Costruzioni Ipotetiche Parentetiche Usate come Marcatori di Cortesia in Latino Tardo: Il Tipo si placet, si videtur, si molestum non est

This paper looks at uses and pragmatic functions of five hypothetic clauses used parenthetically in Late Latin to soften the illocutionary force of potentially face-threatening acts such as orders and requests. Specifically, the data show that these politeness markers typically mitigate a very specific type of interactional move, i.e., meta-textual proposals with topic-management, turn-yielding, and discourse-organizational concerns. Moreover, the corpus-based study has revealed that they are found above all in Augustine’s philosophical dialogues. Evidence from earlier research has shown, on the other hand, that in Classical Latin si placet was used almost exclusively in Cicero’s philosophical dialogues: this suggests a process of imitation within a very specific discourse tradition, where these markers are perceived as a stylistic feature typical of urbane conversations among educated friends

THE MISSING DATIVE ALTERNATION IN ROMANCE: EXPLAINING STABILITY AND CHANGE IN THE ARGUMENT STRUCTURE OF LATIN DITRANSITIVES

This study explores the correlation between synchronic constructional variation shown by ditransitive verbs in Late Latin and (possible) diachronic developments, investigating the reasons why such developments did or did not occur throughout the history of this language. Starting from a comparison with the rise of the so-called ‘dative alternation’ in English, which emerged from a scenario that, apparently, was similar to the one found in Late Latin, we address the question as to why in the diachrony of this language such a linguistic phenomenon did not develop at all for some verbs and did not become productive for others – what we may call the ‘missing dative alternation’ in Romance. Drawing on a corpus-based study of six verbs instantiating different types of ditransitive constructions since Early Latin, we show that each form has its own history, attesting to different instances of stability and/or change in its argument structure. We will also argue that when individual histories of single forms eventually converge on the same result, as happened in Romance, a comprehensive explanation is also needed. This study suggests such an explanation by shedding light on different functional motivations that triggered specific pathways of change and disfavoured other possible developments

A pragmatic reversal: Italian per favore \u2018please\u2019 and its variants between politeness and impoliteness

This paper examines a range of impolite values recently developed by the Italian politeness markers per favore, per piacere, and per cortesia \u2018please\u2019 in conflictive contexts. In describing this functional development, I adopt Mazzon's (2017) definition of \u2018pragmatic reversal\u2019, i.e., a shift whereby a politeness marker is progressively used with confrontational meanings. Drawing on a corpus of online written Italian, this study analyzes the interactional contexts where politeness markers are used impolitely and suggests an explanatory path for their reversal. The corpus-based study shows that typical contexts of confrontational uses are impolite commands, prohibitions, and quotative constructions reporting a content which is harshly criticized and challenged by the writer. In the latter case, the politeness markers (usually prefaced by ma \u2018but\u2019) function as extra-clausal markers of disagreement e some also occurring as holophrastic interventions to rebut the interlocutor's argument. The idea developed in this paper is that politeness formulae are prone to pragmatic bleaching precisely in view of their routinization as \u2018politic\u2019, conventional, and neutral forms. Once partially bleached, they start acquiring new values within the realm of modulation, even e and this is the interesting fact e in the \u2018opposite\u2019 direction, as insistent reinforcement of impolite acts such as urgent pleas, rude requests, rebuttals, and even insults. This pathway of impoliteness-driven pragmatic change has also been documented for some English markers such as please, sorry and I'm afraid, which suggests the emergence of a recurrent pattern of pragmatic reversal involving equifunctional forms in different languages

How do ditransitives change?

This chapter offers a descriptive and theoretical account of ditransitives and reassesses the contribution of diachronic research to their analysis and understanding. It opens with some introductory remarks about the syntactic and semantic status of ditransitives from a functional-typological perspective. Then, it provides an updated state of the art on the relevant literature on the topic, showing that scholarship has thus far predominantly dealt with ditransitives from a synchronic viewpoint. However, given that one of the characteristic traits of ditransitive verbs and constructions is precisely their high degree of synchronic variation in terms of structural alternation and alignment split, the diachronic approach can shed light on distinct routes of evolution followed by these verbs across languages. The present chapter focuses on the main developmental pathways along which ditransitives change; it examines which factors play a role in determining the emergence or decay of competing ditransitive constructions, as well as the rise of new meanings and functions; finally, it discusses the general principles that seem to be involved in the functional reorganization of coexisting ditransitive constructions

CONDITIONAL CLAUSES AS POLITE MODIFIERS IN LATIN: SI PLACET BETWEEN PRAGMATICALIZATION AND LANGUAGE CONTACT

This article investigates the Latin conditional clause si placet \u2018if (it) pleases (you)\u2019, also considering other functional equivalents such as, among others, si non piget \u2018if (you) don\u2019t mind\u2019 and si tibi molestum/grave non est \u2018if (it) doesn\u2019t bother/annoy (you)\u2019, which all function as polite modifiers of requests and proposals. It first provides a theoretical assessment of si placet and examines its pragmatic functions in the history of Latin. By considering its distribution across authors and genres, it then suggests patterns of use and argues for a case of contact-induced pragmaticalization. It is shown that the use of si placet as a conditional form expressing politeness is mostly attested in Cicero\u2019s dialogues, which are largely inspired by Plato\u2019s model, where similar forms such as ei boulei, ean boulei \u2018if you please, if you like\u2019 are often found in the very same contexts where si placet occurs in Cicero. It is therefore suggested that this correspondence may be interpreted as the outcome of a pragmatic calque within the relevant discourse tradition of philosophical dialogue, where genre-based conventions were probably replicated through literary imitation

The spread of the ad construction in Merovingian Latin: identifying semantic paths in the domain of ditransitives

This chapter explores the competition between the use of the dative case and the prepositional construction featuring ad \u2018to\u2019 to encode the third argument of ditransitive verbs in Merovingian Latin. Unlike the dative, the prepositional strategy is semantically transparent, since ad \u2018to\u2019 has a clear allative meaning; accordingly, its gradual expansion in the functional domain of ditransitivity is expected to follow a revealing path of decreasing semantic motivation, where metaphorical transfers played a major role in the increasing spread of the construction from classical Latin onwards. The Merovingian data discussed in this study add further details on the historical drift towards the grammaticalization of a/\ue0 in Romance. In such diatopic variant of late Latin, the gradual extension of the prepositional construction to third arguments of ditransitive verbs continues along the same semantically constrained path identified in earlier stages, but occasionally spreads to additional types of verbs which do not imply any kind of movement. The data discussed in this chapter thus witness a transitory phase where we begin to get glimpses of a substantial shift towards the grammaticalization of the indirect object as a void grammatical relation in Romance languages