxiliary switch applies (an independent diagnostic for restructuring), not all<br />
three options in (2) yield acceptable results. What we find is that the non-climbing <strong>and</strong> the<br />
‘full’ climbing options are substantially better than the partial climbing one (with full<br />
climbing perhaps better than non-climbing). This contrast is illustrated in (3): Partial climbing<br />
to potere in (3b) is ungrammatical.<br />
(3) a. ?Sarei voluto poter <strong>and</strong>arci con Maria.<br />
(I) would –be wanted (to) be able (to) go.there with Maria<br />
b. *Sarei voluto poterci <strong>and</strong>are con Maria.<br />
c. Ci sarei voluto poter <strong>and</strong>are con Maria.<br />
The following generalization thus emerges.<br />
(4) Clitic pronouns can appear attached either to the lexical verb or to the highest verb that<br />
has restructured <strong>and</strong> nowhere else.<br />
(2b) is grammatical because, in the absence of an auxiliary, restructuring applies only up to<br />
poter so that vorrei is actually in a higher clause. Thus, clitic climbing in (2b) is consistent<br />
with (4), while climbing in (3b) is not.<br />
Assuming a monoclausal approach to restructuring, as in Cinque 2004, the generalization<br />
in (4) can be captured by saying that the clause contains two clitic positions. In addition to the<br />
clausal clitic position situated in the high portion of the IP (cf. Kayne 1989, 1994) a lexical<br />
clitic position must also be assumed. This clitic position is associated with the lexical verb as<br />
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Main Session Abstracts<br />
part of the lexical or VP domain (vP or a like projection). (5) schematizes the two clitic<br />
positions.<br />
(5) [FP … [FP clitic [FP … [FP … [FP clitic [vP [VP ]]]]].<br />
|______________________| |_____________|<br />
functional domain lexical domain<br />
2. Italian lexical infinitives invariably display a word-final [e]. [e] is obligatorily absent in the<br />
presence of an enclitic pronoun, as in (6b).<br />
(6) a. Le vorrei parlare b. Vorrei parlar(*e)le<br />
(I) to her would want (to) speak (I) would want (to) speak to her<br />
There is no phonological motivation for this apparent truncation. The rule of Troncamento<br />
- which deletes a word-final /e/ or /o/ before a consonant-initial word if the target vowel is<br />
preceded by a sonorant consonant, (Peperkamp 1997) – is optional. The absence of [e] in (6b)<br />
is obligatory. We argue that the infinitive-final [e] is a morpheme. Indeed, it is the realization<br />
of the same low position which clitics target in e.g. (1a), (2a), <strong>and</strong> (3a). Although it appears<br />
that the final [e] is deleted in (6b), we argue that it is actually there, as the final vowel of the<br />
clitic le. The morphological makeup of parlarle is thus parlar-l-e. The clitic adjoins to the [e],<br />
which realizes the lexical clitic position. In fact, the underlying form of the infinitive-final<br />
vowel is /i/, as is the final vowel of the clitics mi, ci, vi etc. The [i]~[e] alternation is<br />
phonologically conditioned: /i/ [e] following a coronal sonorant. This rule lowers /e/ to [i]<br />
following the stem-final /r/ in infinitives.<br />
Although [e] may be absent on clitic-less lexical infinitives in Troncamento contexts, it<br />
must be absent on modal <strong>and</strong> volitional predicates in their restructuring guise.<br />
(7) *Sarei voluto potere partire con Maria.<br />
Again, no phonological explanation is available for the absence of [e] in this context. We<br />
argue that [e] is absent from intermediate restructuring verbs for exactly the same reason that<br />
clitics cannot attach to them (as we saw in (4)). Compare (7) with (3b).<br />
3. Restructuring verbs are not a homogeneous class (see also Wurmbr<strong>and</strong> (forthcoming)). For<br />
example, causative <strong>and</strong> perception verbs (as well as motion verbs) are restructuring verbs that<br />
do not trigger auxiliary switch, (8b), can host a clitic, (8c), <strong>and</strong> display the infinitival [e], (8d).<br />
(8) a. L’ho fatto/visto partire. b. *Lo sono fatto/visto partire.<br />
(I) him have made/seen leave (I) him am made/seen leave<br />
c. Vorrei farlo leggere a Maria. d. Lo vorrei fare leggere a Maria.<br />
(I) would-want (to) make.it read to Maria<br />
4. There is a correlation between the properties displayed by restructuring verbs <strong>and</strong> their<br />
position in the functional hierarchy in (9) (cf. Cinque(forthcoming2004).) Modal <strong>and</strong><br />
volitional verbs appear highest in the hierarchy. The class of causative, perception <strong>and</strong> motion<br />
verbs - underlined in (9) - appear in the lower part of this hierarchy, below Voice <strong>and</strong> above<br />
the domain of “VP-adverbs”.<br />
(9) > Modvolition > … > Modobligation …> Mod permission …> Voice > Perception ><br />
Causative > … > Andative > Completive > … VP<br />
5. The difference between lexical verbs <strong>and</strong> the verbs underlined in (9), on the one h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong><br />
between these <strong>and</strong> the other restructuring verbs, on the other, is that they project shells of<br />
different sizes. Lexical verbs are endowed with a full shell, including vP <strong>and</strong> the lexical clitic<br />
or [e] position. In addition, lexical verbs select an auxiliary, the choice of which depends on<br />
the way the arguments are aligned in the shell. The verbs underlined in (9) are associated with<br />
a reduced shell, a fact which we relate to the limitations on their argument structure. Finally,<br />
the other restructuring verbs lack a shell altogether. These are simply merged in functional<br />
heads. To put it concisely, lexical verbs <strong>and</strong> the verbs underlined in (9) are associated with a<br />
richer structure than fully functional verbs. However, the split between lexical <strong>and</strong> functional<br />
verbs is not clear-cut. Rather, there is a gradation from structurally rich to structurally poor<br />
verbal representations.<br />
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GLOW 27, Thessaloniki April 18–21, 2004<br />
Reference List<br />
Cinque, Guglielmo. forthcoming. "Restructuring" <strong>and</strong> functional structure. In The structure of<br />
CP <strong>and</strong> IP, ed. by Luigi Rizzi. New York: Oxford University Press.<br />
Kayne, Richard S. 1989. Null Subjects <strong>and</strong> clitic climbing. In The Null Subject Parameter, ed.<br />
by Osvaldo A. Jaeggli <strong>and</strong> Ken Safir, 239-261. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.<br />
Kayne, Richard S. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.<br />
Peperkamp, Sharon. 1997. Prosodic Words. The Hague: Holl<strong>and</strong> Institute of Generative<br />
Linguistics.<br />
Rizzi, Luigi. 1982. A restructuring rule. In Issues in Italian syntax, ed. by Luigi Rizzi, 1-76.<br />
Dordrecht: Foris.<br />
Wurmbr<strong>and</strong>, Susi. forthcoming. Two types of restructuring: Lexical vs. functional. Lingua.<br />
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