On a-Marking Topics in the Italian Left Periphery

In Italian Clitic Left Dislocated/ClLD structures in which the left dislocated topic is the direct object of the following clause, such object noun phrase may sometimes be introduced by preposition a. The distribution of a-marked direct object topics is severely constrained in standard Italian and, although it shares some properties with the Differential Object Marking/DOM phenomenon, cannot be assimilated to it. The article describes the main distributional and interpretive properties of Italian a-Topics, which overall behave like non- a-marked topics as far are their distribution and their interpretive possibilities are concerned but involve some supplementary feature, such as e.g. affectedness, involvement. It also looks at the phenomenon through the lenses of some recent acquisition results, which show an overextended use of a-Topics by Italian speaking children. a-Marking is a property of the Italian left periphery whereby a can be associated with the topic positions present in the cartography of this area of the clause. In some cases the low topic position in the clause internal vP-periphery can also allow for a-marking, possibly as a step toward a more extended, DOM-type marking of direct objects.