EXISTENTIALS, LOCATIVES AND INVERSE LOCATIVES IN ŠTIVORIAN

Abstract

The present study investigates syntactic and interpretive properties of existential, locative and inverse locative constructions in Štivorian, a northern ItaloRomance variety spoken in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. I discuss the definiteness effect (Milsark, 1974), focusing on cross-linguistic properties of locative and existential constructions, both at the structural and interpretive level. On the one hand, existentials show default agreement with a post-copular indefinite pivot in existentials; on the other hand, locatives show full agreement with a pre-copular definite pivot. In addition to this opposition, Štivorian displays inverse locatives, exhibiting mixed properties of existential and locative constructions. The goal of the present study is to show that existential and locative constructions have distinct underlying structures; inverse locatives allow for a structural analysis that parallels that of existentials, with additional interpretive properties that make them akin to regular locative constructions.

Keywords

• existential
• locative
• agreement
• clitic
• Štivorian
• Romance