Cover not available

In:Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation
Edited by Ermenegildo Bidese, Federica Cognola and Manuela Caterina Moroni
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 234] 2016
► pp. 53–88

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

The use of gerunds and infinitives in perceptive constructions

The effects of a threefold parametric variation in some Romance varieties

ORCiD logo with link | University of Trento
Published online: 1 December 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.234.03cas
In this article I compare the use of gerunds with perceptive verbs in Spanish and in Gardenese, a Rhaeto-Romance variety spoken in Northern Italy: perceptive gerunds are used as secondary predicates in Spanish but as defective TP-complements in Gardenese. Following Rizzi’s (2014) account of parametric variation, I propose that the differences are due to the interplay of three parameters: (i) a [+progressive] feature on Gardenese perception verbs, (ii) the pure lexical status of perception verbs in Gardenese, and (iii) a [+Agreement] feature on Spanish gerunds. The discussion of the parameters involved leads to more general considerations, such as a new proposal for the structure of perceptive ECMs in Romance, the confirmation of Folli and Harley’s (2007) analysis of Romance causative constructions, and the necessity of both the [+Agreement] and the [+Tense] feature in order to allow nominative non-finite subjects. The comparison with other Romance varieties confirms the role played by this parametric variation in perceptive constructions.
References (76)
References
Basilico, David. 2003. The topic of small clauses. Linguistic Inquiry 34(1): 1-35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belletti, Adriana. 1990. Generalized Verb Movement. Aspects of Verb Syntax. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bello, Andrés. 1847[1981]. Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos, edn. crítica de R. Trujillo. Tenerife: Aula de Cultura de Tenerife.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benincà, Paola. 1994. L’interferenza sintattica: Di un aspetto della sintassi ladina considerato di origine tedesca. In La variazione sintattica, Paola Benincà, 89–103. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina. 2000. On finiteness and nominative case licensing. Quaderni del Laboratorio di Linguistica 1: 145-167.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biberauer, Theresa, Holmberg, Anders, Roberts, Ian & Sheehan, Michelle. 2014. Complexity in comparative syntax: The view from modern parametric theory. In Measuring Linguistic Complexity, Frederick Newmeyer & Laurel B. Preston (eds), 103-127. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 1984. Parametric Syntax: Case Studies in Semitic and Romance Languages. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burzio, Luigi. 1986. Italian Syntax. A Government-binding Approach. Dordrecht: Reidel. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, Anna & Guasti, Maria Teresa. 1995. Small Clauses. Syntax and Semantics. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casalicchio, Jan. 2011. L'uso del gerundio con i verbi di percezione gardenesi. Ladinia 35: 321-352.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Pseudorelative, gerundi e infiniti nelle varietà romanze. Affinità (solo) superficiali e corrispondenze strutturali. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Predicative gerunds in Spanish and Catalan. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt 18: 103-126.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Pseudo-relative clauses and their left periphery: A unified account. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory. Selected Papers from ‘Going Romance’ 28, Lisbon, Ernestina Carrilho, Alexandra Fiéis, Maria Lobo & Sandra Pereira (eds), 23-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casalicchio, Jan & Cognola, Federica. 2015. On the left periphery of relaxed V2 languages: A comparison between Rhaetoromance and Mòcheno. Ms, University of Trento.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Minimalist inquiries. In Step by Step: Essays on Minimalism in Honor of Howard Lasnik, Roger Martin, David Michaels & Juan Uriagereka (eds), 83-155. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Derivation by phase. In Ken Hale: A Life in Language, Michael Kenstowicz (ed), 1-54. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1992. The pseudo-relative and acc-ing constructions after verbs of perception. Working Papers in Linguistics – University of Venice 2: 1-31.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads. A Cross-linguistic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Restructuring and Functional Heads. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ciutescu, Elena. 2013. Remarks on the infinitival subject of perception verb complements: Evidence for two syntactic configurations. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique 58(3): 292-312.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuneo, Marco. 1997. L'uso dell'infinito nei dialetti liguri: Infinito con soggetto espresso e infinito flesso nel dialetto di Cicagna (GE). Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia 21: 99-132.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
den Dikken, Marcel. 2006. Relators and Linkers. The Syntax of Predication, Predicate Inversion, and Copulas. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Di Tullio, Ángela L. 1998. Complementos no flexivos de verbos de percepción física en español. Verba 25: 197-221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández Lagunilla, Marina. 1987. Los infinitivos con sujetos léxicos en español. In Sintaxis de las lenguas románicas, Violeta Demonte & Marina Fernández Lagunilla (eds), 125-147. Madrid: Arquero.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Las construcciones de gerundio. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Vol. II, Ignacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte (eds), 3443-3500. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Aspecto, predicación secundaria y complementos verbales no finitos en español. In Contribuciones al estudio del español [Colección Estudios lingüísticos 4], Rosa Maria Ortiz Ciscomani (ed.), 15-50. Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández Lagunilla, Marina & de Dios López, Francisco. 1991. Dos análisis gramaticales de ciertas construcciones completivas de infinitivo en español: a propósito de los verbos causativos y de percepción. Revista española de Lingüística 21(2): 216-232.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Folli, Raffaella & Harley, Heidi. 2007. Causation, obligation and argument structure: On the nature of little v. Linguistic Inquiry 38(2): 197-238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gallego, Ángel. 2009. Defective C-T in Romance. Probus 21: 163-216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gili Gaya, Samuel. 1951. Curso superior de sintaxis española. Barcelona: Vox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graffi, Giorgio. 1997. Frasi "complete" e frasi "ridotte". Lingua e stile 32(2): 273-291.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Granville-Hatcher, Anna. 1944. Je le vois sourire; Je le vois qui sourit; Je le vois souriant. Modern Language Quarterly 5: 275-301; 387-405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grillo, Nino & Moulton, Keir. 2015. Pseudo-relatives: Big and direct. In Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Thuy Bui & Deniz Özyıldız (eds), 193-202. Amherst MA: GLSA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guasti, Maria Teresa. 1992. Pseudorelatives and prepositional infinitives. A unified account. Geneva Generative Papers 1: 53-65.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. Causative and Perception Verbs: A Comparative Study. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gutiérrez Araus, María Luz. 1992. Sobre el gerundio en función adjetival. In Homenaje a Humberto López Morales, María T. Vaquero de Ramírez, Amparo Morales & Humberto López Morales (eds), 205-220. Madrid: Arco/Libros.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haiman, John & Benincà, Paola. 1992. The Rhaeto-Romance Languages. London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halmøy, Odile. 2003. Le gérondif en français. Paris: Ophrys.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hernanz, María Luïsa. 1999. El infinitivo. In Grámatica descriptiva de la lengua Española, Vol. II, Ignacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte (eds), 2197-2356. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaiser, Georg. 2002. Die Verb-Zweit-Stellung im Rätoromanischen. Ein typologischer Vergleich. Ladinia 26-27: 313-334.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kany, Charles E. 1970. Sintaxis hispanoamericana. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard. 1975. French Syntax. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuroda, Sige-Yuki. 1972. The categorical judgement and the thetic judgement. Foundations of Language 9: 153-185.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labelle, Marie. 1996. Remarques sur les verbes de perception et la sous-categorisation. Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 25: 83–106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landau, Idan. 2004. The scale of finiteness and the calculus of control. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 22: 811-877. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam. 1998. Variation in the Romance infinitive: The case of the Southern Calabrian inflected infinitive. Transactions of the Philological Society 96: 1-61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. A Comparative Syntax of the Dialects of Southern Italy. A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepschy, Giulio. 1976. Italian causative and perception predicates followed by an infinitive: Competence and performance. In Studies in Greek, Italic, and Indo-European Linguistics Offered to Leonard R. Palmer, Anna Morpurgo Davies & Wolfgang Meid (eds), 153-161. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lonzi, Lidia. 1988. Tipi di gerundio. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa 13: 59-80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LRL = Holtus, Günter, Metzeltin, Michael & Schmitt, Christian (eds). 1988/2005. Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, 8 Vols. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mensching, Guido. 2000. Infinitive Constructions with Specified Subjects: A Syntactic Analysis of the Romance Languages. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moro, Andrea. 1995. Small clauses with predicative nominals. In Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 28: Small Clauses, Anna Cardinaletti & Maria Teresa Guasti (eds), 109-126. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Picallo, M. Carme (ed.). 2014. Linguistic Variation in the Minimalist Framework. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poletto, Cecilia. 2002. The left periphery of a V2-Rhaetoromance dialect: A new perspective on V2 and V3. In Syntactic Microvariation. Proceedings of the Workshop on Syntactic Microvariation, Amsterdam, August 2000, Sjef Barbiers, Leonie Cornips & Susanne van der Kleij (eds), 214-242. Amsterdam: Meertens Institute.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radford, Andrew. 1977. Italian Syntax. Transformational and Relational Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rafel, Joan. 2000. Complex Small Clauses. PhD dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. A case of disjunction in the syntax-semantics interface: The bare infinitive in perception and causative sentences. In Current Issues in Generative Grammar, Manuel Leonetti, Olga Fernández-Soriano & Victoria Escandell-Vidal (eds), 217-236. Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raposo, Eduardo. 1989. Prepositional infinitival constructions in European Portuguese. In The Null Subject Parameter, Osvaldo Jaeggli & Kenneth J. Safir (eds), 277-305. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rigau, Gemma. 1995. Propiedades de FLEX en las construcciones temporales de infinitivo: La legitimación del sujeto. In De grammatica generativa, Patxi Goenaga (ed.), 173-184. Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea: Anejos del Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1982. Issues in Italian syntax. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. Direct perception, government and thematic sharing. Geneva Generative Papers 1: 39-52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. On the elements of syntactic variation. In Linguistic Variation in the Minimalist Framework, Maria Carme Picallo (ed.), 13-35. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sáenz, Hilario S. 1953. Disquisiciones participiogerundiales. Hispania 36: 291-299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Safir, Ken. 1983. On small clauses as constituents. Linguistic Inquiry 14(4): 730-735.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salvi, Giampaolo. 2000. Il ladino. Schizzo linguistico. Verbum 2(1): 151-169.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Ladin. In The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, Adam Ledgeway & Martin Maiden (eds), 154-168. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salvi, Giampaolo & Skytte, Gunver. 1991. Frasi subordinate all'infinito. In Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione, II, Lorenzo Renzi, Giampaolo Salvi & Anna Cardinaletti (eds), 483-567. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sheehan, Michelle. 2016. Complex predicates. In The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, Adam Ledgeway & Martin Maiden (eds), 981-994. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siller-Runggaldier, Heidi. 1997. "Perzeptionsverb+Verb im Gerundium", ein im Romanischen funktional einheitliches Konstruktionsmuster? In Ladinia et Romania. Festschrift für Guntram Plangg zum 65. Geburtstag, Maria Iliescu, Werner Marxgut, Erich Mayr, Heidi Siller-Runggaldier & Lotte Zörner (eds), 309-320. Vich/Vigo di Fassa: Istitut Cultural Ladin "Majon di fascegn".Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sitaridou, Ioanna. 2002. The Synchrony and Diachrony of Romance Infinitives with Nominative Subjects. PhD dissertation, University of Manchester.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Škerlj, Stanko. 1926. Syntaxe du participe présent et du gérondif en vieil italien. Avec une introduction sur l'emploi du participe présent et de l'ablatif du gérondif en latin. Paris: Honoré Champion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Torrego, Esther. 1998. The Dependencies of Objects. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Videsott, Paul. 2011. Rätoromanische Bibliographie/Bibliografia retoromanza 1729-2010. Bozen/Bolzano: Bozen-Bolzano University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vincent, Nigel. 1998. On the grammar of inflected non-finite forms (with special reference to Old Neapolitan). Copenhagen Studies in Language 22: 135-58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Edwin. 1980. Predication. Linguistic Inquiry 11(1): 203-238.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Cinque, Guglielmo
2020. The Syntax of Relative Clauses, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue