The personal infinitive in modern Sicilian: Geolinguistic and structural features between synchrony and diachrony
Abstract
Both Old and Modern Sicilian exhibit a construction known as “the personal infinitive”, i.e. an infinitive provided with an overt subject, generally appearing in non-obligatory control structures. The features of this construction have been outlined with respect to medieval Sicilian, but many questions on the changes which have taken place in the history of Sicilian remain unsolved. The main problems this contribution investigates are the following: (1) Areal diffusion. Our fieldwork identified the central area, especially the province of Agrigento, as the core of the phenomenon; (2) Structural changes which occurred between Old and Modern Sicilian. In particular, two issues are examined: (a) the loss of the personal infinitive in complement clauses; (b) the remarkable spread through the Individuation Hierarchy of the items which codify the nominal argument.
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