Patterns of variation in existential constructions

The main goal of the present paper is twofold: on the one hand, to highlight the patterns of variation among the existential constructions found in Italo-Romance and Sardinian dialects; on the other, to examine the observed microvariation in a comparative perspective in order to identify common pro...

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Autor principal: Silvio Cruschina
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Publicado: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2015
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:b8b750f06a58429ebc42900f0a30ccaf2021-12-01T12:14:22ZPatterns of variation in existential constructions10.5565/rev/isogloss.52385-4138https://doaj.org/article/b8b750f06a58429ebc42900f0a30ccaf2015-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/5https://doaj.org/toc/2385-4138 The main goal of the present paper is twofold: on the one hand, to highlight the patterns of variation among the existential constructions found in Italo-Romance and Sardinian dialects; on the other, to examine the observed microvariation in a comparative perspective in order to identify common properties and general tendencies. Starting from a description of the variation concerning the primary components of existentials and depending on the copula selected, I show that, irrespective of the superficial morphosyntactic variation attested, all Italo-Romance existential constructions share a fundamental property: their distinguishing features can all be viewed as the reflex of the persistence of formal properties continuing or overlapping with a source construction. This construction is either the locative predication, when be is selected, or the possessive structure, when the existential copula is have. The pivot of the existential construction therefore shows properties typical of arguments, which are however subject to a high degree of instability and variation because it has been semantically reanalysed as the predicate of an abstract contextual domain serving as the argument of the existential proposition. This mismatch between the syntactic and the semantic characteristics of existential structures contributes to the microvariation encountered. Silvio CruschinaUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelonaarticleexistential constructionlocativepossessiveItalo-RomanceSardinianRomanic languagesPC1-5498Philology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENIsogloss, Vol 1, Iss 1 (2015)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic existential construction
locative
possessive
Italo-Romance
Sardinian
Romanic languages
PC1-5498
Philology. Linguistics
P1-1091
spellingShingle existential construction
locative
possessive
Italo-Romance
Sardinian
Romanic languages
PC1-5498
Philology. Linguistics
P1-1091
Silvio Cruschina
Patterns of variation in existential constructions
description The main goal of the present paper is twofold: on the one hand, to highlight the patterns of variation among the existential constructions found in Italo-Romance and Sardinian dialects; on the other, to examine the observed microvariation in a comparative perspective in order to identify common properties and general tendencies. Starting from a description of the variation concerning the primary components of existentials and depending on the copula selected, I show that, irrespective of the superficial morphosyntactic variation attested, all Italo-Romance existential constructions share a fundamental property: their distinguishing features can all be viewed as the reflex of the persistence of formal properties continuing or overlapping with a source construction. This construction is either the locative predication, when be is selected, or the possessive structure, when the existential copula is have. The pivot of the existential construction therefore shows properties typical of arguments, which are however subject to a high degree of instability and variation because it has been semantically reanalysed as the predicate of an abstract contextual domain serving as the argument of the existential proposition. This mismatch between the syntactic and the semantic characteristics of existential structures contributes to the microvariation encountered.
format article
author Silvio Cruschina
author_facet Silvio Cruschina
author_sort Silvio Cruschina
title Patterns of variation in existential constructions
title_short Patterns of variation in existential constructions
title_full Patterns of variation in existential constructions
title_fullStr Patterns of variation in existential constructions
title_full_unstemmed Patterns of variation in existential constructions
title_sort patterns of variation in existential constructions
publisher Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/b8b750f06a58429ebc42900f0a30ccaf
work_keys_str_mv AT silviocruschina patternsofvariationinexistentialconstructions
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