Pseudo-coordination and cu-finite construction in Salento: a case of syntactic reanalysis

Abstract: In Southern Italo-Romance varieties, when the main verb (V1) is modal, aspectual, or a movement verb, it combines with a second finite verb (V2) through juxtaposition or through the linkers e or a (e.g., lu vaju e / a / ø mangiu, lit. ‘it go and / to / ø eat’; ‘I go to eat it’). This structure, known as pseudo-coordination (PseCo), exhibits monoclausal properties, as evidenced by clitic climbing, shared subject, and the inflectional and temporal features shared between the two verbs (Cardinaletti/ Giusti 2001, 2003). However, in Salento varieties, cases have been observed where these features are violated, suggesting a biclausal structure (Manzini/Lorusso/ Savoia 2017). This study proposes that such cases are linked to finite mood constructions introduced by COMP cu, known for its biclausal nature, marked by the absence of clitic climbing and lack of temporal agreement between the verbs (e.g., vulia cu llu fazzu, lit. ‘(I) wanted that it do’, ‘I wanted to do it’). The ability to omit cu from the surface structure results in structures superficially similar to asyndetic PseCo, but traceable to the COMP structure, thus retaining biclausal properties. In some cases in the Brindisi variety in which the omission of cu on the surface leads to a deep deletion (Ledgeway 2012; 2015), asyndetic PseCo (e.g., ogghiu viu, ‘I want to see’) and structures with the deleted COMP (e.g., ogghiu viu, ‘I want to see’) became fully overlapping. This suggests that the original structure with deleted COMP may have been reanalyzed as PseCo. In this process, the linker a would have been newly introduced between V1 and V2, where previously there was cu.