The rise and fall of Occitan be(n) and pla(n): a semantic-pragmatic cycle?

Book section : Chapter

Taking a semasiological perspective, this contribution follows the diachronic development of two etymologically unrelated forms, Occitan be(n) and pla(n), and their Latin ancestors BĔNĔ and PLĀNĒ, exploring whether their developmental trajectories can be considered an instance of a pragmatic cycle or whether they are simply the instantiation of a cline motivated by general cognitive constraints. The conclusion reached is that there is indeed an identifiable grammaticalization path, which also holds crosslinguistically, but that at the same time the meanings of the individual steps of the path are renewed in turn by different lexical items, each developing distinct functions. It is, therefore, an instance of an onomasiological semantic-pragmatic cycle. Considering the nature of the source meanings of be(n) and pla(n), this contribution concludes that there are grounds to suggest the existence of an identifiable cycle associated with manner adverbs, along the lines of what has already been proposed for temporal-aspectual adverbs.

Authors: Paoli, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Host title: Cyclic Change in Grammar and Discourse
• Pages: 327-351
• Chapter number: 14
• Series: Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics
• Place of publication: Oxford / New York
• Publication date: 2025-07-31
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1093/9780198940661.003.0014
• EISBN: 9780198940661
• ISBN: 9780198939054
• Language: English
• Keywords: Occitan be(n); manner adverbs; pragmatic cycles; grammaticalization cline; Latin PLĀNĒ; Latin BĔNĔ; Occitan pla(n)
• Subtype: Chapter