Refining the Italian clausal spine in light of Central Adverbial Clauses
Ferroni, Sofia (Università degli Studi di Padova (Itàlia))
Sanfelici, Emanuela (Università degli Studi di Padova (Itàlia))

Date:	2025
Abstract:	While adjuncts like adverbs (AdvPs) and prepositional phrases (PPs) have been shown to be hierarchically merged in a fixed, universal order along the clausal spine (Cinque 1999, 2006), the external syntax of adverbial clauses (Adv-CPs) remains rather underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on a specific subset of Italian Adv-CPs, Central Adverbial Clauses (CACs), i. e. , adjunct clauses that structure the event with which they are related (Haegeman 2003). We aim for a twofold goal: (a) to establish which is the first-merge position of CACs and whether they are hierarchically ordered similarly to AdvPs/PPs and, consequently, (b) to provide a comprehensive architecture of adjuncts and, more broadly, to refine that of the (Italian) clausal spine. We argue that CACs are merged at the vP/VP level, below the functional projections hosting postverbal subjects, and then we propose a derivational approach in which their surface order is determined by hierarchical merge and VP-movement plus, eventually, pied-piping (Cinque 2005). Thus, our work ultimately offers new empirical support for Cinque's (2023) theory of linearization in the verbal extended projection.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Central adverbial clauses ; Adjuncts ; Italian ; External syntax ; Hierarchical merge
Published in:	Isogloss, Vol. 11 Núm. 7 (2025) , p. 1-38 (Articles) , ISSN 2385-4138

Adreça original: https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/v11-n7-ferroni-sanfelici
DOI: 10.5565/rev/isogloss.574

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