The Syntax-Semantic Interface in Italian Result-Oriented Argument Structures

Resultatives are a productive linguistic phenomenon in a number of languages (e.g., in English or German), but they are limited in Romance languages (e.g., in Italian or French). This paper presents an analysis of Italian constructions which receive a result-oriented interpretation, in particular adjectival phrases (APs). Relatively few studies have focused on investigating such constructions in Italian literature. We mention the well-known work by Napoli (1992), entitled “Secondary resultative predicates in Italian”. Among the more recent studies are those by Cattaneo (2008) and Ramchand (2008). The aim of this study is to show that the syntax-semantics interface developed by Role and Reference Grammar [RRG] (Van Valin & La Polla 1997; Van Valin 2005) provides a useful descriptive and theoretical framework for an investigation of result-oriented APs. The resulting analysis reveals the syntactic and semantic properties of Italian result-oriented APs that equate them with a specific set of English resultative APs.