The aspectual distribution of gerunds in Apulian varieties

Abstract

In this paper we describe and analyze the distribution of embedded gerunds in the Apulian varieties, namely the Romance varieties spoken in the area of Bari. In these varieties gerunds are not found embedded under the be/stay auxiliary to express the progressive aspect as in the Italian/English periphrases for progressives (sto scrivendo/I am writing). Gerunds are only found embedded under the verb go in periphrases to express a reiterative meaning or embedded under the negated forms of be to express prohibition (the negative imperative). The different distribution of gerunds between standard Italian and Apulian varieties is then analyzed as a difference of the aspectual entailment encoded through the gerund morphology: while standard Italian encodes a general imperfective reading, Apulian varieties encode a more specific aspectual entailment, namely continuative aspect. Since Gerunds imply the syntactic embedding of the verb under a preposition, we propose that standard Italian and Apulian varieties differ on the covert preposition incorporated in the gerund inflectional morphology that imply a different aspectual reading.

10.4424/lam132024-10