Part of
Italian Dialectology at the InterfacesEdited by Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway and Eva-Maria Remberger
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 251] 2019
► pp. 185–202
Edited by Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway and Eva-Maria Remberger
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 251] 2019
► pp. 185–202
On the syntactic encoding of lexical interjections in Italo-Romance
Based on evidence from Italo-Romance, in this article I argue that lexical interjections can be split into three categories, depending on whether they must, they can or they cannot be integrated with the associated clause; the degree of integration with the co-occurring clause depends on the merge position of the interjection. Only interjections lexicalizing the functional head SpeechAct° represent autonomous linguistic acts and are therefore prosodically and syntactically independent from the associated clause; from this position they can attract the associated clause to the corresponding specifier position or raise to the adjacent head Speaker° in order to provide the necessary contextual anchoring. Interjections lexicalizing the lower projection EvalSP do not have these properties and are intrinsically discourse-linked.
Keywords: interjections, left periphery, speech act, Italo-Romance
Article outline
- 1Introduction
- 2.Discourse-linked interjections
- 2.1Emilian dialects
- 2.2Standard Italian
- 3.A hybrid class of interjections
- 3.1Emilian dialects
- 3.2Standard Italian
- 4.Non-integrated interjections and contextual anchoring
- 4.1Venetan dialects
- 4.2Standard Italian
- 4.3On contextual anchoring
- 5.Conclusions
-
Acknowldgement -
Notes -
References
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