What is the locus of Location? Testing base word order in Italian

In this study we show that a base word order for the constituents expressing the thematic roles of Theme and Location in Italian can be detected using different tests. After presenting the theoretical framework in which we operate, we identify the base order of Theme and Location with the question-answer test, the results of which are supported by syntactic tests involving quantifiers and possessive adjectives. All these tests point to the existence of a single hierarchical structure of thematic roles which orders verbal complements independently of their argument or adjunct status.