Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 45:4 (2021) ► pp.922–938
Light-headed relative clauses in Teramano
Published online: 9 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20037.man
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20037.man
Abstract
We investigate an unstudied, rich component of the relative clause system in Teramano, one of the Upper Southern Italian
languages. We focus on light-headed relative clauses – relative clauses that lack a full nominal head and are introduced by only a
Determiner-like or pronominal “light head”. We also briefly describe headed relative clauses in Teramano since the morphosyntactic features
they exhibit are relevant for the investigation of light-headed relative clauses. Last, we highlight commonalities and differences between
light-headed relative clauses in Teramano and Italian. Our paper provides the first systematic in-depth description of light-headed relative
clauses in an Upper Southern Italian language that we are aware of, contributes to the knowledge of Teramano, the study of light-headed
relative clauses crosslinguistically, and the ongoing investigation of microvariation among Italian and Italian languages.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Teramano basics and headed relative clauses
- 2.1Teramano basics
- 2.2Headed relative clauses in Teramano
- 3.Light-headed relative clauses in Teramano
- 3.1Light-headed relative clauses with a pronominal head
- 3.2Light-headed relative clauses with a demonstrative light head
- 3.3Light-headed Relative Clauses with a quantificational light head
- 3.4Light-headed Relative Clauses with an adverbial light head
- 4.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
References
References (12)
Benincà, Paola. 2012. Lexical complementizers and Headless Relatives. In Laura Brugé, Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, Nicola Munaro & Cecilia Poletto (eds.), Functional heads. The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Vol. 71, 29–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Caponigro, Ivano. 2021. Introducing Headless Relative Clauses and the findings from Mesoamerican languages. In Ivano Caponigro, Harold Torrence & Roberto Zavala Maldonado (eds.), Headless Relative Clauses in Mesoamerican languages, 1–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo. 2020. The syntax of relative clauses. A unified analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Citko, Barbara. 2004. On headed, headless, and light-headed relatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 22(1). 95–126.
D’Alessandro, Roberta & Ian Roberts. 2010. Past participle agreement in Abruzzese: Split auxiliary selection and the null-subject parameter. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 28(1). 41–72.
Hastings, Rachel. 1997. Abruzzo and Molise. In Martin Maiden & Mair Parry (eds.), The dialects of Italy, 321–329. London: Routledge.
Mantenuto, Iara. 2017. Demonstratives in Teramano [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of California Los Angeles.
Mantenuto, Iara & Ivano Caponigro. Forthcoming. Free relative clauses in Teramano. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt – ASIt working papers.
Poletto, Cecilia & Emanuela Sanfelici. 2018. On demonstratives as relative pronouns. In Marco Coniglio, Andrew Murphy, Eva Schlachter & Tonjes Veenstra (eds.), Atypical demonstratives: Syntax, semantics and pragmatics, 95–126. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
Savini, Giuseppe. 1881. La grammatica ed il lessico del dialetto Teramano. Torino: Ermanno Loescher.
de Vries, Mark. 2002. The syntax of relativization. Amsterdam: LOT (Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics). Available at [URL] (last access 21 October 2020).
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 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.
