The study of the phenomenon of Split Intransitivity (variation in the choice of auxiliaries with intransitive verbs to express perfect tense/aspect) has been one of the most fruitful areas of research in theoretical linguistics in the last 3 decades. There are two opposite views in the analysis of these constructions: the syntactic approach and the semantic approach. Since syntax seemed to be insufficient to account for split intransitivity, semantic perspectives have become very popular mainly due ...
The study of the phenomenon of Split Intransitivity (variation in the choice of auxiliaries with intransitive verbs to express perfect tense/aspect) has been one of the most fruitful areas of research in theoretical linguistics in the last 3 decades. There are two opposite views in the analysis of these constructions: the syntactic approach and the semantic approach. Since syntax seemed to be insufficient to account for split intransitivity, semantic perspectives have become very popular mainly due to the work of Sorace (2000, 2004) which based the analysis on the verb’s aspectual and semantic properties and proposed the explanatory mechanism known as the Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy (ASH). The aim of this study is to conduct a syntactico-semantic examination of auxiliary selection facts in some Romance languages in view of the new perspective afforded by recent work on the notion of affectedness in the field of lexical semantics (Beavers, 2011; Gaylord, 2008). I will describe and compare the use of auxiliaries, especially in Italian, in terms of argument affectedness. I will show how the degree of affectedness associated with the arguments of the verb can offer valuable insights that help us better understand the semantic mechanisms behind the ASH. A thorough examination of the notion of affectedness, as well as great variety of examples and verb types is provided in order to establish relations and cover almost all the possible contexts.
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