Possessives in North-Calabrian dialects

This paper addresses the possessive structures in Southern Italian dialects, focusing on Northern Calabrian dialects. Generally, in Southern Italian dialects possessives follow the noun and in predicative contexts are introduced by the article. Besides, Northern Calabrian systems attest another structure in which possessives are introduced by the article preceded by the preposition di in copular predicative contexts and, variably, inside DPs. This arrangement recalls the structures where a linker precedes adjectives or genitives in many languages, among which some Balkan languages such as Albanian and Aromanian varieties. The comparison with the linker structures of these languages provides elements to analyse Calabrian possessives, placing them within a wider typological framework. Our hypothesis is that the sequence di-article can be dealt with as a sort of linker, introducing an independent lexicalization of the possessive relation and the referential properties identifying the possessum.