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Historical Linguistics 2017: Selected papers from the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, San Antonio, Texas, 31 July – 4 August 2017
Edited by Bridget Drinka
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 350] 2020
► pp. 253–272

Old French si, grammaticalisation, and the interconnectedness of change

The particle SI is ubiquitous across the early French textual record, yet receives no uniform analysis, with numerous competing and often contradictory claims in the literature about its distribution and formal status. This study draws on a novel diachronic corpus analysis to put forward an original analysis of SI, under which it is not the homogeneous entity often assumed but rather an adverbial which grammaticalises as a topic-continuity marker and, later, two forms of V2-related expletive. SI loses its previously specific temporal and discourse-pragmatic meaning, shows a widening of distribution and occupies an increasingly high position within the left periphery. In these respects it is shown to instantiate a classic form of upwards grammaticalisation pathway.

Keywords: left periphery, Old French, V2, Topic, grammaticalisation, reanalysis, historical pragmatics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and background
    • 1.1Old French and syntactic change
    • 1.2Background on Old French
  • 2.Previous approaches to the syntax of si
  • 3.A new approach
    • 3.1Latin and the Strasbourg Oaths
    • 3.2Evidence for diachronic change
  • 4.Towards a grammaticalisation pathway for si
  • 5.Consequences
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Bibliography
Published online: 9 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.350.12wol
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