2024 IUSS Linguistics Seminars

Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics (NEP) Lab
PhD in Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics (TEL)

The structure of causative and perception constructions in Italian: new data from passivization

Jan Casalicchio (University of Siena)

Introduced by:
Andrea Moro (IUSS Pavia)

June 17, 2024, 14.30 – 16.00 CEST

Zoom: https://iusspavia.zoom.us/j/81947250839

In many languages, verbs of causation and perception pose severe restrictions to passivization (1):
(1) *John was made/had/let/seen leave.
These restrictions on ‘long passives’ are found in English and in most Romance languages. Italian is a notable exception, since it is more permissive when it comes to long passives than languages like French or Spanish:
(2) Gianni è stato fatto / lasciato / visto uscire dalla stanza.
Gianni is been made let seen leave the room
However, long passives of causative and perception verbs are not completely unrestricted in Italian, either.
In this talk, which is based on joint work with Michelle Sheehan, I propose that the verbs fare ‘make’, lasciare ‘let’, vedere ‘see’ and guardare ‘watch’ select complements of different sizes (TPs, VoicePs, vPs or VPs): long passives are ungrammatical when the complement is a VoiceP, while they are grammatical in the other cases. If we assume that VoicePs are phases, this restriction can be derived by the Phase Impenetrability Condition 2 (PIC2, Chomsky 2001): if the complement is a VoiceP, the promoted argument has to cross two phase boundaries on its way to the matrix Spec,TP (without intermediate steps), a type of movement that is ruled out by the PIC2.
The last part of the talk will be devoted to the discussion of two particularly intriguing (and puzzling) cases of long passives: when the matrix verb is lasciare ‘let’, and when the complement contains an unergative verb.

Cited literature
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by Phase. In Ken Hale: A Life in Language, ed. by Michael Kenstowicz, 1-52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

For further information:
matteo.greco@iusspavia.it
federico.frau@iusspavia.it
chiara.battaglini@iusspavia.it
veronica.dalesio@iusspavia.it