Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

A SYNOPSIS OF ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR 93

position, as in (80), it must be in the detached position characterized by
Lambrecht (1981) as "antitopic".

(80) a. Mario ha mangiato una pizza.

has eaten a pizza

"Mario ate a pizza."

b. Ha mangiato una pizza, Mario.

"He ate a pizza, Mario."

The actual integration of these word order constraints into the linking sys­
tem for Italian would work much the same way as in Russian: an argument
assigned topic function would occur in a prenuclear position in the core, as
in (79a) and (80a), while one assigned focus function would occur in the
immediately postnuclear position, as in (79b) and (80a,b), assuming the
representation of Italian clause structure as in Figure 14.
A more subtle and interesting interaction of linking and focus structure
involves the clitic pronoun ne. It has figured prominently in discussions of
split intransitivity (so-called "unaccusativity") in Italian, because it pro-
nominalizes quantified "direct objects" of transitive verbs and the inverted
"subjects" of a certain class of intransitive verbs. This is illustrated in (81)-
(83) (some of the examples are from Centineo 1986).
(81) a. Maria ha comprato due chili di frutta.
has bought two kilos of fruit
"Maria bought two kilos of fruit."
b. Maria ne ha comprati due.
"Maria bought two of them."
e. Molte ragazze hanno comprato il libro.
many girls have bought the book
"Many girls bought the book."
d. Molte ne hanno comprato il libro.
"Many of them bought the book."
e. Ne hanno comprato il libro, molte.
"Many of them bought the book."
(82) a. Molte ragazze sono arrivate.
many girls are arrived
"Many girls arrived."