Sui possessivi (enclitici) nelle varietà italo-romanze meridionali non estreme

Abstract

Possessive constructions in upper-southern Italo-Romance languages come in several forms. Many uppersouthern languages show enclitic possessives for kinship terms and other kinds of inalienable possession, in addition to the pan-Romance analytic possessive constructions. The aim of this article is to present a classification of possessive constructions in southern varieties, as well as to attempt a syntactic analysis of such structures, highlighting some interesting typological tendencies. We will propose that the syntactic structure underlying such constructions with enclitic possessives is the same occurring in other possessive constructions involving inalienable possession in the same varieties. We will also bring some synchronic and diachronic evidence in favor of this hypothesis.