Il path Quantità > Qualità > Maniera. Il caso degli indefiniti

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aims at contributing to the research on the complex linguistic category which is Manner. “Manner” generically refers to the verbalization of a specific way of performing an action or of behaving. In particular, I would demostrate that: 1) Manner cross-cuts the event classes. It is not limited to its lexicalization in the classes of verbs of motion and verbs of saying, as the vast literature on the subject prompts us to think6; 2) The compositional lexical semantics of manner of motion verbs is not sufficient to account for the fine granularity of the Manner component. The traditional lexical decomposition neutralizes the semantic composition of those verbs that bear relevant differences in their meaning. For example, manner of motion verbs like jog and run are both reduced to a semantic primitive “MOVE” to which is added an underspecified Manner variable that does not make explicit the Speed parameter which is more marked in run: I jogged with him = [I MOVED] WITH-THE-MANNER-OF [jogging] (adapted from Talmy, 2000:30) I ran with him= [x MOVE in-a-running-manner] (adapted from Levin&Rappaport Hovav 1992:260) 3) Manner can have a separated, independent status with respect to the verbal Aspectuality (as theorized by Dessì Schmid 2019). Through the study of verbal evaluative morphology is possible to notice that when an event is altered, Manner values can be added to Aspectuality values as in saltare (‘to jump’) vs. saltellare (‘to hop’), cantare (‘to sing’) vs. canticchiare (‘to sing humming’) or studiare (‘to study’) vs. studiacchiare (‘to study light-heartedly’). What I want to emphasize is that saltellare, canticchiare and studiacchiare lexicalize only Aspectuality values (the iteration of the action), only Manner values (the listless, relaxed or aimless way of performing tha action) or the cluster of both7, according to the focus determined by the co(n)text; 4) Manner is not lexicalized exclusively in verbs of motion. It is verbalized, in Italian, also using expressions different from verbs such as some constructions containing the indefinite quantifier niente. The constructions I am referring to verbalize a Manner meaning and I maintain that it is fostered by the semantic-metaphoric path Quantity > Quality > Manner... [edited by Author]