This paper investigates cose (pl. of cosa ‘thing’) as a general extender (GE) and marker of non-exhaustivity from Latin to contemporary Italian. The study employs three corpora: CODIT, LIP/VoLIP and KIParla. We show that the frequency of cose-GEs dropped in 16th c., when they started being… read more
The relationship between ambiguity and vagueness is traditionally considered rather complex. It is not always easy to distinguish between the two phenomena, and the two concepts may seem to overlap. This introduction aims to clarify what is generally understood by ambiguity and vagueness in… read more
This paper discusses the range of functions of et cetera in Latin, as well as the multifunctionality and evolution of eccetera in Italian. Both forms pertain to the category of general extenders, i.e. markers whose main function is to ‘extend’ otherwise grammatically complete utterances. We will… read more
The aim of this paper is to analyze how speakers refer to non-exhaustive sets in spoken discourse, by means of open lists. We will propose an analysis of non-exhaustivity in terms of indexicality and we will therefore consider open lists as having an inherently pragmatic component. Based on… read more
The contribution examines the behaviour of additive particles in a specific language contact situation, namely the Ladin speaking area in Trentino-South Tyrol (Italy). Ladin is a minority language spoken by ca. 30,000 speakers, whose linguistic repertoires include also Italian (Fassa valley) and… read more
The paper addresses the issue of the fuzzy boundaries between modal particles (henceforth MPs) and discourse markers (DMs) in a specific language contact situation, namely the Ladin area in Trentino-South Tyrol (Italy). It is still debated whether MPs should be seen as a subtype of DMs or… read more
Intensification is a more pervasive phenomenon than usually thought, involving modification and scaling at different levels. Besides adjectives and adverbs, also the epistemic stance and the illocutionary force of speech acts can be modulated (Bazzanella et al. 1991; Ghezzi 2013). The strategies… read more