Perfect auxiliary alternation: an investigation into the Campanian dialects

In the Romance languages, one way to form the past tense is to use an auxiliary followed by a past-participle. An auxiliary is a word which gives information about temporal as well as aspectual value, i.e. whether or not an action has been completed, for instance. In the Romance languages, there are two auxiliaries derived from Latin, which are the equivalent of 'HAVE' and 'BE' in English. The selection of one auxiliary or the other has been shown not to be random. Transitive verbs, i.e. verbs which take a direct object, are usually found with 'HAVE', while the behaviour of intransitive verbs has been shown to vary. While some intransitives require the use of 'HAVE', others select 'BE'. Scholars have tried to make sense of auxiliary alternation in intransitives and they have come up with different theories.

Some have looked at the arguments that a verb takes, that is the elements which are required by the verb in order for a sentence to make sense, and they have compared the semantic properties of those elements. Those arguments can be placed on a scale ranging from very agentive to very patient-like. Scholars using this framework have proposed that what transitives and the intransitives which select auxiliary 'HAVE' have in common is the high agentivity of their subject. On the other hand, the subjects of intransitives which select 'BE' as an auxiliary are more patient-like, in a similar way to objects of transitives. This a type of alignment, or in other words, how verb arguments pattern and how they are marked.

Another way to analyse the phenomenon is to group transitives and 'HAVE'-selecting intransitives on the one hand, and 'BE'-selecting intransitives on the other, without mentioning objects of transitives. It has been noticed that over time certain verbs across varieties have switched from selecting one auxiliary to selecting the other one. This change has not occurred randomly. The same types of verbs have switched from using 'BE' to using 'HAVE' across varieties. This is why Sorace came up with a framework which can be understood in two ways. The first one is to place all verbs on a continuum. One end represents core verbs which select 'BE' and the other end is that of core verbs using 'HAVE'. The verbs at the edges are the last to switch from using one auxiliary to the other. Verbs in the middle, on the other hand, are the first affected by ongoing changes in a specific dialect.

Another way to look at the framework is to see two sets of concentric circles one next to the other. The inner circles represent core verbs while the outer circles are verbs on the periphery. The framework was intended to be applicable to all varieties. In other words, the hierarchy of verb types was thought to be the same across all Romance varieties and perhaps even extended to all varieties using auxiliaries in the world's languages in general.

In Sorace's framework, the core categories selecting 'BE' are directed motion verbs and verbs which express a change of state. However, Cennamo found that in Campanian dialects, which are spoken in the South of Italy, motion verbs, due to their unstable behaviour, at times selecting 'BE' and at other times selecting 'HAVE', should be classified as peripheral verbs according to Sorace's framework. In the light of these findings, the universality of Sorace's framework might be questioned.

The aim of this research will thus be to collect data on Campanian dialects, through the medium of face-to-face interviews, and then analyse the data in order to see whether they confirm Cennamo's findings.My findings will not only help us gain a deeper insight into auxiliary selection but also enhance our understanding of what a grammar is and how it evolves over time. There wil be a social, strictly speaking non-academic, side to my research where we will try to foster the status of the dialects, thus helping to revert the tendency towards their stigmatization.