Date: 29-Jun-2010
From: Karin Weiss <karin.weiss t-online.de>
Subject: Das italienische Suffix -izza(re) und der linguistische Kausativitätsbegriff/The Italian Suffix -izza(re) and the Linguistic Notion of Causativity
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Institution: Universität Hamburg
Program: Department of General Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2010
Author: Karin M Weiss
Dissertation Title: Das italienische Suffix -izza(re) und der linguistische Kausativitätsbegriff/The Italian Suffix -izza(re) and the Linguistic Notion of Causativity
Dissertation URL: http://www.sub.uni-hamburg.de/opus/volltexte/2010/4620/
Linguistic Field(s):
Morphology
Subject Language(s): Italian (ita)
Dissertation Director:
Tanja Kupisch
Wolfgang J Meyer
Dissertation Abstract:
This dissertation explores Italian verbs that are derived from the suffix
-izza(re). As these derived verbs very often denote an event that causes a
change of state (COS) in one of the entities involved, -izza(re) is
normally classified as a causative suffix. Based on an extensive corpus
analysis, this dissertation aims at showing that the verbs derived from
-izza(re) are considerably more heterogeneous than had been assumed. The
next step then, is to find out which factors are responsible for these
deviations from the assumed causative standard case and its particular
semantic and syntactic properties. This requires a closer look at the
influence of the suffix (or perhaps, of several homophonic instances), the
influence of the word-internal sister constituent (i.e. the nominal,
adjectival, or possibly root base), and the impact of the word-external
linguistic and extralinguistic context. This might allow us to determine
the potentially systematic contribution of the suffix -izza(re). After
having introduced the key features of the theoretical framework, I try to
clarify the notion of causativity, followed by the determination of the
syntactic and semantic features that specify causative verbs in particular.
Next, the data analysis makes clear that the hitherto tacitly assumed
uniform notion of change of state has to be abandoned. Therefore, I propose
to differentiate between the standard COS and three further resultative
states, i.e. change of location (COL), change of feature (COF), and change
of psychological state (COSPsy). This differentiation does not only allow
conclusions to be drawn on the concept of linguistic causativity, but also
supplies us with a crucial criterion with regard to the intended
classification of verbs derived by -izza(re). Based on the present
investigation, I propose a classification of seven different verb types:
standard causative, location, locatum, means, psychV, depiction, and modus.
The theoretical framework I adopted is the model of Distributed Morphology
(Halle & Marantz 1993), according to which the verbalizing suffix
-izza(re) is an instance of the functional category little v. As one of
the dissertation's findings I note that the seven -izza(re) verb types are
the results of the merger of three different little v-variants: vcaus,
vpsycaus , and vag. Accordingly, the suffix as vocabulary item is specified
in three different entries. Taking into account the discussed linguistic
and extralinguistic factors, these entries allow a remarkable
predictability regarding the outcome of the word formation process by
-izza(re). This study includes an excursus investigating the Italian
syntactic causative constructions (fare + infinitive) which, by contrast,
illuminates the contribution of the morphological item
-izza(re) and serves to refine the proposed definition of linguistic
causativity.
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