Verb movement in Florentine

Abstract

Complementizer deletion (CD) in Italo-Romance varieties branches off in two different pathways: CD1, present in standard Italian with a bridge selecting verb and an irrealis embedded verb and CD2, available in Florentine and associated with a bridge or non-bridge selecting verb and a realis or irrealis embedded verb, but with an optional clitic element intervening between the main and the embedded verb. The traditional account unifies CD1 and CD2 claiming that they both represent the alternate checker of the overt complementizer: in CD1, the embedded verb moved to Fin° checks the relevant features, in CD2, the intervening element moved to Force° does the same. This article rests on the assumption that the alternative checking hypothesis is operative when the complementizer is omitted but proposes a different analysis for CD2. Some empirical evidence based on the order of the embedded verb and other left-peripheral elements will be provided to show that the embedded verb moves to ForceP. The analysis is framed within the Parametric Comparison Method, a comparative tool aimed at defining the parameters which regulate phenomena that operate in a specific syntactic domain (CP) and their functional implications.