Clitic positions and restructuring in Italian

Verbs can be introduced (merged) either in a lexical VP or in a functional head, the latter giving rise to restructuring contexts. This paper argues that there are two clitic positions in Italian ‘restructured’ clauses. One position is associated with the (restructured) lexical verb and the other position is a clausal clitic position located in the functional domain. While restructuring can be recursive, clitics appear either on the restructured infinitive (no clitic climbing) or in the functional domain of the highest verb (full clitic climbing). There is no clitic climbing to an intermediate restructuring verb. We argue that only the lowest restructured verb makes a position for clitics available. We then discuss the distribution of the infinitive-final [e] and argue that its position should be identified with the lexical clitic position. Finally, it is shown that the functional ~ lexical dichotomy is too sharp and that a variety of verb classes must be admitted, including one which we call quasi-functional (causative, perception, and motion verbs.) The properties exhibited by each class of verbs correlates with the point in the structure in which they are merged.