Valency alternations in northern Calabrian: between direct causation, applicative derivation,and lability

Abstract

This study addresses the question of valency alternations in Northern Calabrian, independently of and beyond the expression of (either directional or non-directional) motion, with the twofold aim of: I) identifying the principles governing the transitivisation of intransitive verbs, independently of motion components, and providing a unitary model for the interpretation of the valency alternations of various classes of verbs; II) explaining the relationship between Northern Calabrian transitivising processes and other patterns of valency alterations typologically well-known, on functional and formal grounds, and, in particular, in relation to both the
expression of causation and applicative derivation, as well as in relation to labile oppositions.
The investigations reported here were conducted on the dialectal and regional varieties spoken in Cosenza, Paola, San Fili, Rende, Lorica, Aprigliano, Rogliano e Scigliano. The results of this study show that: I) a unitary model can account for the valency alternations of verbs belonging
to different classes, in all the examined varieties; II) the principles underlying this model operate independently of the expression of motion, rely on the contrast between the semantic role of the object of the transitive construction and its degree of agentivity, and are actualised withing the
encoding schema of either direct causative or applicative, depending on the semantic properties of the verb: specifically, on the presence vs. absence of the representation of a change of state/ location; III) the original data examined here provide a fundamental contribution to the comprehension of the typology of labile opposition and to the definition of their variety.