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. 182–207

Functional expansions of temporal adverbs and discursive connectives

From Latin tum, tunc, dumque to Old Italian dunque

| University of Genova
| University of Bergamo

This paper examines the synchronic competition and diachronic substitution of three Latin temporal expressions: tum, tunc (‘at that time’, ‘then’), and later dumque (originally, ‘while-and’), and its Old Italian outcome dunque (‘then’). Besides providing a new path of development and a new etymology for Italian dunque, we describe in detail the steps by which these forms gradually replaced one another and examine the factors at play in their renewal, showing that such forms all display a similar inference-driven functional expansion from propositional to discourse-organizational meanings. However, their subsequent development led to a functional similarity that is only partial, as is often the case in semantic–pragmatic cycles. While discussing the nature of this cycle, we focus on the speaker’s role in this type of change, which in our view can be summarized in the speaker’s cyclical application of recurrent functional principles: phonetic efficiency, analogy, and regularity in semantic change.

Keywords: discursive connectives, functional expansion, inference-driven change, Latin, Old Italian, temporal adverbs
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The first phase: Latin tum and tunc
    • 2.1A brief account of tum and tunc
    • 2.2From tum to tunc
  • 3.The second phase: From tunc to dumque
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 03 March 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00041.fed
References

Sources

Brepolis: Brepolis Cross-Database Search tool, relaying the Brepolis Latin databases
Available online at: https://​about​.brepolis​.net​/cross​-database​-searchtool/
MGH: Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Available online at: http://​www​.dmgh​.de/
TLFi
Trésor de la langue Française informatisé [‘Digitized Treasury of the French Language’]. Available online at: http://​atilf​.atilf​.fr
ATILF – CNRS and Université de Lorraine
TLIO: Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini
Available online at: http://​tlio​.ovi​.cnr​.it/
Adams, James N.
1976 “A Typological Approach to Latin Word Order”. Indogermanische Forschungen 811: 70–99.Google Scholar
2016 An Anthology of Informal Latin, 200 BC–AD 900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Battisti, Carlo and Giovanni Alessio
1951 Dizionario etimologico italiano [‘Italian Etymological Dictionary’]. Firenze: G. Barbèra.Google Scholar
Borreguero Zuloaga, Margarita
2018 “The Evolution of Temporal Adverbs into Consecutive Connectives and the Role of Discourse Tradition: The Case of It. allora and Sp. entonces ”. In Salvador Pons Bordería and Óscar Loureda Lamas (eds), Beyond Grammaticalization and Discourse Markers: New Issues in the Study of Language Change, 232–270. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brenner, Linus
1936 Entwicklung der Funktionen der lat. Konjunktion dum [‘Development of the Functions of Lat. Conjunction dum’]. Tübingen: Laupp.Google Scholar
Brugmann, Karl
1886–1916 Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der Indogermanischen Sprachen [‘Outline of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages’]. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.Google Scholar
Company Company, Concepción
2002 “Grammaticalization and Category Weakness”. In Ilse Wischer and Gabriele Diewald (eds), Reflections on Grammaticalization, 201–215. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cortelazzo, Manlio and Paolo Zolli
1979–1988  deli: Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana [‘ deli: Etymological Dictionary of the Italian Language’]. Bologna: Zanichelli.Google Scholar
Cupaiuolo, Fabio
1967 La formazione degli avverbi in latino [‘The Formation of Adverbs in Latin’]. Napoli: Libreria scientifica editrice.Google Scholar
Degand, Liesbeth and Benjamin Fagard
2011 “ Alors between Discourse and Grammar: The Role of Syntactic Position”. Functions of Language 18 (1): 19–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Derek
1997 Discourse and Cognition. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Fedriani, Chiara and Piera Molinelli
2019 “Italian ma ‘but’ in Deverbal Pragmatic Markers: Forms, Functions, and Productivity of a Pragma-dyad”. Cuadernos de Filología Italiana 261: 29–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferrari, Angela and Corinne Rossari
1994 “De donc à dunque et quindi: les connexions par raisonnement inférentiel” [‘From to dunque and quindi: Connections by Inferential Reasoning’]. Cahiers de Linguistique Française 151: 7–49.Google Scholar
Gaertner, Jan Felix
2007 “ Tum und tunc in der augusteischen Dichtersprache” [‘ Tum and tunc in the Augustan Poetic Language’]. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 150 (2): 211–224.Google Scholar
van Gelderen, Elly
2011 The Linguistic Cycle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 Cyclical Change Continued. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ghezzi, Chiara and Piera Molinelli
2014 “Deverbal Pragmatic Markers from Latin to Italian (Lat. quaeso and It. prego): The Cyclic Nature of Functional Developments”. In Chiara Ghezzi and Piera Molinelli (eds), Discourse and Pragmatic Markers from Latin to the Romance Languages, 61–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 “Politeness Markers from Latin to Italian. Periphery, Discourse Structure and Cyclicity”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 17 (2): 307–337. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 “Connectives and Cyclicity: From the Latin Temporal Phrase illa hora to the Italian Discourse Marker allora ”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21 (2): 209–236. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Godefroy, Frédéric
1881 Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle [‘Dictionary of the Ancient French Language and All Its Dialects from the 9th to the 15th Century’]. Paris: F. Vieweg.Google Scholar
Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard
1998 The Function of Discourse Particles: A Study with Special Reference to Spoken Standard French. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Maj–Britt Mosegaard
2014 “Cyclicity in Semantic/Pragmatic Change: The Medieval Particle ja between Latin iam and Modern French déjà ”. In Chiara Ghezzi and Piera Molinelli (eds), Discourse and Pragmatic Markers from Latin to the Romance Languages, 139–165. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard
2018 “Cyclic Phenomena in the Evolution of Pragmatic Markers. Examples from Romance”. In Salvador Pons Bordería and Óscar Loureda Lamas (eds), Beyond Grammaticalization and Discourse Markers: New Issues in the Study of Language Change, 51–77. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heberlein, Fritz
2011 “Temporal Clauses”. In Philip Baldi and Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds), New Perspectives on Historical Latin Syntax. Volume 4: Complex Sentences, Grammaticalization, Typology, 235–372. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herman, József
1963 La formation du système roman des conjonctions de subordination [‘The Formation of the Romance System of Subordinating Conjunctions’]. Berlin: Akademieverlag.Google Scholar
Hofmann, Johann Baptist and Anton Szantyr
1965 Lateinische Grammatik [‘Latin Grammar’]. München: Beck.Google Scholar
Jeffords, Clyde Raymond
1905 “ Dumque, dunque, dunc, donc ”: The New York Latin Leaflet VI (129): 1–2. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kühner, Raphael and Carl Stegmann
1966 Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache [‘Detailed Grammar of the Latin Language’]. Hannover: Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar
Lewis, Charlton T. and Charles Short
1958 [1891] A New Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marotta, Giovanna
1998 “Proposte per l’interpretazione del cambiamento fonologico in area romanza nel segno della non linearità” [‘Proposals for the Interpretation of Phonological Change in the Romance Area from a Non-linear Perspective’]. In Giovanni Ruffino (ed.), Atti del XXI Congresso Internazionale di Linguistica e Filologia Romanza [‘Proceedings of the XXI International Conference of Romance Linguistics and Philology’]. Volume 11: Grammatica storica delle lingue romanze [‘Historical Grammar of Romance Languages’], 439–454. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm
1968 Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [‘Romance Etymological Dictionary’]. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Migliorini, Bruno and Aldo Duro
1958 Prontuario etimológico della lingua italiana [‘Etymological Handbook of the Italian Language’]. Torino: Paravia.Google Scholar
Nocentini, Alberto
2010 Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana [‘Etymological Dictionary of the Italian Language’]. Firenze: Le Monnier.Google Scholar
Pinkster, Harm
2015 The Oxford Latin Syntax. Volume 1: The Simple Clause. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pirson, Jules
1901 La langue des inscriptions latines de la Gaule [‘The Language of the Latin Inscriptions of Gaul’]. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Ricca, Davide
2010 “Il sintagma avverbiale” [‘The Adverbial Phrase’]. In Lorenzo Renzi and Giampaolo Salvi (eds), Grammatica dell’italiano antico [‘Grammar of Ancient Italian’], 715–754. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Rosén, Hannah
2009 “Coherence, Sentence Modification, and Sentence-part Modification – the Contribution of Particles”. In Philip Baldi and Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds), New Perspectives on Historical Latin Syntax. Volume 1: Syntax of the Sentence, 317–344. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Stone, Robert C.
2009 The Language of the Latin Text of Codex Bezae: With an Index Verborum. Eugene: Wipf and Stock.Google Scholar
Svennung, Josef
1935 Untersuchungen zu Palladius and zur lateinischen Fach- und Volkssprache [‘Studies on Palladius and Technical and Vulgar Latin’]. Uppsala: Almqvist och Wiksell.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs and Richard B. Dasher
2002 Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs and Graeme Trousdale
2013 Constructionalization and Constructional Changes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Vaan, Michiel
2008 Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Wagner, Max Leopold
1960 Dizionario etimologico sardo [‘Sardinian Etymological Dictionary’]. Heidelberg: C. Winter.Google Scholar
Walde, Alois and Johann Baptist Hofmann
1982 [1822] Lateinisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch [‘Latin Etymological Dictionary’]. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
von Wartburg, Walther
1922–1929 Franzosisches etymologische Wörterbuch [‘French Etymological Dictionary’]. Bonn/Tübingen/Basel: Bouvier.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Ghezzi, Chiara & Piera Molinelli
2020. Connectives and cyclicity. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2 ► pp. 208 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.