Ludovico Franco

• PhD
• Faculty Member at University of Florence

In a range of Indo-European languages (Romance, Albanian, Iranian, Indo-Aryan), the same oblique case (‘dative’) is associated with indirect objects and with animate/definite direct objects, independently of the particular morphology employed to spell out the oblique (inflectional or pre/postpositional). We argue that there is a syntactic category...

We will argue that instrumentals are the mirror image of dative/genitive obliques. We propose that both sets of adpositions/cases are elementary predicates, expressing a zonal inclusion (part-whole/possession relation); instrumentals reverse the direction of the relation with respect to datives/genitives. Our claim is that 'with'-type morphemes pro...

In this article, the author demonstrates that verbal compound constructions involving an ideophone and a light verb represent a widespread syntactic device in the world's languages. The author provides evidence that phono-symbolic morphemes cannot be treated as ‘bare’ direct objects in such constructions. Ideophones appearing in the light verb-adja...

This monograph is structured as a collection of clinical case studies all addressing the relationship between lexicon and morphosyntax. It shows that various less-studied aphasic syndromes - including Logopenic Primary Progressive Aphasia, Mixed Trascortical Aphasia, and Crossed Aphasia - and not only 'classic' Broca's Aphasia can enhance findings...

In many languages a linker element is inserted between a noun N and a modifier or a complement of N. We focus on Albanian articles and on Iranian ezafes, and we introduce comparison data from Aromanian. In section 2, we provide arguments as to why currently available formal theories of linkers (as copulas, as case assigners, as means for identity a...

This dataset consists of linguistic examples of Italian morphosyntactic variation documented in the three volumes: Manzini M.R., Savoia L.M. (2005), I dialetti italiani e romanci. Morfosintassi generativa, Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso. These data are also accessible from the following link: https://manzinisavoia.changes.unifi.it/

The present paper focuses on pseudopartitive constructions headed by quantifier, collective, or container nouns (like a lot of senators, a group of students, a bottle of pills) followed by a singular or a plural verb. We compared these structures with superficially similar adnominal structures of the form NP1 [−PL] prep NP2 [PL] (e.g., the level of...

In this paper, we propose a morphosyntactic analysis of Prepositional Compounds in Italian. We argue that while prepositions are not meaningless, their content isn't too rich, either. We propose that they can be treated as general relators (along the lines of Manzini & Franco's (2016) treatment of locative and oblique prepositions) which can expres...

The present paper addresses the categorial content of affixes forming a set of denominal adjectives in Italian, arguing that they are substantially the derivational counterpart of oblique case/adpositions. Specifically, we argue that they act as elementary relators, following Manzini and Franco, who characterized oblique cases and prepositions as g...

In this paper, we will provide a N-to-D analysis able to account for the punctual vs. habitual reading of proper temporal names in Italian, focusing on names of days, which clearly signal a difference in their possible aspectual encoding at the morphosyntactic level. When these items appear as adverbials modifying an event: i) such event is interp...

Pseudopartitive constructions are constructions of the form DP-of -NP, where the quantificational, collective or container DP head is interpreted as measuring the embedded NP. A verb can agree either with the head (Head Agreement) or with the embedded NP (Embedded Agreement). We argue that agreement alternations with pseudopartitives form part of l...

In this paper we argue that the fact that a verb can be interpreted as a manner or result predicate mainly depends on the properties of the syntactic structure in which (nominal) roots are incorporated. Specifically, we assume that the dichotomy between manner and result is an effect of the syntactic template in which a given root is inserted and,...

Based mostly on the Romance languages, we provide evidence for the conclusion that oblique adpositions involved in the encoding of location and direction do not contribute a specific, fixed spatial meaning. On the contrary, they are general relators, relating a complement to an event by establishing an inclusion relation between them. Locatives are...

Dative adpositions instantiate part-whole/inclusion (⊆) relations that hold between the goal and the direct object in the thematic grids of ditransitives. We assume that the same primitive part-whole relation is found: i) when the dative adposition is used in locative contexts; ii) with genitive adpositions, as shown by the widespread genitive/dati...

We aim at showing that the superficial identity of DOM internal arguments and of goal dative involves no accidental homophony or syncretism, but rather an underlying identical structure of embedding. Specifically, we conclude that DOM arguments are syntactically oblique (Section 2). We introduce the matter by detailing referential/animacy splits in...

Pseudopartitive constructions consist of a quantificational, container or collective DP interpreted as measuring an embedded NP. Syntactically, the verb can agree either with the head (Head Agreement) or the embedded NP (Embedded Agreement). We argue that agreement alternations with pseudopartitives form part of linguistic competence. In psycholing...

Italian commonly introduces motion-to and state-in with two different adpositions, respectively a (at, to) and in (in) that can convey different locative flavors. We propose an account on their distribution in Italian built on the differences in the selectional restriction of each locative preposition: while a instantiates a terminal coincidence re...

In this volume scholars honor M. Rita Manzini for her contributions to the field of Generative Morphosyntax. The essays in this book celebrate her career by continuing to explore inter-area research in linguistics and by pursuing a broad comparative approach, investigating and comparing different languages and dialects.

In this paper we aim at analysing, from a pragmatic viewpoint, the rhetoric of delegitimization of the opponent in new media insofar as it triggers individual, uncontrolled and deep-rooted forms of communications. The communicative context is that of the political controversies and the propaganda around the Italian Elections of March 2018. Accusati...

We consider two sets of facts. The first is that dom objects may or may not agree with perfect participles in Indo-Aryan. The second is that (pseudo)partitive subjects may agree with the verb in the plural or not. We account for the dom parameter, basing on the assumption that dom corresponds to embedding of a DP under an oblique adposition: if P p...

This paper deals with the applicative-causative syncretism, which is a pattern of morpheme polysemy attested in many different natural languages. We basically interpret the causative-applicative syncretism as based on a shared syntactic configuration...

In this work, we show that collectivizers are in a sort of complementary distribution with singulatives, and that the same grammatical devices employed to convey a singulative meaning, namely evaluative morphology and gender shift, are in fact used also for collectivization purposes. On the basis of these empirical observations, it is tempting to a...

In this paper we show that the structural (and terminological) partition between proper/simple and improper/complex adpositions operated for Italian does not presuppose an unspoiled syntactic reality. Indeed, on the basis of syntactic tests and diachronic evidence, we show that – within the subset of so called proper/simple preposition (Rizzi 1988,...

Current theoretical approaches to language devote great attention to macro- and micro-variation and show an ever-increasing interest in minority languages. In this respect, few empirical domains are as rich and lively as the Italo-Romance languages, which together with Albanian were the main research domain of Leonardo M. Savoia. The volume covers...

Current theoretical approaches to language devote great attention to macro- and micro-variation and show an ever-increasing interest in minority languages. In this respect, few empirical domains are as rich and lively as the Italo-Romance languages, which together with Albanian were the main research domain of Leonardo M. Savoia. The volume covers...

In this paper, focussing on Italian data, we show that nominalization processes involving an external and an internal argument of a deverbal nominal can be reduced to a syntactic template that introduces core participants, namely the external and the internal argument, via a sort of double oblique construction. We claim that all 'thematic' PPs, as...

In this paper we will address the unusual behaviour of subject clitics (sbj.cl) in Pantiscu, which express a progressive aspect (Prog) value; to account for their puzzling shape, we will proposed that sbj.cl can be associated to aspectual features, following Manzini & Savoia (2002). To explain the non-compositional behaviour of the Pantiscu Prog pe...

In many Northern Italian varieties the plural inflection -i has a restricted distribution, targeting feminine class nouns, determiners and adjectives. The -i morpheme also occurs with clitic pronouns, both subjects and objects. The crucial point we address is the relation between the plural specialized morpheme -i and its distribution among noun cl...

In this paper we provide a comprehensive comparative overview of existentials sentences in Romance Creoles. Based on our empirical investigation, we also provide a theoretical analysis of existential constructions which mimic 'transitive' possession. Specifically, we assume that the pervasiveness of a predicative possession strategy for existential...

This paper focuses on the syntax of (argument introducing/valency increasing) serial verbs in Creole/Pidgin languages, providing empirical arguments for the model of grammatical relations advanced in a series of recent works by Manzini and Savoia (2011a, 2011b), Manzini and Franco (2016), Franco and Manzini (2017a,b), Manzini et al. (to appear a,b)...

Based mostly on the Romance languages, we provide evidence for the conclusion that the oblique adpositions involved in the encoding of location and direction do not contribute a specific, fixed spatial meaning. On the contrary, they are general relators, relating a complement to a (motion) event by establishing a part-whole relation between them. I...

The present contribution focusses on a set of phenomena which are unified by the typological literature under the label of Suffixaufnahme. The theoretical focus of the contribution is the minimalist rule of Agree and the notion of case, specifically oblique case. We question the necessity of [interpretable] and [valued] features for the formulation...

In this work, we show that collectivizers are in a sort of complementary distribution with singulatives, and that the same grammatical devices employed to convey a singulative meaning, namely evaluative morphology and gender shift, are in fact used also for collectivization purposes. On the basis of these empirical observations, it is tempting to a...

In this paper, we address the morphosyntactic status of the adpositional morphemes surfacing in aspectual periphrases in Italian and beyond. We show that adposition-based aspectual periphrases share a primitive relation of ‘part-whole/inclusion’ (the same (⊆) relation which is at work with datives/genitives) of an event within a set of events or, a...

Italian relative clauses (RCs) are ambiguous between subject and object RCs since Italian permits post-verbal subjects. In the absence of disambiguating cues, the parser au-tomatically engages in a subject RC analysis. Two grammatical cues have been shown to trigger an object RC reanalysis: i) word order (OSV), and ii) number agreement (e.g., O-SG...

We aim at showing that the superficial identity of DOM internal arguments and of goal dative involves no accidental homophony or syncretism, but rather an underlying identical structure of embedding. Specifically, we conclude that DOM arguments are syntactically oblique (section 2). We introduce the matter by detailing referential/animacy splits in...

In this paper we analyze the different patterns of agreement found cross-linguistically with complex NPs involving an approximate numeral/quantifiers and a preposition, which selects an embedded NP. Verbal agreement can target either the numeral item/quantifier or the embedded NP. Languages differ on whether they allow agreement just with the quant...

In this paper, we deal with ethnic adjectives in Italian, arguing against the dichotomy between 'thematic' and 'classificatory' ethnic adjectives, recently assumed by Alexiadou and Stavrou (2011). provide a unified characterization of Italian ethnic adjectives and we take the derivational morphemes shaping this kind of items to be a derivational co...

Manzini and Franco (2016) argue that in many languages, Differential Object Marking (DOM) of highly ranked DPs takes the form of embedding under the same part-whole ⊆ predicate which introduces goal arguments; therefore DOM arguments surface as datives. Since genitive arguments are introduced by the partwhole or possession predicates ⊆ as well, the...

In this paper, we will provide novel evidence for the availability of a sub-clausal syntax of "corrective" adversative coordination - along the lines of Toosarvandani (2013) and contra Vicente (2010) - coming (a) from agreement facts in Italian, (b) the existence of languages with 'symmetrical' patterns of ' correctives', such as Russian. Specifica...

Ergativity splits between perfect and imperfective/progressive predicates are observed in languages with a specialized ergative case (Punjabi) and without it (Kurdish). Perfect predicates correspond to a VP projection; external arguments are introduced by means of an oblique case, namely an elementary part-whole predicate saying that the event is '...

This article illustrates the specific linguistic ways which introduce the pragmatics and semantics of de-legitimization and symbolic power in political discourse. We will show that the words produced in political discourse, represent an enabling tool to create the effects of meaning related to the process of (de)legitimization as a slip/change of m...

The aim of this paper is to describe what prima facie seems to be a typological rarum in Old Florentine (i.e. Old Italian). Specifically, we address here the morphosyntax of the temporal adverbial (per) addietro (lit. for at-back), which was commonly used in Old Florentine texts to encode a meaning roughly corresponding to [BEFORE]. Thus, it seems...

In this paper, I will provide a possible syntactic characterization of (a subset) of so-called degrammaticalization processes, based on the case of the diachronic evolution of presso/pressi (near/at, in) in Italian. Moreover, with an empirical study on the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI) corpus, I will support Svenonius's idea of Axial Part as...

In this work we will characterize Romance N class morphology as endowed with a semantic content, providing evidence about the active involvement of N class at the syntaxsemantic interface. We will argue that the so-called neuter of Central Italian dialects involves coding of the mass/count distinction by N class morphology. The mass vs. count contr...

In this paper, we will present a morpho-syntactic analysis of the class of Italian adverbs signalling bodily movements and postures ending with the suffix -one/i. The present work will investigate the significant differences between the uses of this type of adverbs in Old Italian vs. Contemporary Italian. Whereas it seems reasonable (following e.g....

In this work, we aim at investigating the performance of an Italian Agrammatic speaker with compound words, with major emphasis on the processing of (complex and simple) prepositions inside words, thus aiming at especially evaluating the performance with prepositional compounds of the [NOUN HEAD-PREP-DEPENDANT NOUN; N-P-N] form (coda di cavallo, ho...

The present study deals with sentence repetition in MB, an Italian patient with mixed transcortical aphasia. In preliminary testing, MB spontaneously resisted accurate repetition when presented with sentences featuring morphosyntactic violations (see Davis et al., 1978). MB also managed to repeat all the proposed phrasal chunks, even in complex sen...

The aim of this study is to experimentally investigate Evaluative Morphology (EM) in an Italian agrammatic speaker. In neurolinguistic literature, to our knowledge, there are no previous attempts to systematically analyze possible deficits, specifically concerning EM in agrammatic speakers. Previous theoretical works argued that Italian EM should b...

The purpose of this work is to illustrate an extremely rare linguistic feature, namely the overt present of a root complementizer in assertive/indicative (i.e. unmarked) matrix clauses, of the Sogdian language, an Eastern Middle Iranian Language once spoken in a region located in the valley of rivers Zaravshan and Kashkadarya (roughly corresponding...

We report the case of a classic agrammatic speaker of Italian in repeating locative Figure/Ground relations via complex prepositions consisting of a locative axial preposition and a simple preposition in light of recent theoretical accounts of prepositions and the existing literature on prepositions in aphasia...

In this work I will provide direct evidence against the identity of relative pronouns and complementizers/subordinators – proposed in recent works (Kayne 2010b) within the generative paradigm – with the aid of (diachronic and synchronic) data from Akkadian (an extinct Semitic language of Mesopotamia), Sogdian (an extinct Middle Iranian language), G...

This work deals with the Italian particle fa "ago", which together with expressions of time measure localizes an event in a certain point preceding the moment of elocution. The aim is to show how the particle developed from Old Italian to present, assuming that fa was originally the 3rd person singular of the verb fare "to make/to do". Drawing on h...

This paper addresses the following questions: is (external) merge, the binary operation that combines two elements into a constituent in every variant of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1993, 1995 and related works), an unconstrained operation? If so, what avoid generating ill-formed structures? I will argue here for a simple functional / lexical...

In this work we want to address the syntax of the so-called inflected prepositions (preposizioni articolate) in Italian, relying on experimental data from clinical linguistics. We argue against the arguments of Napoli and Nevis (1987) for the existence of a lexically independent "monadic" class of inflected prepositions. The data collected here -wh...