Alessandra Giorgi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571895
- eISBN:
- 9780191722073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571895.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Syntax and Morphology
I concluded in the previous chapter that the Complementizer‐layer includes a position for the speaker's temporal coordinate. The issue I consider here is whether this position can ever be overtly ...
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I concluded in the previous chapter that the Complementizer‐layer includes a position for the speaker's temporal coordinate. The issue I consider here is whether this position can ever be overtly realized by some specific element in the syntax, recognizable as a first person marked item. I show that the position projected by the speaker's coordinates is visible in some peculiar structures and that it is actually occupied by a verbal form overtly marked with first person features expressing an epistemic meaning, such as credo (I believe/I think), penso (I think), immagino (I imagine), and the like. By analysing the properties of credo (I believe/think) — the subject‐less first person present tense verbal form of the epistemic verb credere (to believe/ to think) — I show that the sequence credo (I think) + clause must be considered as a mono‐clausal structure and that credo occupies in these cases the left‐most position in the Complementizer‐layer.Less
I concluded in the previous chapter that the Complementizer‐layer includes a position for the speaker's temporal coordinate. The issue I consider here is whether this position can ever be overtly realized by some specific element in the syntax, recognizable as a first person marked item. I show that the position projected by the speaker's coordinates is visible in some peculiar structures and that it is actually occupied by a verbal form overtly marked with first person features expressing an epistemic meaning, such as credo (I believe/I think), penso (I think), immagino (I imagine), and the like. By analysing the properties of credo (I believe/think) — the subject‐less first person present tense verbal form of the epistemic verb credere (to believe/ to think) — I show that the sequence credo (I think) + clause must be considered as a mono‐clausal structure and that credo occupies in these cases the left‐most position in the Complementizer‐layer.
