AxParts and Case in Complex PPs: Microvariation in Italian Dialects

This chapter considers complex PPs involving a lexical/axial item such as under, over, and a small functional P (e.g., sotto (a)l tavolo “under (to) the table”) in Italian and some Italo-Romance varieties. It investigates in particular the types and the realization conditions of small functional Ps appearing in these structures. Adopting a Split-PP framework and the idea that all spatial PPs embed a null PLACE element, the authors argue that the small Ps are possessive case markers. The microcomparative differences across Italo-Romance varieties are linked to the different strategies to encode possession in the DP, and to different categorization (hence Merge positions) of lexical Ps/Axial items.