Semantisms in the argument of Italian syntagmatic verbs

In this paper is reported the progress of a research on the opacity of the syntagmatic verbs in Italian. Syntagmatic verbs are fixed structures made by a verbal head, expressing a generic meaning, and a modifier (i.e. an adverb), specifying the meaning of the verb, thus creating a totally, or partially, idiomatic meaning. In previous works we have enucleated the syntactic characteristics of these verb formations in four categories, based upon the relevance of the movement property both for the verbal head and the modifier. These categories are: 1) verb [+movement/status] + modifier [+movement], the most numerous and studied category; 2) verb [-movement/status] + modifier [-movement] and 3) verb [+movement/status] + modifier [-movement], where the modifier is often represented, in both categories, by modal adverbs such as bene and male; 4) verb [-movement/status] + modifier [+movement] where, from the pragmatic point of view, one can notice a stronger slang use and highlight a group of verbs having pronominal verbs as head-verb. Our research is now deepening on this portion of syntagmatic verbs whose meaning and behaviour has more idiomatic and metaphorical aspects. We have individuated, in fact, another category of syntagmatic verbs represented by verbs whose 'metaphoricity' is given both by the extreme opacity of the formation verb+particle (e.g. fare fuori) and by the collocation of particular (and only those) "arguments" represented by a noun or a nominal syntagm (e.g. mettere su pancia, tirarsi dietro la porta). In particular we are focusing on those verbs, either stative or of movement or generic, and their collocated particle which assume a specific and idiomatic aspect because of the argument that follows the particle. It is the argument, whose identity it is still disputable - is it a collocation, is it a freeze semantism, is it a mere frequent and consolidated proximity commonly shared ?- that gives the sense to the syntagmatic formation and it is the argument that makes the formation become an idiomatic formation or not. In this paper it will be illustrated some examples on particular syntagmatic verbs whose opacity is evident: fare fuori, andare dentro or less opaque but whose meaning is determined by the argument collocation mettere su, fare su,, tagliare dritto, and try all the possible combinations with different arguments, by checking both on dictionaries, reference Italian corpora and speakers' experience and knowledge. We have seen that the more a syntagmatic verb is opaque, the less it is possible to interpret it (or translate it) in a literal or compositional way, and this represents one of the most stimulating topic within learning Italian as L2. We have tested a sample of syntagmatic verbs with different arguments trying to individuate, if any, "behaviour rules" and use peculiarities. In particular we tested verbs like: fare fuori, andare dentro, for the "absolute" idiomatic verbs and fare su, tirare su, tagliare dritto, tirare tardi, tirare dritto, mettere su for the opaque syntagmatic verbs.