Ancora sull’uso delle costruzioni causative di moto in alcune varietà dialettali della Calabria settentrionale: principi semantici e variazione diasistemica

This study addresses the question of the transitive use of verbs such as entrare “enter”, uscire “exit”, scendere “go down”, salire “go up”, tornare “return”, etc. in the caused motion constructions of the varieties of Cosenza, Rende and Rogliano, in northern Calabria, with the aim of clarifying: 1. the principles governing the relationship between syntactic behaviour and semantic properties in these constructions; 2. the mechanisms of interaction between dialect and regional Italian, to see whether the parameters defining the dialectal influence rely on the interface between syntax and lexical semantics. The results of this study show that: 1. the transitive causative use of directional motion verbs is related to the interplay between semantic properties of the construction and inherent and referential properties of the nominal object; 2. the influence of dialect on regional Italian is not simply related to the frequency of usage of caused motion constructions in the local varieties, but it is manifested in the organization of the principles underlying the distribution and the extension of these constructions in the diasystem. These principles operate at the interface between syntax and lexical semantics and rely on the relationship between direct causation and object agentivity.