Two Types of pseudo-clefts?

Sentences such as 'What Fred does is complain' and 'What Fred does is important' have both been labeled as pseudo-clefts, though of two distinct types. We provide four tests to structurally distinguish such constructions. Entailment patterns and a number of structural ties between the post-copular constituent and specific constituents of the pre-copular relative clause suggest using the label ‘pseudo-cleft’ for the former type only. This paper also examines certain cases of pseudo-clefts with no simple correlates, and vice versa, to argue – contra Higgins 1973 – that these do not necessarily contradict the existence of a structural connection (a transformation, in the sense of Z. S. Harris)…

Frasi pseudoscisse e a verbo supporto: analogie

Abstract. Tre frasi con un comune nucleo semantico, una autenticamente transitiva, una a verbo supporto e una pseudoscissa, vengono messe a confronto per rendere conto di analogie riguardanti il verbo fare e la marca di caso di uno dei sintagmi. Le parziali formalizzazioni fornite indicano che le analogie hanno ragioni strutturali.

Della (dis)simulazione onesta (e meno onesta): come fare senza essere in italiano

Oggetti interni e reaction objects come nomi predicativi di costrutti a verbo supporto

Analyses regarding clauses with a cognate object (CO), e.g. Alice laughed a scornful laugh, have frequently been based on the query: is the CO an adjunct or a complement? This paper aims to contribute to the debate with an alternative suggestion: the CO functions as a noun predicate licensing the subject, to which it assigns a semantic role, whilst the verb functions as a support (a ‘light verb’). A number of the well-known properties of COs, e.g. certain constraints on the determiner, appear to corroborate this analysis. Clauses with the so-called reaction object (RO), e.g. Alice coughed a scornful laugh, are analyzed as multi-predicative as well: also the RO is a noun predicate which lice…

Alternanze argomentali: Oggetti Interni e Reaction Objects come nomi predicativi di costrutti a verbo supporto

Synonymy: The unbearable ficklness of meaning

Standard definitions of synonymy become problematic under close scrutiny of nouns occurring in two contexts of Italian: clauses with Negative Polarity Items and noun phrases with Complex Nominal Determiners. Such nouns are non-referring expressions, do not carry literal meaning, often give rise to metaphor and intensity, and preclude decomposition into elementary semantic features as conceived in Componential Analysis. The inconsequence of semantic features and a number of syntactic constraints suggest that these nouns are best analyzed as parts of multi-word expressions working as function phrases.

Recensione di 'Le frasi scisse in italiano. Struttura informativa e funzioni discorsive'

Nomi post-verbali e articolo zero in italiano

Analizzando 'analizzare': eterogeneità di una classe di verbi transitivi

The hidden side of adverbs

This paper will address the predicative nature of manner adverb(ial)s and of three types of sentence adverbs (subject-oriented, modal, and evaluative) in Italian. Predication often becomes overt by means of morphological correlates. Is it possible to find any such evidence with invariable adverbs? To unveil their predicative nature, a procedure will be suggested in which two sentences, one with a -mente adverb, the other with its cognate adjective (a) share the content morphemes (identity of the signifiant) and (b) entail each other (identity of the signifié as regards semantic roles). A number of such pairs will be discussed, examples of which include: Intelligentemente, Leo intervenne ‘Cl…

Recensione di 'Le frasi scisse in italiano. Struttura informativa e funzioni discorsive' di Carlo E. Roggia

Quantifying nouns in Italian

Maniere di fare. Lessico e sintassi

In quattro capitoli (e un'appendice), questo libro mette in luce aspetti delle costruzioni con fare di norma trascurati anche negli indirizzi di studio tradizionalmente attenti alla sintassi dei verbi supporto. L'autore mostra, per es., come piccole variazioni di elementi grammaticali producano in tale area importanti cambiamenti di valore di intere espressioni. Un conto, infatti, è fare canoa o palestra; un conto completamente diverso è fare canoe o palestre. Nelle descrizioni che qui se ne propongono, fenomeni del genere e altri, come la crescita del numero di funzioni che si registra sempre in una costruzione con supporto, quando la si confronta con una costruzione verbale semplice, mett…

Uno strano fari siciliano

'Do'-support in a Sicilian variety, an Italian pseudo-cleft, and the packaging of information

A parallel is drawn between a Sicilian structure with do-support strategy, and a type of pseudo-cleft in Italian in which a do-verb occurs. These structures are examined from three different perspectives. First, morpho-syntax: the two clause-types share a number of formal aspects, which include the do-verb, a lexical verb in the infinitive, and the sharing of the same subject by both verbs. The second has to do with their packaging of information: in both cases, higher communicative prominence is given to an event (VP) rather than a participant (NP or PP). The expression of the event is broken down into two separable components, its existence (an event is expressed without being specified, …

Changes of meaning due to changes of articles: A study of singular count nouns in post-verbal position in Italian

'Essi fecero un muro' vs. 'Essi fecero muro': on the surface, these Italian sentences differ only for the presence of an article before the post-verbal noun (PVN) 'muro', literally 'wall'. Despite this minor divergence, their VPs vary greatly in meaning: the former can be rendered as 'They built a wall', the latter as 'They put up resistance'. In Italian, many other nouns behave as 'muro' does above. The meanings come from distinct structures: PVNs preceded by an article are direct objects. Bare PVNs, at times the very same noun, can either pass tests for direct object-hood or show distinct syntactic ties with the verb.

Aggettivi e valenza in italiano

Costrutti locativi e non locativi con mettere

Sentence (a) Ada mise Pio nel sacco is ambiguous: one of its meanings is literal (Ada put Pio in the sack), whereas the other is figurative (Ada fooled / outsmarted Pio). Such ambiguity is not present in sentence (b) Ada mise Pio in un sacco. On the surface, (b) differs from (a) only insofar as the indefinite article is employed, but conveys a literal meaning exclusively (Ada put Pio in a sack). The ambiguity of sentence (a) is derived from the existence of two constructions employing mettere. The prepositional phrase of one of them displays standard paradigmatic properties and conveys literal (i.e. locative) meaning, whereas the other has no locative value and is highly constrained (e.g. n…

Of the choice and use of the word Beatus in the Beatus Quid Est: Notes by a non-philologist

Machine-readable entailments with the Italian 'prendere' construction expressing hitting and insulting events

The Italian language features a little debated transitive construction with prendere ‘to take/to catch’ in which a prepositional phrase (PP) with an adverbial value occurs mandatorily (e.g. Lui prese a pugni Leo ‘He punched Leo’). Semantically, this construction often implies the use of physical force or verbal offence. In the hitting or insulting event, the notional subject generally is a [+ Human] Agent, whilst the notional direct object generally is a [+ Animate] Affectee ([1]: 4). It can be contended that prendere, which carries no literal meaning, is zero-valent and that the predicate assigning semantic roles is the PP. A computational tool will be illustrated, …

Dream a little dream of me: Cognate predicates in English

Do well, do good: fare bene, benino, benone, benissimo. Italian lexicography in disarray

Analizzando analizzare: eterogeneità dei verbi in -izzare

Natural Language Inference in Ordinary and Support Verb Constructions

The family of clause types known as 'support (or 'light') verb construction' (SVC) manifests a peculiar syntax-semantics interface if compared with ordinary verb constructions (OVC). If, in e.g. She laughed, the verb licenses an argument and assigns it a semantic role, syntacticians of every stripe nowadays agree that it is the noun laugh, in She gave a laugh, which fulfils the same function. The differences between the two types have been extensively discussed in the linguistics literature (systematic research started in the 1970s), less so in Computational Linguistics. This paper has two objectives. First, it will propose an innovative type of semantic role, which is termed Cognate Semant…

Multilinguismo sociale e Riforma degli ordinamenti scolastici

Meaning Extraction from Strappare Causatives in Italian

The work targets a little-known causative construction of Italian whose causative verb is strappare ‘tear/extort/snatch’ (e.g. Ada strappò la confessione a Piero ‘Ada made Piero confess against his will’). In the active voice of this clause type, the subject, licensed by strappare, is invariably associated with the semantic role ‘Causer’ (as fare does in fare causatives, see [1]), whilst the post-verbal NP (e.g. confessione ‘confession’) is best analyzed as the predicate licensing the remaining syntactic function/s and the related semantic role/s. The NooJ grammar which the authors propose automatically extracts the meaning of strappare causatives by means of a novel type of semantic role. …

Una sottoarticolazione per Tema e Rema?

Valenza e insegnamento della lingua straniera

This work deals with valency, a key syntactic notion whose chemistry-inspired label was established by Lucien Tesnière (1959), one of the most well-known contributors to the Prague Linguistic Circle. We will concentrate on two questions: (a) to what extent does valency play a role in Second Language Learning (SLL)?; and (b) what role should the use of valency play in language teaching practices? This paper will provide answers to these questions and propose reasons for motivating the use of valency in SLL.

Da 'acromatizzare' a 'zonizzare': vantaggi della riflessione sulla segmentazione morfologica

Proteus: Adverbial multi-word expressions in Italian and their cognate counterparts in -mente

Abstract: This contribution focuses on Italian adverbs ending in -mente (e.g. lussuosamente ‘luxuriously’) with an analytic counterpart (a multi-word expression, MWE) which is etymologically related and it is capable of equally performing the adverbial function (e.g. di lusso). Two sentences diverging only in this regard have the same truth values and they entail each other. Morphologically, such adverbial MWEs are formed by a preposition which is followed by a noun/adjective sharing the content morpheme of the -mente adverb. However, in some contexts the cognate –mente adverb cannot replace its MWE. For instance, only adjectival MWEs can be used as predicates in copular constructions (La f…

Le sens des prédicats: niveaux et codage

Invalid Syntax: NooJ Assisted Automatic Detection of Errors in Auxiliaries and Past Participles in Italian

The work targets two areas of Italian morphosyntax: auxiliary selection (AS) and past participle agreement (PPA). In selecting such inflectional morphemes, learners of Italian commit frequent errors, even after a long period of constant study. We aim to enclose AS and PPA within the boundaries of NLP in order that a tool can be developed with a twofold purpose: first, it helps experts to build specific computer drills regarding AS and PPA; second, it assists self-taught learners in verifying whether their periphrastic sentences in Italian are well-turned. This area of Computer-Assisted Language Learning is currently poorly investigated. Further research might substantiate the importance of …

'Mare' e 'montagna' sono sinonimi di 'sacco'? I determinanti nominali complessi

Grammatica a coppie. Proposta per una didattica della sintassi

Il ruolo della fonetica e della fonologia nell'insegnamento/apprendimento della lingua straniera

Automatic Extraction of Semantic Roles in Support Verb Constructions

This paper deals with paraphrastic relations in Italian. In the following sentences: (a) Max strappò delle lacrime a Sara 'Max moved Sara to tears' and (b) Max fece piangere Sara 'Max made Sara cry', the verbs differ syntactically and semantically. Strappare 'tear/rip/wring' is transitive, fare ‘have/make’ is a causative, and piangere 'cry' is intransitive. Despite this, a translation of (a) as (b) is legitimate and therefore (a) is a paraphrase of (b). In theoretical linguistics this raises an issue concerning the relationship between strappare and fare/piangere in Italian, and that in English between move and make. In computational linguistics, can such paraphrases be obtained automatical…

Quantifying Nouns in German and Italian

Complex Determiners in Italian

Verb Doubling in Sicilian

Desk Set e Reverso: punti di partenza in traduzione automatica

Si propone un raffronto tra strutture a verbo supporto, nel dominio della proposizione, e strutture a determinante nominale complesso, nel dominio del sintagma nominale. Per entrambi i tipi di struttura si avanza l'ipotesi che la testa sintattica non sia quella tradizionalmente riconosciuta e si suggerisce quali siano i punti di partenza ai fini della traduzione automatica.

Interrogative, pseudo-scisse e la posizione argomentale incrementale

Nomi predicativi. Articoli, verbi supporto, finiture sintattiche

The idea that the verb is always the sentence core (verbocentrism) has a long history. In the last century a number of researchers started doubting it. This book shows some of the reasons why verbs should not some times be considered the kernel of a sentence. The investigated constructions come from Italian and English and have properties which clearly derive from the post-verbal noun. Some new arguments are presented, in relation to copulative constructions, support verb constructions, and serial verbs. The overall picture which these investigations produce show first how weak verbocentrism is and, second, how verbocentrism can be easily overcome.

Dell'uso non numerabile di nomi numerabili

Complex Nominal Determiners: A Contrastive Study

Interrogative, pseudo-scisse e la terza posizione argomentale

Meronyms and enlarged arguments

La lingua straniera nella Scuola Primaria: il ruolo della fonetica e della fonologia

Bivi grammaticali: identità di superficie e diversità funzionali

Bene : Adverb or noun?

International audience; When Italian bene ‘good / well’ occurs with fare ‘do / make’, several constructs with remarkably different argument frames are involved. This paper deals with three of them: (a) Il latte fa bene ai bambini ‘Milk is good for children’; (b) Fa bene il suo lavoro ‘She does her job well’, and (c) Faresti bene a non dire niente ‘You would do well to say nothing about it’. We discuss dictionary discrepancies concerning the lexical category of 'bene' in (a), which we take to be a noun predicate, and draw a distinction between the adverbial uses in (b) and (c).

Correction to: Formalizing Natural Languages with NooJ 2018 and Its Natural Language Processing Applications

Anatomia di un errore traduttivo. Valenze e predicati psicologici in inglese L1-italiano L2

Interrogatives et pseudo-clivées : un parallèle

Italian 'strappare': Unwilling vs struggling agents

Bene: Adverb or noun?

When Italian bene ‘good / well’ occurs with fare ‘do / make’, several constructs with remarkably different argument frames are involved. This paper deals with three of them: (a) Il latte fa bene ai bambini ‘Milk is good for children’; (b) Fa bene il suo lavoro ‘She does her job well’, and (c) Faresti bene a non dire niente ‘You would do well to say nothing about it’. We discuss dictionary discrepancies concerning the lexical category of bene in (a), which we take to be a noun predicate, and draw a distinction between the adverbial uses in (b) and (c).