Strutture analitiche e sintetiche. Modalità e temporalità nel siciliano contemporaneo

Abstract

From the theoretical assumption that in grammaticalization processes the derivation from synthetic to analytic forms is a way of disambiguation of temporal, modal and aspectual meanings, we examine the use of synthetic and analytic structures for the expression of the rendering of future tense and of deontic and epistemic modality in contemporary Sicilian dialect. With respect to methodology, we operate a comparison between Italian and dialect to grasp the dynamics in effect in the (ri-)definition of verbal categories in the contemporary Italian system, in times of increasing heteronomy between Standard Language and dialectal varieties. The study is based on the answers given to a set of translating questions by a sample of 169 informers, diareally and diastratically differentiated. On the grounds of what we have observed we state that the grammaticalization process is somehow hampered by the high persistence (or renewed diffusion, cause of the increasingly close relationship Language/Dialect) of the synthetic forms.