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Article published In:
Journal of Historical Pragmatics
Vol. 23:2 (2022) ► pp.175–203

On the use of sì? (‘yes?’) as invariant follow-up in Italian

A historical corpus-based account of pragmatic language change

ORCID logo | University of Luxembourg
Follow-ups are elliptical interrogative forms typically constituting an utterance in their own right. They are used to signal attention to the interlocutor, to encourage them to continue or as a reply to a call. This paper investigates the invariant follow-up sì? (‘yes?’) in Italian and it argues that it represents a case of pragmatic language change. To this end, it investigates the diachronic distribution, collocation and contexts of usage of sì? in a variety of language sources in relation to plausible, equivalent expressions (i.e., dimmi and dica [‘tell me’]). The analysis will show that since its earliest record of use in films in 1960, the frequency of occurrence of this form has dramatically increased to the point that, today, it is the preferred device. The study will also provide solid evidence of positive correlations between the use of yes? in English language audio-visual products and the use of sì? in scripted and real-use Italian, strongly suggesting that the marker would in fact be a case of pragmatic borrowing from English.
Keywords: corpus linguistics, discourse markers, English in contact with Italian, historical pragmatics, Italian, media-induced language change
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology and resources
  • 3.The analysis
    • 3.1Sì?
      • 3.1.1Diachronic distribution of sì?, dimmi and dica
    • 3.2Yes?
    • 3.3Distribution of yes?, sì?, dimmi and dica in English and Italian films and tv dialogues
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.18007.vio
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