Moving through the left periphery: The dual complementiser system in the dialects of southern Italy

This paper provides further evidence in support of the view that the left periphery, traditionally associated with the single functional projection CP, should be redefined in terms of a richly articulated C space hosting a series of distinct functional projections. Such a conception of the left periphery is demonstrated to provide a simple solution to some superficially puzzling facts regarding the distribution of the southern Italian dual complementiser system, which proves sensitive to the presence of topics and foci. In particular, the apparent complementiser alternations witnessed in a number of early southern dialects, which are traditionally argued to involve two distinct lexical complementisers, are shown to find a more natural explanation in terms of an analysis which views the two complementisers simply as distinct realisations of a single underlying complementiser, variously spelt out in one of two distinct morphological forms in accordance with the different positions it targets within the C space. Significantly, these various movement operations through the C space affecting the complementiser are demonstrated to have an overt reflex at PF in a number of revealing cases in the form of phonetically overt traces left in various functional heads by the complementiser as it raises through the left periphery. © The Philological Society 2005.