Ora dalla temporalità alla testualità: un caso di grammaticalizzazione
ORA FROM TEMPORALITY TO TEXTUALITY: A CASE OF GRAMMATICALIZATION

Summary/Abstract: Although it is just a "little word", 'ora' manifests a particular multiplicity and complexity in uses and meanings. In addition to the noun, in its uses it presents values ranging from the strictly temporal one (at this instant, in the present epoch, a little while ago, shortly, from this moment onwards etc.) to the interjective one (when it reinforces an exhortation or a command). Finally, it is used with textual value to resume an interrupted speech (with possible further values: conclusive or adverse). In short, the values of 'ora' can be distinguished in the propositional one (temporal adverb), in the illocutionary one (when the relationship with the interlocutor is established) and in the argumentative one (textual connective). In this article we intend to present an overall picture of the contexts (syntactic and pragmatic) in which 'ora' appears. Based on the analysis of the examples taken from the most relevant works of Italian lexicography as well as from various written texts of poetry and prose in ancient Italian language (mainly from the twelfth and fourteenth centuries) we will try to reconstruct the process of grammaticalization and semantic change and/or semantic emptying from the original temporal meaning to subsequent textual values.

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