Abstract This interdisciplinary study is conceived as a contribution to Spanish lexicography that analyzes the changes that the definition of the word paciente has undergone throughout its history, from the oldest to the most modern repertoires. The adjective paciente is currently applied to the person who has the quality of patience, to the individual who is to be recognized by a medical professional, or to the sentence constituent that is affected by the action that the agent undertakes against him. However, these were not the original meanings of the concept, since, in its origins, the term was linked to a psychological realm (a person who suffers adversity with resignation), a medical realm (a sick person), a marital realm (a husband who tolerates his wife's offense), and a philosophical realm (a subject who suffers the action of the agent). In this context, the contribution aims to trace the possible influences of lexicographers in conceptualizing the term paciente and the changes in meaning that the word's usage entailed, in accordance with the passage of time and the ideological and social advancements reflected in Spanish dictionaries.
Abstract This study examines clitic placement and the use of contracted forms in 13th-century medieval Spanish, focusing on the works of Gonzalo de Berceo. The results indicate that, although proclisis was the predominant norm, unexpected enclitic usages appear, especially in initial position and after metrical caesuras. These occurrences suggest that Spanish at the time was in a transitional stage regarding the fixation of clitic position. Metrical patterns and parallel syntactic structures also influenced clitic distribution, revealing an interaction between linguistic norms and stylistic constraints. Furthermore, the analysis identifies contracted forms affecting not only third-person pronouns but also first- and second-person forms, although their usage was not fully standardized. These findings support the view that the evolution of clitics in Spanish was a gradual process, shaped by phonological, syntactic, and discourse-related factors, with poetic composition offering a space in which grammatical rules and artistic expression coexisted and interacted.
Abstract This article presents all the information gathered from libraries and archives on the life and work of the German Hispanist Wilhelm Kolbe (1900-?). Despite being a virtually unknown figure, his doctoral thesis, Studie über den Einfluß der “corridas de toros” auf die spanische Umgangssprache (1929), had a notable influence on the field of bullfighting phraseology and, in particular, on José María Cossío, author of the most prestigious specialised encyclopaedia and an inescapable reference in bullfighting studies. Thanks to Cossío’s recognition, Kolbe’s work has crossed the borders of Germany and reached other Spanish specialists dedicated to the study of the influence of the bullfighting world in the Spanish language.
Abstract The periphrasis ir (‘to go’) in simple past plus gerund is known as a strategy of failed attempt that emerges in American Spanish. In other words, the sentence le ibas atropellando is synonym to casi le atropellas (‘you were about to run him over’), a nuance that is also attested in Portuguese. However, this semantic reading has not yet been investigated for Spain and we lack studies that evidence its existence in Peninsular Spanish. Nevertheless, in this paper, I aim to demonstrate that this periphrastic resource to express an action that does not end up happening is also present in the European variety. Thanks to a specific survey filled in by more than two hundred informants, I can pinpoint the type of speakers where this phenomenon occurs, the geographical restrictions it possesses, why it has ended up meaning failed attempt and to what extent it is possible to determine it is an Americanism, a Lusism or, instead, it deals with an innovation also developed within the Peninsular variety, prompted by the behaviour of such a periphrasis.
Abstract This paper discusses three constructions with the impersonal clitic se , which raise questions regarding their acceptability in standard contemporary Portuguese, and/or where competition with other closely related constructions occurs. The following constructions are discussed: anomalous constructions with impersonal se combined with pronominal verbs (e.g. * em Portugal, queixa-se muito dos políticos ‘in Portugal, people complain a lot about politicians’); constructions with impersonal se combined with infinitive verb forms, in competition with the equivalent structures without the clitic (e.g. é difícil ser(-se) imparcial ‘it is hard to be impartial’); constructions with impersonal se combined with direct transitive verbs, in competition with the equivalent structures with passive se (e.g. vende-se / vendem-se casas ‘houses for sale’). Taking into account data mainly from newspaper text, but also from literary text and translated fiction, the current acceptance of these three constructions in Standard contemporary (mainly European but also, subsidiarially, Brazilian) Portuguese will be assessed. As will be shown, the first construction continues to be perceived as rather unnatural, while the remaining two illustrate a situation of genuine free variation, though subject to (stronger or weaker) stylistic constraints.
Abstract This paper focuses on the reworking of Žarko Muljačić’s “Area di convergenza italiana” [Italian area of convergence], starting from a critical discussion of its theoretical foundations. The result is a diagram conveying a new classification of the so-called primary dialects of Italy, based on such parameters as “structural distance”, Germ. Abstand , and “elaboration”, Germ. Ausbau . Following Muljačić’s “relativistic” model, the primary dialects are renamed “low” and “middle” languages depending on their sociolinguistic status; such “low” and “middle” languages are then compared to Standard Italian, i.e. the “high” language, in order to roughly evaluate their degree of both Abstand and Ausbau .
Abstract Dutch breecmes cannot be considered the etymon of French braquemart ‘large knife’, ‘cutting saber’, as it never actually existed in real language use. The attested forms bremes and bremessen must likewise be dismissed as potential etyma, since they fail to explain the full spectrum of braquemart variants and, crucially, appear much later than the French evidence. In light of both historical and linguistic findings, it rather emerges that Gottfried Baist’s earlier hypothesis is confirmed beyond doubt: the lexical field of braquemart goes back to Italian bergamasco (< Bergamo ) with subsequent remodeling of the suffix.
Abstract This article analyses ditransitive clusters of 3rd-person clitics in the Spanish spoken in Aragon with an apparent double dative morphology. The analysis begins with a geographical description of the phenomenon based on data collected in the Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish (or Corpus Oral y Sonoro del Español Rural, COSER). Next, the syntactic contexts in which the clusters appear and the types of direct or indirect objects that promote or prevent them in the current data are studied, demonstrating that they date back at least to the 14th century. After comparing them with ditransitive clitic clusters of other Iberorromance varieties, it is concluded that, regardless of the clitics chosen, the distinctions in morphological features obey an areal criterion that separates the central-western area of the Peninsula from the eastern area. After analysing the changes undergone by ditransitive clusters in other Romance varieties, it is concluded that suppletion and opacity are not only characteristics of dative clitics, but also of accusative clitics. Suppletion, both of dative and accusative clitics, always chooses a pronoun that is less specified in morphological features, and when it affects both clitics in the cluster, the one that replaces the accusative always has more inflection than the dative substitute. Furthermore, the development of mechanisms for morphologically marking the plural dative is always conditioned by the prior suppletion of the dative clitic.
Abstract This paper examines the term lot , a lexical innovation associated with the Celtic root lue , and specific to the early medieval Latin documentation of the Catalan linguistic domain. In the context of the texts and charters from this region domestic livestock is frequently mentioned, primarily in wills, contracts of sale, donations, and ecclesiastical dowries. Drawing on the documentary corpus that underpins the Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (GMLC), our research identifies the word lot , a term which, to date, is absent both from this glossary and from other lexicographical works specializing in the vocabulary of medieval Latin and early Catalan. On the basis of the evidence gathered in the lexical database of the Corpus Documentale Latinum Cataloniae (CODOLCAT), we propose an etymological and semantic interpretation of the term. Our hypothesis is that this word designates the young bull (sp. novillo ), the offspring of the bull over two years of age, and that is semantically distinct from bos ‘ox’ and uitellus ‘calf’. We also draw on the etymological dictionaries of Wartburg (FEW) and Meyer-Lübke (REW) within the framework of a comparison with related terms in other Romance and Celtic languages, such as Old French and Breton. This study highlights the importance of the medieval Latin corpus as a tool to identify lexical items of pre-literary Catalan that have not survived.
Abstract Much of the present article is designed to be a long-distance dialogue with Prof. Anne Winston-Allen, author of an illuminating essay in which, among other topics, she deals with a Latin biography on St. Alexis (BHL 292). This is the same document that several years ago was pointed out and commented on in a contribution of mine (2014). Moreover, Winston-Allen’s paper contributes to the appreciation of the Austro-Bavarian cultural area in which, between the 12th and 13th centuries, the rhythmic poem Pater Deus ingenite and the second version of the Vie de saint Alexis were composed. The reading of Winston-Allen’s essay provided me with the opportunity to bring together, in the service of a renewed perspective, a series of data regarding the monastery of Admont and the versified dossier of St. Alexis.
Abstract While research on language change generally focusses on “successful” innovations, “failed” changes are often neglected. This study examines such a case: the French verbal periphrasis < aller + V- ant >, which is largely unproductive in Modern French and shows a number of co(n)textual restrictions. Previous studies on its diachronic evolution fail to explain its gradual decline, because they especially lack empirical evidence. Addressing this research gap, we present a diachronic corpus analysis of the crucial period from the 15 th to the 18 th century. In addition to the corpus Frantext , we consult metalinguistic documents and other types of text not included in the corpus. Through a concise, qualitative-quantitative analysis of the construction on different co(n)textual levels, we demonstrate that its linguistic characteristics do not change considerably during the period examined. Instead, our data suggest that the decline of the periphrasis is mainly due to a strong association with specific discourse traditions related to the Antiquity. Moreover, our results let us suppose that the periphrasis never reached the stage of full conventionalisation. This present case study thus sheds light on diachronic processes of diffusion and loss of grammatical innovations and also underscores the importance of profound co(n)textual analyses in diachronic linguistics.
