Abstract
This paper deals with a typologically interesting phenomenon of mixed perfective auxiliation systems, attested in some of the Italo-Romance dialects. In these varieties, two auxiliary verbs, outcomes of the Latin HABERE and ESSE, alternate within one and the same paradigm thus giving rise to mixed paradigms of different degrees of complexity.
After a brief survey of the sociolinguistic situation of the contemporary Italy, an overview is given of different intraparadigmatic distributions of the two auxiliaries. This overview is divided into four main levels of differentiation: complete vs. partial systems; different modotemporal systems; systems with free variation of the two auxiliaries; and motivated vs. unmotivated distributions.
I briefly describe three main approaches which have gained some currency in recent research: lexical, syntactic and morphological accounts which all attempt to explain this phenomenon highlighting different aspects of the problem. In conclusion, the endangered status of these mixed paradigms is underlined as they are part of the strictly local varieties probably deemed to disappear within a few generations.