blame · incolpare

Hierarchy

Same inventory as English blame, Spanish culpar, and French blâmer. Not five-place. Not four sisters of one V. Surface count can name the committee, the weather, the delay, and an airline — but the lexicon does not list four co-arguments of √ASCRIBE_FAULT / √INCOLP-.

No MeasureP. There is no verbal Amount+Denomination object. Degrees that sneak in (quanta colpa, partitives on Charge) live on the Abney spine of a light noun or of Charge — Left Branch Condition for sell / pay / charge_FEE does not apply as a verbal diagnostic here. Italian ne can resume a measured Charge quantity (non ne hanno incolpato il comitato?) — that is DP-internal quantity resumption, not a verbal MeasureP.

What Group B changes is Case, clitics, and light-noun packaging. What it does not change is the inventory. Weather still satisfies Target and fails Judge. Cause-true is still not entailed. Target and Charge still do not invert at Transfer cost.

Italian frames · Case clothes

Romance packages blame without a productive DOC. Target is a direct object (ACC). Charge is di. Clitics and si demotion are height diagnostics — as in the Transfer Romance supplement — but the class contrast remains: Transfer Themes invert under Neg; blame Target and Charge do not.

1. ✓ Il comitato ha incolpato il maltempo del ritardo. canonical · ACC Target · di-Charge
2. ✓ Non hanno incolpato il maltempo del ritardo? polar NegQ baseline (§9.1)
3. ✓ Non hanno gettato la colpa sul maltempo? light noun · on-geometry
4. ✓ Attribuire / dare la colpa a Target Assign_Blame Group B light-noun twin
5. ✓ Non lo hanno incolpato del ritardo? lo = Target (maltempo)
6. ✓ Non la gli hanno gettata? la = colpa (light noun) · gli = Target DAT under light-noun cloth
7. ✓ Non ne hanno incolpato il comitato? ne = measured Charge quantity
8. ✓ Non si è incolpato il maltempo del ritardo? si impersonal / Voice
9. ✓ Non hanno fatto incolpare il comitato del ritardo? fare wrap · outer CAUSE_G · Type A
10. ?? Non hanno incolpato del ritardo il maltempo? marked invert · focus shift, not free Transfer invert
11. ?? Non gli hanno incolpato il ritardo? non-productive DOC-looking · marked
12. * Il maltempo non lo ha incolpato del ritardo? weather as Judge
13. * Non hanno fatto incolpare il maltempo alla compagnia? weather still not inner Judge under fare

A bare No on the canonical NegQ most readily challenges the ascription event or the ACC Target. Challenging the Charge wants that content already under discussion. Negation does not grow a double-object and does not create a fourth Case. ne resumes measured Charge quantity, not a weather-Judge and not a clausal Charge. accusare is a related Attitude / Charge_ACCUSE neighbor — legal / speech-act overlays stay on charge_ACCUSE; this page does not invent a second root.

WH / NegQ diagnostics · no MeasureP LBC

Unlike sell / pay_GIVE / charge_FEE / bet, blame has no verbal MeasureP. There is therefore no Left-Branch Condition of the Amount-from-Denomination type on √INCOLP-. Degrees that appear are DP-internal on Charge or on the light noun colpa. Italian ne is quantity resumption on that DP spine — not evidence of a verbal MeasureP host.

1. ✓ Chi non hanno incolpato del ritardo? WH = Target
2. ✓ Di che cosa non hanno incolpato il maltempo? WH = Charge
3. ✓ Chi non ha incolpato il maltempo del ritardo? WH = Judge
4. ✓ Quanta colpa non gli hanno gettato? degree on light noun · Abney-side
5. ✓ Non ne hanno incolpato il comitato? ne = measured Charge quantity
6. * Quanto non hanno incolpato di ritardo il maltempo? no verbal MeasureP LBC host
7. * Chi non ha incolpato il maltempo alla compagnia? weather cannot be Judge under WH either

Superiority ranks Judge > Target > Charge. It does not rank Charge against a silent Purpose, Price, or Theme₂. Cheap NegQ association tracks the Case object of the chosen cloth: Target under single-verb incolpare; light noun under gettare / dare / attribuire la colpa.

Geometry · incolpare ≠ attribuire_ATT ≠ credit_MERIT ≠ Transfer

In Il comitato ha incolpato il maltempo del ritardo, the committee holds that the weather is responsible for the delay. That is ascription, not HAVE of goods and not SWAP of Themes. Weather is Target. The delay is Charge. HOLD is an attitude; RESPONSIBLE(Target, Charge) is content, not a presupposed fact.

• ≠ English DOC / Transfer invert. There is no productive *incolpare Target Charge DOC. Marked ??Non gli hanno incolpato il ritardo? is flagged non-productive. Low invert ??Non hanno incolpato del ritardo il maltempo? is focus shift, not Transfer-level free Theme₁ ↔ Theme₂.
• ≠ attribute_ATT polarity merge. Shared family (ascribe content to Target) and shared Voice filter; blame writes FAULT polarity. Italian attribuire can host light-noun FAULT (attribuire la colpa a) or other Charges — keep the Assign_Blame split: single-verb incolpare … di vs light-noun attribuire / dare / gettare la colpa a|su.
• ≠ credit_MERIT. Opposite polarity of merit. credit_MERIT has with-cloth options English blame lacks; Italian packaging for merit is a later tick. No ledger MeasureP here.
• ≠ charge_ACCUSE legal overlay. Fault content can overlap in discourse; accusare is the related Attitude / Charge_ACCUSE neighbor — legal / speech-act overlays are not filed on this page.
• Missing defaults. Cause-true and settlement are not entailed. Non hanno incolpato il maltempo del ritardo? is compatible with the weather not in fact causing the delay.

English twin pointer: Target for Charge / Charge on Target. Spanish twin: culpar a … de / light-noun echar la culpa a. French twin: blâmer … pour / light-noun attribuer / jeter la faute à|sur. Weather OK as Target, *not* as Judge. Italian spells the for-frame as incolpare … di (Spanish-like); the on-geometry surfaces as light-noun attribuire / dare / gettare la colpa a|su, not as a productive Charge-ACC flip of the English on-frame type.

Shells, ApplP, and Case

VoiceP  [ JudgeNOM
  vP / √ASCRIBE_FAULT
    ACC               Target   (incolpare-frame)
    PP_di             Charge   (di + NP / clause)
]

Light-noun on-geometry:
VoiceP  [ Judge
  vP / √ATTRIBUIRE·DARE·GETTARE
    ACC               la colpaN   (Charge-type / FAULT)
    PP_a|su           Target ]

ne quantity (measured Charge):
  neCL resumes QP part of Charge — Abney-side, not a fourth Case

Italian incolpare never assigns four structural Cases. Target is ACC; Charge is inside di. No low Appl_HAVE. No low Appl_SWAP. No Appl_TASK. No MeasureP. High Appl / Affectee is extra when present and is not a listed argument of √ASCRIBE_FAULT.

Clitic height: lo / la resumes Target under single-verb incolpare; la resumes the light noun under gettare / dare la colpa; ne resumes measured Charge quantity (not a clause, not a weather-Judge); si demotes / impersonalizes Voice. Inanimate Target clitics are fine. Inanimate subject as Judge is not generated — that is the Voice filter, not a Case accident.

Outer CAUSE_G (fare incolpare) wraps Voice — Type A. The causee, not the weather, is the Judge. *Non hanno fatto incolpare il maltempo alla compagnia? keeps the inner filter. Type A climbing unions Voice domains; Charge stays a Reason-PP and never climbs as a dative.

Omission does not demote Charge to a pure adjunct. Selected P-layers are optional in the numeration; they are still arguments when present. The diagnostic is participanthood under Case, binding, and WH — not omitability.

Underivables (Italian)

1. * Il maltempo non lo ha incolpato del ritardo? weather / inanimate as Judge
2. * Non hanno fatto incolpare il maltempo alla compagnia? fare wrap does not wash Voice filter
3. * Non hanno incolpato la compagnia il ritardo? no productive DOC
4. * Quanto non hanno incolpato di ritardo il maltempo? no verbal MeasureP LBC
5. * Non hanno incolpato il maltempo pour le ritardo? pour ≠ Italian Charge letter (French cloth)
6. * Non hanno incolpato il maltempo per la nuova tecnologia? per Purpose coercion ≠ Charge (odd unless coerced)
7. * Non hanno scambiato il maltempo contro il ritardo? SWAP cloth ≠ ascribe-fault
8. ?? Non hanno incolpato del ritardo il maltempo? not Transfer-level free invert
9. ?? Non gli hanno incolpato il ritardo? marked DOC-looking · non-productive

Group B packaging · this tick Italian only

Group B (Spanish, French, Italian) is the Romance Case-cloth contrast set already used for NegQ on blame (§9). Same hierarchy as English; different host of Charge (de / pour / di) and light-noun on-geometry. Clitics resume Target; se/si/on demotion targets Voice; French en / Italian ne resume measured Charge quantity. Italian’s default Charge letter is di (Spanish-like), not French pour. This tick is Italian only. English, Spanish, and French twins are live at blame.html, blame-es.html, and blame-fr.html. Group C (HU Focus, PL GEN-neg, BG WH clusters) and Group A / D packaging stay predicted or scout — not elicited here.

Open items

• English / Spanish / French twins. blame.html, blame-es.html, and blame-fr.html are sprint-depth. Keep pages split by Case cloth (for/on · de · pour · di).
• attribuire without light noun. Index 2 pairs incolpare, attribuire. Bare attribuire Charge a Target (no colpa) overlaps attribute_ATT / assign_ASCRIBE. Keep split; do not collapse on this page.
• accusare neighbor. Related Attitude / Charge_ACCUSE packaging — pointed only; legal overlays stay off this ascribe-fault page.
• Marked DOC-looking and invert. ??Non gli hanno incolpato il ritardo? and ??Non hanno incolpato del ritardo il maltempo? need controlled elicitation for speaker-variable judgments — flagged, not closed.
• ne vs clausal Charge. Corpus: ne resumes quantity when Charge is measured, not when Charge is a clause. Boundary cases flagged as open.
• Group C / A packaging. Hungarian Focus+nem, Polish GEN-neg predictions, Japanese sei, Mandarin 把 remain scout / predicted. No fake elicitation.

Corpus filenames

Primary extract for this micro-entry is Group B Romance NegQ on blame (§9), Italian packaging. Geometry is shared with the English lexical entry. Light-noun contrast from Assign_Blame_Comparison. Chat packaging: Tritransitive chats 13 (assign vs blame Case / NegQ) and 22 (blame in negative questions · no fourth theta). Italian packaging notes drawn from the same Group B Romance DOCX already cited on the French / Spanish twins — not invented DOCX names.