| dc.description.abstract | The work presents a corpus-based analysis of the spatial relations in 282 verbless constructions (Cx[ØVP]) of spoken Italian and French. In Cx[ØVP] the traits can be espressed through the lexical semantics of the constituents (NP, PP and AdvP) and syntactical properties of the constructions (existential value and order of the constituents). Based on the analysis of Cx[ØVP], three types of spatial representation werw identified: a) the space of the extra-linguistic world, b) the figurative space, c) the text space or metalinguistic space.
The data of the analysis show that in the two languages spatial relations manifest themselves through the same linguistic tools. Both in French and Italian, spatial relations are expressed through the deixis in the most Cx[ØVP], through the phrases of various lexical categories in almost half of the constructions, and through the construction itself in very few cases. Also regarding to the type of spatial representation, the two languages have points of convergence: most of the Cx[ØVP] denotes an extralinguistic space through words with a referential function, i.e. NP and PP with a lexical head whose referenti s a physical place in the extralinguistic context.
The two languages differ for the type of spatial representation in the monologues. In fact, in monological Italian the majority of Cx[ØVP] denotes an extralinguistic space, in monological French, instead, it expresses relations of a metalinguistic space. | it_IT |
