Note su infiniti flessi in chianino: un approccio cartografico

Abstract

In this article, we investigate a morpho-syntactic phenomenon in Chianino similar to the inflected infinitive discussed for Romance. Chianino is an Italo-Romance variety spoken in the southeast of the province of Siena. The analysed structures involve pairs of inflected verbs merged together. The candidates for the higher verb of the pair are (i) the root of the modal dové ‘must’ and (ii) the subjunctive form of avé ‘to have’. The second element of the pair can only be a non-suppletive inflected infinitive form of the verb èsse ‘to be’, as in the cases of the second person singular dev-ess-i ‘you must be’ and abbi-ess-i ‘you have to be’ (meaning: ‘you should be’). From a pragmatic point of view, the double inflected forms avé + èsse can only have epistemic readings, while dové + èsse can also have a jussive connotation. After having briefly introduced the variety under investigation, we will discuss observational and introspective data. We will then proceed to a formal analysis. Adopting a cartographic approach, we consider the second element of the pair as a head located in a dedicated functional projection within the syntactic architecture.

Keywords

• Cartography. Chianino. Inflected infinitives