Voice and functional structure in Italo-Romance tough-constructions
Russo Cardona, Leonardo (University of Cambridge)

Date:	2026
Abstract:	This paper focuses on the amount of functional structure and on the Voice properties of complement clauses in tough-constructions, on the basis of previously unexplored variation patterns in Italo-Romance. Cross-dialectal data from various regions of Italy (north, south, extreme south, and islands) show that two main syntactic types of tough-constructions are attested, interacting with the complementation strategies available in each variety. In Type 1, the embedded clause is a VoiceP with an infinitive; in Type 2, the embedded clause is a full TP or a CP and its verb (non-finite or finite) has either passive morphology or a resumptive object clitic. In light of this distribution, I propose that heavily reduced clauses have a passive-like argument realisation pattern (as in Type 1), in contrast with larger clauses (as in Type 2) which behave in a standard way despite being more heterogeneous. This claim supports an extension of current accounts of clausal complementation in Italo-Romance to one more pattern.
Note:	This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP [ref. AH/R012709/1]
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:	Tough constructions ; Voice ; Clausal complementation ; Cartography ; Italo-romance
Published in:	Isogloss, Vol. 12, Num. 2 (2026) , p. 1-42 (Articles) , ISSN 2385-4138

Adreça original: https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/v12-n2-russocardona
DOI: 10.5565/rev/isogloss.524

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