Expletive article and differential object marking in the Reggio varieties of Bianco and its immediate hinterland

Abstract

The aim of this work is to describe the use of the expletive article before anthroponyms in an area of the Ionian coast of the province of Reggio Calabria, including the municipalities of Bianco and its immediate hinterland. The phenomenon, extremely rare in Southern Italian dialects, is considered an effect of the prolonged Greco-Romance linguistic contact that has affected the territories under investigation. The use of the definite article before personal names is linked to specific syntactic characteristics of the analyzed Romance varieties, but it also depends on semantic-pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects that will be analyzed.