Search Results
Abstract
In this paper we present a survey which was built and conducted with the aim of testing the evidential hypothesis concerning the Italian imperfect tense proposed in Baranzini & Ricci (2015). Our work is based on the assumption of the existence of a macro-category including different uses of the imperfect (oneiric, ludic, fictional account,… uses), which can all be described as « account of an account » uses : our hypothesis is that, in certain aspectually and textually specific contexts, the possibility offered within the Italian language to use the imperfect as an alternative to perfective tenses for a narration is an evidential indication of non-spontaneous, narrative double mediation. On the basis of real occurrences, we made up symmetric text items featuring both morphological variants (imperfetto vs passato prossimo) for the types of account considered. Although the results of our survey are preliminary and do not yet allow for definitive conclusions, they support our initial evidential hypothesis, which will need further in-depth investigation.
Les articles recueillis dans ce volume se présentent à premier abord comme des études spécifiques sur des phénomènes précis, mais il s’avère rapidement que, de par sa nature, le sujet ‘temps’ ne peut pas être abordé de manière « isolée », puisqu'il parcourt la langue comme un système étendu, sans qu’on puisse en dessiner les limites avec clarté.
The reason why tense has occupied such a central place in linguistic discussion, and has done so for so long, is that this topic - along with its related topics aspect, modality and evidentiality - is not only rich and complex but also deeply rooted in language, manifesting itself at all its levels and in a significant number of contexts. The contributions collected in this volume appear at first sight as specific studies of specific phenomena, but it soon becomes clear that, by its very nature, the subject of 'time' cannot be approached in 'isolation', since it runs through the language as a pervasive system, without its boundaries being clearly defined.
Les articles recueillis dans ce volume se présentent à premier abord comme des études spécifiques sur des phénomènes précis, mais il s’avère rapidement que, de par sa nature, le sujet ‘temps’ ne peut pas être abordé de manière « isolée », puisqu'il parcourt la langue comme un système étendu, sans qu’on puisse en dessiner les limites avec clarté.
The reason why tense has occupied such a central place in linguistic discussion, and has done so for so long, is that this topic - along with its related topics aspect, modality and evidentiality - is not only rich and complex but also deeply rooted in language, manifesting itself at all its levels and in a significant number of contexts. The contributions collected in this volume appear at first sight as specific studies of specific phenomena, but it soon becomes clear that, by its very nature, the subject of 'time' cannot be approached in 'isolation', since it runs through the language as a pervasive system, without its boundaries being clearly defined.