Same origin, different outcomes. The use of converbial forms with perception verbs in Italian and in the varieties of Northern Italy

In several Romance varieties spoken in Northern Italy, perception verbs may be combined with a converb. In this area, this type of construction is subject to a twofold variation: first, the converbial form used is a gerund in Northern Ladin, an infinitive headed by the preposition a in other varieties; second, the converb has the function of complement of the perception verb in Northern Ladin, while in the other varieties it is used both as complement and as secondary predicate of the verb. In Italian, on the other hand, converbs are never used with perception verbs.To illustrate the diachronic path that led to these differences, I have collected data from Tuscany and Northern Italy, which range from the 13th century to the current period. The results show that, in the Middle Ages, gerunds were used as complements and as secondary predicates of perception verbs in the whole area considered. Since then, three innovations took place, leading to the current picture: i) in perceptive constructions, gerunds were replaced by prepositional infini-tives (except in Northern Ladin) between the 14th-16th century; ii) soon after this change, prepositional infinitives were ruled out in Florentine, due to an independ-ent restriction; this ban has been inherited by present-day Standard Italian; iii) in Northern Ladin, perceptive gerunds specialized as complements of the verb. This shift was presumably made possible by the emergence of an additional construc-tion, the so-called Pseudorelative clause, which is used as a secondary predicate in several contexts, including with perception verbs.