Summary
The project SynFuMIR investigates functionality in syntax by analyzing complex motion verb constructions in regional Italian.
Functionality concerns various grammatical aspects of certain linguistic items that allow lexical units to be assembled together in more complex structures. Although it is a fundamental aspect of language, its nature has not been fully understood yet. Crucial questions to theoretical linguistics depend on our understanding of functionality. These questions will be tackled with new data from multilingual speakers. Syntactic functionality will be investigated by collecting new data via on-site fieldwork with speakers of Southern regional Italian, Sicilian, Calabrian, and Apulian (around 300 speakers in total). The considered constructions are restructuring, pseudo-coordination, and multiple agreement constructions. The main objective of the study is the development of a new theory of syntactic functionality based on the role of location as a syntactic element. My hypothesis is that location plays a crucial role in functionality and non-canonical argument structure. Other goals are language documentation and the investigation of language contact.
By focusing on language contact between two or more extremely closely related languages that contain slightly different but comparable constructions, the involved grammatical features will be investigated in a new way compared to previous studies on the topic. Our understanding of language contact (micro-contact) and multilingualism (bilectalism) will also benefit from this study. Besides its contribution to grammatical theory, this project has also a social and cultural impact on speakers communities because of the engagement of Italian speakers about their dialects and the acknowledgment of regional Italians as real languages. It also represents an example of fruitful collaboration between different fields of linguistics: theoretical syntax, experimental linguistics, and sociolinguistics.
Functionality concerns various grammatical aspects of certain linguistic items that allow lexical units to be assembled together in more complex structures. Although it is a fundamental aspect of language, its nature has not been fully understood yet. Crucial questions to theoretical linguistics depend on our understanding of functionality. These questions will be tackled with new data from multilingual speakers. Syntactic functionality will be investigated by collecting new data via on-site fieldwork with speakers of Southern regional Italian, Sicilian, Calabrian, and Apulian (around 300 speakers in total). The considered constructions are restructuring, pseudo-coordination, and multiple agreement constructions. The main objective of the study is the development of a new theory of syntactic functionality based on the role of location as a syntactic element. My hypothesis is that location plays a crucial role in functionality and non-canonical argument structure. Other goals are language documentation and the investigation of language contact.
By focusing on language contact between two or more extremely closely related languages that contain slightly different but comparable constructions, the involved grammatical features will be investigated in a new way compared to previous studies on the topic. Our understanding of language contact (micro-contact) and multilingualism (bilectalism) will also benefit from this study. Besides its contribution to grammatical theory, this project has also a social and cultural impact on speakers communities because of the engagement of Italian speakers about their dialects and the acknowledgment of regional Italians as real languages. It also represents an example of fruitful collaboration between different fields of linguistics: theoretical syntax, experimental linguistics, and sociolinguistics.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101146868 |
| Start date: | 01-09-2025 |
| End date: | 31-08-2027 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | - 172 750,00 Euro |
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Original description
The project SynFuMIR investigates functionality in syntax by analyzing complex motion verb constructions in regional Italian.Functionality concerns various grammatical aspects of certain linguistic items that allow lexical units to be assembled together in more complex structures. Although it is a fundamental aspect of language, its nature has not been fully understood yet. Crucial questions to theoretical linguistics depend on our understanding of functionality. These questions will be tackled with new data from multilingual speakers. Syntactic functionality will be investigated by collecting new data via on-site fieldwork with speakers of Southern regional Italian, Sicilian, Calabrian, and Apulian (around 300 speakers in total). The considered constructions are restructuring, pseudo-coordination, and multiple agreement constructions. The main objective of the study is the development of a new theory of syntactic functionality based on the role of location as a syntactic element. My hypothesis is that location plays a crucial role in functionality and non-canonical argument structure. Other goals are language documentation and the investigation of language contact.
By focusing on language contact between two or more extremely closely related languages that contain slightly different but comparable constructions, the involved grammatical features will be investigated in a new way compared to previous studies on the topic. Our understanding of language contact (micro-contact) and multilingualism (bilectalism) will also benefit from this study. Besides its contribution to grammatical theory, this project has also a social and cultural impact on speakers communities because of the engagement of Italian speakers about their dialects and the acknowledgment of regional Italians as real languages. It also represents an example of fruitful collaboration between different fields of linguistics: theoretical syntax, experimental linguistics, and sociolinguistics.
Status
SIGNEDCall topic
HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01Update Date
02-10-2024
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