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
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2015
Materias:	existential construction locative possessive Italo-Romance Sardinian Romanic languages PC1-5498 Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/bd123d6402de4b28b0b832653a8e0322
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:bd123d6402de4b28b0b832653a8e03222021-11-25T11:16:54ZPatterns of variation in existential constructions2385-4138https://doaj.org/article/bd123d6402de4b28b0b832653a8e03222015-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://revistes.uab.es/isogloss/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/bd123d6402de4b28b0b832653a8e0322
work_keys_str_mv	AT silviocruschina patternsofvariationinexistentialconstructions
_version_	1718413581949599744

Patterns of variation in existential constructions

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