Italian faire-infinitives The special case of volere
Norma Schifano, Michelle Sheehan
January 2018 

The first aim of this squib is to show that, under the correct syntactic configuration, volere ‘want’ can be embedded in Italian faire-infinitives (FI), contrary to previous claims. Secondly, we show that want-FIs exhibit peculiar properties: (i) they disallow a full DP causee; (ii) they permit intermediate cliticisation onto volere; (iii) they allow optional splitting of clitic clusters; and (iv) they marginally permit an accusative causee in transitive contexts where the object is a clitic. We attribute these effects to defective intervention which bans a full DP causee and requires the creation of a biclausal ECM construction, where accusative is exceptionally licensed, and where the selection of a silent OBTAIN by ‘want’ creates an additional clitic position.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/004450 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	This is a contribution from Structuring Variation in Romance Linguistics and Beyond In honour of Leonardo M. Savoia. Edited by Mirko Grimaldi, Rosangela Lai, Ludovico Franco and Benedetta Baldi. 2018. John Benjamins Publishing Company
keywords:	want, clitics, ecm constructions, causatives, restructuring, monocausal, functional sequence, morphology, syntax
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