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Article published In: The Role of Pragmatics in Cyclic Language Change
Edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2] 2020
► pp. 208–235

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Connectives and cyclicity

From the Latin temporal phrase illa hora to the Italian discourse marker allora

 | University of Bergamo
 | University of Bergamo
Published online: 3 March 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00042.ghe
Abstract
This paper focuses on the formal and functional development of Italian allora (< Latin ad illa(m) hora(m) [‘in that hour’]) ‘at that time, then, well’ considering its polyfunctionality and its relationship with the functional space of dunque (‘then, therefore’). The developments of both forms revolve around their functional domains as connectives and as discourse markers which over the centuries have shown different degrees of functional overlap. Even though the two forms show a fairly stable functional overlap, since the twentieth century allora has begun to replace dunque with increasing frequency in many discourse marker functions. This substitution can be described in terms of a semantic–pragmatic cycle, while the formal development of allora from Latin ad illa(m) hora(m) is an instance of a morphological cycle.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Corpus and methodology
  • 3.From Latin to Romance varieties
  • 4.From Old to Contemporary Italian
    • 4.1The functional development of allora in Old Italian
      • 4.1.1 The role of (a)dunque within the functional development of allora
    • 4.2The functional development of allora from the sixteenth to the twentieth century
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
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