A Comparative Syntax of the Dialects of Southern Italy: A Minimalist Approach

The book investigates from a comparative perspective various aspects of the little studied syntax of the dialects of southern Italy. In addition to providing a descriptive account of a wide range of syntactic phenomena traditionally overlooked in the literature, the discussion shows how the model of language embodied in Chomsky's (1995) Minimalist Program can be profitably extended to the study of the syntax of southern Italian dialects. Focusing on such topics as Case-marking and finite, infinitival and participial complementation, these dialects are demonstrated to present the linguist with a fertile test-bed in which to explore new ideas about language structure and micro-variation in the syntax of a relatively homogeneous group of dialects. The analysis elucidates significant aspects of the structure of these dialects and shows how a familiarity with the facts of southern Italian dialect syntax can broaden the empirical domain of the theory and shed light on important theoretical issues.