http://hdl.handle.net/10278/96 2013-06-11T16:35:47Z http://hdl.handle.net/10278/2943 Title: Non-overt Arguments in the Instructional Register of English Author⁄s: Fior, Virginia Margherita Abstract: Although English is commonly known as a non pro drop language, this phenomenon is rather attested in certain special registers of English. English speakers regularly drop subjects in many informal circumstances, such as in Colloquial Speech, Diaries and Notetaking, but non-overt arguments seem to be a general possibility in a variety of formal contexts too, such as Instructional Registers, Telegrams, Newspaper Headlines. In this paper I will focus my attention on the syntactic and pragmatic properties of non-overt subjects and objects in the Instructional Register. In Chapter 1, I will first hint at the principles and parameters of the Universal Grammar and, in particular, at the pro-drop and object-drop parameters. Then, by means of syntactic tests, I will try to prove that instructions exhibit imperative sentences rather than infinitives, since they present the same morphology in English, i.e. the bare stem of the verb without any overt inflectional endings. In Chapter 2, since imperatives normally lack an overt subjects, I will demonstrate that the features relevant for the interpretation of the subject are not associated with the verb itself, but with a subject syntactically represented, though phonetically null. I will also try to determine the identity of non-overt subjects and what the syntactic representation of imperatives may look like. In Chapter 3, on the basis of empirical data provided by some cookbooks, cosmetics instructions and user’s manuals, I will illustrate that the Recipe Object Drop is a phenomenon which is cross-linguistically very common. Looking at the properties of non-overt objects and at the constraints on their distribution, I will investigate on what property enables non-over objects to appear in this register and how such a structure could be syntactically represented. Finally, in Chapter 4, I will make a comparison between the structures of recipes and instructions of English, Italian and Spanish. 2005-12-31T23:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10278/1336 Title: Towards source of motion in Romanian Author⁄s: Zegrean, Iulia-Georgiana Abstract: The present study discusses the licensing, derivation and semantics of source of motion prepositions in Romanian. By adoptiong the event composition and structure in Pustejovsky (1991) and Hale and Keyser (1993, 2002), I propose a structure of events modified by locative and directional PPs. Differently form English, Romanian exhibits a neat algorithm in lexicalizing Goal and Source PPs, which I argue to be both derived from locative PPs, given the absolute homophony. I suggest that whenever a motion verb is modified by a spatial prepositions, it licenses a path component in the internal structure of the PP, which is by default goal-oriented, unless "de" (a 'functional' morpheme lexicalizing the Source projection in the structure of spatial PPs) imposes source directionality. The last section deals with the syntactic asymmetry between goal and source PPs for which numerous arguments are provided. The asymmetry is based on the different positions in which they are generated into syntax. 2006-12-31T23:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10278/1189 Title: The Acquisition of Determiners : a longitudinal study on an Italian child Author⁄s: Gozzi, Roberta Abstract: The present work deals with the study of the early spontaneous production of an Italian child, concentrating on nominal phrases, in a perspective that views syntactic theory and empirical data as closely related and mutually “enriching”. 2002-12-31T23:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10278/1182 Title: L'accordo facoltativo nell'italiano antico Author⁄s: Ellens, Wendy Abstract: L'argomento "l'accordo facoltativo nell'italiano antico" copre molte parti del campo della linguistica italiana: la grammatica storica, la fonologia, la morfologia, la sintassi e un poco di dialettologia. Ci si è occupati soprattutto del fiorentino trecentesco, la lingua di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, da cui deriva l'italiano standard moderno. La maggior parte del lavoro è consistito nel compilare il corpus. I dati di ricerca e gli esempi riportati nella tesi vengono dalla base dati ITALNET dell'OVI (Opera del Vocabolario Italiano). 2008-12-31T23:00:00Z