The transitive use of intransitive verbs in Central Calabrian: Between verb types andobject properties

Abstract

This study addresses the question of valency alternations in Central Calabrian, with the aim of fulfilling the following objectives: I) discover whether the principles previously found to be governing valency alternations in Northern Calabrian operate also in other Calabrian varieties; II) understand the relationship of transitivising processes with both causative and applicative, as well as lability; III) test whether dialectal competence and/or fluency affect the acceptability of the transitive constructions with intransitive verbs. The results of this study show that: I) a unitary model can account for the valency alternations of verbs belonging to different classes, in the Central Calabrian varieties examined here like in Northern Calabrian; 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 encodingschema of either direct causative or applicative, depending on the semantic properties of the verb; III) central Calabrian data provide new evidence on the typology of labile oppositions; IV) dialectal competence and fluency inversely affect the acceptability of transitive constructions with intransitive verbs.