Le combinazioni di parole parzialmente riempite in alcune lingue romanze. Schematismo e predicibilità semantica
Partially filled constructions in some Romance languages. Schematicity and semantic predictability

Summary/Abstract: This investigation proposes a corpus-driven description of partially filled constructions (PFCs), a subtype of phraseological units characterized by a low degree of lexical specification and a high level of semantic predictability. PFCs contain both fixed and empty slots, showing variable levels of productivity. As constructions, they are pairings of form and function (Goldberg), since their semantic/syntactic configuration can convey particular sets of meanings. Through the analysis of authentic data extracted from corpora of three different Romance languages (Italian, French, and Spanish), this contribution aims at i) identifying and analysing a set of partially filled units, ii) showing a formal representation of such syntactic-semantic patterns, iii) classifying them into different types on the basis of functional, syntactic, and semantic criteria, as well as on the degree of idiomaticity and lexical variation, and iv) driving a cross-linguistic comparison among the Romance languages. The same PFC may be characterized by different levels of schematicity and productivity in the various languages taken into account. It will be shown that PFCs may be associated with different syntactic structures, either at the phrase-level or at the sentence-level. Even though they are characterized by empty slots and by a lower degree of lexical specification, they still represent a regular area of the lexicon. New and independent lexemes can develop from specific constructions and become conventionalized through repetition.

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