Janice Aski, Trading places: Double object clitic pronouns from medieval Florentine to Modern Italian

Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture
Wed, February 24, 2016
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Faculty Club Grand Lounge

Time: 5 p.m.
Event Host: Arts and Humanities
Short Description: In American English we can say "I give it to you" or "I give you it". Medieval Florentine had a similar alternation: "Lo ti do" vs. "Te lo do". However, in modern Italian, only the latter (Te lo do) is acceptable.


Janice Aski
In American English we can say "I give it to you" or "I give you it". Medieval Florentine had a similar alternation: "Lo ti do" vs. "Te lo do". However, in modern Italian, only the latter (Te lo do) is acceptable. In this talk Janice Aski argues that variation in language is rarely, if ever, random, and provide evidence that suggests how these two variants were used in medieval Florentine and how and why the alternation was lost. RSVP.

 

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List of 2015-2016 lectures.