THE FACTUAL CONSTRUCTION IN THE LATE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY FLORENTINE

In this work we analyse the syntax of the causative construction in a late medieval Florentine text called Motti e facezie del Piovano Arlotto. The importance of this text is twofold. On the one hand, its language respects, in many aspects, the spontaneous spoken language, on the other, it dates back to the end of the 15th century. As a matter of fact, in that age the Florentine language shows various innovative tendencies, even though it preserves many of its medieval features. In this article I make a hypothesis which explains why the agent complement introduced by the preposition da became predominant over its equivalent headed by per and the other syntactical construction called indirect object.