Italian Syntax and Universal Grammar

Guglielmo Cinque is one of the world’s leading theoretical syntacticians, and is particularly known for his application of recent theory to the analysis of Italian. This volume brings together ten of Professor Cinque’s essays, some of which are published here for the first time, and some of which have not hitherto been easily available. They explore a wide range of aspects of Italian syntax, including the grammar of relative and ‘pseudo-relative’ clauses in the complement of perception verbs, impersonal si constructions, and the position and argument structure of adjectives in the noun phrase. The volume considers the implications of Cinque’s work on Italian syntax for generative grammar more broadly, and compares Italian with the syntax of other Romance and also Germanic languages. It will be welcomed by all those working on Italian syntax, and on theoretical syntax generally.

• Examines aspects of Italian syntax that have not previously been studied • Comparative approach looks also at English and at other Romance languages • Strikes a balance between detailed analyses and the formulation of general theories

Introduction; 1. On extraction from NP in Italian; 2. On the theory of relative clauses and markedness; 3. Bare quantifiers: quantified NPs and the notion of operator at S-structure; 4. On si constructions and the theory of arb; 5. Ci si; 6. On a difference between English and Italian ‘Complement Object Deletion’ constructions; 7. Ergative adjectives and the lexicalist hypothesis; 8. The pseudo-relative and ACC-ing constructions after verbs of perception; 9. On leftward movement of tutto in Italian; 10. On the evidence for partial N movement in the Romance DP; References; Index.