Zur Perfektauxiliarselektion in Reflexivkonstruktionen in den deutschen Minderheitensprachen in Italien: diachronische und synchronische Aspekte

In this paper, we investigate auxiliary selection in Germanic minority languages spoken in Northern Italy. The choice between the auxiliaries have or be in German and Italian systematically depends on the argument structure of the verb. Reflexive verbs — the main focus of the paper — consistently select haben in German and essere in Italian. We show that minority languages present a more fine-grained case study, as the lexical composition of the verbs influences auxiliary selection. This finding prompts us to reconsider the role of language contact.