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Greek and Romance have been spoken alongside of one another for centuries in southern Italy. Even though the Greek-speaking areas have been dramatically reduced over the centuries such that today Greek is now only spoken by a small number of increasingly elder speakers in a handful of villages of Calabria and southern Apulia (Salentino), the influence of Greek is still undeniable in that it has left its mark on the structures of the surrounding Romance dialects. Indeed, in this respect Rohlfs aptly coined the phrase spirito greco, materia romanza (literally “Greek spirit, Romance material”) to highlight the fact that in many respects the syntax of these so-called Romance dialects is underlying Greek, despite employing predominantly Romance lexis. In this paper we draw on two case studies from the Romance and Greek varieties spoken in Calabria to illustrate how the syntax of argument-marking has variously been subject to contact-induced change, giving rise to significant variation in the marking and distribution of RECIPIENT arguments in accordance with both pragmatic and structural factors. In both cases, it will be shown that contact-induced borrowing does not replicate the original structure of the lending language but, rather, produces hybrid structures which are ultimately neither Greek nor Romance in nature. &nbsp

The aim of this contribution is to discuss three possible theoretical interpretations of grammaticalised structures in present-day Italo-Romance varieties. In particular, we discuss and analyse three diachronic case studies in relation to the generative view of grammaticalisation. The first case-study revolves around the expression of future tense and modality. This is discussed in the light of the assumption according to which grammaticalised elements result from merging elements in higher positions than their original merge positions within the lexical domain, giving rise to the upward directionality of the grammaticalisation process within the clause (Roberts, Ian G. and Anna Roussou, 2003, Syntactic change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). The second case study challenges this view, by discussing irrealis complementisers as a case of a downward pathway of grammaticalization at the CP level. For our third case study, namely the development of (discontinuous) demonstrative structures from Latin to Romance, the rich Italo-Romance empirical evidence is analysed through the lens of a parametric account (Longobardi, Giuseppe, Cristina Guardiano, Giuseppina Silvestri, Alessio Boattini, and Andrea Ceolin, 2013, Toward a syntactic phylogeny of modern Indo-European languages, Journal of Historical Linguistics 3(1), 122-152), in order to capture the role of the relevant semantic and syntactic features within the fine-grained architecture of the DP. It will be observed that the diachronic development of some functional categories in (Italo-)Romance results from cyclic pathways of grammaticalisation, as the same category might cyclically change from more synthetic to more analytic, and vice-versa. Moreover, it will also be shown how the two theoretical approaches adopted, i.e. the cartographic model (adopted in Roberts, Ian G. and Anna Roussou, 2003. Syntactic change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), and the parametric accounts (Longobardi, Giuseppe, Cristina Guardiano, Giuseppina Silvestri, Alessio Boattini and Andrea Ceolin, 2013, Toward a syntactic phylogeny of modern Indo-European languages, Journal of Historical Linguistics 3(1), 122-152), are able to provide a principled explanation of the structural correlates of grammaticalisation at the sentential, clausal and nominal level of investigation.

This paper discusses new data from two southern Italian dialects, northern Calabrese and southern Calabrese, which contrast with standard Italian in exhibiting the flexible agreement patterns with definite plural subjects characteristic of the unagreement phenomenon of Spanish and Modern Greek. We highlight a problem that this raises for recent proposals connecting the availability of unagreement to the obligatory presence of a definite article in adnominal pronoun constructions like “we children”. Adopting the distributed morphology framework, we suggest that the contrast between standard Italian and the southern varieties may be due to variation in the feature specification of the vocabulary items realising the D head., Leverhume Trust

L���ampia variazione morfologica e sintattica, che caratterizza i possessivi nelle variet�� italo-romanze non standard, non �� stata oggetto finora di un���osservazione attenta e continua. Vi sono tuttavia delle eccezioni : si pensi alla sezione dedicata alla morfosintassi dei possessivi in Manzini-Savoia (2005), che presenta la raccolta e l���analisi di dati rilevanti provenienti da vari dialetti italiani, e ai capitoli, riguardanti il sintagma nominale, compresi nelle grammatiche di alcune variet�� italo-romanze : in particolare, Rohlfs (1966-69), Ledgeway (2009), Andriani (2016). Si aggiungano poi alcuni contributi particolari : per gli aspetti teorici v. Cardinaletti (1998) e D���Alessandro-Migliori (2014) ; per l���area toscana v. Giannini (2001), per l���area abruzzese v. Masutti-Runi�� (2012) ; per una comparazione panitaliana v. Castellani-Pollidori (1966) e H��lker (1996) ; per una comparazione panromanza v. D���Ovidio (1886)

The aim of this paper is to describe the peculiar syntactic behaviour of Greko and Calabrian of Bova (Reggio Calabria) in their patterns of auxiliary selection and participle agreement. The pluperfect of the former variety exhibits an analytic form consisting of the imperfect of BE and the active aorist participle, regardless of verb class, unlike Standard Modern Greek and Griko. Likewise, a similar pattern is attested in the Calabrese of Bova, which forms the pluperfect with the auxiliary BE with all verb classes, followed by the past participle. As for the agreement on the lexical verb, a previously unnoticed property of the Calabrian of Bova is that the past participle never exhibits agreement, even with unaccusatives. In addition to presenting our novel data, the article offers a number of diachronic and diatopic speculations regarding both phenomena., Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistics Theory, Vol 6, No 1 (2016)

Empirical evidence from dialects of northern Calabria and southern Basilicata challenges the generalization whereby in upper-southern Italian dialects all final atonic vowels, with the only possible exception of -/a/, underwent a centralization which resulted in schwa. This paper shows that the overt articulation of schwa is only one of the two possible outcomes of the neutralization process which, crucially, can also result in the alternating deletion of the original vocalic segment. I will show that the alternation between schwa and zero phoneme, far from being optional, is crucially tied to specific prosody of the utterance expressing, in turn, interrogative and exclamative modality with a pragmatically marked stance. After the assessment of the results of the instrumental acoustic evaluation of the prosodic features interacting with the insertion of schwa, the interplay between the phonological, syntactic and pragmatico-semantic domains will be discussed in the light of the assumptions of formal syntax on the information structure of the sentence. This contribution proves how novel data from Italo-Romance, in particular from the traditionally called ‘Area Lausberg’ (Lausberg 1939), provide more support to the reality of the phonology-syntax interface (Selkirk 1984, 2001, 2011).

Italo-Romance varieties display a typologically rare strategy to realize the unconditional (or free-choice) free relative clauses, i.e. the reduplication of the verb complex. The semantic entailment of unconditionality is not conveyed through the lexicalization of a morpheme corresponding to -ever. Also, the modal force of the semantic operator does not match the selection of the subjunctive morphology, which is not available in most Italian dialects. The ItaloRomance varieties of our sample resort to structural reduplication as the only strategy to express the unconditionality requirement of this type of free relative clauses. In this contribution, I compare unconditionals across Italian dialects and other Romance varieties on the basis of their morphosyntactic properties. In the analysis of the reduplication structure I link the derivation of unconditional free relatives with the semantic and syntactic aspects of free-choice indefinite pronouns. I finally propose a unifying formal account of two types of reduplication configurations, both corresponding to unconditional free relatives, both available across Italo-Romance., Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali, Vol 5 (2019)

Nel meridione d’Italia sopravvivono ancora oggi due piccole enclavi lingui-stiche greche, conosciute come greko o grecanico (Calabria) e griko o grico (Puglia). Mentre il greko viene ormai conservato solo da un numero esiguo di parlanti perlopiù anziani della zona meridionale estrema della Calabria, nota come Bovesìa, il griko gode di una maggiore vitalità, seppur sempre notevolmente ridotta, all’interno della cosiddetta Grecìa Salentina, area che include alcuni comuni nella provincia di Lecce, tra cui sette aventi ancora parlanti grecofoni (Calimera, Castrignano de’ Greci, Corigliano d’Otranto, Martano, Martignano, Sternatia, Zollino) . Sebbene in passato le origini della presenza del greco nel meridione d’Italia abbiano dato luogo ad un lungo dibattito, basato su ipotesi apparentemente contrastanti (p. es. Moro-si 1870; Rohlfs 1977; Battisti 1927; Parlangèli 1953) e solo recentemente riconciliate dalla tesi di bilinguismo avanzata da Fanciullo (2007), l’influenza linguistica che l’italogreco ha avuto sulle varietà locali di ro-manzo, e viceversa, attraverso secoli di compresenza nei medesimi territori è ampiamente riconosciuta. E tale è stata l’intensità del contatto greco-romanzo, in entrambe le direzioni, che questo ha finito con l’interessare non solo il lessico delle varietà locali, come spesso accade nei contesti più superficiali di contatto, ma anche la loro architettura più profonda, quale è la morfosintassi . È proprio a questa specifica area di indagine che rivol-giamo la nostra attenzione in questo studio, con il quale ci proponiamo di portare alla luce dei cambiamenti significativi che si sono verificati nell’espres¬sione di alcune categorie aspettuali in italogreco. Concentrandoci sul griko, in particolar modo, illustreremo come, in tempi relativamente recenti, nella macrocategoria aspettuale del cosiddetto ‘perfettivo’ si siano introdotte al tempo passato delle sotto-distinzioni che originariamente non erano marcate a livello formale, come succede peraltro in molte altre varietà di greco, ed andremo a valutare l’eventuale ruolo che il contatto con il ro-manzo locale può aver avuto in questo specifico contesto.

In this article we undertake a morphosyntactic comparison of the Italo-Greek and Italo-Romance varieties spoken in southern Calabria and Salento. In particular, we offer a comparative examination of the system of possessives in the relevant Italo-Greek and Italo-Romance varieties which both contrast a strong and an enclitic series. This symmetry in the two possessive paradigms will also be shown to involve specific structural parallels which we analyse in relation to semantic and syntactic properties of the nominal group such as referentiality and (in)definiteness. Following a close examination of the behaviour of strong possessives in accordance with particular pragmatic uses, we interpret the morphosyntactic properties of the possessives in relation to contact, interference and convergence, not only in southern Italy, but also in the Balkans. Ultimately, we shall demonstrate how the observed convergences are the result of innovative hybrid structures., Leverhulme Trust

This chapter reviews the role played by linguistic evidence from the Romance languages in shaping contemporary semantic research. The discussion focuses on a selection of phenomena that have important ramifications for the form–meaning mapping (presupposition, anaphora, (in)definiteness, deixis, tense, negation). For each phenomenon some particularly remarkable cases are discussed, for which research into Romance languages has substantially contributed to theoretical models and analytical advances in the field of semantics. At the same time, a number of outstanding issues are singled out, for which Romance data may prove decisive in future research. From the non-exhaustive overview provided in this chapter, two conclusions emerge most clearly. First, Romance linguistics has proven to be very influential for semantic research thanks to the wide display of microvariation within the Romance family, which represents an ideal testing ground for theories of the form–meaning interface. Second, the diachronic depth that can be reached in examining Romance data is instrumental in opening up new perspectives for research into the historical development of semantic categories.

Much attention has been devoted in the literature to the study of imperatival morphology in Romance, and in particular the distribution and nature of true vs suppletive forms exhibited by positive and negative paradigms. Within this scenario we consider below a special case of suppletion in the paradigm of the negative imperative in some dialects of southern Calabria (§2). The relevant paradigms are special in several key respects. First, they involve the extension of an original infinitival desinence to a present indicative verb, giving rise to a hybrid imperatival form which exceptionally marries together finite and non-finite inflexional markings. Second, the synchronic comparison of these southern Calabrian varieties allows us a rare opportunity to reconstruct in diachrony the emergence and extension of the relevant suppletive pattern across different persons. Third, the patterns of suppletion in southern Calabria just outlined do not represent a Romance-internal development but, rather, the outcome of contact-induced change and, in particular, the influence of the local Greek sub-/adstrate on the surrounding Romance varieties (§3). The resultant system of formal paradigmatic oppositions thus reproduces an underlying Greek model, not a Romance one, giving rise to a case of what Rohlfs famously termed spirito greco, materia romanza (‘Greek spirit, Romance material’). At the same time, these Greek-Romance hybrid patterns also provide significant evidence for the formal morphosyntactic equivalence between competing Greek finite and Romance non-finite forms of subordination, inasmuch as extension of the infinitival desinence never penetrates those imperatival forms introduced by a Greek-style modal subordinator (§4). Finally, the extension of the Romance infinitival desinence according to an underlying Greek model, although initially a manifestation of a suppletive pattern, will be shown to yield in synchrony a novel true imperatival pattern and, in turn, an alternation between a suppletive positive imperative and a true negative imperative, a typologically very rare formal opposition otherwise not attested in Romance or beyond (§5).

This article investigates the expression of progressive aspect by means of verbal periphrases in the Italo-Greek variety known as Grico, spoken in Salento (southern Italy). Building on the extremely valuable, yet out-dated, description of Rohlfs (1977), we first present an overview of the array of different patterns brought to light by our recent fieldwork and through a survey of a selection of both early and contemporary sources which include combinations of (non-)inflected STAND with (non-)finite forms of a lexical verb, optionally linked by functional elements. After describing the empirical scenario, we assess the degree of grammaticalization of the patterns which are still productive today, reconstructing their evolution from earlier periphrases and paying particular attention to the grammaticalization of the ambiguous element pu ‘where; from; that’. Finally, we analyse a hybrid structure currently consistently produced by semi-speakers from different villages, which seems to instantiate a new ‘third’ option within the local repertoire. The article concludes with of a number of observations about the role of this case study for our knowledge of diatopic morphosyntactic microvariation in Grico and for the nature of language contact and language change.

This paper discusses two case studies of microvariation in accusative marking in the Italo-Romance varieties of the extreme south of Italy. In particular, the diatopic variation displayed by the dialects of southern Calabria gives rise to peculiar patterns of alternation between presence or absence of the marker a ‘to’ in flagging the accusative. The realisation of accusative case is partially governed by semantic and referential features, i.e. specificity and animacy. In addition, the nature of the realisation of the D head results in a degree of competition between zero marking and analytic accusative marking with a. Given the century-long co-existence of Latin/Romance and Greek in southern Calabria, the relevant morphosyntactic patterns in Case-marking will also be examined from a language contact perspective. We will highlight how the relevant outcomes do not simply involve borrowing mechanisms or template copying from the lending variety but, rather, produce hybrid structures no longer ascribable to a purely Romance or Greek grammar.

Centuries-old Greek-Romance contact in southern Italy has led to the Hellenization of the local surrounding Romance dialects, as succinctly summed up by Rohlfs’ catchphrase spirito greco, materia romanza (literally ‘Greek spirit, Romance material’) to highlight the fact that in many respects the syntax of these Romance dialects is underlyingly Greek, despite employing predominantly Romance lexis. By the same token, in more recent times the indigenous Greek dialects of these areas have increasingly been subject to Romance influence (in particular, from regional Italian) giving rise to a number of underlyingly Romance structures and features in an otherwise Greek syntax. In this article we draw on two cases studies from the Romance and Greek varieties spoken in Calabria to illustrate how the syntax of argument-marking has variously been subject to contact-induced change. In both cases, it is shown that contact-induced borrowing does not replicate the original structure of the lending language but, rather, combines aspects of core Greek and Romance syntax to produce innovative hybrid structures, the evidence of which can be profitably used to throw light on the formal characterization and nature of convergence and divergence. Furthermore, the data considered here underline how convergence between grammars in contact does not necessarily lead to simple borrowing and transference through interference, but more frequently gives rise to new hybrid structures born of reanalysis of the original Italo-Greek or regional Italian structures within a Romance or Italo-Greek grammar, Leverhulme

The term ‘unagreement’ describes configurations with an apparent person-mismatch between a typically definite plural subject and non-third person verbal agreement found in several null subject languages. Previous works have suggested that languages which have an obligatory definite article in adnominal pronoun constructions (APCs) allow unagreement (cf. standard modern Greek emeis oi glossologoi “we (the) linguists”), while languages that rule out definite articles in APCs do not allow unagreement constructions (cf. standard Italian noi (*i) linguisti). This article presents new evidence from Calabrian Greek (Greko), which corresponds to the predictions for other varieties of Greek, and two southern Italian Romance varieties (northern and southern Calabrese): these varieties exhibit Italian-type APCs but still allow unagreement, contrary to expectations. We discuss how the Romance data may be accommodated by extending a previous account of unagreement and propose that the hybrid pattern observed in the Italo-Romance varieties is a result of historical contact with local Greek varieties.