Linguistic Studies and Essays

The encoding of Unaccusativity in Old Champenois

Daniela Baldassarre — 2025-07-11

Unlike previous studies, the present contribution fits into a space that has not yet been explored by research, namely the study of unaccusativity in the different domainsof the early phase of the Langue d’Oil. So this study investigates the encoding of unaccusativity in Old Champenois (a variety of the Langue d’Oil domain).

In the first section we discuss the paths of development of the reflexes of Latin esseand habere as perfective auxiliares with one-argument verbs in Old Champenois. The analysis reveals the first signs of the process leading to the use of avoir as theonly perfective auxiliary in contemporary Champenois, with avoir gradually invading the functional domains of .tre. The distribution of auxiliary selection in Old Champenois is sensitive to the Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy, a syntacticosemantic gradient model of split intransitivity. In the second section we discuss a potential correlation between unaccusative verbs and post-verbal subjects. Following the Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy, the data were also classified into semantic classes. The results reveal a connection between the post-verbal position of subjects in unaccusative constructions and the semantic classes of predicates. This indicates a correlation between the Verb-Subject pattern and the distribution of auxiliary verbs, as well as the hierarchical structure of predicate classes.

Variants of Octōber in the Latin-Greek Linguistic Domain: Variation and Continuity

Serena Barchi — 2025-07-11

This study aims to analyze the grapho-phonological variants of Octōber through an examination of the Latin and Greek epigraphic and papyraceous documentation. The records offer a high degree of variability of spelling variants, which can be placed in a line of continui ty with the continuators of Octōber in the European linguistic space. In particular, it is observed that the Octomb - variant with nasal insertion is peculiar to the Greek - speaking area, where it turns out to be documented as early as the 2 nd century BCE; in the Latin - speaking area, on the other hand, the most do cumented variant is Octub - , for which the substratistic hypothesis needs to be revisited.

Gorgia Toscana in terra emiliana (Tuscan Gorgia in Emilia)

Giuditta Avano — 2025-07-11

The study is one of the first attempts to apply the Second Dialect Acquisition studies framework on Italian varieties’ contact due to internal migration. It proposes an analysis of intervocalic voiceless stop realizations by four Florentine speakers living in Emilia Romagna for more than twenty years, as compared to those of four Florentine speakers who always lived in Florence. The aim is to observe if speakers who moved away from Florence maintained the typical Florentine spirantization (Gorgia Toscana, GT) or if they reduced their trait, as a consequence of accommodation toward a northern pronunciation. From the analysis, a GT reduction in Emilia-Romagna speakers emerged, interpreted as levelling within the discussion.

The effect of the level of education, besides gender, on accommodation is one of our main findings, which confirms the relevance of prestige dynamics in varieties’ contact.

Moreover, the introduction of linguistic factors, such as phoneme involved (/k t p/), stress and accent, helped to clarify the effect of salience and prominence on both accommodation and the spirantization phenomena.

Cronaca di etimologia sanscrita. Parte V

Daniele Maggi — 2025-07-11

With this Report (here the n° 5) we present recent bibliographical information and, occasionally, renewed discussion about a series of etymological problems of Sanskrit, particularly Vedic, lexicon. Our principal aim is to supplement the Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen by M. Mayrhofer (last Nachträge und Berichtigungen 1999-2000). So with our Report we would like to provide a tool similar, even though more modest in its proposals, to the Chroniques d’etymologie grecque and latine published in the «Revue de Philologie, de Littérature et d’Histoire Anciennes» – whose points of reference were at the starting, in their turn, the etymological dictionaries respectively by Chantraine and Ernout-Meillet. In close connexion with etymology we will also consider problems related to the interpretation of Vedic texts and the reconstruction of cultural realia. The present number includes lexems beginning with the letter ā, along with a

supplement to parts I-IV.