The Mixed OV/VO Syntax of Mòcheno Main Clauses: On the Interaction between High and Low Left Periphery

Abstract

This chapter addresses the syntax of the direct object in the Tyrolean dialect Mòcheno, a mixed OV/VO language, and provide a novel account for the coexistence of the two word orders. The traditional view (cf. inter alia Rowley 2003), which makes sense of Mòcheno mixed syntax through the assumption that speakers have access to two grammars with different parameter settings due to contact, is challenged by showing that variation emanates from one single grammar and is ruled by information structure. In order to capture the connection between syntax and information structure, the chapter proposes an antisymmetric (Kayne 1994) and cartographic (Rizzi 1997, Cinque 1999) account. Here the core idea is that the linear word order of all sentences is the result of the interaction between the high left periphery and the low left periphery (Jayaseelan 2001, Belletti 2004), both assumed to be characterized by functional projections encoding discourse-related features and by having a V2 rule, relating to the finite verb and the past participle, respectively (Poletto 2006).

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