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This paper aims to present a corpus-driven analysis of the argument structure of some semantic classes of Italian verbs (i.e. hit and break-verbs) according to a costructionist and a usage-based approach. Each verb is analyzed according to the following features: i) prototypical and peculiar constructions, ii) argument alternances, iii) patterns common to semantic classes. Ultimately, the analysis shows that argument structure is not determined once and forever in an abstract way, but is built on the basis of the linguistic/situational context.

This work aims at analysing a particular type of support verb constructions, namely those selecting a body part noun, e.g. prendere corpo, mettere bocca, mettere piede, dare una mano. Body part nouns differ from other nominal elements typically employed in support verb constructions, in that (i) they are not predictive, (ii) they are highly referential, although they may undergo semantic bleaching when they compare in a support verb construction. This paper proposes a corpus-based analysis of Old and Contemporary Italian support verb constructions employing body parts nouns. In particular, this analysis aims at verifying i) their semantic properties (e.g. the idiomatic meaning and the noun referentiality), ii) their syntactic properties (e.g. the argument structure and the coding of participants), iii) their syntagmatic properties (e.g. the syntagmatic configuration and the lexicalization degree of constructions).

Although the interest of literature in word combinations has significantly increased over the last decades, the full classification of their types and comprehensive collection of their forms is far from complete and flawless. This paper presents the results of a research project devoted precisely to the collection and analysis of Italian combinatorial lexicon. The investigation has both a theoretical and an empirical import. From the former point of view, it takes into account multiword units as specific forms of lexical entry. On the basis of the most recent achievements in lexicology, the notion of ‘word format’ is introduced and the vast variety of the combination formats is considered and classified. Various specific case studies of combinations are discussed. From the empirical point of view, the CombiNet dictionary is presented, an on-line lexicographic tool recording a sample of Italian multiword entries implementing an ample variety of entry formats. In addition to describing the lexicographic layout in detail, the paper illustrates the advanced research tool CombiNet is equipped with, as a device for both lexicographic and lexicological investigation.

It has long been proposed that noun and verb are better conceived not as discrete, but as continuous categories (Ross 1973, Simone & Pompei 2007). The verb-noun continuum includes different kinds of nouns, some of which are characterized by verbal semantic features, such as aspectual and actional ones; for example, nouns referring to events (i.e. event nouns, Gross & Kiefer 1995) can show the verbal characteristics of duration, dynamicity and telicity. Verbal nouns are realized by language-specific morphosyntactic strategies. For example, event nouns can be rendered by forms belonging to verbal paradigms: alongside the gerund, the maṣdar and the participle, many languages use the infinitive (Simone 2003). This is the case with Italian and other Romance languages. The nominal uses of the Italian infinitive have been widely analyzed (Tekavčic 1972, Vanvolsem 1983, Skytte 1983, Skytte & Salvi 1991, Jansen et al. 2002, Thornton 2004, Simone 2004). Nevertheless, one feature has been underestimated - the syntactic and semantic differences between bare infinitives (1) and infinitives preceded by a determiner (2) -: (1) Girovagare per Roma mi rilassa. wander.INF for Rome PRON.1SG-ACC relax. PRES.3SG 'Wandering around Rome relaxes me'. (2) Dopo un’ ora di questo improduttivo girovagare tornammo indietro After a hour of this pointless wander.INF go.PAST.1PL back ‘After one hour of this pointless wandering we went back’. This study firstly aims at identifying the main syntactic differences between bare infinitive and infinitive preceded by a determiner. Secondly, our proposal is to distinguish different patterns of determiner and infinitive: definite article plus infinitive (e.g. il girovagare ‘the wandering’), indefinite article plus infinitive (e.g. un girovagare ‘a wandering’), proximal demonstrative plus infinitive (e.g. questo girovagare ‘this wandering’) and distal demonstrative plus infinitive (e.g. quel girovagare ‘that wandering’). We intend to show that features measurably more verbal or more nominal characterize the different forms of determined infinitives. Accordingly, they can be located on different positions along the verb-noun continuum. Our analysis includes three main points. First, it shows the relation between the distributional properties and the semantic variation of these different kinds of nominal infinitives. Secondly, it intends to identify different degrees of 'verbiness' and 'nouniness' related to each kind of nominal infinitive. Thirdly, in a broader perspective, it aims at showing differences and similarities within other Romance languages, in order to identify the Romance infinitive patterns. We drew data from three different corpora (La Repubblica written corpus for Italian, Corpus del Español Actual for Spanish and Chambers-Rostand du français journalistique.for French), in order to clearly show the syntactic differences between the patterns identified. Such kinds have been evaluated against their compatibility with two different sets of features. First, we have examined typical verb properties, such as the agent expression, the expression of duration with verb-specific constructions, the possibility to be modified by adverbs, to be negated, and to govern a direct object. Secondly, we have considered features typical to nouns, such as the possibility to be modified by adjectives, the expression of the subject and the object as a genitive, and the possibility to express the duration by specifically nominal syntactic structures. Les études précédentes sur les classes de mots ont démontré que nom et verbe ne sont pas des catégories discrètes, mais continues (Ross 1973, Simone & Pompei 2007). Le continuum entre le verbe et le nom comprend différents types de noms, dont certains sont caractérisés par des traits sémantiques verbales, tels que ceux aspectuels et actionnels; par exemple, les noms se référant aux événements (c.-à-d., noms d'événement, Gross & Kiefer 1995) peuvent montrer les caractéristiques verbales de la durée, du dynamisme et de la télicité. Les noms verbaux sont construits par des stratégies morphosyntaxique spécifiques aux langues. Par exemple, les noms d'événement peuvent être générés par les formes appartenant à des paradigmes verbaux : aux côtés du gérondif, le maṣdar et le participe, plusieurs langues utilisent l'infinitif (Simone 2003). C'est le cas de l'italien et des autres langues romanes. Les fonctions nominales de l'infinitif italien ont été largement analysées (Tekavčic 1972, Vanvolsem 1983, Skytte 1983, Skytte & Salvi 1991, Jansen et al. 2002, Thornton 2004, Simone 2004). Néanmoins, un point très important a été sous-estimé : les différences syntaxiques et sémantiques entre infinitifs sans déterminant (1) et ceux précédés d'un déterminant (2): (1) Girovagare per Roma mi rilassa. promener.INF pour Rome PRON.1SG-ACC détendre. PRES.3SG 'Promener autour de Rome me détend'. (2) Dopo un’ ora di questo improduttivo girovagare tornammo indietro Après une heure de cet improductif promener.INF aller.PAST.1PL arrière ‘Après une heure de ce promener improductif, nous revînmes en arrière’. Tout d'abord, ce travail a l'objectif d'identifier les différences syntaxiques plus importantes entre l'infinitif sans déterminant et celui avec le déterminant. En deuxième lieu, dans cet article on propose de distinguer entre quatre types syntaxiques différents d'infinitif déterminé : infinitif plus article défini (p. ex. il girovagare « le promener »), article indéfini plus infinitif (p. ex. un girovagare « un promener »), démonstratif proximal plus infinitif (p. ex. questo girovagare « ce promener(-ci) »), démonstratif distal plus infinitif (p. ex. quel girovagare « ce promener(-là) »). L'objectif de ce travail est celui de montrer que les différentes formes d'infinitifs déterminés sont caractérisées par éléments variablement plus verbales ou plus nominales. En conséquence, elles peuvent être situées sur différentes positions du continuum verbe-nom. Notre analyse comprend trois points principaux. Tout d'abord, il montre la relation entre les propriétés distributionnelles et la variation sémantique de ces différents types d'infinitifs nominales. En deuxième lieu, on a l'intention d'identifier les différents degrés de « verbalité » et « nominalité » associés à chaque type d'infinitif nominal. En troisième lieu, dans une perspective plus large, on montre les différences et les similitudes dans les autres langues romanes, afin d'identifier les configurations infinitives Romance. En ce qui concerne les deux premiers points, on a extrait les données de trois différents corpora (le corpus La Repubblica pour l'italien, le Corpus del Español Actual pour l'espagnol et le corpus Chambers-Rostand du français journalistique pour le français), afin de montrer clairement les différences syntaxiques entre les profils identifiés. Ces types ont été évalués contre leur compatibilité avec deux ensembles différents de propriétés. Tout d'abord, nous avons examiné les propriétés typiques du verbe, comme l'expression de l'agent, l'expression de la durée avec des constructions verbales spécifiques, la possibilité d'être modifié par des adverbes, la négation et la présence d'un objet direct. Deuxièmement, nous avons considéré les caractéristiques typiques du nom, tels que la possibilité d'être modifiés par les adjectifs, l'expression du sujet et de l'objet comme un génitif et la possibilité d'exprimer la durée par des structures syntaxiques spécifiquement nominales.

Nel presente contributo esamineremo i processi cognitivi coinvolti nella codifica delle relazioni spaziali in italiano. Ci soffermeremo sulla categoria delle preposizioni, ponendo particolare attenzione alla classe delle preposizioni complesse italiane, che presenta strutture divergenti tanto per fonti diacroniche d’origine quanto per capacità semantica. L’analisi delle dinamiche diacroniche che conducono alla formazione di elementi funzionali con valore locativo ci consentirà di porre in relazione la variabilità dei mezzi linguistici per la codifica dei valori spaziali con la configurazione sintattica originaria. Mostreremo inoltre che le regolarità dei processi cognitivi coinvolti nella grammaticalizzazione consentono di costruire una rappresentazione cognitivamente fondata della grammatica, legando le risorse del sistema alle esigenze funzionali del discorso.

This investigation proposes a corpus-based description of a particular type of Italian phraseological construction, having a coordinated syntactic structure and playing the role of an intensifier. Through the analysis of data extracted from a corpus of Italian, the contribution aims at i) identifying and analysing different types of coordinated constructional intensifiers, ii) showing a formal representation of their syntactic-semantic schemas, iii) classifying them into different types on the basis of their functional, syntactic and semantic properties. The paper is structured as follows: the first section contains a brief description of the main types of intensifying strategies identified in the literature, deserving a special attention to Italian lexical strategies. The second section is devoted to the description of the general theoretical framework of this contribution, and to the analysis and definition of constructional intensifiers. The third section briefly describes the methods of data extraction and analysis. The fourth section is devoted to the analysis of Italian coordinated intensifying constructions, which are classified into completely and partially filled units, according to a set of parameters (i.e. lexical variation, syntactic cohesion, idiomaticity and lexicalisation). Then, the set of coordinated constructional intensifiers is evaluated against the presence of an abstract scheme, semantic and syntactic analysability, semantic predictability, productivity, and schematicity.

Despite the growing interest of corpus linguistic studies in the production of dictionaries, grammars and other FL teaching materials (Tomlinson 2003, Mishan 2005), the potential of corpora and of corpus linguistics methodologies is still not exploited enough for the creation of LSP course activities and in particular CLIL. Nevertheless, several studies have recently proved the importance of corpus-based activities in language acquisition (cf. among others, Cobb 1999, Aston 2001, Sun and Wang 2003, Sinclair 2004, Aston et al. 2004, Bernardini 2004, Chambers 2007, Breyer 2009, Reppen 2010, Römer 2011). Not only is this paper intended to show that the use of corpora “can strengthen natural processes of language acquisition” (Johansson 2009: 39), but it also aims at illustrating how corpus linguistics may provide non-linguistic subject teachers (or, at least, CLIL teams made up of NLS and FL teachers) with new pedagogical and methodological tools. The paper aims at showing specific potential uses of the corpus linguistics methodologies for the creation of teaching activities/tasks with particular reference to the concrete application of analyses of English lexicon and language patterning. For this purpose, different specialised corpora will be explored through the Sketch Engine software and a set of different case studies will be taken into account, as for example i) the corpus analysis of conventionalised patterns and productivity features, and ii) the use of concordances and n-grams for the study of English lexicon and phrase/sentence structure.

Questo contributo si propone di analizzare alcuni “formati di parola inediti” della lingua italiana, emersi dalla ricerca su corpora finalizzata all’elaborazione del dizionario CombiNet. L’analisi dei dati estratti dai corpora per la compilazione delle voci CombiNet ha infatti rivelato l’esistenza nel lessico dell’italiano di numerose strutture sintagmatiche e di “formati di parola”, non descritti nella letteratura. Questo contributo intende presentare i formati di parola inediti dell’italiano, discutendone alcune specifiche proprietà (es. la relazione tra i tipi sintagmatici e la funzione “alta” da essi svolta nella frase).Formacje nieskategoryzowane według danych ze słownika komputerowego "CombiNet"Niniejszy artykuł analizuje „formacje nieskategoryzowane” w języku włoskim na podstawie badań korpusowych przeprowadzonych w celu opracowania słownika CombiNet. Analiza danych , które posłużyły do uzupełnienia haseł CombiNet, wykazała istnienie w słownictwie języka włoskiego licznych struktur syntagmatycznych i metod słowotwórczych nieopisanych dotąd w literaturze naukowej. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu przedstawienie sposobów powstawania formacji nieskategoryzowanych oraz analizę ich wybranych cech (np. związku typów syntagmatycznych z ich funkcją w zdaniu).

Questo contributo intende analizzare le proprietà di alcune combinazioni di parole della lingua italiana, rappresentate da strutture riempite solo parzialmente da unità lessicali. Attraverso l’analisi di dati estratti da corpora, il contributo si propone di a) identificare e analizzare alcuni formati parzialmente riempiti dell’italiano emersi durante la stesura del dizionario combinatorio CombiNet, b) classificare tali unità sulla base di specifiche proprietà sintattiche o semantiche, c) mostrare una possibile rappresentazione lessicografica di tali formati di parola.Kombinacje słów częściowo wypełnione. Formacje oraz reprezentacja leksykograficznaNiniejszy artykuł ma na celu przeprowadzenie analizy właściwości niektórych kombinacji słów w języku włoskim przedstawionych za pomocą struktur, które zostały „wypełnione” jedynie w sposób częściowy przez jednostki leksykalne. Artykuł, poprzez analizę danych uzyskanych z korpusów, proponuje: a) identyfikację oraz analizę niektórych formacji częściowo wypełnionych w języku włoskim, które zostały zidentyfikowane podczas sporządzania słownika kombinatorycznego CombiNet; b) klasyfikację danych jednostek na podstawie określonych właściwości syntaktycznych bądź semantycznych; c) przedstawienie możliwej reprezentacji leksykograficznej danych formacji słów.

Questo contributo propone una descrizione corpus-driven di un tipo di strutture combinatorie, accomunate da specifiche proprietà morfosintattiche e semantiche: le combinazioni parzialmente riempite (CPR). Le CPR sono caratterizzate da un basso grado di specificità lessicale, a cui corrisponde un’alta predicibilità semantica; si configurano attraverso un formato superficiale caratterizzato da posizioni vuote, con una caratterizzazione semantica stabile e un livello di produttività variabile. Al pari delle costruzioni, le CPR rappresentano un’associazione di forma e significato (Goldberg), e sono in grado di veicolare specifici significati attraverso la configurazione sintattico/semantica. Le CPR possono essere classificate sulla base di diversi parametri, tra cui le proprietà funzionali, il grado di idiomaticità, il livello di specificità lessicale e la produttività della struttura. Attraverso l’analisi di dati estratti da corpora, il contributo si propone di identificare e analizzare i formati parzialmente riempiti in alcune lingue di ambito romanzo (italiano, spagnolo e francese), e di mostrarne una loro possibile rappresentazione formale e una classificazione in tipi, tenendo conto delle eventuali differenze interlinguistiche. Si noterà come le stesse CPR nelle diverse lingue possono essere caratterizzate da tratti di schematicità e livelli di produttività variabili. Infine, si dimostrerà che le CPR rappresentano un fenomeno di regolarità del lessico, nonostante siano caratterizzate da un basso grado di specificità lessicale. Nuovi elementi lessicali possono originarsi a partire da una specifica costruzione, e convenzionalizzarsi attraverso la ripetizione. This investigation proposes a corpus-driven description of partially filled constructions (PFCs), a subtype of phraseological units characterized by a low degree of lexical specification and a high level of semantic predictability. PFCs contain both fixed and empty slots, showing variable levels of productivity. As constructions, they are pairings of form and function (Goldberg), since their semantic/syntactic configuration can convey particular sets of meanings. Through the analysis of authentic data extracted from corpora of three different Romance languages (Italian, French, and Spanish), this contribution aims at i) identifying and analysing a set of partially filled units, ii) showing a formal representation of such syntactic-semantic patterns, iii) classifying them into different types on the basis of functional, syntactic, and semantic criteria, as well as on the degree of idiomaticity and lexical variation, and iv) driving a cross-linguistic comparison among the Romance languages. The same PFC may be characterized by different levels of schematicity and productivity in the various languages taken into account. It will be shown that PFCs may be associated with different syntactic structures, either at the phrase-level or at the sentence-level. Even though they are characterized by empty slots and by a lower degree of lexical specification, they still represent a regular area of the lexicon. New and independent lexemes can develop from specific constructions and become conventionalized through repetition.

This paper focuses on a specific type of Multiword Expressions, particularly widespread in Italian as well as in other Romance languages: Multiword Modifiers, i.e. prepositional phrases functioning as modifiers of a noun (Multiword Adjectives) and of a verb (Multiword Adverbs). Exploiting both syntactic and semantic analysis, this paper explores the hypothesis that Multiword Modifiers are formed on the basis of regular syntactic templates, which can structure and organize the semantic information associated with words. In this perspective, after a brief presentation of Multiword Lexical Units and the class of Multiword Modifiers, the methodology and the general theoretical framework of this study will be explained. The last section is devoted to the analysis of some semantic relations frequently fulfilled by Multiword Modifiers of Italian, French and Spanish. This investigation aims at demonstrating that all Romance languages considered make a regular use of this kind of analytical resource in adjectival or adverbial function, showing similar patterns and syntactic templates.

This paper takes into account a particular set of Italian Complex Prepositions signaling the agent of an action (e.g.da parte di‘by’,a nome di‘by’). Italian exhibits several types of complex prepositions revealing a different involvement of the Agent: in particular, these complex lexemes can introduce and distinguish the participants who (i) plan and intentionally conceive an action, (ii) perform it and/or (iii) have a coercive power over its performing.The contribution aims to: (i) distinguish these Italian complex prepositions according to their functions, meanings, and the degree of involvement of the participant they introduce; (ii) analyze the collocational features and the syntactic environments where these lexemes occur; (iii) individuate possible correlations between their frequency of occurrence and the grammatical value; (iv) analyze their diachronic evolution across different historical phases; (v) put into relation the synchronic restrictions with the original syntactic environment within which the complex prepositions have been reanalyzed.

Questo libro mira a fornire un'analisi teorico-descrittiva dei modificatori sintagmatici dell'italiano, un tipo specifico di parole costruzionali (elementi lessicali complessi composti da due o più parole, unite nella forma e nel significato). In particolare, il manoscritto si concentra sui modificatori sintagmatici costituiti da un sintagma preposizionale, i quali, in base alla distribuzione sintattica, possono svolgere la funzione di modificatore di nome (es. automobile a benzina), di verbo (ridere di gusto) o di entrambi (es. film in bianco e nero, trasmettere in bianco e nero). In primo luogo, lo studio intende mostrare l'elevata produttività di questo fenomeno linguistico e la sua importanza quantitativa nel lessico italiano. In secondo luogo, attraverso l'analisi delle proprietà morfo-sintattiche e semantiche di tali lessemi, l'indagine si propone di dimostrare che alcuni gruppi di modificatori sintagmatici sono creati attraverso schemi sintattici regolari e sono governati da un ristretto gruppo di co-selezioni. Mediante l'analisi di dati estratti da corpora di italiano e di altre lingue romanze (spagnolo e francese), viene infine illustrata l'ipotesi secondo la quale l'emergere di una tale risorsa analitica per la formazione di lessemi non rappresenti una peculiarità interna alla lingua italiana, ma costituisca un fenomeno dalla portata tipologica più ampia.

The traditional idea that the lexicon is an inventory of idiosyncratic and irregular entities has been questioned by several theoretical frameworks. Various approaches have shown the existence of regular schemas beyond the lexicon. This paper aims at analyzing the domain of Italian complex prepositions, through the description of synchronic and diachronic features of such structures. Italian complex prepositions deserve special attention due to their high frequency of use and the related grammatical value. The quantitative analysis of Old and Contemporary Italian lexicon reveals that there is a major difference between complex prepositions in terms of type/token frequency. Furthermore, the analysis of syntactic formats among different diachronic phases i) sheds new light on the evolution of these structures and ii) puts into relation the fixedness, the syntagmatic structure and degree of grammaticalization of complex prepositions with their frequency of use.

This paper introduces CombiNet dictionary, an on line corpus-based lexicographic tool representing combinatorial properties of Italian lexemes, developed by Roma Tre University, University of Pisa and University of Bologna. The lexicographic layout of CombiNet is designed to include different sets of information, such as i) syntactic configurations and ii) syntactic function of word combinations, iii) degree of lexical variation associated with specific types of multiword units. In fact, CombiNet records word combinations showing different degrees of lexicalizations and paradigmatic variability, which is a novelty in lexicography. This investigation intends to tackle several issues associated with CombiNet, and in particular it aims at a) showing procedures and methods used to create and compile CombiNet's entries, b) describing particular types of combinatorial phenomena emerged from the analysis of corpus-based data, c) illustrating the lexicographic layout that has been elaborated for word combinations representation, d) describing the advanced research tool CombiNet is equipped with, a useful device for lexicographic investigations as well as for lexicological analysis.

Despite the growing interest of lexicological and lexicographical studies in frozen word combinations, some multiword lexemes are still partially unexplored. This paper focuses on a specific type of multiword lexical units: prepositional phrases functioning as noun modifiers (Multiword Adjectives – e.g. macchina a benzina, medico di turno, uomo in divisa, lavoro su commissione). Multiword Adjectives are extensively used in Italian and remarkably spread across Romance languages. The analysis is based on two main assumptions: i. this kind of lexemes can be analyzed only considering the simultaneous interaction of multiple levels of analysis; ii. the notion of multiword has a scalar nature and has to be modulated along a continuum of frozenness. On the one hand this study aims at showing that these sequences represent a large and very productive class of multiword lexemes, sharing the same functions of adjectives. On the other hand, this paper intends to show the morpho-syntactic, semantic and distributional properties of different classes of Multiword Adjectives, using data extracted from a corpus of written Italian language.

This research proposes a theoretical and descriptive study of a set of Italian Multiword Adverbs extracted from a corpus; the corpus-based investigation has been driven simultaneously considering the interaction of distributional and functional properties of selected Multiword Adverbs. In particular, the research deals with prepositional phrases covering an adverbial function and showing a particularly high degree of cohesion between their constituents (Multiword Adverbs-PP), such as: di solito 'usually', a occhio e croce 'more or less', per filo e per segno 'chapter and verse'. The quantitative corpus analysis reveals that this analytical resource is particularly exploited in Italian. The investigation aims at achieving two main objectives. Firstly, the computational analysis reveals to which extent the distribution of Multiword Adverbs-PP may vary depending on their functional properties. Thirdly, the corpus-based investigation gives evidence of subcategories, according to the distributional properties as well as to the functional values of sets of Multiword Adverbs-PP.