Italian - ata event nouns and the nomen vicis interpretation

Nomina vicis are nouns that denote in a domain of acts, free from considerations of temporal localisation. This paper tries to substantiate this notion by looking at Italian -ata event nouns, and deriving features of this reading from characteristics of these nominalisations. Event nouns ending in -ata are simple event nouns with no argument structure and yet they are endowed with the capacity of characterising an act, which is a dynamic, durative and bounded manifestation of an event property, and of affecting the full expression of such a characterisation when the noun is inserted in argumental position or under a light verb. A detailed examination of the semantic trace of an initiator within the nominalisation, and of aspectual and eventive conditions associated with it leads us to propose that the -ata suffix contributes an active semantic constraint on potential external arguments that, in turn, supports the eventive only and referential only reading of the nominal.