A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing

In recent years, within the cognitive linguistics approach there has been a trend of scholarly research committed to exploring the motivation for language change. The way in which people use language in communication, together with principles of human categorization, are the locus where language cha...

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Main Author: Paoli, S
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2020
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author Paoli, S
author_facet Paoli, S
author_sort Paoli, S
collection OXFORD
description In recent years, within the cognitive linguistics approach there has been a trend of scholarly research committed to exploring the motivation for language change. The way in which people use language in communication, together with principles of human categorization, are the locus where language change and innovations are to be found. Interactional contexts in particular, seen as playing a crucial role in bringing about syntactic change (Traugott 2010b), have figured prominently in recent contributions on diachronic micro-changes, bringing to the fore the role played by dialogue as both the manifestation of the participants’ own voices and the realization of the constant negotiation that characterizes human communication. Against this background, this contribution focuses on a particular use of the Occitan post-verbal negator pas in negative rhetorical questions, which was very productive in fifteenth-century collections of religious theatrical texts. It is claimed that these dialogic contexts allowed a polyphonic use of pas, crucially restricted to this post-verbal negator, which is key to identifying the reasons behind the eventual establishment of pas as the generalized sentential negator in the modern language.
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spelling oxford-uuid:f6c446c0-3d4e-4fb5-8346-986800d6f1b22022-03-27T12:37:26ZA step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizingJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f6c446c0-3d4e-4fb5-8346-986800d6f1b2EnglishSymplectic ElementsDe Gruyter2020Paoli, SIn recent years, within the cognitive linguistics approach there has been a trend of scholarly research committed to exploring the motivation for language change. The way in which people use language in communication, together with principles of human categorization, are the locus where language change and innovations are to be found. Interactional contexts in particular, seen as playing a crucial role in bringing about syntactic change (Traugott 2010b), have figured prominently in recent contributions on diachronic micro-changes, bringing to the fore the role played by dialogue as both the manifestation of the participants’ own voices and the realization of the constant negotiation that characterizes human communication. Against this background, this contribution focuses on a particular use of the Occitan post-verbal negator pas in negative rhetorical questions, which was very productive in fifteenth-century collections of religious theatrical texts. It is claimed that these dialogic contexts allowed a polyphonic use of pas, crucially restricted to this post-verbal negator, which is key to identifying the reasons behind the eventual establishment of pas as the generalized sentential negator in the modern language.
spellingShingle Paoli, S
A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
title A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
title_full A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
title_fullStr A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
title_full_unstemmed A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
title_short A step forward in understanding pas: the post-verbal negator in Old Occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
title_sort step forward in understanding pas the post verbal negator in old occitan from the perspective of communication and rhetorical strategizing
work_keys_str_mv AT paolis astepforwardinunderstandingpasthepostverbalnegatorinoldoccitanfromtheperspectiveofcommunicationandrhetoricalstrategizing
AT paolis stepforwardinunderstandingpasthepostverbalnegatorinoldoccitanfromtheperspectiveofcommunicationandrhetoricalstrategizing