Aspects of the Morphosyntax of Sequence of Tnese Phenomena

This article addresses questions concerning the morphosyntax of Sequence of Tense phenomena, and, in particular, the availability of the so-called double access reading (DAR) in the temporal interpretation of complement clauses. By discussing Italian data, and comparing them with English ones, it will be shown that the DAR is affected by the nature of the complementiser introducing the subordinate clause. More precisely, Complementiser Deletion phenomena reveal that Italian has two complementisers, exhibiting different morphosyntactic properties. We will show that the DAR is affected by the nature of the complementiser introducing the subordinate clause and that, on its turn, the complementiser is selected by the superordinate predicate, depending upon its semantic nature. Given these results, we will argue that the notion of “double access reading” needs to be extended to tenses other than the present, being generally available once the complementiser satisfies certain interpretative and morphosyntactic requirements. Finally, we will sketch an extensional, truth-theoretical account which attempts at making explicit the role of the complementiser