TESTI E CONTESTI NEI PROCESSI DI GRAMMATICALIZZAZIONE

The article focuses on the relationship between the textual and contextual dimensions in the development of grammaticalisation processes. Thanks to the use of diachronic corpora (M.I.DIA. and DiaCORIS), we present quantitative and qualitative data on the development of non-nominal constructions (Cx[-n]) derived from the most frequent taxonomic Italian nouns (genere, specie, sorta, tipo). The results show how from the original nominal constructions developed constructions with different morphosyntactic functions: Adjective or Adjectival suffix, Preposition, Adverb, Connective and a Discourse Marker. Semantically this path entailed a change from a concrete meaning to more abstract meaning, and moreover from a referential meaning to a relational meaning and, finally, to the expression of a more discursive and subjective value. Looking at the distribution of Cx[-n] in the various kinds of texts along the process, we traced a clear correlation between the features of the texts, such as type of interaction, degree of subjectivity, degree of polyphony and formality, and the semantic-discursive functions of Cx [-n]. This shows how the development of the new functions mirrors in the usage and how context and usage cooperate in the grammaticalisation process