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In:Current Theoretical and Applied Perspectives on Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
Edited by Diego Pascual y Cabo and Idoia Elola
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 27] 2020
► pp. 133–152

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Chapter 6
Degree, time and focus

A historical tale of a poco

 | Indiana University
Published online: 4 June 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.27.06esc
Abstract
This paper applies theories from historical pragmatics to trace the syntactic and semantic changes of a poco (today meaning ‘in a short time’) from the thirteenth to twentieth centuries. The data shows that during this period the structure shifts from being a prepositional phrase that modifies a noun phrase to being an autonomous adverb. In its adverbial form, it gains wider scope, modifying structures beyond the noun phrase. Along with this syntactic change, a poco retains its degree modification properties over the centuries. However, the scales a poco evaluates extend from objectively measurable concepts such as time and space to subjective concepts such as time elapsed between events, approximation to completion of an event or minimization of focus among alternatives.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Semantic change
    • 2.2Invited inferencing theory of semantic change (IITSC)
    • 2.3Grammaticalization
  • 3.Method
  • 4.A poco in diachrony
    • 4.1Earlier stages of a poco
    • 4.2From degree modifier to temporal adverbial
    • 4.3Reanalysis from prepositional phrase to adverb
    • 4.4From inferred meaning to encoded meaning
    • 4.5Non-temporal a poco: From small amount to approximative meaning
    • 4.6From approximation to focus modifier
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (25)
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