Italian compounds

Abstract

This paper aims at giving an up-to-date picture of compounding in Italian on the basis of most recent literature. First and foremost, we illustrate the basic units of Italian compounds, including semiwords, and we offer an operational definition of compounding that will be adopted throughout the paper. Secondly, we focus on the crucial issue of the demarcation of compounds: several criteria are given to distinguish compounds from derived words, phrases and also phrasal lexemes. Third, we offer a classification of Italian compounds according to two hierarchically ordered criteria -the grammatical relation between the constituents and the presence/absence of the head -and then we illustrate the main formation patterns that give rise to such compounds. Finally, we discuss crucial theoretical issues such as headedness and the relationship between compounding and inflection. Introduction*In recent times, a huge amount of work has been done on compounds that improved our understanding of the phenomenon (cf. e.g. the two edited volumes by Lieber and Štekauer 2009 and Scalise and Vogel 2010). Moreover, the * The article is the result of the close collaboration of both authors, who are listed in alphabetical order. For academic purposes, Francesca Masini is responsible for sections 2, 3, 8, and Sergio Scalise for sections 1, 4, 5, 6, 7. List of abbreviations: A = adjective; Adv = adverb; Conj = conjunction; F = feminine; GEN = genitive; LV = linking vowel; M = masculine; N = nouns; NEUT = neuter; NOM = nominative; P = preposition; PASS = passive; PL = plural; SG = singular; SUF = suffix; V = verb.Brought to you by | University of Manitoba Authenticated Download Date | 8/26/15 10:17 AM Brought to you by | University of Manitoba Authenticated Download Date | 8/26/15 10:17 AM 3. Montermini (2010: 89) suggests that the first hypothesis might apply to cases such as Anglo-American, in which Anglo is not a free form, but a specific bound form that occurs only in coordinate compounds. Brought to you by | University of Manitoba Authenticated Download Date | 8/26/15 10:17 AM

Complex Lexical Units

“…drug addict, 'addicted to drugs'). For Italian, on the other hand, Masini/Scalise (2012) argue that the existence of right-headed compounds does not provide evidence against the assumption that Italian compounding is generally left-headed because these cases are either neoclassical formations, Latin relics, or English calques, such as scuolabus 'school bus'. Another frequently mentioned property of compounds, which is again particularly valid for compounding in German (although not for all compound subpatterns) is recursivity.…”

Acoustic evidence for affix classes: A case study of Brazilian Portuguese

“…Modern Italian does not allow ellipsis under coordinationalthough Ancient Italian did. Masini & Scalise (2012) propose that the discrepancy between modern Italian on one hand, and Spanish and Ancient Italian on the other, may be that modern Italian -mente has fully grammaticalized into a derivational suffix while Spanish -mente has not. Spanish and Portuguese are similar with regard to distribution of -mente, so it is possible that the suffix is grammaticalizing in these languages (Silva et al 2008;Duarte 2009), and that -mente words may still be morphological compounds.…”

“…As a counterpoint to Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, modern Italian -mente is more clearly derivational (Masini & Scalise 2012). Modern Italian does not allow ellipsis under coordinationalthough Ancient Italian did.…”

Procesos morfológicos: zonas de interferencia

“…Os 'compostos sintagmáticos' (Val Álvaro 1999), também denominados como 'phrasal compounds' (Bisetto 2015), "phrasal words" (Masini & Scalise 2012), 'lexicalized phrases' (Guevara 2012) e 'expressões fixas' sempre foram um quebra-cabeças para as línguas românicas, por várias ordens de razões, tais como a sua natureza mais sintática ou mais lexical e a sua consequente inscrição na sintaxe ou no léxico, dada a sua porosa fronteira com os demais sintagmas.…”