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In:Null or Nothing: Zero elements in Romance syntax and morphology
Edited by Peter Herbeck and Natascha Pomino
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 291] 2026
► pp. 140–180

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Getting rid of zeroes

The morphosyntax of deadjectival ‘A-verbs’ in Italian

ORCiD logo with link | University of Vienna
 | Masaryk University
Published online: 27 February 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.291.06gor
Abstract
This paper is a contribution to the ongoing debate on employing zero morphology in theoretical modelling (cf. Dahl & Fábregas 2018, Iordăchioaia & Melloni 2023). As an empirical case, we focus on Italian deadjectival ‘A-verbs’ that are either derived through overt suffixation (e.g. solid-ific-are ‘solidify’) or by converting the category of the base without any additional morphological marking (e.g. ferm-ø-are ‘stop’). Our proposal is that the need for zero derivational suffixes can be eradicated if one adopts the Nanosyntactic model of (phrasal) lexicalisation (cf. Starke 2009, Caha et al. 2025 amongst others), and that the contrast between the two types of ‘A-verbs’ can be explained away as an effect of varying sizes of lexical items rather than the absence of overt affixes. In addition, we show that our no-zero account can be extended towards the inflectional domain in both groups of verbs as well, ultimately eliminating the need for zero morphology altogether.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The data
    • 2.1(C)overt verbalisers in Italian
    • 2.2Causative/inchoative alternation
  • 3.No zero, no cry
  • 4.Lexicalising deadjectival verbs
    • 4.1Internal structure of deadjectival verbs
    • 4.2Nanosyntax
  • 5.Analysis: ‘Zero’-derivation vs. Suffixation
    • 5.1‘Zero’-marked verbs
    • 5.2Suffixed verbs
  • 6.Beyond the verbal core
    • 6.1Theme vowel a
    • 6.2TAM and agreement markings
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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