Pseudo-Coordination is one type of the many different Multiple Agreement Constructions, such as Serial Verb Constructions in African languages or the subjunctive for infinitive in Balkan languages. It consists of two inflected verbs that combine to refer to a single complex event. The phenomenon is well-descripted in traditional as well as theoretical literature and has gained a renewed interest in the last few years, as witnessed by the large participation to the First PseCoMAC meeting held at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice on May 2-3, 2017.

In Italo-Romance, Pseudo-Coordination is largely limited to the spoken register and tends to be used more in particular pragmatic functions. For example, if a language has Mood and Person restrictions, the less marked combination is the Imperative 2nd Person Singular (Di Caro 2019).

The aim of PseCoMAC 2019 is to bring linguists of different theoretical persuasion and specialization to reflect on the pragmatic-communicative potentials of Pseudo-Coordination and the possible grammaticalization paths for the V1 as the functional part of the verbal periphrasis. A non-exhaustive list of research questions is the following:

    • Are there privileged registers / discourse / pragmatic functions for Pseudo-Coordination?
    • How does Pseudo-Coordination compete with other Multiple Agreement Constructions, Infinitival Constructions, or Verbal Periphrases present in the language?
    • Can the micro-variation found across cognate languages (e.g. among Sicilian or Scandinavian dialects) be captured by a unitary parameter?
    • How does such a variation react to language contact and change?


Keywords

General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Language Acquisition; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Pragmatics; Semantics; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics; Typology


Invited Speakers

Theresa Biberauer (University of Cambride)

Alessandro De Angelis (University of Messina)

Silvio Cruschina (University of Helsinki) & Fabio Del Prete (CNRS & University of Toulouse)


Scientific Committee

Giuliana Giusti (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Daniel Ross (University of California at Riverside; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)


PseCoMAC 2019 Crew

Francesco Aiello (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Noemi Rossetti (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Michaela Vann (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

Micol Zanaga (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)