Abstract
This paper advocates a morphological approach to the phenomenon of mixed paradigms attested in a wide range of Italo-Romance varieties (cf. Loporcaro 2001, 2007, 2014; Manzini and Savoia 2005, among others).
In these varieties, two auxiliary verbs, habere and esse, alternate within one and the same paradigm. As a result, such mixed paradigms exhibit various patterns which can range from morphosyntactically motivated to apparently unmotivated distributions ('morphomic').
Starting from the notion of 'inflectional periphrasis' (cf., e.g. Brown 2012 et al.), under which auxiliary verb constructions can be accommodated, and from the notion of 'lexical splits' (cf.
Corbett 2013, 2015, 2016), I describe the attested splits induced by such intraparadigmatic auxiliary alternations. Following Bonami (2015) and Štichauer (2016, 2018), I introduce a typology of such splits and I provide examples from the rich array of Italo-Romance data drawn mainly from Manzini and Savoia (2005).
I conclude with a brief discussion of the historical origin of mixed paradigms arguing that the commonly accepted explanation (Bentley and Eythórsson 2001) is in need of further verification.