Publication details
Vuliri + PP nei dati dell’Atlante linguistico della Sicilia
| Title in English | Vuliri + PP in the data of the Atlante linguistico della Sicilia |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Actes du XVIIe Congres international de linguistique et de philologie romanes (Nancy, 15-20 juillet 2013) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Volition; Passives; Modality; Sicilian |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The contribution describes some periphrases of contemporary Sicilian, in which a flexed form of the verb vuliri 'to want' is constructed with the past participle (PP) of a lexical verb, as in: (1) U scaluni e lordu: voli essiri puliziatu 'The step is dirty: it must be cleaned'; (2) U picciriddu voli essiri accattata na cosa ruci 'The child wants something sweet to be bought for him'; (3) U picciriddu voli accattata na cosa ruci 'The child wants something sweet to be bought for him'. Although superficially similar, the types in (1)-(3) differ in semantic-functional and morphosyntactic terms: in (1), vuliri, a basically volitional verb, conveys a modal deontic meaning, absent in the other cases; (1) and (2) are formally passive structures, whose subject agrees with the PP of the verb; (1) and (2) are formally passive structures, whose subject agrees with the PP of the verb; however, they differ semantically, because only in (1) the subject embodies the role of patient (the object of the transitive PP), while in (2) it maintains the function of first argument (animate) of the volitional verb (therefore the role of experiencer coinciding with the potential beneficiary of the event denoted by the PP); (1) admits inanimate subjects, while in (2) and (3), where the volitional value is intact, the subject is characterised by animacy. Since animacy is an implication of volitionality, the presence of inanimate subjects in type (1) represents an extension connected with the shift of the function of vuliri from volition to deontic necessity and suggests a process of grammaticalization within the domain of modality; (2) and (3), similar on the semantic-functional level, differ on the formal level due to the presence of the passive auxiliary essere in (2); (2) and (3) differ in diaphasic terms because volere + PP is also possible in written Italian of literary and essayistic register 2 . |