Note sulla preverbazione nell’italiano contemporaneo

Abstract

The present contribution aims to provide a synthetic description of the main morphological and syntactic phenomena linked to preverbation in contemporary Italian, paying special attention to the phenomenon of preverb stacking, which so far has not received any attention, as far as Italian is concerned. Preverbs are defined as a subset of verbal prefixes, namely those bearing semantic values pertaining to the domains of space, temporal/aspectual meanings, or quantification. Such prefixes are mainly spatial in their original uses, the other meanings being the outcomes of grammaticalization paths. There is, in Italian and other Indo-European languages, a certain formal overlap between the class of preverbs and that of adpositions (i.e. prepositions, in the case of Italian). The first part of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the relationship between prepositions and preverbs, with special attention being paid to the effects of preverbation on argument structure and transitivity. After introducing the temporal/actional meanings of Italian preverbs, the main features of preverb stacking are outlined. Two types of stacking are identifiable in Italian: the type termed ‘preverbazione incrementale’ (incremental preverbation) features the stacking of individual preverbs, each of which contributes a clearly identifiable meaning. This type allows for the stacking of up to three preverbs; those positioned in the second and third layers normally cannot express spatial meanings. This phenomenon is common in the formal register of the language. The other type is termed ‘polipreverbazione intensiva’ (intensifying preverb stacking): its characteristics are the opposite of those identified for incremental preverbation. In this type, the preverbs are all intensifiers and come in lexicalized blocks commonly composed of three morphemes. Intensifying stacking is a feature of the colloquial language (especially of younger generations).